FANTASTIC FOUR #256

Graded at 5.0 (VG/FN) on 2026-11-04, from new photos taken out of the sleeve: front and back. Spine worn with many color-breaking ticks along its length. Small torn tab folded out from the open edge near the top, and a tiny nick in the top edge. Scuffing and rub across the dark art. Corners blunted, lower right the most. Light corner crease on the back's lower left.

Fantastic Four #256, cover-dated July 1983, arrived in the middle of John Byrne's influential tenure as writer-artist on Marvel's flagship team title, a run widely credited with revitalizing the book's storytelling and visual identity in the early 1980s. Byrne handled the full creative package on this issue, and it features the classic lineup of Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing navigating one of the character-driven, world-building stories that defined this stretch of the series. While the issue does not carry a first appearance, death, or other landmark event that price guides single out as a key, it remains a representative example of Byrne's storytelling craft during a period widely regarded as one of the strongest sustained creative runs in the franchise's history.

Market data reflects a book that is plentiful in high grade and inexpensive across the board, a pattern typical for direct-market Marvel titles from the early 1980s that were saved in quantity by speculators and collectors. The certified population is heavily weighted toward 9.6 and above, and the value curve compresses sharply as grade drops, with only modest premiums separating raw mid-grade copies from lower-grade examples. Demand is driven primarily by Byrne-run completists assembling the full FF arc rather than by speculative interest in any singular event within the issue itself.

This is a book most likely to move through curated Bronze Age runs, dollar-bin upgrades, and CGC 9.8 registry-set purchases rather than as a standalone showpiece. Buyers tend to be series or creator collectors filling gaps in a Byrne FF collection, with the top of the market anchored by pristine slabs that carry a real but not extreme premium over mid-grade raw copies. Lower-grade copies see minimal collector interest beyond reading copies, and pricing across brackets should be expected to remain stable and unspectacular over time.