ALPHA FLIGHT #24

Cover shows sharp, square corners and clean, unblunted edges with no visible chipping. Spine appears tight with no stress lines or color breaks visible in this image. Colors appear vivid and unfaded with no staining or writing evident on the cover; the book is in a protective sleeve which limits full assessment of spine stress and surface gloss. Interior and back cover were not assessed, and this grade reflects front-cover surface appearance only.

Alpha Flight #24, cover-dated July 1985, is written and drawn by series creator John Byrne and introduces Yuriko Oyama, the cybernetically enhanced adversary who would become Lady Deathstrike. Byrne had launched Alpha Flight the year before as a spin-off from his celebrated run on Uncanny X-Men, and this issue continues his exploration of the team's ties to Wolverine's past, with Oyama's debut tying directly into that mythology. The character went on to become a recurring X-Men villain and later a mainstream presence via the feature-film franchise, giving the issue lasting reference value beyond the immediate run.

Market data shows a book that trades thinly but with a pronounced premium at the top of the census: 9.6 copies have settled around the mid-teens over the past year, while the small handful of certified 9.8s command roughly six times that figure, reflecting the difficulty of finding a Copper Age direct-market title in top preservation alongside collector interest in the character's first appearance. Sales volume is low across every grade, consistent with a book that is more a target for X-Men and Alpha Flight completists than a headline investment vehicle, but the wide spread between mid-grade and 9.8 pricing signals real grade sensitivity for buyers chasing the appearance.

This is a book for X-Men-adjacent key-issue collectors, Alpha Flight run-builders, and Byrne completists rather than generalist speculators. Raw copies in lower grades remain inexpensive and are readily available, mid-grade raw copies see modest but steady demand, and the real value concentration sits in the tightly-held 9.8 population, where scarcity on the census supports outsized pricing relative to the rest of the grade curve.