FANTASTIC FOUR #243

Graded at 9.0 (VF/NM) on 2026-11-03, from new photos taken out of the sleeve: front and back. Two tiny stress ticks at the spine edge, one by the TM mark and one just below it. A few pinpoint flecks in the dark top band. Otherwise sharp corners and clean edges. Back cover clean with the reply label uncut and unfilled. Narrow pale band beside the spine.

Fantastic Four #243 (June 1982) arrives in the middle of John Byrne's celebrated writer-artist run on the title, a stretch widely credited with revitalizing the franchise after a decade of uneven stewardship. This issue is part of the build-up to Galactus's return and the introduction of a new herald, with Terrax the Tamer figuring into the escalating cosmic threat that pays off in the issues immediately following. While it is not a first appearance or origin issue, it is representative of the tightly plotted, artistically confident work that made Byrne's tenure a high point for the team's Bronze Age output.

Market data shows a typical mid-run Bronze Age demand curve: raw and low-grade copies trade for a few dollars, mid-grade raw copies hover in the high-twenties, and value accelerates sharply only at the top of the census, with 9.8 copies commanding a real premium over 9.6 and below. The thirty-plus recorded 9.8 sales indicate this is a book collectors actively pursue in top grade despite ready availability in lower grades, consistent with strong Byrne-era completism rather than any single defining first-appearance driver.

This issue suits Byrne-run completists, Fantastic Four team collectors, and buyers assembling the Terrax/Galactus herald storyline arc rather than speculators chasing a key. Lower and mid-grade raw copies remain inexpensive and plentiful, making the book an easy run-filler, while pristine 9.8 slabs justify a meaningfully higher price due to the difficulty of finding pack-fresh newsstand copies of ordinary-interest issues from this period.