DARK ANGEL #9

Cover shown in protective sleeve appears glossy with strong color and sharp corners visible; no obvious creases, spine stress, or edge chipping detected in this photo. Slight glare from the plastic sleeve obscures fine surface detail, and the back cover/interior were not assessed. Based on visible front-cover evidence alone this presents as a high-grade copy, but sight-unseen grading is capped conservatively.

Dark Angel #9 continues the Marvel UK title that began in 1992 as Hell's Angel, starring Shevaun Haldane, a heroine created by Bernie Jaye and Geoff Senior whose powers derive from a fragment of the fabric of the universe granted by the Angel of Death. This issue opens the "Assassination" storyline, scripted by Jaye with art by Dell Barras and a cover by Bryan Hitch, and ties directly into the wider Mys-Tech thread that ran through the Marvel UK line: the corporation's board marks both Dark Angel and the X-Men for death while pursuing the soul of Ranulph Haldane in Mephisto's realm. Cyclops, Iceman, Psylocke, Rogue and Wolverine appear alongside the Wyrd Sisters and the Web-Spinners, placing the book squarely in the 616 continuity that Marvel UK was licensed to use during its brief expansion.

Commercially this is a mid-run issue of a short-lived series that ended within a year, published at the height of early-1990s overproduction and therefore common in high grade. Demand comes from three narrow directions: Marvel UK completists assembling the Hell's Angel/Dark Angel/Dark Guard sequence, Mys-Tech and Mephisto appearance collectors, and buyers following Bryan Hitch's early professional cover work before Excalibur and The Authority. None of those constituencies generates competitive bidding on a non-first issue, and the book most often changes hands inside run lots rather than as a single sale, which keeps recorded prices thin and clustered at the bottom of the market.

Collecting outlook is stable but flat. Raw copies trade as inexpensive shelf-stock across the whole spectrum, with little spread between low and mid grade because attrition on a book this young is minimal and buyers simply wait for a sharp copy. Certification is uneconomic relative to the grading fee, so any slab that surfaces prices off submission cost and scarcity of registry competition rather than genuine demand, and resale on such a slab is slow. The reasonable path for this issue in a dealer archive is as part of a complete Marvel UK run or a Mys-Tech/Dark Guard thematic group, where the set carries more weight than the individual number.