X-MEN: THE MOVIE PREQUEL – ROGUE #1

Cover shows sharp corners, strong metallic ink gloss with no visible creasing or spine stress, and clean edges; the book is bagged, which limits full assessment. No color breaks, tears, or stains are visible on the front cover. Interior and back cover were not assessed, so grade is based solely on this photo.

Published in 2000 to coincide with the first live-action X-Men film, this one-shot from writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning with pencils by Alan Evans dramatizes Rogue's backstory as her absorption powers manifest and set her on the run before she is drawn into the Children of the Atom. Dorian Cleavenger supplies the painted cover, and the issue folds in the film's core ensemble — Wolverine, Magneto, Sabretooth, Professor X, Cyclops, Jean Grey and Storm — as a bridge between the movie continuity and Marvel's comics. It functions as promotional tie-in material rather than in-continuity canon, aimed at readers arriving from the film.

The book is a common modern-age title with no first appearance, origin milestone or landmark creator work to drive scarcity, and it survives in large quantities in high grade. Demand is thin and nostalgia-driven, tied to interest in the 2000 film and in Rogue as a character; the direct edition trades for pocket change raw, with only marginal lift for pristine certified copies. The more actively pursued versions are the Dynamic Forces variants and signed examples, whose premiums derive from limited print runs and autographs rather than from the underlying story or edition described here.

Buyers are typically X-Men film-era completists and Rogue collectors assembling character runs, plus the occasional grader chasing a clean 9.8 for a themed set. Across grades the book behaves like most turn-of-the-millennium tie-ins: low-grade and mid-grade copies are effectively bin filler that clears at minimal cost, while certified high grade commands only a modest, sentiment-based premium that has not shown meaningful appreciation.