The Oldest Trick In The Book vol2

Aloha CHUniverse, and welcome back to the Oldest Trick In The Book. This week we tackle the actual oldest trick in the book 1st Wolverine. Hulk #180 and #181 started off the era of disputed 1sts and has been argued for the ages ever since.

In Hulk#180 we get a last panel full shot of Wolverine he is snarling in the panel before drawing the attention of Hulk and Wendigo pictured above. For a long time Hulk #180 was the book to have and held a higher price than #181. No getting around #180 predates #181 and this is the first published picture of Wolverine he is named and we even get Weapon X in his description. We call this a cameo now but just as key if not more than Hulk #181.


In Hulk #181 we get Wolverine from title page on, pictured above. This is his first full appearance and the go to Wolverine book to own.

In the last panel that Wolvie appears in #181 pictured above we first find out about Wolverine’s healing abilities but we don’t know his claws are retractable at this point as he is pictured with claws throughout.


Enter Giant Size Xmen #1 2nd full Wolverine when we get down to brass tax this book is probably more key than Hulk #180 and #181. We get the Wolverine we know and love as the character design is tweaked with the longer mask flares we find out Wolvie’s claws retract and we get our first SNIKT! Pictured below. Wolverine also joins the X-men in this issue not to mention the major first appearances contained in this book. The keyness of Giant Size Xmen #1 is off the charts. People will try and trick you with Xmen #94, but #94 picks up where Giant Size #1 leaves off. People use to call it first Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Tbird, Colossus in title but Giant Size is really just like an annual of the X-men series running at the time and with hundreds of different X titles now, first appearance in series is a laughable kind of first appearance. So outside of second appearances of Storm and company no keyness to #94 in my opinion. I do own all 4 books though.

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Great read, Alana.
The adage is ‘brass tacks’, not ‘tax’.

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Never knew that until now thanks.

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When I first started collecting I always thought a characters first printed image in an actual story he/she was involved in should be considered that actual first. That wasn’t the case even decades ago. The market and collectors that make the market go round and round will always dictate what is what and that cover to 181 is too just much to pass up even if technically and accurately Wolverines second appearance…Just don’t tell the guy who paid $60k for a 9.8 #181 I said that!

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For me, cameo’s are first appearances. Just because the market swings for the first full as the winner doesn’t remove the fact when the character first appeared.

But first actual appearances doesn’t always mean that book should be worth more. That’s when the market decides the more desirable one with actual demand.

So yes, Hulk #180 is Wolverine’s first appearance but everyone wants and demands #181. It’s just as simple as that.

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I bought a package deal of hulk 180, 181, and 182 about 10 years ago for around $450. 181 is a 3.5 and the other two are 7.0 and 8.0 respectively. Covered all the first appearance bases that way! Own an 8.5 xmen 94 that I got for around $300, but never found a good deal on giant size1. That’s a great book to have!

ASM 299 vs 300 is the most unfair, ridiculous example of this I can think (and yes, I own both). He first appears on the final page of 299, no different from Bishop in UXM 282, and far better than Kamala’s foot or whatever in CM 14.

More than a foot, it was basically an unnamed person in like a single pane… But yeah, seems the market goes for CM14 despite it having less info than say Hulk 180 and many others. The market works in mysterious ways…