IRON MAN #195

Cover is in bagged protective sleeve; corners appear sharp with no visible blunting, and no creases or color breaks are evident. Colors appear bright with no fading or staining visible through the sleeve, though the plastic bag causes some glare that could mask minor surface defects. Spine appears flat with no visible stress lines or ticks in this view. Back cover and interior pages were not assessed, so grade reflects front cover appearance only.

Iron Man #195 arrived in June 1985 during the run written by Denny O'Neil with art by Luke McDonnell, a stretch of the series remembered for sidelining Tony Stark after his relapse into alcoholism and installing his pilot and confidant James Rhodes inside the armor. This issue falls within that arc, part of a storyline that predates Rhodes's later codification as War Machine but is often cited by readers tracing his evolution from supporting cast to armored hero in his own right. It is a standard mid-run Copper Age issue rather than a first appearance or origin story, and it carries no landmark cover or creative milestone that price guides single out.,

Market data reflects that status: certified population is modest at 62 Universal copies against 63 total graded, and sales activity clusters almost entirely at the top of the grade curve, with 9.8 and 9.6 slabs accounting for the bulk of recorded transactions. The 9.8 tier has traded at a fair market value near $85 recently, down from a one-year average around $55-plus levels seen earlier, indicating a book that holds steady, unspectacular collector interest rather than active speculation. Raw copies in low and mid grade see little independent tracking, consistent with a book bought mainly to complete Iron Man run sets rather than pursued as a standalone target.

This is a run-filler for Iron Man completists and Rhodes/War Machine character collectors rather than a piece aimed at investors or key-issue speculators. Expect low-grade raw copies to move for a few dollars in dealer bins and long boxes, mid-grade raw copies to command modest sums when paired with adjacent issues from the same arc, and top-census CGC 9.8 examples to be the only meaningfully liquid segment of the market, trading in the double digits to low hundreds depending on registry demand at any given time.