*Marvel: The Claremont & Cockrum New X-Men was already a critical hit when #101 turned up, and in a dramatic turn of events, Jean Grey, former weak sister of the team, was elevated into a powerhouse when a cosmic ray storm seemed to transform her into the entity known as Phoenix – and a major, ultimately tragic, story arc for the X-Men began. The legend was somewhat tarnished in later years by Marvel’s back & forth position on whether Jean actually was the Phoenix, or whether the Phoenix force just manifested itself in her form (with a swingin’ new costume), but nevertheless, this remains a key and highly sought after issue. A lower-graded pence printed copy, with long vertical creases on the back cover and some fading to the red title box in the top left cover corner; there is a bit of a dink in that area which might suggest some historical water damage, but this is not certain. The rest of the cover has strong, vivid colour and gloss. There is a small colour-breaking crease across the extreme corner of the top right cover and a couple of faint creases in the logo area. All in all, a copy which looks much nicer than the grade suggests.
PICTURED: X-MEN #101 GD/VG p £175 SOLD