FANTASTIC FOUR #114

Cover shows moderate wear consistent with a well-handled Bronze Age book: visible spine stress with a couple of small ticks along the top edge, mild corner softness at the top corners, and slight surface wear/rubbing across the black background areas revealing minor color fading. There is a small dimple/dent near the top edge and light handling creases in the upper portion of the cover. The book is currently housed in a protective sleeve, and only the front cover was assessed; interior pages and back cover condition are unknown.

Fantastic Four #114 arrived in September 1971 during the transitional period after Jack Kirby's departure from the title, with Archie Goodwin scripting and John Buscema handling art chores, inked by Joe Sinnott. This stretch of the series is often overlooked next to the Lee/Kirby issues that preceded it, but it maintains the polished Buscema house style that defined Marvel's line through much of the 1970s and continues the adventures of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm as a functioning creative team finding its footing without the book's original architect.

Market data shows a typical Bronze Age curve for a non-key issue: values remain modest and largely flat through the mid grades, with several hundred certified copies spread across the census and comparatively thin sales activity below 6.0. The real value inflection happens at the top of the grade scale, where 9.6 and 9.8 copies command a substantial premium over anything below 9.4, reflecting the difficulty of finding high-grade Bronze Age Marvel in top census condition rather than any narrative significance tied to the issue itself.

This is a book for Fantastic Four run-builders and Bronze Age Marvel completists rather than key-issue speculators. Raw copies in low and mid grades trade cheaply and are readily available, making them accessible entry points for readers assembling the series. Collector interest concentrates almost entirely on the small pool of high-grade CGC 9.6 and 9.8 slabs, where scarcity relative to demand from graded-set collectors drives pricing well above the raw and mid-grade market.