FANTASTIC FOUR #398

Cover shows sharp corners and clean edges with no visible chipping or tears. Slight surface texture/speckling visible against the dark background may be printing artifact or minor handling wear rather than actual defects, but is hard to fully rule out from the photo. No obvious spine stress lines or creases are visible, though the book is under plastic which limits full clarity. Interior and back cover were not assessed.

Fantastic Four #398 arrived in March 1995 during Tom DeFalco's extended run on the title, with art credited to Paul Ryan, a period defined by steady but unspectacular continuity work rather than landmark storytelling. The issue falls in the stretch of numbering leading toward the team's 400th issue milestone, and it reflects the workmanlike output typical of Marvel's flagship superhero team title in the mid-1990s, a period increasingly overshadowed in the collector market by the company's more speculative output of the same era.

Market data for this issue is thin, consistent with its status as an unremarkable chapter in a long-running series. Certified population is modest, and sales records are scarce across nearly every grade tier, with meaningful activity confined almost entirely to the CGC 9.8 tier. That top grade itself only supports modest values, reflecting the issue's lack of any specific storyline or character debut that would draw sustained collector demand. Prices at every level track the broader glut of mid-1990s Marvel comics, which were overproduced relative to today's collector interest.

This is a book bought primarily by Fantastic Four run collectors filling out long boxes and completists chasing full sets across the DeFalco/Ryan years, not by speculators or key-issue investors. Raw copies in low and mid grade trade for pocket change and are readily available, while the certified 9.8 tier commands only a small premium reflecting scarcity of top-grade census population rather than any inherent demand spike. Expect this title to remain a stable, low-cost filler book within larger Fantastic Four collections rather than a book that moves independently in the marketplace.