IRON MAN #148

A prominent diagonal crease runs across the upper portion of the cover through the logo, with additional creasing/wrinkling visible near the top edge; there appears to be a small tear or stress mark near the top staple area. Corners appear reasonably sharp with only minor wear visible. The book is currently housed in a plastic sleeve which adds glare and slightly obscures fine surface detail. Interior pages and back cover were not visible in this photo and were not assessed.

Cover-dated July 1981, Iron Man #148 falls squarely inside the David Michelinie and Bob Layton run that reshaped the character across the late 1970s and early 1980s. Plotted by Michelinie and Layton with script by Michelinie, the issue pairs John Romita Jr. breakdowns with Layton finishes and a Layton cover. The story, "Siege!," sends Tony Stark to the Central American republic of Costa Diablo after a military coup traps Stark International personnel at a company plant, with the twist that not every employee wants to be extracted. It is a self-contained espionage-flavored adventure rather than a costumed-villain slugfest, published the month before the Doctor Doom time-travel two-parter in #149-150 that closes out this stretch of the run.

Market behavior matches the issue's cataloging status: no first appearance, no origin, no death, and no cover cited as a classic by the standard guides. Copies circulate as run filler in dealer boxes and in bulk #141-150 lots, and the issue is rarely submitted for certification, which keeps certified sales thin and makes any high-grade figure an interpolation rather than a hard comp. Demand comes almost entirely from collectors assembling the Michelinie/Layton/Romita Jr. stretch, which retains steady readership interest because of its influence on later Iron Man storytelling, and from Romita Jr. early-career completists. The 1981 newsstand format is the common printing for this date, so it carries no scarcity premium over the direct-market edition.

The buyer profile is a run collector or a set builder rather than a speculator, and the pricing curve reflects that. Below the mid grades the book trades as reading copy inventory at nominal money, and mid-grade copies move consistently but at figures that reward volume selling more than single-copy consignment. Value concentrates entirely at the top of the grade scale, where the scarcity of certified census copies of an otherwise plentiful book creates a meaningful gap between a raw near-mint and a slabbed 9.8; grading costs exceed the return on anything below that ceiling. Dealers should expect this issue to perform best packaged with #149-150 or as part of a complete run offering.