*Marvel: One of the key debuts of the Silver Age. Lee & Kirby’s Fantastic Four added to its many innovations in 1966’s FF #52, when they introduced the first black super-hero in comics. Previously, the vanishingly rare heroic black characters in comics had been either embarrassing sidekicks or ‘noble savages’, but the Black Panther was the monarch of a highly sophisticated and technologically advanced African nation, Wakanda, and was to become not only one of the FF’s greatest allies, but a mainstay of their fellow heroes, the Avengers. This is a nice, sound cents copy with excellent colour, lying flat with tight staples and supple, near-white pages. There is a small arrival date in what looks like wax crayon at the very top of the masthead box. A faint-ish diagonal crease breaks colour for about 6 cm across the body of the Thing (bottom right cover), and there are a couple of very spidery colour-breaking creases at bottom edge and top right edge, but these do not spoil the cover image.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR #52 VG/FN £375 SOLD