THOR #228

Image is rotated 90 degrees; cover shows moderate wear typical of a Bronze Age book: mild corner blunting, some spine stress visible near the top and bottom of the spine, and light surface wear/soiling along the edges. No major tears or color breaks are evident, but the spine shows minor ticking. Interior and back cover were not assessed, so grade is based solely on the visible front cover.

Thor #228 is a standard mid-run installment of the Mighty Thor's Bronze Age adventures, published by Marvel in late 1974 during the period when Gerry Conway was steering the title through cosmic and Asgardian conflicts and the Buscema studio was defining the book's grand visual language. It is a solidly crafted issue of a long-collected series rather than a landmark, sitting among the run issues that follow the more heavily pursued Firelord and Ego storylines of the immediately preceding numbers. For collectors it functions as connective tissue in a complete Thor run of the era.

The market profile is that of a plentiful bronze-age reader book. Certified supply is thick through the mid and upper grades, and pricing stays essentially flat across a wide band of conditions before rising only at the very top of the census. The premium concentrates at the highest certified tier, where clean, well-struck copies are comparatively scarce and command a meaningful step up over the rest of the curve. Demand is steady but modest, and low-grade and mid-grade copies trade in a narrow, affordable range.

The natural buyers are Thor run collectors filling gaps and registry builders chasing top-of-census condition. In raw low and mid grades the book is an inexpensive acquisition that changes hands quietly; the real competition is for high-grade slabs, where limited eye-appeal-worthy examples support the only significant price separation. Expect stable, unspectacular trading in lower brackets and firmer results only for the best-preserved certified copies.