A Year in Review – 2017 (Part 1 of 4)

So what's happened in the comic book world over the last year?  It's been a big one, so lets go through 2017 month by month and highlight some of the highs and lows.

January

  • Marvel Comics had the market share with DC a close second. US Avengers 1 was the No.1 selling comic with Batman a close second. The US Avengers had a variant for every state in the US.
  • Miles Morales and Spider-Gwen get it on in Spider-Man 12 and everyone chases the 1:25 Isanove variant. Good luck getting a 9.8 with that black cover.

  • Frank Cho gives us a great variant cover for Harley Quinn 11.

  • We get a bunch of variants for the launch of Deadpool the Duck 1, not Marvels finest hour, and I'm a massive Deadpool fan! Marvel what are you thinking ?!
  • On the indie circuit Image release God Country and it's an instant hit! Copies dry up fast due to the low print run, tripling the cover price, making it a great Wednesday flip!

  • News of a Gotham City Sirens movie hits and speculators start arguing as to what is the first appearance of the team (Harley, Ivy and Catwoman) . Detective Comics 850 and Gotham City Sirens 1 rocket in price and the argument still rages on! The JG Jones variant for issue 1 (below) climbs to ridiculous highs! Sadly it's all gone a bit quiet on that front and the rumours are that the movie may have been cancelled.

  • Pierce Brosnan rumoured to be Cable in Deadpool 2 !!??!!

February

  • Marvel still had the market share with DC nipping at their heels! The only thing that would save Marvel this month would be their Star Wars comics!
  • Boom Studios gave us Planet of the Apes Green Lantern 1 , the Paul Rivoche 1:25 variant was particularly popular.

  • Image Comics gave us The Walking Dead 163 which came with a sought after Skybound 1:200 variant. There was also a 1:500 B&W variant. Both were very hot at the time !

  • Marvel gave us Bullseye 1 and this great variant cover from Bill Sienkiewicz.

  • They also gave us Star Wars : Darth Maul 1 and a cracking John Tyler Christopher cover to boot. There were two, one with Darth Maul, one with Darth Sidious. I prefer the Darth Maul one although the Sidious one was a JTC exclusive and goes for more. This was the top selling comic of February 2017.

  • DC gave us Super Sons 1, the pairing of Damian Wayne and John Kent! They also released a bunch of No1's as part of the Rebirth reboot: Batwoman , Justice League of America etc...

  • Lego Batman movie hits theatres, it made lots of money but it wasn't very good 🙁
  • The Legion TV show was released and it was actually rather good. New Mutants 26 gets a justified bump!

  • News of a Nightwing film emerges giving Teen Titans 44 a bump!

 

March

  • March starts off with DC selling more comics than Marvel but Marvel making more money because of the $3.99 price tag for their issues. The top selling comic was Amazing Spiderman 25. But DC hold spots 2, 3 and 4 with the regular Batman and the Batman Dark Knight: The Master Race series.

  • Dark Knight The Master Race 8 had a bunch of variants , but the one that stood out was the 1:50 from Bill Sienkiewicz.

  • Boom Studios release Grass Kings 1, another hit which instantly starts selling for double cover and becomes a Wednesday flip!

  • Marvel released America 1 with a bunch of variants that were hot at the time but have now cooled off considerably. They also release Iron Fist 1 and we got an exclusive store variant set from artist Gabriele Dell Otto.

  • The R rate Logan hits cinemas to much acclaim. Finally fans get a Wolverine movie they've been waiting for! Dafne Keen's performance as X-23 is amazing and helps cement X-23's first appearance in NYX 3 into a modern classic. Prices rise considerably up to the release date of the movie. They're still pretty high, fuelled by speculation that another X-23 movie appearance is on the horizon. And with that performance why wouldn't there be!

  • We get more news from the set of Deadpool 2 and this time the speculators start hunting for the first appearance of Domino. It was thought to be New Mutants 98 but it turns out that was just Copycat! Now X-Force 11 has taken over the mantle as the first app!

Well thats it for now , I've probably missed a load of important stuff from the first quarter of 2017, if I have why don't you leave a comment and tell me ?!

Watch out for Part 2 soon!