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Cover: George Pérez & Joe Sinnott

Fantastic Four #185

Name: Fantastic Four #185
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Aug 1977 · Marvel · 0.30 USD

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“Here There Be Witches!”

★ 1st appearance — Nicholas Scratch

About this Issue

Fantastic Four #185 is the debut issue of Nicholas Scratch — the warlock son of Agatha Harkness and the patriarch of Salem's Seven — making it the foundational text for Marvel's entire New Salem mythology, a supernatural corner of the Marvel Universe that has grown steadily in narrative importance for nearly five decades. The issue simultaneously introduces New Salem, Colorado itself, a hidden enclave of witches and warlocks descended from survivors of the Salem Witch Trials, which became a recurring setting throughout the Fantastic Four's Bronze Age run and beyond. Writer Len Wein pushed the FF into genuinely occult territory, grounding the team's emotional stakes in the kidnapping of young Franklin Richards and his governess Agatha Harkness by her own resentful son — a family-betrayal dynamic that proved durable enough to anchor the 2024 MCU Disney+ series Agatha All Along. The issue's long shadow is also visible in collected editions: Marvel republished it as recently as 2024 in the trade paperback Agatha Harkness: The Saga of the Salem Witch, confirming its canonical weight in the House of Ideas.

writer Len Wein · artist George Pérez · artist, inker Joe Sinnott · colorist Glynis Wein · letterer Gaspar · cover George Pérez, Joe Sinnott

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $12

CGC 9.8 · 57 in census $311*

CGC 9.6 · 80 in census $90

CGC 9.4 · 60 in census $87*

CGC 9.2 · 35 in census $53

CGC 9.0 · 32 in census $46*

CGC 8.5 · 31 in census $35

Show all 20 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 · 29 in census $32*

CGC 7.5 · 25 in census $31

CGC 7.0 · 13 in census $26*

CGC 6.5 · 5 in census $23*

CGC 6.0 · 9 in census $22*

CGC 5.5 · 3 in census $20*

CGC 5.0 · 3 in census $20

CGC 4.5 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 4.0 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 3.5 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 3.0 · 4 in census $20*

CGC 2.5 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 2.0 none in existence

CGC 1.5 · 1 in census $20*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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CGC 9.8 ▾ $275–$350 2 listings

CGC 9.8 $274.99 CGC 9.8 $350

CGC 9.6 ▾ $90 2 listings

CGC 9.6 $90 CGC 9.6 $90

CGC 9 $65 1 listing

CGC 8 ▾ $78.99–$80 2 listings

CGC 8 $78.99 CGC 8 $80

CGC 6 $59 1 listing Raw — NM+ $150 1 listing

Raw — NM ▾ $19.95 2 listings

NM · Newsstand $19.95 NM $19.95

Raw — NM- $42.46 1 listing Raw — VF/NM $18 1 listing

Raw — VF+ ▾ $7.49–$40 4 listings

VF+ $7.49 VF+ · Newsstand $24.99 VF+ $37 VF+ $40

Raw — VF ▾ $7–$15.99 9 listings

VF $7 VF $8.5 VF $8.99 VF $9.88 VF $11.99 VF $13.95 VF $14.99 VF $14.99 VF $15.99

Raw — VERY FINE $13.99 1 listing Raw — FN/VF $7.99 1 listing

Raw — FN+ ▾ $7.49–$21.95 3 listings

FN+ $7.49 FN+ $14.99 FN+ $21.95

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FINE $6 FINE · Newsstand $10

Raw — FN ▾ $6.79–$10 3 listings

FN · Newsstand $6.79 FN $6.99 FN $10

Raw — VG $5 1 listing Raw — VERY GOOD $6.99 1 listing

Raw / ungraded ▾ $3–$50 29 listings

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History

The issue was written by Len Wein — co-creator of Wolverine, Swamp Thing, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus — during his stint as both writer and editor-in-chief on the Fantastic Four title, with Archie Goodwin serving as editor-in-chief of Marvel at the time. Pencils were supplied by George Pérez, then in an early period of his run on the book, inked by the long-serving Joe Sinnott, whose consistent finishing work helped maintain visual continuity across multiple pencillers of the Bronze Age FF; Glynis Wein provided colors and Gaspar Saladino the lettering. According to Grokipedia and related sources, Wein's creative intent was specifically to develop a villainous offspring for Agatha Harkness, enriching Marvel's witch lore and delivering a fresh antagonist whose conflict with the FF was rooted in familial betrayal rather than typical supervillain ambition.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of Nicholas Scratch, the warlock son of Agatha Harkness, created by writer Len Wein and penciller George Pérez (August 1977).
First appearance of New Salem, Colorado — a hidden enclave of magic users founded by survivors of the historical Salem Witch Trials — which became a recurring Marvel location.
Story title is 'Here There Be Witches!'; the plot has the FF tracking the kidnapped Franklin Richards and Agatha Harkness to the concealed mountain community via forensic analysis of a metallic egg left by the Eliminator robot.
Nicholas Scratch's name is a deliberate compound of two folk-tradition euphemisms for the Devil: 'Old Nick' and 'Old Scratch' (as in 'The Devil and Daniel Webster'), signaling his intended role as a satanic-archetype villain.
The cover and interior art were both pencilled by George Pérez and inked by Joe Sinnott; it is part of Pérez's celebrated mid-1970s run on the title, collected in Fantastic Four Visionaries: George Pérez Vol. 1.
The issue exists in multiple print variants: a standard 30¢ edition, a 35¢ price-variant edition, a Whitman bagged edition, and a British edition.
Reprinted in the UK Fantastic Four Annual (1980), in Fantastic Four Epic Collection Vol. 10: Counter-Earth Must Die (2024), and in Agatha Harkness: The Saga of the Salem Witch (2024 trade paperback, ISBN 978-1302960070).
Nicholas Scratch made his live-action debut in the MCU Disney+ series Agatha All Along (2024), portrayed by Abel Lysenko, with the character's comic-book origin in this issue directly informing the show's mythology around Agatha and New Salem.