Approximate
Condition Profile
MARVEL COMICS · 8/78 · NEWSSTAND
UNIT ECA-004906
POWER MAN AND IRON FIST #52
Bronze Age Marvel team-up issue from the core Power Man and Iron Fist run
// Unit specification
| Publisher | Cover date | Era | Variant | Key attribute | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marvel Comics | August 1978 | Bronze | Newsstand | — | AVAILABLE |
// Copies in archive
| Unit | Grade | Variant | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| ECA-004906 | ~8.5 | Newsstand | AVAILABLE |
// Run position
// Condition analysis
Cover shows strong gloss and vibrant color with sharp corners and clean edges visible in this photo; a faint vertical crease line is visible near the spine but does not appear to break color. No significant creasing, staining, or chipping is visible on the front cover. The book is in a protective sleeve, which limits close inspection of texture and surface. Interior pages and back cover were not assessed, so the grade reflects front cover appearance only.
// Valuation — market reference
| Bracket | Grade | Est. market value | Marker |
|---|---|---|---|
| LOW_RAW | 0.5 – 1.5 | $5 | |
| MID_RAW | 4.0 – 6.0 | $8 | |
| HIGH_CERT | 9.8 SLAB | $100 |
// Archive commentary
Power Man and Iron Fist #52 (August 1978) arrived during the title's formative Bronze Age stretch, when Marvel paired ex-Hero for Hire Luke Cage with martial artist Danny Rand in an ongoing buddy-hero book that blended urban crime drama with superhero action. The series occupies a notable niche in Marvel history as one of the publisher's earliest sustained interracial hero pairings, and issues from this run are collected chiefly for their place in that broader narrative rather than for any single landmark event in #52 itself.
Market data shows a typical long-tail Bronze Age profile: modest, thinly traded values in low and mid grade, with a pronounced premium reserved for the small handful of copies certified in high grade. Sales activity is light across the census, with only a few transactions recorded at each grade point below 9.4, and the FMV curve accelerates sharply once a copy reaches 9.6 or 9.8, reflecting the scarcity of surviving newsstand copies preserved to that standard rather than any inherent story significance.
This issue trades as a run-filler for Power Man and Iron Fist completists and Bronze Age Marvel generalists rather than as a standalone investment target. Raw copies in low and mid grade see minimal demand and price sensitivity, changing hands mainly to fill gaps in longer boxes or runs, while the real collector interest concentrates at the top of the grade scale, where a genuine 9.8 newsstand copy is a legitimate scarcity given the small number certified at that level.
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