THE SAGA OF CRYSTAR, CRYSTAL WARRIOR #10

Cover shows strong gloss and sharp corners with no visible creases or color breaks. Slight edge wear is visible at the top left corner and along the spine, with minor whitening at the top edge. The book is in a protective sleeve which obscures fine surface detail; interior and back cover were not assessed.

Published with a November 1984 cover date, The Saga of Crystar, Crystal Warrior #10 carries the story "Loss," in which Prince Crystar returns to Crystalium to find that Regent Lord Feldspar has handed the throne to his brother Moltar. Mary Jo Duffy scripted the run, with interior pencils by Ricardo Villamonte and a cover by Michael Golden, whose contributions are the most frequently cited draw among collectors of the title. The series was built around Remco's Crystar action figure line, one of Marvel's several early-1980s licensed properties set within Earth-616 continuity, and it ran eleven issues before wrapping with an Alpha Flight crossover finale. This issue introduces no significant characters and records no origin or death of consequence.

Demand for the title is concentrated at its edges rather than its middle: the first issue attracts buyers for the debut of Crystar and his supporting cast, and issue #8 commands a substantial and well-documented premium because its cover logo treatment resembles the skull associated with the Misfits and Danzig, pulling in music collectors from outside the comics market. Number 10 sits outside both of those currents. It trades as a run-filler, most often inside complete #1-11 sets rather than as a standalone purchase, and Canadian price variants of the issue carry a larger multiple over the direct edition than the direct edition commands over a plain reading copy. Certified examples surface rarely, so the slab market here is governed less by demand than by whether anyone considers the grading fee worth carrying.

Buyers are largely completists finishing the eleven-issue run, Michael Golden cover collectors, and nostalgia purchasers working backward from the Remco toys. Low-grade copies function as reading material and clear only at bulk-bin levels, while mid-grade copies gain little on them, since supply in Fine to Very Fine is ample and the price ladder between those bands is compressed. The meaningful spread appears only at the top of the grade scale, where scarcity of registered high-grade copies rather than issue significance sets the price; sellers should expect certified examples to move slowly and to depend on finding a registry-minded set builder. Newsstand and Canadian price variant copies should be identified and priced separately, as they do not track the direct edition.