FOC PICKS FOR 12/11/23

Welcome back all to another installment of FOC Picks! It is an interesting week of confirmed firsts and a light week of cover buys.

Cover Picks

Batman Brave And The Bold #9 Cover B Bruno Redondo

If you loved the animated series, You'll love this homage.

Catwoman #61 Cover C InHyuk Lee

Catwoman had some excellent covers this week, with this one having a slight edge over the Rachta Lin variant in my opinion.

Wonder Woman #5 Cover C Julian Totino Tedesco

This run of Wonder Woman has featured great covers, which have sold well. I believe this Tedesco variant will continue the trend.

Star Wars: Thrawn Alliances #1 1:100 Incentive

This incentive is popular! On eBay, there are multiple sales for over double the ratio, with a high of $269. Given that Thrawn is such an iconic Star Wars character, this may have some staying power.

Black Panther #6 2nd Print

There's a lot of debate if second prints are worth speculating on. I typically try to follow these rules when deciding to pick up a copy for my PC:

Does the cover art have the first cover appearance of a new character?

Did the first printing not establish itself as a valuable book?

The first printing is readily available.

There isn't an Incentive variant for the second printing.

This book checks all the boxes, so I will pick up a couple of additional copies to stash.

Miguel O'Hara Spider-Man 2099 #3 & #4

Werewolf By Night 2099 first appearance

first-team appearance of Terror Inc.

In #3, we have a Werewolf By Night 2099 first appearance; in #4, we have the first-team appearance of Terror Inc. This series has been fun so far, and I do think we will see 2099 Universe gain momentum.

Star Wars Thrawn Alliances #1 Cover A-Rod Reiss

Always grab Star Wars first issues. I really enjoyed the novels and will get this for the read, but there is a lot of potential for a first appearance or two. Just temper your expectations, as this book will be heavily ordered.

Superman #10 Cover A

This is the first appearance of the man of yesterday.

Who is apparently a jacked cowboy Superman. Take a flyer on a copy, but historically Superman spec is lousy. The 1:50 is nice for the right price.

Cable #1 Cover A

First appearance of The Neocracy.

I hear great things about the X-Men universe but I'm a bit behind on my reading, so I am unsure of any significance here. I don't expect big things spec-wise.

Cobra Commander #1

First appearance of Cobra Commander

The Energon Universe has been excellent so far, and the first appearance of Cobra has me nerding out.

Daredevil #5 Cover A

New Villian

The solicitation states an "all-new villain for Daredevil to face down!"It's a good series, and while Villian spec is typically meh, I'll give it a shot.

Star Wars Visions #1 Takashi Okazaki

Origin of The Ronin

The Novel was great, as was the comic and Disney+ show. The story alone is worth grabbing this book, but it looks like Disney/Marvel may be interested in doing more with this character. Like I said before, always grab Star Wars #1's.

There you have it, folks, a lot of spec-worthy titles this week. While I don't anticipate any of these titles to be breakouts, I'd probably stash the Star Wars titles and definitely the Cobra Commander #1.

Happy FOC'ing Folks!