This week's release of W.E.B. of Spider-Man #1 has been a surprisingly hot commodity on the secondary market due to the introduction of a character from the Marvel Cinematic Universe who is making their official comic book debut in the Marvel comic book universe.
The concept of W.E.B. of Spider-Man (which is by Kevin Shinick, Alberto Alburquerque, Rachelle Rosenberg & VC’s Travis Lanham) is that Tony Stark has put together a new group called the Worldwide Engineering Brigade made up of some of the smartest teenagers in the Marvel Universe and Spider-Man is along for the ride as Peter Parker. Among the characters in the group are Moon Girl (Lunella Lafayette), Squirrel Girl and the Wakandan genius, Onome. Also, there's Harley Keener.
Harley Keener was the young boy that Tony Stark befriended in Iron Man 3. He later appeared, now a teenager, at the memorial service for Tony in Avengers: Endgame. W.E.B. of Spider-Man has Harley at the age he was in Endgame, as Tony's teen protege, who clashes with Peter Parker as Peter sort of viewed himself as Tony's protege.
Shinick does a fine job working in the nods to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in this in-continuity comic book, which exists as a tie-in, also, to the Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure, which has its own Worldwide Engineering Brigade building.
In any event, while in general, collectors like to pick up the first appearances of characters who might later star in superhero movies, here is an instance where collectors are going bananas for the first comic book appearance of a character who was already in the movies!
Despite just coming out this week, W.E.B. of Spider-Man #1 has been selling regularly on eBay for around $15, with the variant cover tying into the Avengers Campus going for a little more money.
A copy of the Mark Bagley 1:25 variant cover sold for $99!
It is fascinating seeing the typical collectors approach turn itself on its head here, which is perhaps why the book was a bit of a surprise for retailers, as it was not heavily ordered (which is another reason why it is so popular in the secondary market, as speculators love it when a book is not heavily ordered).
Source: eBay