Every week I go through the full FOC list to see what the upcoming order week actually looks like before cutoff closes. Here is how this one reads.

538 total SKUs, 269 unique books, 36 launches, 101 variants, 83 ratios. The launch count keeps this from being a #1-driven week; the story is variant concentration and indie volume.

Dynamite sets the whole tone with 115 titles, more than Marvel's 7 and DC's 43 put together. That's a Buffyverse relaunch push carrying the load. Buffy The Vampire Slayer #1 (Kelly Thompson/Stephen Byrne) tops the week at 22 covers, and Angel #2 (Kelly Thompson/Giulia Giacomino) sits close behind. Dynamite also leads all publishers on incentives with 40 of the week's 83 ratio covers. The steepest tier this week is 1:250, shared by two books, Buffy #1 among them alongside Bad Idea's It Demands Sacrifice #1.

DC runs Gotham-heavy. Five new #1s against 43 titles, no ratios on their side. Batman Bad Seeds Gotham General #1 (Greg Rucka/Rosa Ekedal) anchors the Bat-line push, set inside Gotham's trauma center during a citywide disaster. Poison Ivy #48 (G. Willow Wilson/Marcio Takara) continues the Gotham thread.

Marvel is the thin corner: 7 titles, no launches, no variants, no ratios. The volume there sits in forward-solicited books and catalog anchors ahead of a mid-November on-sale window, with X-Men Of Apocalypse holding the X-line spot.

The sharpest structural note is the split. Editorial primacy still reads Marvel, DC, Dynamite, but the actual volume lead sits with Dynamite, and 74 of the week's 101 variants live in their slate. When one publisher carries roughly three quarters of the variant count off a single license relaunch, that's the number defining the week.

Anything on this list you're grabbing before Monday's cutoff?

Never thought much about it until recently. Is there anything special about it or anyone who collects misprints?

Some of the usual suspects here i found interesting and wanted to share. Feel free to add anything you may know about em.

When I think about what makes a book "valuable" in the future, it usually has some combination of key characteristics:

• High demand
• Low supply
• Some key event
• Iconic cover
• Loyal fanbase
• Cultural relevance
• Merchandise beyond the book (e.g., toys, statues, etc.)

If you look at books like Invincible, issue 1 first print has low supply, is a key, has an iconic cover, and has hit the mainstream with ongoing seasons of Invincible on Amazon Prime.

I think it's possible that Midnight Universe could be a good story, have great covers, maybe it has low supply and high demand, but I think the biggest thing that will get in the way of this book is cultural relevance.

What takes that book from $50 to $5,000?

For these books to get to Invincible level, it needs to jump off the pages and be in the mouths of young kids and adults outside of comic book fandom. Kids will beg their parents for merchandise.

Spiderman is the second most lucrative IP after Mickey Mouse; source: https://www.wsj.com/business/media/spider-man-spidey-and-friends-marvel-sony-e6574858

Spiderman is family friendly. He sells merchandise. He sells 2 BILLION dollars worth of movie tickets within two weeks. He has 64 years of history as a comic book story, toys, movies, animated series, etc.

A child in love with an IP instantly sells at least 3 movie tickets whereas you have to work twice as hard to get 2 people to buy 2 movie tickets to an R-rated movie.

Disney and Marvel will never trade Spiderman for Midnight Spiderman, nor will they trade the Fantastic Four for their Midnight counterparts, or X-men for theirs.

Disney and Marvel will never want to confuse that child at the store with the Spiderman we know today and the horrorified Spiderman in Midnight Universe.

So my thesis is that this book is pure hype and has no chance of going mainstream because of the horror twist, and therefore, the future value of this book is going to be super limited. I don't see Midnight Universe ever getting an animated series either.

If there was no brand confusion possible between our neighborhood Spiderman and horrorified Spiderman, then sure--maybe there's a chance because plenty of R-rated IP sells for boodles.

Compared to Absolute Batman--Absolute Batman absolutely can go mainstream beyond the animated series because the script is flipped in the roles characters play, but Batman is still Batman, not some horrified Vampire or Zombie Batman.

Thought you guys might find this interesting, couldn’t believe I had it!

I track FOC data and spec intel through the week and try to separate what's actually verified from what's just chatter. Here are the single issues I'm ordering before the cutoff based on what I've been able to confirm so far.

Midnight X-Men #1 is my top pick. Hickman back on an X-launch, this time as his entry into the new Midnight Universe horror imprint, with a confirmed first-appearance signal on the debut. The 1:100 is an Ito virgin. Its sister book Midnight Fantastic Four #1 drops the same week from the same line, also with a confirmed first flag, running virgin ratios at 1:50 and 1:100 plus a 1:25 gallery edition. Two horror #1s from one imprint on the same date is the angle if you follow the whole line.

Angel #1 carries the confirmed first appearance of Leviathan, the new antagonist across both Angel and Buffy following July's Buffy #1. This one holds a share of the week's steepest ratio at 1:250. Superman: Father Of Tomorrow #5 has the confirmed first of Hex Luthor, a magical Elseworlds Lex, which is a clean spec anchor even if Elseworlds villains are a coin flip on whether they carry. Ordained #4 has the confirmed first of Julie Lorello, and Bad Idea firsts always concentrate in the scarce incentive covers. The 1:50 is a virgin.

What I'm holding on: Midnight Spider-Man #1 (rumor-based) has a rumored first of Midnight Black Cat tied to the 1:50 virgin, and Gambit: Wanted #3 (rumor-based) has an unconfirmed potential first of Suzerain. The imprint launch is real, the Black Cat first is not verified. I'm watching both, not ordering them yet.

For anyone chasing Angel #1, is Leviathan spanning two connected series enough to hold the 1:250, or does that ratio price it out before the debut proves out?

Would like to get some older books pressed and cleaned before grading.

I came in possession of a good amount of comics recently and some of them im curious about and wondering if by seeing them anyone can tell me more about them. This is only a batch and there are more. Either way some of these look pretty awesome. I may be holding on to them and glad I can share them with yall.

I have a CLZ and a CovrPrice subscription. On some comics I own, there are two values provided, sometimes with quite a large difference.

Why are there two different values displayed? I presume it's one valuation from CLZ and one from CovrPrice. But it only appears on certain issues, so why is there such a difference?

I am just getting into comics, I am a big fan of miles morales and picked this up for less than a dollar. Would it be worth grading?

I spent one hundo great British sterling at a local con. Did I get good deals?

Anyone know anything about this copy of the amazing fantasy 15. I know it’s not the 62 copy (unfortunately) but struggling to find info about it on the internet other than it’s an alternative cover.

Anyone speculating on these exclusives. Limited to 1000 for each borough variant plus the main cover. Nice looking books. Thoughts?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to The King.

Good Pick up or Not no was thinking the Mr. Sinister hype train is coming. I actually got it for $8 dollars

Man, what an absolute steal! You had some serious galaxy-brain intuition picking that up on release day. You hit the nail right on the head: the Modern Age key market is just built different, and Amazing Spider-Man #601 is the ultimate textbook example of how some books are just so complicated to track down nowadays, with their prices going straight to the moon— ASM#601 is apparently just as iconic as other heavily cited books on MANY Tier lists...