List Of Important Comics From The 2000s

📢 3/2021: I’ve updated this list! click here for the latest version!

January 13, 2017

A List Of Important Comics From the 2000s

And at the end of the prior decade, there was a decision by Marvel to “walk away” from the newsstand model — this would quickly put the newsstand percentages down to single digits as we enter the 2000’s with newsstand rarity estimates of 5% by 2000, and a BPA audit revealing newsstand sales of 4.25% by 2003. By 2005 we see a newsstand rarity estimate of 2%, and by sometime around 2011 Marvel starts to end newsstand sales in stages, with certain bookstore partners being the last to carry them. Against this backdrop, we see newsstand cover price variants including an entire CGC-recognized “window” during which their newsstand comics were priced $1 higher than their direct edition counter-parts.

For this page, rather then cover 2000-2009, I’m going to let the end date span out to 2016. There are many “top lists” out there covering important or “key” comics from the 2000s, but the ones I’ve seen are all either based upon individual judgment calls or the high sale prices observed in the marketplace. Judgment calls are great, but not necessarily comprehensive. Meanwhile, high sale prices could just as easily be reflective of, say, a CGC 10 Gem Mint Signature Series copy signed by Stan Lee, versus reflective of the underlying comic being of any great importance.

One surefire way to “tease out” a list of important comics is to consider how many copies have been sent in to CGC to be graded — the more important the comic, the more likely its owner will want to have it graded and slabbed, right? So by ranking comics simply by the number of copies submitted to CGC — removing any judgment call or sales price information — I’d argue we can get to a pretty good list of important key comics! Of course, there are flaws to this exercise which should be kept in mind: for one thing, this submission data is from one snapshot in time (year-end 2016) and there could be plenty of important comics that aren’t recognized as such until some future development gives them renewed attention. And another flaw is that any very-high-value comics that simply didn’t have many copies printed, will naturally sort themselves off of the bottom of a list like this as well.

So please don’t anybody think of these lists as a “rank” of importance or as being an all-encompassing list… all we’re ranking here is the sheer number of copies that have passed through CGC’s doors as of year-end 2016 and presenting the top fifty. That’s it! This data should give us a very interesting list, but this list is no replacement for judgement and no replacement for pricing data — it is simply one more tool for our tool-belt as we study interesting and rare comics like the ones I enjoy writing about on this blog! With that caveat stated, without further ado, here is a list of 50 important comics from the 2000s. [ I’ve also posted more lists of key comic books by year including other decades; special thanks goes to Greg Holland whose research website was the tool that made these pages possible to assemble ].

A List Of Important Comics From The 2000s:

(Census data as of year-end 2016)

