THE THING #25

Cover shows strong gloss and sharp corners with no visible creasing or spine stress. Slight edge wear is possible at the extreme corners but not clearly visible through the protective sleeve. No fading, staining, or tears are apparent. The book is in a plastic sleeve, which limits close inspection of surface sheen; interior and back cover were not assessed.

Ron Wilson penciled nearly the entire run of Marvel's Thing solo title, and this issue finds him paired with writer Mike Carlin in the stretch that followed Ben Grimm's return from Battleworld, with cover inks by Brett Breeding. The supporting cast reflects the state of the Fantastic Four at the time: Reed Richards appears alongside She-Hulk, who had taken Ben's place on the team, while Wyatt Wingfoot rounds out the guest roster. The issue is a connective chapter in Carlin's rebuilding of Grimm as a character operating outside the Fantastic Four, groundwork that pays off a few issues later when the series pivots to the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation storyline and introduces Sharon Ventura and Dennis Dunphy.

Market demand for this title is concentrated almost entirely in issue #1 and in #28, the first appearance of Demolition Man; everything else in the run, including this issue, trades as reader and set-filler material. Print runs were healthy, distribution was mainstream newsstand as well as direct, and survivorship in mid to high grade is strong, so raw copies move in bulk lots or as low-dollar single sales rather than through auction houses. Certified activity is close to nonexistent, and what census presence the run has is scattered across a handful of grades, meaning any high-grade slab is priced by grading cost and scarcity of submissions rather than by collector competition for the story or characters.

Buyers are Fantastic Four completists, Ron Wilson followers, and run collectors filling the 1983-1986 series toward the D-Man and Sharon Ventura issues. In low and mid grades the book is a commodity that should be sourced cheaply and sold in groups; the practical ceiling sits at the top of the raw spectrum, where clean, well-centered newsstand copies are the only ones worth setting aside. Certification is difficult to justify economically for this issue on its own, and a top-grade slab is best understood as a scarcity play within a thin census rather than a value driven by the content.