Most fans would go to the ends of the earth to find a gem-mint copy of their favorite comic book. Indeed, a CGC grade 10 is the holy grail of comic collection, and with good reason.
For CGC to grant a perfect score, the comic needs to be in pristine condition, sporting minimal manufacturing/handling defects. This means even tiny scratches can bring your grade down from a 10 to a 9.8. It’s hard to believe, but true.
While grade 10 comics are extremely rare, they’ve made a few appearances on the graded comic book scene over the years. So, in case you’re setting on a quest for the (almost) mythical grade 10 collectible, here are a few copies you should keep an eye out for.
1. Doctor Strange #58
Greatness is often born out of adversity, and there’s no better example of this than Doctor Strange. After a terrible car accident crippled his hands, Strange sought solace in Kamar-Taj, the temple of the Ancient One. Little did he know that his fateful encounter with the magical being would lead him to become Earth’s protector from other-worldly threats.
Published in 1974, this comic had Marvel’s genius neurosurgeon-turned-sorcerer supreme travel to the Far East for a tete-a-tete with the Aged Genghis (a slightly senile, millennia-old master of the mystic arts and the arcane).
Although 53 copies of this comic book were submitted to the CGC, only one has received a 10.0 grade. The average grades range between 9.9 and 9.4, with 9.8 being the most popular score.
2. Amazing Spider-Man #321
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a comic aficionado without a Spider-Man comic in their graded comic book collection. Peter Parker’s awkward alter-ego has been a crowd-pleaser since his debut in 1963. However, Amazing Spider-Man #321 also features the iconic Silver Sable (Silvija Sablinova), commander of the Wild Pack and founder of Silver Sable International.
In this 1989 comic, Spider-Man makes an uneasy alliance with Sable and the man she hired to stop the Life Foundation, Paladin. Chaos ensues, as the heroes battle Carlton Drake to restore world peace.
Any graded comic with Spider-Man in it is bound to be a huge hit. This comic too has about 605 copies in circulation, out of which only two are in gem-mint condition.
If you happen to come across this comic, be sure to get it slabbed right away!
3. Wolverine #1
When it comes to rare gem-mint editions, Wolverine #1 is tough to beat. James Howlett, the claw-brandishing mutant better known as Wolverine, takes on the alias of Patch when he goes into hiding in Madripoor. Under disguise, Logan deals with rivals like the Silver Samurai and Joe Fixit. Not to mention, he finds an ally in Psylocke and the international law agency Landau, Luckman, and Lake.
As per recent data, the CGC has received 12,670 submissions of this comic. Shockingly, only one has received a 10 grade. However, there are plenty of grade 9.8 and 9.6 copies, so you can still get a pretty sweet deal on this graded comic.
4. New Mutants #98
Die-hard Deadpool fans remember New Mutants #98 as the comic that launched the Merc-with-a-Mouth (affectionately known as ‘the regenerating degenerate’, thanks to his spontaneous healing abilities).
Deadpool is known to be a league of his own. Brutality and gore aside, his stories have a unique dark humor that appeals to comic book enthusiasts across the world.
If his insane personality and habit of using silliness as a distraction weren’t enough, Deadpool is also hyper-aware that he is a character in a comic book. His constant breaking of the fourth wall has become a running gag in many of his stories.
This particular graded comic book also introduces a host of other significant characters, including the mutant supervillain Gideon and Deadpool’s long-term associate, Domino.
As of now, only one out of 22,310 copies of this issue has received a perfect score from the CGC. The average grade is 9.16, which is quite decent.
5. Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again
Created as a sequel to the game-changing Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again takes place three years after Batman defeated Superman. With the false Camelot reaching a boiling point, an aging Batman emerges once again to fight chaos in a diseased world.
Like the other entries on this list, this 2001 comic has very few gem-mint copies- only two out of 582. A majority of the copies (325) are graded 9.8.
The Bottom Line
Now that you know which grade 10 comics to add to your graded comic books collection, you’ll have an easier time finding them and head out to collectibles stores near me. Remember, gem-mint copies are rare, so you may have to do quite a lot of digging to get your hands on one. But ultimately, it’s worth the effort!
Author Bio: Matt Shively and Matt Martin founded Wicked Monkey in 2020 in the pursuit of creating a comics shop concerned with the full “ecosystem” that exists in the cross-over between the world of fine arts, contemporary collectibles, and comics. Wicked Monkey an online store that sells a curated collection of high-quality graded comic books from various mainstream publishers such as DC, Marvel, Boom! Studios, and specializes in independent publishers—all boasting a high CGC score, the majority being a 9.8 score out of 10.