Rank CGC Count Issue Date Publisher
1. 4,963 Amazing Spider-Man v2 #36 12/01 Marvel Comics
2. 4,080 Outcast #1 6/14 Image/Skybound
3. 3,022 Amazing Spider-Man #700 2/13 Marvel Comics
4. 2,900 Wolverine: The Origin #1 11/01 Marvel Comics
5. 2,739 NYX #3 2/04 Marvel Comics
6. 2,617 Walking Dead #1 10/03 Image Comics
7. 2,555 Saga #1 3/12 Image Comics
8. 2,249 Edge of Spider-Verse #2 11/14 Marvel Comics
9. 2,095 X-Men 1 Sketch Cover 9/10 Marvel Comics
10. 2,041 Batman #608 12/02 D.C. Comics
11. 2,017 Captain America 25 Variant Edition 4/07 Marvel Comics
12. 1,948 All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder #1 9/05 D.C. Comics
13. 1,909 The Marvels Project 1 Sketch Cover 10/09 Marvel Comics
14. 1,774 Thief of Thieves #1 2/12 Image Comics
15. 1,754 Walking Dead #19 6/05 Image Comics
16. 1,689 Walking Dead #108 3/13 Image/Skybound
17. 1,619 Wolverine: The Origin #2 12/01 Marvel Comics
18. 1,504 Amazing Spider-Man #529
CGC variant confirmed Rare CGC-recognized newsstand variant is confirmed to exist		 4/06 Marvel Comics
19. 1,483 Captain America 25 Wizard World 2007 Con Edition 4/07 Marvel Comics
20. 1,472 Superman #204 6/04 D.C. Comics
21. 1,464 Amazing Spider-Man 583 Variant Edition
CGC variant confirmed Rare CGC-recognized newsstand variant is confirmed to exist		 3/09 Marvel Comics
22. 1,449 Walking Dead #27 4/06 Image Comics
23. 1,393 Ultimate Spider-Man 1 Variant Cover 10/00 Marvel Comics
24. 1,367 East of West #1 3/13 Image Comics
25. 1,326 Wolverine: The Origin #3 1/02 Marvel Comics
26. 1,320 Amazing Spider-Man 648 Sketch Edition 1/11 Marvel Comics
27. 1,293 Star Wars #1 3/15 Marvel Comics
28. 1,285 Ultimate Spider-Man #1/2 2002 Marvel-Wizard Pub.
29. 1,248 Ultimate Spider-Man 79 Wizard World 2005 Con Editi 9/05 Marvel Comics
30. 1,236 Walking Dead 100 Chromium Edition 7/12 Image/Skybound
31. 1,235 Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America 3 Sketch 7/07 Marvel Comics
32. 1,218 Batman #612 4/03 D.C. Comics
33. 1,185 Walking Dead #2 11/03 Image Comics
34. 1,184 Civil War 3 Variant Cover 9/06 Marvel Comics
35. 1,174 Wolverine: Origins 1 Wizard World 2006 Con Edition 6/06 Marvel Comics
36. 1,166 Walking Dead #100 7/12 Image/Skybound
37. 1,145 Walking Dead #127 5/14 Image/Skybound
38. 1,125 Wolverine: Origins 6 Wizard World 2006 Con Edition 11/06 Marvel Comics
39. 1,125 Batman 0 We Can Be Heroes Edition 11/12 D.C. Comics
40. 1,113 Superior Spider-Man #1 3/13 Marvel Comics
41. 1,091 Revival #1 7/12 Image Comics
42. 1,086 Spider-Gwen #1 4/15 Marvel Comics
43. 1,053 Ultimate Fallout #4 10/11 Marvel Comics
44. 1,037 Death of Wolverine #1 11/14 Marvel Comics
45. 1,037 Detective Comics #1 11/11 D.C. Comics
46. 1,032 Superman/Batman #1 10/03 D.C. Comics
47. 1,028 Alias #1 11/01 Marvel Comics
48. 1,020 Wolverine: The Origin #4 2/02 Marvel Comics
49. 1,011 Civil War 1 Variant Cover 7/06 Marvel Comics
50. 1,007 Walking Dead #3 12/03 Image Comics
  51-100.   Another 50 key comics from the 2000’s »
 « the 1990’s  

More Important Comics Of The 2000s:

Key Comics From 2000 [ just Marvel; just D.C.; just other ]
Key Comics From 2001 [ just Marvel; just D.C.; just other ]
Key Comics From 2002 [ just Marvel; just D.C.; just other ]
Key Comics From 2003 [ just Marvel; just D.C.; just other ]
Key Comics From 2004 [ just Marvel; just D.C.; just other ]
Key Comics From 2005 [ just Marvel; just D.C.; just other ]
Key Comics From 2006 [ just Marvel; just D.C.; just other ]
Key Comics From 2007 [ just Marvel; just D.C.; just other ]
Key Comics From 2008 [ just Marvel; just D.C.; just other ]
Key Comics From 2009 [ just Marvel; just D.C.; just other ]
Key Comics From 2010 [ just Marvel; just D.C.; just other ]
Key Comics From 2011 [ just Marvel; just D.C.; just other ]
Key Comics From 2012 [ just Marvel; just D.C.; just other ]
Key Comics From 2013 [ just Marvel; just D.C.; just other ]
Key Comics From 2014 [ just Marvel; just D.C.; just other ]
Key Comics From 2015 [ just Marvel; just D.C.; just other ]
Key Comics From 2016 [ just Marvel; just D.C.; just other ]

See other lists of key comic books by year, including the 1970’s, 1980’s, and 1990’s.