JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS #2

Cover shows strong gloss and vibrant color with sharp corners overall; a small edge nick/tear is visible at the top left near the price box, and there is minor rubbing along the top edge. Spine appears tight with no visible major stress lines or color breaks in this view. The book is in a protective sleeve, which limits assessment of surface sheen but no significant creases, stains, or writing are evident on the front. Interior pages and back cover were not assessed.

John Carter, Warlord of Mars #2 continued Marvel's 1977 licensed adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom novels, scripted by Marv Wolfman with a cover credited to Gil Kane and Dave Cockrum and interior pencils by Kane, inked by Rudy Nebres. The issue carries forward the series' cast of John Carter, Dejah Thoris, Tars Tarkas, Sola, and Stara Kan as the title worked to translate Burroughs' pulp source material into ongoing Marvel continuity during a period when the publisher was expanding its adaptation and licensed-property line.

The FMV data shows a book with a substantial certified population (78 Universal copies of 83 total graded) and demand concentrated almost entirely at the top of the grade curve: 9.8 copies command real premiums with active recent sales activity, while everything from 8.0 through 9.2 flattens to roughly the same modest value, and grades below that see essentially no recorded sales at all. This pattern is typical of a common, mass-distributed newsstand Bronze Age comic with no first-appearance or landmark-creative hook beyond its Kane/Cockrum cover pairing and Wolfman's involvement, meaning collector interest is driven almost exclusively by condition-census chasing in high grade rather than by character or story significance.

This is a book for Bronze Age completists, John Carter/Barsoom specialists, and Gil Kane or Dave Cockrum cover collectors rather than mainstream key-issue buyers. Raw copies in low and mid grades trade near bulk-bin and modest fair-condition levels reflecting abundant supply, while the real value proposition sits at the CGC 9.8 tier, where scarcity of top-census copies and steady recent sales support a meaningfully higher price point relative to the rest of the grade spectrum.