AVENGERS #45

Cover shows good gloss and bright colors with strong contrast on the black background; corners appear moderately sharp with only slight blunting. There is a visible vertical crease/wave running through the lower left portion of the cover and some minor surface wrinkling near the spine area, along with light edge wear along the top and right edges. The book is in a protective sleeve, causing some light glare, and the spine itself is not clearly visible for stress line assessment. Interior pages and back cover were not shown and were not assessed.

Avengers #45 (October 1967) closes out Roy Thomas and John Buscema's Black Widow/Red Guardian arc that began two issues earlier, delivering the death of Alexi Shostakov, the Soviet super-agent revealed as Natasha Romanoff's presumed-dead husband. The issue is part of a tightly plotted subplot run that deepened Black Widow's backstory during her earliest solo-adjacent storylines in the Avengers title, at a time when the team's lineup consisted of Captain America, Goliath, Hawkeye, and the Wasp. Buscema's pencils, inked in the era's house style, represent some of his earliest defining work on the title he would help shape through the late 1960s.

Market data shows a typical mid-run Silver Age Avengers curve: values stay flat and modest through the mid-grade tiers before climbing sharply above 9.0, and jump again at the top of the census where certified population thins dramatically. Demand is driven primarily by Black Widow and Avengers team-run completists rather than by any single first appearance, since the Red Guardian himself debuted two issues prior; this keeps the book firmly in the secondary-key tier rather than among the line's marquee issues. Sales activity is healthiest in the 7.0–9.6 range, reflecting collectors upgrading within CGC-graded sets.

This is a book for Avengers run-builders, Black Widow collectors, and Silver Age Marvel specialists filling out the Thomas/Buscema era rather than speculative buyers chasing a single character debut. Raw copies in low and mid grade trade steadily but without urgency, while CGC 9.6 and the handful of 9.8s command outsized premiums purely on census scarcity. Expect gradual, population-driven appreciation at the high end rather than the sharper spikes seen on true first-appearance keys.