IRON MAN ANNUAL #6

UPC barcode box confirms newsstand edition. Cover shows a noticeable crease running vertically through the 'IRON MAN' logo and title area, along with a corner of the lower right cover that appears bent/creased with color break. There's some writing/marking visible on the left edge of the cover. Overall the cover retains good gloss and color but the central vertical crease and corner damage limit the grade; interior and back cover were not assessed as this book is in a protective sleeve.

Iron Man Annual #6 pairs the Invincible Iron Man with Jack Kirby's Eternals in a self-contained, book-length adventure scripted by Peter B. Gillis with pencils by Luke McDonnell, inks by Roy Richardson, and a McDonnell/Steve Mitchell cover. The Iron Man inside the armor is James Rhodes, then only a few months into his tenure as Tony Stark's replacement, which places the issue squarely inside one of the more historically interesting stretches of the Bronze Age Iron Man run. Rhodes is abducted when his armor is commandeered by Deviant technology and finds himself in Olympia, where Warlord Kro and Brother Tode hold the Eternals captive; the story is chiefly remembered for the death of Zuras, leader of the Eternals, and for a supporting cast that includes Thena, Sersi, Ikaris, Makkari, and Gilgamesh. The narrative slots between Iron Man #178 and #179 and closes out a thread leading toward the Eternals' departure from Earth.

The market treats this as a run-filler rather than a key. Supply is heavy, as one would expect from an annual printed in mid-1983 at the height of Marvel's newsstand distribution, and completed online sales cluster in the low single digits for reader-grade and mid-grade copies alike, with only a modest step up for sharp unread copies. Certification is rare enough that the census offers little pricing guidance: the small number of graded sales on record spans roughly 7.0 through 9.8, and the high end is driven less by demand than by the scarcity of anyone bothering to submit the book. Interest ticked up briefly around the theatrical release of Eternals, when Sersi, Ikaris, Gilgamesh, and Thena appearances of any vintage drew speculative attention, but that attention did not establish a durable price floor.

Buyers here fall into three groups: collectors filling the Iron Man annuals, Eternals completists chasing pre-1990 appearances outside the Kirby series, and readers who want the Rhodes-era armor stories in physical form. In low and mid grades the book trades as bulk inventory and moves best bundled with other annuals or with the surrounding Iron Man run. The economics only change at the top of the scale, where a high-grade certified copy is genuinely uncommon and functions as a registry or census play rather than a value investment; submission costs will exceed the raw purchase price by a wide margin, so upgrading pressure comes almost entirely from set builders. Expect a flat, thin market with occasional spikes tied to Eternals media news.