I just saw the movie and loved it! Felt like a simpler Interstellar (not a bad thing) meets the Jetsons.
Here are two 2024 Mr. Fantastic one-of-ones, representing the crossover of two eras of Marvel cards. Upper Deck has had a great run with the Marvel license, defining the genre by bringing the famed 90s sports insert, Precious Metal Gems or PMGs, into the Marvel universe with their 2013 Marvel Metal set. Now Topps is taking over and doing what they do best - making everything chrome.
We have Upper Deck's Marvel Platinum "Golden Treasures" one-of-one, which is essentially a superfractor. Upper Deck is largely known for their creative inserts (e.g. Jambalaya, real metal inserts, clear acetate inserts), while Topps focuses largely on just different color variants of chrome cards. It is interesting to see that Upper Deck may have been shifting towards a more Topps-esque approach, with this set being exclusively chromium cards, if they had retained the Marvel license, even going as far as imitating the superfractor to a tee in one of their last sets.
We also have the Topps Chrome Sapphire "Padparadscha" one-of-one. While 2024 saw the debut of Topps Chrome Marvel with the standard chrome parallels that we often see in sports, they also released a more limited Sapphire sister set with the same art, also common in sports, that has a cracked ice pattern on the various parallels. Replacing a superfractor in this set is the pink padparadscha one-of-one, referencing a rare sapphire variant.
I did enjoy the creativity and diversity of Upper Deck sets - seeing multiple chrome sets per year, as we are now seeing with Star Wars, can be a bit exhausting. But I will always appreciate a debut set, and 2024 being the first year for Marvel under the historic Topps brand makes both 2024 Chrome and 2024 Sapphire sets I'd like to collect.
Who do you think did it better - Upper Deck in their last attempt or Topps in their debut?
