Sunday Fun-Day – X-Men #137

Back here I told a story about how I was at the right place at the right time when a dealer said the comics in several boxes were now all a dollar a piece instead of their marked price. The were mostly variant covers of recent Marvel boxes, Batman & Spider-man comics, but also mixed in were various, mostly older comics, seeded in to get the buyer to look through the whole bin and spend more money. I was one of those buyers and I walked away with a big pile of comics I am quite pleased to now own.

The copy of X-Men #137 pictured here was one of those books. This particular comic is in pretty rough shape. The staples are off center hence the poor cropping and visible spin. There is some ink on the advertisement on the back cover. There are plenty of visible creases and tears, but despite all that it is still a very readable copy of X-Men 137. It is still the Death of Jean Grey, the end of the Dark Phoenix story, and above all an excellent issue.

This is Chris Claremont and John Byrne at their best. The Dark Phoenix saga is one of the greatest stories in modern comics. It is something all other X-men stories are compared to. The story has been reprinted dozens of times, heck I own several of them. As a collector though there is something very exciting about coming across this comic in a dollar bin. There is a lot to be said to be able to take this comic out of the bag and reading it. I’m able to feel the old paper, to smell that “old comic smell”. Reading the single issue like this I can reminisce about what it must have been like reading fresh off the newsstand. The whole thing is an experience and I’m glad I was able to do that!