FANTASTIC FOUR #296

Graded at 8.5 (VF+) on 2026-11-04, from new photos taken out of the sleeve: front and back. Small bump with light wear at the bottom tip of the spine. Front cover trimmed slightly short at the right edge, leaving a small step at the top and bottom corners. Tiny pale speck on the brown coat. Dark field of the back pin-up clean with good gloss.

Fantastic Four #296 (Marvel, cover-dated November 1987) arrives from the turbulent Steve Englehart run on the title, a period in which editorial interference famously led the writer to finish his tenure under the pseudonym "John Harkness." The issue reflects the retooled roster of the era, with Reed and Sue Richards joined by She-Hulk and Sharon Ventura's Ms. Marvel rather than the classic Thing-Torch pairing, a lineup shift that defines this stretch of the series for longtime readers. Pencils are handled by the workmanlike Keith Pollard, a mainstay Marvel artist of the period, giving the book a solid if unspectacular Copper Age visual identity.

Market data shows this is a plentiful, well-preserved modern-era book: certified population is large relative to sales activity, and fair market value across the mid-to-high grade spectrum stays compressed, with only the 9.8 tier showing meaningful premium separation. Demand is driven almost entirely by series completists and Fantastic Four run-builders rather than by any first appearance, death, or landmark event, since the issue contains none of these. The gap between the top slabbed grade and everything below it is wide in percentage terms but modest in absolute dollars, consistent with a common, mass-printed late-1980s title.

This is a book collected primarily by Fantastic Four team-run completists and Copper Age specialists rounding out long boxes rather than by key-issue investors. Raw copies in low and mid grade trade as inexpensive filler material, while a 9.8 slab carries a real but limited premium reflecting the difficulty of finding pack-fresh copies rather than any intrinsic story significance. Expect steady, low-volume trading with price appreciation tied more to general Bronze/Copper Age nostalgia than to any single collecting catalyst.