THE THING #22

Cover shows strong gloss with only minor surface handling wear; a faint diagonal crease line is visible in the black background area near mid-cover, and there is slight softening at the top corners. Spine appears mostly tight with no obvious stress lines or color break visible in this shot. UPC barcode box confirms newsstand edition. Interior and back cover were not assessed, so grade is based solely on the visible front cover surface.

The Thing #22 wraps up the Battleworld arc that occupied the closing issues of John Byrne's run on this solo title, returning Ben Grimm to Earth alongside a supporting cast pulled from the Fantastic Four's orbit, including Alicia Masters, the Human Torch, Mr. Fantastic, and She-Hulk, with Ultron surfacing as an antagonist. Ron Wilson's pencils, inked by Joe Sinnott, carry the visual continuity the series maintained throughout its run, and Byrne's script marks his last scripted contribution to the title before departing.

Market data reflects a low-demand Copper Age back-issue with a thin certified population and almost no recorded sales activity outside the top two grades. The $38 FMV at 9.8, built on only two transactions, indicates a book that surfaces infrequently in high grade but does not command meaningful competition when it does. Lower-grade raw copies see negligible turnover, consistent with a series that lacks a mainstream character-driven fanbase despite Byrne's name on the credits.

This is a title for completists of Byrne's bibliography or Thing/Fantastic Four specialists rather than a book with broad crossover demand. Raw copies in low and mid grade are readily available at nominal cost, while the 9.8 tier, though inexpensive relative to keys of the era, rewards patience given the small certified pool. Expect steady but unspectacular movement across all grades, with value driven more by condition census scarcity than by story or character significance.