THE SAVAGE SHE-HULK #5

Cover shows strong gloss and bright color with no visible fading. Minor edge wear is present at the bottom right corner and a slight bend near the top edge; spine appears mostly tight with no major stress lines visible through the protective sleeve. No significant creases, tears, or stains are visible on the front cover. Book is in a plastic sleeve which limits full assessment of surface texture; interior and back cover were not assessed.

Cover-dated June 1980, the fifth issue of The Savage She-Hulk continues the debut year of Jennifer Walters under writer David Anthony Kraft, with Chic Stone inking interiors and a cover by Al Milgrom finished by Joe Sinnott. The series was launched primarily to secure Marvel's trademark on a female Hulk analogue, and by this issue the supporting cast built around Morris Walters, Nicholas Trask and Buck Bukowski is in place, with the plot running through the Los Angeles legal and criminal milieu that defined the title's first year. A story appearance by then-sitting President Jimmy Carter dates the book precisely and gives it a small measure of period-piece interest, but the issue carries no first appearance, origin or death.

Market behavior follows the pattern of the run as a whole: demand concentrates almost entirely on the first issue, and the following issues trade as common Bronze Age Marvel material. Raw copies move in dealer bins and multi-book lots rather than as individually researched sales, and the recorded price data that exists is dominated by certified copies, where a small census and periodic interest from She-Hulk collectors support a modest but real premium at the top of the grade scale. Screen exposure for the character has lifted attention across the run in bursts, though that attention historically flows to the origin issue and to early villain debuts rather than to interior mid-run issues like this one.

Buyers divide into two groups. Run collectors and She-Hulk completists purchase mid-grade raw copies to fill gaps, treating price as close to cover-plus-inflation and rarely paying for grade above Fine. Registry and high-grade specialists chase certified Near Mint copies, where the spread between an unslabbed reader and a top-census example is wide enough that grading costs only make sense at 9.6 or better. Low-grade copies function as reading material and lot filler, and sellers should expect the strongest liquidity in the middle of the raw scale, with the certified bracket subject to swings whenever the character returns to broader media attention.