Iron Man #416 CGC 9.8 Newsstand Edition
A few months ago I wrote a blog about the All-New Iron Manual being the last CGC comic that I wanted. That’s the only non-narrative appearance of Axol (the Ablative Armor) in comic book form. So I figure, yeah, there’s nothing left to go for. I’m done.
But if you’ve ever known anyone who collects anything obsessively, it’s never done. We always find something else to go for, some harder-to-find item that will, for a time, quench the Collecting Monster that lives within us.
Months before getting the ANIM in CGC 9.8, I wrote about finally finding a newsstand edition of Iron Man #416 (aka vol. 3 #71), which is the first appearance of Axol. You can read more about newsstands in that blog, but long story short: late-year newsstands are harder to find because distribution changed over the decades, sending more comics to comic book shops and fewer to newsstands, drug stores, book stores, and grocery stores. The last newsstands Marvel printed had a cover date of December 2013.
The copy I bought was in about 9.4 condition, which isn’t bad for picking one up on eBay. But like all collectors who’ve been told that you ain’t got nothing if your modern comic isn’t a 9.8, I was really hoping I could do something about it. So I got the thing professionally pressed, and bingo…
Newsstand edition of Iron Man #416 (vol. 3 #71)
So Now I’m Done!
Absolutely not. Collecting Monster wants more. I must seek out something, and the most obvious answer is a newsstand version of #417, the second appearance of the Ablative Armor. I recently tracked down two copies, but they’re about around 8.5 or 9.0; even with pressing, I doubt they’d make good 9.8 candidates. So that search continues…
Here’s the Good News
I can officially tell the Collecting Monster to shut up about something. Infinity: Heist #3 is the only other narrative issue in which an Iron Man Ablative appears, and that’s just in one panel (if it’s in there at all). It came out about the same time that newsstands went away entirely, so I always had that question in my mind: “Is there a newsstand of Infinity: Heist #3?” Considering the low print run of the regular edition, and the super-low print run of a theoretical newsstand edition, it might be nearly impossible to find.
Good news for me, though, because I’ve talked to an expert on the last newsstands. He tells me that no newsstand edition of Infinity: Heist #3 has been found, and it’s not on any existing list of newsstands. It’s not even theoretically on the list, as Infinity: Heist #3 has a January 2014 cover date and the last newsstands had a December 2013 cover date. (In fact, while Infinity: Heist #2 could be possible, even it hasn’t been found yet.)
If it doesn’t exist, I don’t have to go looking for it.
Suck it, Collecting Monster!
