FANTASTIC FOUR #38

Cover shows moderate wear consistent with a mid-grade Silver Age book: visible spine stress lines and slight color break along the spine, mild corner softness at top right and bottom left, and light surface scuffing across the cover. There is a small amount of edge wear along the right border and a faint crease near the bottom right corner. The book is protected in a plastic sleeve; interior pages and back cover were not assessed.

Fantastic Four #38 (May 1965) continues the Frightful Four saga begun a few issues earlier, pitting the team against the returning quartet of Sandman, Wizard, Medusa, and Paste-Pot Pete — the last of whom is rechristened the Trapster within these pages, a small but often-cited naming milestone in the villain's history. Written by Stan Lee with pencils by Jack Kirby and inks by Chic Stone, the issue arrives at the height of the Lee-Kirby FF run, sandwiched between the introduction of Medusa and the celebrated Daredevil crossover that follows shortly after. It is representative of the title's mid-1960s creative peak: dense plotting, escalating villain team dynamics, and Kirby's increasingly kinetic layouts.

Market data shows a broad, actively traded population with 746 Universal census copies, reflecting steady collector demand typical of core Lee-Kirby Fantastic Four issues rather than a scarce or speculative book. Pricing climbs sharply at the top of the grade scale — value roughly triples between 9.0 and 9.4 and again nearly doubles into 9.6 — indicating that gem-quality survivors command outsized premiums even though the issue itself is not a headline first appearance. Demand is driven primarily by Kirby/Lee-run completists and Frightful Four story-arc collectors rather than by first-appearance speculators.

This is a strong mid-tier Silver Age Fantastic Four book: desirable for run-builders and Kirby enthusiasts, with low- and mid-grade copies trading as affordable entry points into the era, while high-grade and unslabbed 9.8-caliber examples are scarce enough to draw premium bidding whenever they surface. It is not a marquee key, so pricing tracks general Silver Age Marvel demand and Kirby-art appreciation more than any single landmark event within the issue.