IRON MAN #146

Cover shows strong color and gloss with sharp corners and no visible creases or tears. There is a diagonal reflective crease-like glare across the upper portion that may be a bag wrinkle or reflection rather than an actual paper crease, and slight waviness near the top edge. The book is protected in a plastic sleeve, which limits full assessment of spine stress and edge wear; back cover and interior pages were not assessed. Based solely on visible front cover surface, this presents as a high-grade copy with minor handling wear.

Iron Man #146 (May 1981) opens the two-part "Blacklash and the Burning!" from the Michelinie/Layton/Romita Jr. run, the creative team most closely identified with Tony Stark's late Bronze Age. Mark Scarlotti, the Maggia enforcer introduced as Whiplash in Tales of Suspense #97, resurfaces here in a rebuilt costume and a new identity as Blacklash, complete with an expanded arsenal of cybernetic whips. Bob Layton supplies the cover and finishes over John Romita Jr. breakdowns, with Bob Sharen on color, and the issue sits directly ahead of the Doomquest arc in #149-150 that draws most of the run's collector attention.

Market behavior matches that of a well-collected but plentiful early-1980s Marvel title: supply in high grade is deep, certification is largely reserved for copies expected to hit the top of the scale, and raw copies circulate steadily through dealer back-issue bins and bulk lots. Demand comes chiefly from run collectors completing the Michelinie/Layton stretch and from Iron Man villain specialists tracking Scarlotti's two identities. The Blacklash debut gives the issue a modest premium over neighboring non-key issues, but the character's limited screen profile — the Iron Man 2 whip-wielding antagonist was Ivan Vanko rather than Scarlotti — has kept speculative interest muted.

Buyers divide cleanly by grade. Below Very Fine the book is inexpensive filler that trades on completion rather than condition, and mid-grade copies move at modest back-issue levels with little sensitivity to small grade differences. Value concentrates almost entirely at the top of the census, where 9.6 and 9.8 slabs serve registry-minded Iron Man collectors and are the only tier where certification costs are recoverable. A sensible dealer approach is to sell raw copies quickly at VF and better and reserve grading for candidates with sharp corners and clean spine stress.