FANTASTIC FOUR #89

Graded at 7.0 (FN/VF) on 2026-11-02, from new photos taken out of the sleeve: front, close-up, back, spine and interior page. Bright glossy red cover. A few tiny stress marks along the spine. Sharp corners with light edge wear. Clean back. Cream pages.

Fantastic Four #89, cover-dated August 1969, arrives near the tail end of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's celebrated run on the title, with Joe Sinnott's inks lending the art its familiar polish. The issue continues the multi-part Mad Thinker android storyline that ran through the high-80s issues and introduces the minor villain Monocle (Wilhelm Kluge), a footnote character in the wider Marvel rogues' gallery but a documented first appearance nonetheless. The book falls within the final stretch of Kirby's Fantastic Four tenure, a run whose late issues are collected primarily for the creative team rather than any single landmark event.

Market data shows a large certified population, with over 400 Universal copies graded and steady sales activity across most grades, consistent with a widely-owned, frequently-submitted late Silver Age title. Values remain modest through the mid grades and climb only meaningfully at the 9.4 and 9.6 tiers before spiking sharply at 9.8, where a comparatively thin thirteen-copy census concentrates demand from Kirby-run completists chasing top-of-census examples. There is no evidence of speculative first-appearance demand driving the curve; pricing behavior tracks typical Kirby/Sinnott Fantastic Four back issues from this era.

This is a book for Fantastic Four run-builders and Kirby-era completists rather than key-issue investors. Lower and mid-grade raw copies trade cheaply and are readily available, making the title an accessible piece for readers assembling the full Lee-Kirby run. Interest concentrates almost entirely at the high end of the grading scale, where scarcity of pristine copies — rather than any story significance — drives the pronounced jump in value at CGC 9.8.