TALES OF SUSPENSE #98

The cover shows moderate wear consistent with a well-handled Silver Age book: mild corner softness at top right and bottom left, a few small spine ticks visible along the left edge, and light surface wear/rubbing across the yellow background causing slight color fading in spots. There is no major color-breaking crease, and the cover is complete with no tears or missing pieces visible, though the book is in a protective sleeve which adds slight glare obscuring fine detail. Interior pages and back cover were not assessed in this photo.

Tales of Suspense #98 arrived from Marvel Comics in February 1968, one of the final issues of the split-feature format that had paired Captain America and Iron Man since the mid-1960s. Stan Lee scripted both features, with Jack Kirby's hand evident in the Captain America story's plotting and layouts during this stretch, while the Iron Man side reflects the era's rotating Marvel bullpen art teams. The title's twin-hero structure ended shortly after this issue, with Tales of Suspense being renamed Captain America beginning at issue #100 and Iron Man spinning off into his own ongoing series, making this issue part of the closing chapter of one of Marvel's signature 1960s anthology formats.

The certified population is large by Silver Age standards, with roughly 925 CGC Universal copies recorded, indicating a book that survived in meaningful numbers and was not treated as scarce even in its own time. Pricing across the low and mid grades stays modest and remarkably flat from the 2.5 through 6.0 range, reflecting steady but unspectacular demand from readers and run-builders rather than speculative first-appearance pressure. The market only steepens sharply at the top of the curve: 9.6 and 9.8 copies pull far ahead of the rest of the grade spectrum, a pattern typical of common Silver Age Marvel books where true high-grade survivors are disproportionately scarce relative to the overall population.

This issue draws its collector base primarily from Captain America and Iron Man character completists and Silver Age Marvel run collectors filling out the Tales of Suspense series ahead of its renumbering to Captain America. Lower and mid-grade raw copies remain accessible and trade near the cost of a reading copy, appealing to those assembling the run rather than chasing investment-grade material. At the top end, the tiny population of CGC 9.8s — only nine on census — commands a steep premium disproportionate to the rest of the grade curve, appealing to condition-census chasers and Silver Age Marvel specialists rather than casual buyers.