DALLAS, TX.- Heritage's November 21-24 Comics & Comic Art Signature® Auction opened for bidding Tuesday morning, and within minutes, one page among the auction's many storied pieces soared to six figures: the original art for Page 14 from The New Mutants No. 98, otherwise known as Deadpool's debut.

It didn't even take maximum effort as bidders began what's sure to be a long, intense battle over this iconic moment. By Wednesday morning, in fact, it was fast approaching the quarter-million-dollar mark. That's how legendary and coveted this page is, creator Rob Liefeld's first glimpse at Wade Wilson's Merc with a Mouth long before he became a billion-dollar big-screen franchise.

This page has never been to auction. In fact, it hasn't been seen since it entered a private collection in the 1990s, just as Deadpool was taking over the Marvel Universe like few characters in its storied history.

In fact, when Marvel recruited a 21-year-old Liefeld to pencil New Mutants in 1986, the title was "the dog of the line," as Liefeld has often said. All the other X-Men titles, including Wolverine, were massive hits. But the New Mutants teetered on the brink of extinction. Liefeld says Marvel told him to fill the title "with whatever energy, ideas and creativity you have because we are going to turn the lights off, otherwise. This is kind of like the last chance."

With writer Louise Simonson, Liefeld began creating new characters, including Cable, with whom Deadpool tussles in this iconic page from the landmark issue Marvel Comics continues to reprint. The Deadpool who crash-landed on comic stands on Dec. 11, 1990, didn't yet have a backstory — he was just an assassin sent to kill Cable. But he's immediately identifiable to anyone who's seen a second of Ryan Reynolds' big-screen version: a brash, quippy, indestructible killing machine with two swords strapped to his back.As a result, Liefeld told Forbes in July, "Deadpool was a hit with fans from the get-go." Marvel Comics received more fan mail about Deadpool than any character in years, with one letter-writer comparing him to Spider-Man but "wielding instruments of death rather than webs." And he's never been more popular, as evidenced by Deadpool & Wolverine's $1.37 billion box-office take worldwide, rendering it the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time.

Marvel demanded more, more, more Deadpool from Liefeld, who continues to draw and write the character (in fact, Deadpool Team-Up No. 3 debuts this week). But at the time, "New Mutants was my ticket," Liefeld has said. He has no idea how golden it would become."Deadpool's debut in New Mutants No. 98 was as much a cultural phenomenon as a page in comic book history," says Heritage Auctions Executive Vice President Todd Hignite. "For fans and collectors, this is an unparalleled opportunity to own a piece of the origin story that would eventually define a generation of comic book storytelling. Seeing this page come to auction after so many years feels like opening a vault to a moment that forever changed Marvel and pop culture."

As Deadpool and Wolverine have long been — and, certainly, become — inseparable, Heritage is also thrilled to present in this auction John Romita Sr.'s conceptual rendering of the X-Man with the adamantium claws. This work dates to 1974, shortly before Logan's quick cameo in the final panel of October 1974's The Incredible Hulk No. 180. This work is also making its auction debut in this star-studded event.

Herb Trimpe, who illustrated those Hulk tales, once recalled that Wolverine was intended as "just one of those secondary or tertiary characters, actually, that we were using in that particular book with no particular notion of it going anywhere." But, of course, over time — and thanks to co-creator Len Wein — Wolverine evolved into one of comicdom's most popular characters with a painful backstory.

Marvel editor Roy Thomas suggested the character, down to the name and his Canadian background, and it fell to Romita to design Wolverine, from head to toe — and retractable claws in between, which he made retractable, so he wasn't always cutting himself. Trimpe, who adhered closely to Romita's initial sketch, would later say that Wein and Romita "sewed the monster together, and I shocked it to life!"A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this historic sketch will go to the Red Cross Hurricane Relief Fund. So get to bidding, bub.

And speaking of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there's a little magic in this auction, too: Agatha Harkness' first appearance from 1970's Fantastic Four No. 94, drawn by Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott. The namesake of Disney+'s acclaimed series Agatha All Along (played by Kathryn Hahn, who also appeared in WandaVision), Agatha debuted here as a mysterious figure living in retirement who has agreed to serve as governess to Reed and Sue Richards' son Franklin. But Ben Grimm's The Thing knows what's up: "I'm just plain scared!"

There's no shortage of Marvel-ous history in this auction, including a Don Heck-drawn page from Tales of Suspense No. 39 that gave readers their first look at the inner workings of the Iron Man armor meant to keep Tony Stark alive. There's also an early, unforgettable Steve Ditko page from Spider-Man No. 8 — that infamous moment where Flash Thompson smashes Peter Parker's glasses, resulting in that iconic rendering of a Peter who's half-masked and all fury.And for the fan who needs Wolverine and Spider-Man in a single image, look no further than Bob Layton and Joe Rubinstein's iconic cover of 1982's Marvel Team-Up No. 117.

Here, too, is a page from Frank Miller and Klaus Janson's celebrated run on Daredevil; these early masterworks have become coveted favorites among collectors over several recent record-setting auctions. From 1979's Daredevil No. 161, near the beginning of the creators' team-up, this page will undoubtedly join that valuable lot as it finds The Man Without Fear squaring off against his archenemy Bullseye.

Seven years later, Miller and Janson had moved to DC Comics, which let them reinvent Gotham City's Caped Crusader in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. In a mini-series stuffed with milestone moments, this page from The Dark Knight Triumphant ranks among the most memorable: Carrie Kelley introduces herself as Batman's newest Robin, which a bashed-in Bruce Wayne welcomes without protest.As ever, the artists' table in this auction overflows with legends, influences, titans and icons, among them more Kirby and his Fantastic Four, Bernie Wrightson and his (first issue!) Swamp Thing, George Pérez and his New Teen Titans, Alex Toth and his Black Canary and Catwoman, John Byrne and his X-Men.

Here, too, is more EC Comics art from the collection of the late Roger Hill, revered as one of horror-comicdom's most passionate and thoughtful fans, collectors, historians and authors. Among the most significant (and stunning) is Johnny Craig's cover of 1952's Vault of Horror No. 23, which contains Craig's chilling tale "A Stitch in Time!" — itself a nightmare that ranks among pre-Code horror's most haunting stories.But everything EC wasn't always so frightening: Take, for instance, this seldom-seen gem from Mad's earliest days, Harvey Kurtzman's cover of 1954's Mad No. 10. As Bill Schelly's biography says, Kurtzman was The Man Who Created Mad and Revolutionized Humor in America; Newsweek likewise hailed him as "The Matisse of Mad Magazine." He was one of the medium's greatest cartoonists, and his glorious, wild covers from this period are among the rarest and most sought-after works. This one is particularly thrilling — "an absolutely great example of Kurtzman's bold, fluid, and inky cartooning," says the catalog.

This auction is so stuffed with historic, meaningful must-haves that it's taken too long to get to the spinner rack, where collectors will find seven of the 10 most valuable Golden Age issues: Action Comics No. 1, Detective Comics No. 27, Captain America Comics No. 1, Superman No. 1, Batman No. 1, Detective Comics No. 31 and Whiz Comics No. 1, among other essentials. But among their extraordinary lot, you will also find a Batman No. 11 graded Near Mint 9.4, the nicest copy of one of the most dynamic Dynamic Duo issues from 1942. It's got Fred Ray and Jerry Robinson creating the cover, with the Joker and the Penguin inside with a trip to the Ha-Hacienda for good measure.