Daredevil #1

A hero built from blind justice

After the Fantastic Four succeeded in 1961, demand for superheroes rose and Marvel set out to create more of them. Stan Lee turned to Bill Everett, who had created Namor the Sub-Mariner years before, and to Jack Kirby. Kirby and Everett together designed the hero's first costume, a combination of yellow, black and red that looked like acrobat's tights.

The concept of a blind vigilante has been traced by scholars to the image of blind justice and Lady Justice. There was also a personal source: Everett's daughter Wendy was legally blind and found her hearing more finely attuned as a result, and that family experience became an inspiration for Daredevil's heightened senses. Crime fiction already had blind detectives, such as Max Carrados and Duncan Maclain, who relied on their other senses.

The story itself is an origin in one issue. Matt Murdock is raised in Hell's Kitchen by his father, the boxer 'Battlin' Jack' Murdock, who wants his son to become a better man than he was. Saving a blind man from an oncoming truck, Matt is blinded by a radioactive substance that falls from it, and his other senses are heightened beyond human limits. When Jack refuses to throw a fight for the gangster called the Fixer because his son is in the audience, he is killed. Matt, who promised his father not to use his fists, becomes Daredevil, in a costume made from his father's boxing robes, and confronts the killers; the Fixer dies of a heart attack.

Late pages and many hands

Bill Everett was born William Blake Everett on May 18, 1917, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, into an old New England family that included the statesman Edward Everett. He created the Sub-Mariner for Timely Comics, drew him again in the 1950s, and worked across Atlas's horror and fantasy books. With Lee, he went on to co-create Daredevil.

The first issue was badly late. Comics historian Mark Evanier, who interviewed both Kirby and Everett, found that Kirby had already drawn the cover and done some of the design work, and that Everett said Kirby came up with Daredevil's billy club. In the rush to get the book to press there was no time to finish page one, so production manager Sol Brodsky pasted one together from Kirby's cover drawing. Published credits for the issue record that Brodsky and Steve Ditko helped ink the story because of the deadline.

Accounts differ on the details. Joe Quesada, Marvel's editor-in-chief in the 2000s, said the cover was made afterward, cobbled together with the splash page from Kirby's original concept drawing after Everett turned his pencils in very late. Everett himself, Evanier wrote, said Kirby had helped him but could not say how, and in later years gave different answers to different people. Everett died on February 27, 1973, at 55.

February 1964

By late 1963 Marvel's new universe was gaining momentum: the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Spider-Man and the Avengers had their own titles, and Captain America had returned. The cover of Daredevil #1 says as much, borrowing the Fantastic Four's corner figures and a Spider-Man reference with the line 'Remember when we introduced... Spider-Man. Now we continue the mighty Marvel tradition with Daredevil!!' Neither the Fantastic Four nor Spider-Man actually appears inside.

The issue went on sale on February 4, 1964, the 1964 periodicals list of the Copyright Office records. Five days later the Beatles performed for an American audience for the first time, on The Ed Sullivan Show, before a record 73 million viewers, and on February 25 Cassius Clay beat Sonny Liston for the heavyweight title. The Civil Rights Act became law that July.

From yellow tights to a record

The first costume did not last. Wally Wood, who began drawing the series with issue #5, introduced Daredevil's radar sense there and the familiar all-red costume in issue #7. Later runs made the title one of Marvel's most acclaimed, and the character reached screens in a 1989 television film, a 2003 feature film starring Ben Affleck, and from 2015 a television series starring Charlie Cox, who returned in Daredevil: Born Again in 2025.

Prices have climbed in every grade. In December 2021 a report noted that average prices for CGC 3.0 copies had more than tripled since early 2020. Earlier that year, in March 2021, a CGC 9.8 was reported sold for $250,000, called the highest price paid for the issue in any grade by a wide margin, and a 9.6 from the Northland collection for $125,000; the report did not say whether those were auction or private sales. On April 7, 2024, a CGC 9.8 sold at auction for $360,000, topping every earlier reported sale of the issue.

Three at the top

Daredevil #1 survives in large numbers: on October 1, 2026, the CGC census listed 7,333 copies, 6,042 of them unrestored. Only three unrestored copies have reached 9.8, and none has been graded higher. In March 2021 there were two at 9.8. Thirty-two unrestored copies sit at 9.6, and two more Signature Series copies are graded 9.6.

To identify the original, look for the 12-cent price, Olympia Publications in the indicia and the bimonthly frequency. The cover shows Daredevil in his first yellow-and-black costume, with Matt, Foggy and Karen's faces drawn by Everett and the Fantastic Four figures in the corner box. A British variant exists.

The numbers

Cover price

12 cents

Pages

36; the origin story runs 23

Print run

No verified figure found

Census, March 2021

Two at 9.8, none higher

Census, December 2021

360 at 3.0, 3,056 higher

Census, October 1, 2026

7,333 graded (6,042 unrestored); three unrestored at 9.8, 32 at 9.6, 45 at 9.4, none above 9.8

Timeline

1. May 18, 1917

   Bill Everett is born in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

2. 1961

   The Fantastic Four's success drives demand for new Marvel superheroes.

3. Feb 4, 1964

   Daredevil #1 goes on sale, cover-dated April 1964, at 12 cents.

4. May 1966

   Daredevil meets Spider-Man in issue #16.

5. Feb 27, 1973

   Bill Everett dies in New York City at 55.

6. 1989

   Daredevil first appears on screen, in The Trial of the Incredible Hulk.

7. 2003

   Ben Affleck plays Daredevil in a feature film.

8. 2015

   Charlie Cox stars in the Daredevil television series.

9. Mar 2021

   A CGC 9.8 is reported sold for $250,000 and a Northland 9.6 for $125,000; the census shows two copies at 9.8.

10. Apr 7, 2024

    A CGC 9.8 sells at auction for $360,000, topping every earlier reported sale.

11. 2025

    Daredevil: Born Again premieres, with Charlie Cox reprising the role.

12. Oct 1, 2026

    The CGC census lists 7,333 copies; three unrestored at 9.8, none higher.

The world in 1964

• Feb 9, 1964

  The Beatles first perform for an American audience on The Ed Sullivan Show, watched by a record 73 million.

• Feb 25, 1964

  Cassius Clay beats Sonny Liston in Miami Beach for the heavyweight championship.

• Jul 2, 1964

  The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is enacted.

• Aug 2, 1964

  The destroyer USS Maddox is attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin.

• Sep 24, 1964

  The Warren Commission submits its report on the Kennedy assassination.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Daredevil #1 is number 18 of 100 in the comics entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (37 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Daredevil's first costume was yellow and black; the all-red suit did not arrive until issue #7.
• In the story, the costume is made from his father's boxing robes.
• Bill Everett's own daughter was legally blind, and her experience helped inspire Daredevil's heightened senses.
• Jack Kirby, by Everett's account, came up with Daredevil's billy club.
• The first page of the story was pasted together from Kirby's cover drawing because the book was so late.
• Daredevil's famous radar sense was not in the first issue; Wally Wood introduced it in #5.
• The Fantastic Four and Spider-Man are on the cover, but neither appears in the issue.