Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975) was a pivotal turning point in X-Men comics, pumping new life into what had become stagnant. Writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum set up the story with the original X-Men team missing on the island of Krakoa and Professor X seeking help to save them. He gathers a new team with Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Banshee, Ororo Munroe/Storm, Piotr Rasputin/Colossus, and John Proudstar/Thunderbird. They go to the island to save the missing members of the team and together battle Krakoa, which is actually a mutant feeding off others.

This issue revived the title, becoming a quintessential Bronze Age key and leading to the broad scope of X-titles we see today. Rather than trying to revive a slate of older characters or create an entirely new roster, Wein and Cockrum made the savvy decision to incorporate established characters (Professor X and Cyclops), relatively new (Wolverine) and underutilized (Banshee) characters, and new characters (Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus). What Wein and Cockrum did was set the stage for Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum and then Claremont and John Bryne, and turned it into Mavel’s top book, something it had never been.

When Giant-Size X-Men #1 was published in 1975, it had a cover price of 50¢. That same year when Robert M. Overstreet published The Overstreet Price Guide #5, a Near Mint copy had already grown in value to 80¢. Five years later in the Guide #10 (1980), it saw nice improvement to $9. It approached the $100 mark in 1990’s Guide #20 when it rose to $95.

Continuing to show steady growth, the book more than quintupled to $490 for the Guide #30. After another ten years in 2010, this incarnation of the X-Men reached $1,300. Momentum slowed a bit over the next decade, landing at $2,300 in the milestone 50th edition of the Guide. In 2026’s the Guide #55, a Near Mint example of Giant-Size X-Men #1 was valued at $6,000.