DOCTOR STRANGE, SORCERER SUPREME #56

Cover shows strong gloss and vibrant color with sharp corners and no visible creasing or spine stress; edges appear clean with no chips or tears. A slight softness at the top right corner and minor handling wear are visible on close inspection, keeping this out of the highest grade tiers. Interior pages and back cover were not assessed, so the grade is based solely on the front cover image.

Published with an August 1993 cover date, Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #56 falls in the stretch of the title where Geof Isherwood handled both script and art, sharing the writing credit with Roy Thomas and providing the cover, with color by George Roussos. The story turns on Wong channeling Strange's astral form in a confrontation with the second Baron Blood, the vampiric identity assumed by Strange's brother Victor, while the wider Infinity Crusade crossover plays out in the background and pulls the supporting cast, including Morgana Blessing and Imei Chang, into the margins of the plot. It is a connective chapter rather than a turning point: no first appearances, no origin, and no character death, but a competently executed installment from a period when the book was being positioned for its imminent absorption into the Midnight Sons line a few issues later.

Market behavior matches that profile. The book was distributed in quantity through the direct market at the height of early-1990s overproduction, high-grade raw copies remain plentiful, and the issue trades primarily as run filler for collectors assembling the complete Sorcerer Supreme series or the Infinity Crusade tie-in checklist. Demand spikes tied to Doctor Strange film activity have lifted keys and low-print-run late issues of this run, but have had little measurable effect here, and the certified population is negligible because grading costs exceed any realistic return. What movement exists happens in bulk lots and dealer wall-book pricing rather than through auction results.

Buyers are set collectors, Infinity Crusade completists, and readers following Isherwood's tenure on the character. Across grades the spread is compressed: mid-grade and near-mint raw copies sell within pennies of one another, so condition sensitivity only becomes meaningful at the certified tier, where the price reflects the cost of the slab more than the scarcity of the contents. For a dealer archive this is inventory to be moved in runs and crossover groupings rather than individually, with any certified copy best offered to a registry-minded set builder.