THE CHAMPIONS #16

Cover shows strong gloss and vibrant color with sharp corners and no visible creases or spine stress in this photo. Slight edge wear is possible near the top right but is largely obscured by the protective sleeve glare. Book is in a plastic bag which limits full assessment of surface and interior condition; back cover and interior pages were not evaluated.

The Champions #16 arrived near the end of the short-lived team title's run, teaming the odd assemblage of Angel, Beast, Black Widow, Darkstar, Ghost Rider, Hercules, Iceman, and the Hulk against Doctor Doom in a Bill Mantlo-scripted story penciled by Bob Hall and inked by Mike Esposito. Gil Kane supplied the cover art, and the issue is remembered chiefly for its curiosity value: a cameo appearance by sitting U.S. President Jimmy Carter, a rare instance of a real-world head of state dropping into a Marvel superhero comic. The Champions series folded two issues later, making this the penultimate chapter of a title that has since become a footnote in the Bronze Age roster of short-run team books.

Market data shows a book with modest overall demand but a pronounced grade-sensitive curve: 9.8 slabs have traded around $280–290, while 9.6 and 9.4 copies fall off steeply to the $40–70 range, reflecting a limited pool of top submissions rather than broad collector competition. The census of 56 total graded copies, concentrated in the low-to-mid grade tiers apart from a small cluster of 9.6s and 9.8s, indicates the book was not heavily preserved at the time of release, which supports premium pricing for the handful of pristine slabs while leaving raw and lower-grade copies inexpensive.

This is a book bought primarily by Champions completists, Doctor Doom appearance collectors, and specialists chasing novelty cameos such as the Carter appearance, rather than by mainstream key-issue investors. Raw copies in low and mid grade circulate cheaply as reading or filler copies for run-builders, while the market's real activity is at the CGC 9.8 tier, where scarcity of pristine census copies sustains a meaningful premium over any lower certified grade.