Home › The X-Men › #106

Cover: Dave Cockrum

The X-Men #106

Name: The X-Men #106
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Aug 1977 · Marvel · 0.30 USD

☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join free

“Dark Shroud of the Past!”

★ 1st appearance — The Entity

About this Issue

X-Men #106 carries the first appearance of 'the Entity' — the dark, repressed side of Charles Xavier's psyche — a concept that would ripple through decades of X-Men storytelling and is widely regarded as a thematic precursor to the 1996 Onslaught crossover event. As the first fill-in issue of the Chris Claremont era, it also documents what Bronze Age readers called the 'Dreaded Deadline Doom' striking even the hottest book at Marvel, a moment of production vulnerability that paradoxically underscores how feverishly ambitious the new X-Men run had become. The issue is a bittersweet historical artifact because Bob Brown's interior pencils were published posthumously — his last work to reach print — and the letters page contains Claremont's public eulogy for him, making this comic a small memorial as well as a story. Despite being bypassed by the Classic X-Men reprint series, it survives as the earliest canonical expression of Xavier's dangerous inner duality, a thread Claremont and Bill Mantlo would revisit directly in the 1984 X-Men and the Micronauts limited series.

writer Chris Claremont · writer Mantlo · artist Dave Cockrum · artist Bob Brown · inker Tom Sutton · colorist Yanchus · letterer Rosen · cover Dave Cockrum

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $19

CGC 9.8 · 143 in census $604

CGC 9.6 · 300 in census $177

CGC 9.4 · 304 in census $117

CGC 9.2 · 191 in census $117

CGC 9.0 · 202 in census $114

CGC 8.5 · 159 in census $67

Show all 22 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 · 118 in census $63

CGC 7.5 · 107 in census $60*

CGC 7.0 · 78 in census $53*

CGC 6.5 · 51 in census $43*

CGC 6.0 · 38 in census $43*

CGC 5.5 · 16 in census $39*

CGC 5.0 · 25 in census $36

CGC 4.5 · 12 in census $34*

CGC 4.0 · 8 in census $32*

CGC 3.5 · 4 in census $26*

CGC 3.0 · 1 in census $23*

CGC 2.5 · 3 in census $20*

CGC 2.0 none in existence

CGC 1.5 none in existence

CGC 1.0 none in existence

CGC 0.5 · 1 in census $20*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

This exact issue on ebay

CGC 9.8 $900 1 listing

CGC 9.6 ▾ $335–$435 2 listings

CGC 9.6 $335 CGC 9.6 $435

CGC 9.4 $250 1 listing CGC 9.2 $180 1 listing

CGC 9 ▾ $118–$150 2 listings

CGC 9 $117.99 CGC 9 $150

CGC 8.5 $100 1 listing CGC 8 $60 1 listing CGC 7 $68 1 listing

CGC ▾ $55–$65 2 listings

CGC $55 CGC $65

Raw — NM+ $5.49 1 listing Raw — NM $5.19 1 listing Raw — NM- $150 1 listing

Raw — VF/NM ▾ $64.99–$109 3 listings

VF/NM $64.99 VF/NM $90 VF/NM $109

Raw — VF+ ▾ $37.5–$68 3 listings

VF+ $37.5 VF+ $59 VF+ $68

Raw — VF ▾ $29.99–$725 4 listings

VF $29.99 VF $36.29 VF $39.99 VF $724.74

Raw — F/VF $41.9 1 listing

Raw — FN/VF ▾ $40–$150 2 listings

FN/VF $40 FN/VF $150

Raw — FN+ ▾ $39.99–$45 2 listings

FN+ $39.99 FN+ $45

Raw — FN ▾ $29.95–$60 4 listings

FN $29.95 FN $30 FN $44.99 FN $60

Raw — VG+ ▾ $26–$44.95 2 listings

VG+ $26 VG+ $44.95

Raw — VG ▾ $24.99–$54 5 listings

VG · Newsstand $24.99 VG · Newsstand $39.99 VG $40 VG $50 VG $54

Raw — GOOD $45 1 listing

Raw / ungraded ▾ $3.99–$150 21 listings

Verified matches for The X-Men #106 · eBay asking prices, seen 20 days ago

🏪 Real comic shops near you sell this issue on eBay — from our directory:

The Time Capsule · Seekonk, MA2 on eBay ↗

Listings on eBay · clicking supports comicbooks.com

Sell my copy

Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.

We Buy Collections ▸

Fast, fair offers · we handle grading & shipping

History

Marvel's editorial practice of stockpiling inventory stories meant that, almost as soon as the Len Wein/Dave Cockrum relaunch launched in 1975, Bill Mantlo and Bob Brown were commissioned to produce an emergency fill-in built from Wein's original series notes. When Cockrum fell behind schedule — reportedly because he took on the penciling assignment for John Carter, Warlord of Mars #1 at the last minute — that inventory story was finally pulled out of the drawer for X-Men #106. By then, the characters had evolved so far from Wein's early framework that Claremont essentially rewrote Mantlo's script over art he could not alter, a compromise he later described candidly in the book Comic Creators on X-Men. The issue arrived in shops in May 1977 with a cover date of August 1977, published weeks after Brown's death from leukemia in January of that year, making it his final professionally published comic work.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of 'the Entity' (also called 'Dark Xavier'), the manifested evil aspect of Professor X's repressed telepathic power and desires — later recognized as a conceptual precursor to Onslaught.
Titled 'Dark Shroud of the Past!'; written by Chris Claremont (framing pages and script rewrite) and Bill Mantlo (original plot); penciled by Dave Cockrum (framing pages) and Bob Brown (main story); inked by Tom Sutton; colored by Andy Yanchus; lettered by Joe Rosen; edited by Archie Goodwin.
Cover dated August 1977, released May 17, 1977; cover art by Dave Cockrum and Irving Watanabe.
First fill-in issue of the Chris Claremont–era X-Men run, triggered by the 'Dreaded Deadline Doom' after Cockrum took on an additional last-minute assignment (John Carter, Warlord of Mars #1).
Published posthumously: penciler Bob Brown (William Robert Brown, 1915–1977) died of leukemia in January 1977, months before the issue reached stands; the letters page contains Claremont's public eulogy for him.
The story is structured as a fever-dream flashback inside Xavier's collapsing mind; the main-story new X-Men (Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Banshee, Cyclops) battle psychic constructs of the original team (Angel, Beast, Iceman, Marvel Girl) — a scenario explicitly set earlier in the continuity, between issues #96 and #97.
The issue was deliberately skipped when Marvel launched the Classic X-Men reprint series (1986), because the self-contained dream structure meant it added nothing essential to the surrounding Shi'ar storyline.
The Entity concept was revisited by the same writing team (Claremont and Mantlo) in the four-issue X-Men and the Micronauts limited series (January–April 1984), giving the character its fuller 'Entity' identity. A 35-cent price variant and a Mark Jeweler insert variant of this issue also exist.