IRON MAN #295

Cover shown through a protective sleeve appears glossy with sharp corners and clean edges; no visible spine ticks, creases, or color breaks in this image. Minor glare from the protective bag obscures some fine detail, and the interior/back cover were not assessed. Based on visible surface alone this presents as a high-grade near-mint copy.

Published with an August 1993 cover date, Iron Man #295 closes out "Into the Void," the two-part clash with Technovore begun the previous issue, and folds the title into Marvel's Infinity Crusade event. Len Kaminski scripts, Kevin Hopgood pencils with Steve Mitchell on inks and the cover, continuing the creative team most associated with the modular NTU-150 armor and the extended rebuilding of Tony Stark's status quo after his return to the suit. The Goddess extends her recruitment pitch to Stark while Technovore, the self-evolving parasite introduced one issue earlier, attempts to assimilate the armor aboard a Stark Enterprises station. Supporting players Mrs. Arbogast, Veronica Benning, and Felix Alvarez appear, with James Rhodes referenced off-panel.

Market behavior matches the profile of a mid-run Modern Age Marvel from the height of the speculation boom: printed in enormous quantities, widely warehoused, and readily available in high grade at low cost. Demand comes from two narrow directions. First, Infinity Crusade completists chasing the full crossover checklist, which keeps a modest but steady bid under clean copies. Second, run collectors assembling the Kaminski-Hopgood stretch that leads into the anniversary issue #300. Technovore's later profile from the animated feature Rise of the Technovore drew attention to this arc, but that heat attaches to the previous issue, where the character debuts, leaving #295 to trade as a second-appearance adjunct.

At the certified end the story is scarcity of submissions rather than scarcity of the book. Census counts for the issue are small because almost nobody pays grading fees on a non-key 1993 Iron Man, so a 9.8 that does surface prices against the general run of slabbed early-nineties Marvel rather than against any established comp. Buyers are typically run builders, event completists, and registry-minded collectors who want the whole crossover in matching holders. Raw copies move as inexpensive fill and should be bought as such, while anyone paying certified money is effectively paying for the holder and the convenience, not for underlying rarity.