5 Valuable Key Comics Featuring Characters Who Share the Same Name
Nothing is more valuable than a billion-dollar comic book IP, right? You would be surprised how many comic book characters share the same name when character sames are so sacred for their IP. Did you know that there are three characters with the name “Sandman?” Johnny Blaze was not the first Ghost Rider.
Some of these facts are lost to comic book history, but they are usually known to serious comic book collectors, investors, and buyers.
Rarity, age, creative teams, pivotal storylines, and other factors can make a comic book valuable. Sometimes, age, rarity, and the controversy over a shared name can also make a comic valuable to the right buyer.
Here are three valuable comics featuring characters who share a name with another character.
1. Ghost Rider (1967) Marvel
The first Ghost Rider was not Johnny Blaze. Carter Slade was an Old West vigilante who became the Ghost Rider after a chance encounter with a Native American shaman. Slade wore an all-white costume and mask, and rode a white horse, Flaming Star. Slade was mainstay in Marvel’s Western comics, a genre staple of the era.
After the introduction of Johnny Blaze a decade later, Marvel retroactively changed Slade’s Ghost Rider to Night Rider, then finally to Phantom Rider. (The term “Night Rider,” had negative connotations with the Klu Klux Klan and racist vigilantes during the Civil Rights era.) They didn’t want the characters to share the same name since they were in vastly different genres.
Marvel wanted to use the character but thought the name would better suit Blaze. Decades later, both IPs would share the same name anyway. Carter Slade is retroactively an inclusion in the Ghost Rider mythos. The Ghost Rider is now a mantle that many heroes have assumed going back thousands of years in the comics.
Sam Elliot portrayed a version of Slade in the 2007 Ghost Rider film.
Only dedicated and zealous comic book fans know this history, making it a coveted collectible. This is a curio of comic book history that the right collector will definitely want. A 9.8 CGC grade of this comic is worth over $14,400. Besides some minor fluctuations, this comic has maintained its value; it was worth almost $15,000 in 2022.
2. Captain Marvel Adventures #1 (1941) Fawcett
Most modern comic book film fans think Brie Larson is Captain Marvel. However, the name goes all the way back to 1940, another character, DC’s Shazam!, and decades of legal litigation among multiple publishers. The modern DC character Shazam! was the original Captain Marvel. The Billy Batson Captain Marvel made his debut in Whiz Comics #2 in 1940. (Marvel Comics began as Timely Comics in 1939, then Atlas, and did not rename itself “Marvel” until the early 1960s.)
Whiz Comics #2 is extremely rare; even a 6.0 CGC is worth $150,000. Captain Marvel was more popular than Superman at the time and outsold Superman often. Captain Marvel could always fly; Superman started out leaping tall buildings. DC sued Fawcett, Captain Marvel’s publisher, for copying Superman, forcing Fawcett to shut down.
Marvel Comics then assumed the Captain Marvel IP name in the 1960s. DC bought the Fawcett Captain Marvel IP and renamed it Shazam! in the 1970s. Both characters historically and retroactively share the same name. But the truth is that Fawcett Comics created the Captain Marvel name decades before Marvel was even Marvel.
Captain Marvel Adventures #1 is very rare. A raw and ungraded copy is worth over $2,650. You can make thousands, tens of thousands, or more, if you happen upon this comic in higher grades. The one recorded auction price of this comic I found was over $38,000.
3. (Enchantress) Journey Into Mystery #103 (1964) Marvel
Most comic book film fans know the DC Comics version of Enchantress from the first Suicide Squad film. Dr. June Moone made her debut in Strange Adventures #187 in 1966. However, Moone was not the first Enchantress. The first comic book Enchantress was Amora; she made her debut as a Thor villain in Journey Into Mystery #103 in 1964.
In her debut, Amora tried to seduce Thor into leaving his human love interest, Jane Foster. Amora has superhuman strength and reflexes as a Norse God, but her main powers are mysticism and an unbreakable ability to seduce and ruthlessly manipulate men.
A 9.8 CGC copy of this comic sold for $14,500 in 2023. Unfortunately, this comic is very rare and hard to find; if you find it, hold onto it.
4. (Golden Age Sandman) Adventure Comics #51 (1940) DC
Wesley Dodds is the first character to use the name “Sandman” in the comics. He is the Golden Age Sandman, while Morpheus of the Endless is the Modern Age Sandman at DC Comics. Dodds wore a natty suit, fedora, and a gas mask. His weapon was a gas gun that would sedate his opponents.
He had no powers besides clairvoyant dreams; he was a detective who fought crime. DC would revive the character in the 1930s and under the Vertigo imprint in the 1990s with the title Sandman Mystery Theatre. The Wesley Dodds Sandman is very obscure, even though three “Sandman” characters at Marvel and DC share the name.
The name is very special to Golden Age comics fans and 1990s Vertigo readers, however.
A 9.8 CGC grade of this comic is worth $28,500 and has kept its value for the last five years.
5. (Silver Age Sandman) The Amazing Spider-Man #4 (1963) Marvel
William Baker, also known as Flint Marko, is the second Sandman in comic book lore. He was a young football star who got thrown off the team for fixing a game to help a friend in debt. Marko then became a career criminal. After exposure to irradiated sand while fleeing prison, Marko gains the power to turn his body into living sand particles that he can manipulate in any way he wants.
Wesley Dodds was known as Sandman for his prophetic dreams and sedating gas gun, but Marko’s name was much more literal.
A 9.2 CGC grade of this comic is worth $25,600; the value has fluctuated moderately over the past five years. A near-perfect copy of this comic is worth almost $90,000.
History, Trivia, and Nostalgia Are Valuable
Interesting trivia and nostalgia are valuable factors to collectors. You don’t have to become a comics expert to invest in key comics, but anyone can Google the Captain Marvel name issue, or ask a friend into comics about the issue.
Interesting knowledge about shared names and owning the right comic could lead you to the right collectibles investment. Then, the right buyer looking for what you’re selling.
You May Also Like…
- Ryan Gosling Is Ghost Rider! The 8 Greatest Ghost Rider Comic Books Every Marvel Fan Must Read Before His MCU Debut
- 9 Comics Where Game-Changing Powerful Weapons First Appeared – Collectors Are Hunting These Now
- 8 Villains Who Nearly Won — and Changed Their Universes Forever
- Here’s Why Superman Will Never Really Die
- 9 Greatest Nonhuman Comic Book Characters Ever – and What They Teach Us About Humanity
Allen Francis is the lead staff writer for PFAdvice.com at District Media, Inc., specializing in comic book investing, collectibles, popular culture, and practical wealth-building strategies. A New York City native, Marymount Manhattan College graduate, and former college academic advisor, librarian, and adjunct instructor, he brings 15+ years of professional writing experience and a proven personal transformation from financial illiteracy to expert collector. He also the author of The Casual’s Guide: Why You Should Get Into Comic Book Investing.