Fourteen months before Captain America punched Hitler, a small publisher put a hero in a stars-and-stripes costume on a newsstand. Almost nobody remembers him, and a CGC 8.5 of his debut sold for $27,600.
Timely launched this title in 1940, sold badly, and canceled it after a single issue. It carries Jack Kirby’s first signed cover, a CGC 8.0 of which sold for $44,593 in March 2026 — nearly three times what a worn copy reportedly brought four months earlier.
The first Golden Age Daredevil, in a book with fifty-four copies on the census and almost no public sales. A CGC 4.5 brought $33,777, which is the only number I can stand behind — and scarcity like that changes how a comic should be sold.
Nothing happens in this comic that a collector needs. It is on the list of the hundred most valuable Golden Age books entirely because of Fred Ray’s eagle-and-shield cover, and a CGC 9.0 sold for $43,000.
Harvey Dent was called Harvey Kent when he first appeared, which is the kind of detail that decides whether a listing looks informed. A CGC 9.0 sold for $53,538 in September 2025, and the reported floor for a rough copy is a small fraction of it.
A CGC 8.0 of this book sold for $16,500, which is a fraction of what the other Timely number ones bring. That gap is the point, and it makes this the one wartime Timely first issue an ordinary collector can actually own.
Before the costumes settled into tights and capes, DC published a hero in a business suit, a fedora and a military gas mask. A CGC 5.0 of his debut sold for $53,155 in 2024, and a 4.5 brought $35,905 the next year.
Black Adam has carried a major film, and his first appearance sold for $186,000. That copy came out of the Promise Collection — the honest ladder underneath runs $90,000 for a plain 9.0 down to $2,650 for a beaten copy.
There have been at least three Blue Beetles and the famous one is not in this comic. The 1939 original is here, and two documented sales — a CGC 8.5 at $39,239 and a CGC 5.5 at $24,000 — now cover both the top of the market and the middle.
Plastic Man, the Human Bomb and the original Phantom Lady all debut in this 1941 comic. A CGC 9.0 sold for $29,901 in March 2026, which is less than people expect for a book carrying three debuts.
