X-MEN #96

Cover shows good gloss with bright yellow background retaining strong color, though there is slight edge wear at the top and bottom corners with minor whitening. A small crease is visible near the lower right corner, and there is faint spine stress with minor ticks along the spine line. No major tears, stains, or color breaks are visible; interior and back cover were not assessed.

Published at the dawn of the revived X-Men, this issue arrives immediately after the landmark relaunch and marks the first appearance of Moira MacTaggert, the Scottish geneticist who would become a fixture of the franchise for decades. Scripted by Chris Claremont and drawn by Dave Cockrum during the formative months of the new team, it also introduces Stephen Lang and features the demonic N'Garai, seeding threads that Claremont would develop across his lengthy tenure. Coming in the wake of Giant-Size X-Men #1 and issue #94, it belongs to the small cluster of Bronze Age books that established the modern X-Men mythology.

The issue sits in a well-collected corridor of the run where demand is driven both by first-appearance status and by broad interest in early Claremont-Cockrum X-Men. Certified supply is deep in mid and high grades, keeping raw and lower-slab prices accessible, while the top of the census thins considerably and commands a steep premium. Recent certified sales at the 9.8 tier have trended above the standing fair-market figure, reflecting steady collector appetite for pristine copies of these foundational issues.

Buyers range from run collectors completing the early All-New, All-Different sequence to character-focused specialists pursuing Moira MacTaggert's debut. The book trades briskly and affordably in mid grade, making it an easy acquisition for reader-collectors, while high-grade certified copies function as the investment-grade end of the market and see the sharpest appreciation. Given the abundance of graded material, condition and eye appeal separate comparable copies, and the jump from 9.6 to 9.8 remains the decisive value threshold.