CAPTAIN AMERICA #297

Cover shows strong gloss and bright color with sharp corners; minor edge whitening is visible at the top and bottom right corners and a faint handling crease near the lower right edge. Spine appears mostly tight with no obvious major stress lines or color breaks visible in this photo. The book is in a protective sleeve, which limits close inspection of surface sheen; interior pages and back cover were not assessed.

Captain America #297 arrives during J.M. DeMatteis's mid-1980s run on the title, a stretch of the series notable for its dense continuity work reconnecting Cap to his supporting cast and rogues' gallery. This issue weaves together Baron Zemo, the Red Skull, and Bucky Barnes alongside Jack Monroe, Sam Wilson (the Falcon), Bernie Rosenthal, and Arnie Roth, reflecting DeMatteis's interest in the emotional and legacy threads of Captain America's world rather than a single spotlighted first appearance. Paul Neary's cover and interior pencils, inked by Roy Richardson, give the book a moody, character-driven visual tone consistent with the era's more introspective superhero storytelling.

Market data shows a typical profile for a mid-1980s newsstand Marvel title: modest census population, thin sales activity at every grade, and value concentrated almost entirely at the top of the certified population. The CGC 9.8 fair market value sits near the low triple digits, with a meaningfully lower one-year average suggesting recent price softening even at the top grade, while raw copies in low and mid grades carry values reflecting bulk long-box supply rather than scarcity. There is no first appearance or landmark creative milestone driving demand; interest here is grounded in run-completion and the DeMatteis/Neary creative pairing rather than any single collectible event within the issue.

This is a book collected primarily by Captain America run-completists and readers assembling the DeMatteis era rather than speculators chasing a key. Raw copies in low and mid grades move steadily but cheaply through dealer boxes and online marketplaces, while a well-preserved 9.8 commands outsized value relative to the rest of the grade curve, reflecting the practical scarcity of pristine newsstand copies from this period rather than narrative importance. Buyers should expect flat demand across most of the grading spectrum with a sharp premium reserved for top-census slabs.