The Avengers #1

A team built to answer a rival

In 1960 DC Comics launched a series that put its biggest superheroes together as the Justice League. Martin Goodman, the owner of the company that became Marvel, noticed it was selling and asked Stan Lee for a team book of his own. Lee later recounted Goodman's reasoning in Origins of Marvel Comics: if the Justice League is selling, why not put out a comic that features a team of superheroes?

Lee and Jack Kirby did not invent new heroes for the job. Like the Justice League, the Avengers were an assembly of characters who already had features of their own: Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, Ant-Man and the Wasp, all created by Lee and Kirby. One account, published by the grading company that certifies these books, adds that the team book was pushed onto the schedule when the first issue of Daredevil was running late, and that using established heroes spared Lee from writing five origin stories.

The result went on sale on July 2, 1963, according to the publication date in U.S. Copyright Office filings, with a September 1963 cover date. It cost 12 cents for 36 pages. The 22-page lead story, 'The Coming of the Avengers!', was plotted by Lee and Kirby, scripted by Lee, penciled by Kirby, inked by Dick Ayers and lettered by Sam Rosen. The indicia names Vista Publications Inc. as publisher and Eastern Color Printing Co. of Waterbury, Connecticut, as printer, and the book carries the Comics Code seal.

Loki, a radio message and five heroes

The story opens with the caption 'The place: Asgard, home of the Norse gods!' Loki, seeking revenge on his brother Thor, tricks the Hulk into an act of sabotage so that Thor will be drawn into a fight. The Hulk's teenage friend Rick Jones and his radio club, the Teen Brigade, send out a call for help that is picked up by Ant-Man, the Wasp and Iron Man as well as Thor. The Fantastic Four make a guest appearance, and the Hulk spends part of the story disguised as a circus robot called Mechano.

Once Loki is beaten, Ant-Man remarks that the five worked well together and suggests they stay a team. The Wasp gives them their name. The cover, drawn by Kirby and inked by Ayers, shows the five heroes squaring off around Loki, with the line 'Loki! Prepare for battle!'

The lineup did not last. In the second issue the Hulk quit, after realizing how much the others feared him. Captain America joined in issue #4 (March 1964). Kirby drew the first eight issues and was then replaced by Don Heck. In issue #16 (May 1965) every member but Captain America resigned, replaced by three former villains: Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.

Summer 1963

Avengers #1 reached newsstands on July 2, 1963, one day after the United States introduced ZIP codes. Marvel was in the middle of a remarkable burst: X-Men #1 carried the same September 1963 cover date.

The country outside the spinner rack was changing fast. Medgar Evers had been assassinated in June. In August the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union signed the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and on August 28 Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his 'I Have a Dream' speech at the March on Washington. Before the year was out, President Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas.

From newsstand to six figures

The original series ran bimonthly through issue #6 (July 1964), then monthly until issue #402 in September 1996. Marvel filed for an 'Avengers' trademark in 1967, and it was registered in 1970. For decades the team sat behind the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and the X-Men in public recognition. That changed when Marvel Studios began adapting the characters in 2008 and released The Avengers film in 2012. By November 2021 Avengers films accounted for four of the eleven highest-grossing films of all time, and as of June 2022 the Marvel Cinematic Universe was the highest-grossing film franchise in history, at more than $26 billion.

The market for the comic followed. A CGC 9.4 copy from the Mound City collection sold at auction in November 2009 for $65,100. A 9.4 changed hands privately for $100,000 in February 2011. The Pacific Coast 9.6 sold at auction in July 2012 for $274,850, beating the only earlier 9.6 sale, $250,000 in October 2011. Months later a dealer brokered a private sale of the Northland collection's 9.4, a copy with white pages, for $185,000, after the same book had failed to reach its reserve at auction at $137,500 earlier that year.

In September 2021 a CGC 9.6 sold at auction for $369,000, then an all-time record for the issue in any grade; at that time five copies had earned a 9.6. On April 7, 2024, another CGC 9.6 sold at auction for $432,000, topping every earlier reported sale of the issue. The rise was not limited to the top: a 2021 report noted that a CGC 7.0 that could be bought for under $1,000 twenty years earlier was selling for $15,000 or more.

Why a 9.6 is so hard to find

Avengers #1 is one of the most common Silver Age Marvel keys in a grading holder: the CGC census listed 5,444 copies on December 27, 2023, and 6,222 on October 1, 2026. Very few of them are nearly perfect. A 2012 report attributed the scarcity of high grades to the bright red and green borders on the cover, where every chip and crease shows. At the time it counted only three copies at 9.6, eight at 9.4 and seven at 9.2, and noted that none of the 9.6 copies had white pages.

On the October 1, 2026 census, five unrestored copies have been graded 9.6 and none higher, alongside one restored copy at 9.6. Thirteen unrestored copies sit at 9.4 and 15 at 9.2. A CGC 9.6, the grade of this entry, is therefore one of a handful of copies at the top of a population of more than six thousand.

Collectors should know the variants. A British price variant exists, and the census counts it separately (107 copies on October 1, 2026). Marvel published a 'Stan Lee Edition' with a new J. Scott Campbell cover in 2013 and a facsimile edition in 2023; neither is the 1963 original. The original's cover price is 12 cents, and its indicia names Vista Publications.

The numbers

Cover price

12 cents

Pages

36; the Avengers story runs 22

Print run

No verified figure found

Census, 2012

Three at 9.6, eight at 9.4, seven at 9.2

Census, November 2021

125 at 7.0, 224 higher

Census, December 27, 2023

5,444 graded; six at 9.6 (five unrestored, one restored)

Census, October 1, 2026

6,222 graded (4,712 unrestored); five unrestored at 9.6, 13 at 9.4, 15 at 9.2, none above 9.6

British price variant, October 1, 2026

107 graded

Timeline

1. 1960

   DC launches its Justice League team series; its sales prompt Martin Goodman to ask Stan Lee for a Marvel team book.

2. Jul 2, 1963

   The Avengers #1 goes on sale, cover-dated September 1963, at 12 cents.

3. Nov 1963

   Issue #2: Ant-Man becomes Giant-Man and the Hulk leaves the team.

4. Mar 1964

   Captain America joins the Avengers in issue #4.

5. May 1965

   Issue #16: every member but Captain America resigns; Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver join.

6. 1967

   Marvel files for an 'Avengers' trademark, registered in 1970.

7. Sep 1996

   The original series ends with issue #402.

8. Nov 2009

   A CGC 9.4 from the Mound City collection sells at auction for $65,100.

9. Feb 2011

   A CGC 9.4 sells privately for $100,000.

10. Oct 2011

    A CGC 9.6 sells for $250,000, the first reported sale of a 9.6.

11. 2012

    The Avengers film is released.

12. Jul 2012

    The Pacific Coast CGC 9.6 sells at auction for $274,850.

13. 2012

    The Northland CGC 9.4 sells in a brokered private sale for $185,000.

14. 2013

    Marvel publishes a 'Stan Lee Edition' with a new J. Scott Campbell cover.

15. Sep 2021

    A CGC 9.6 sells at auction for $369,000, a record for the issue at the time.

16. 2023

    Marvel publishes a facsimile edition.

17. Dec 27, 2023

    The CGC census lists 5,444 copies.

18. Apr 7, 2024

    A CGC 9.6 sells at auction for $432,000, topping every earlier reported sale.

19. Oct 1, 2026

    The CGC census lists 6,222 copies; five unrestored at 9.6, none higher.

The world in 1963

• Apr 16, 1963

  Martin Luther King Jr. writes his 'Letter from Birmingham Jail.'

• Jun 12, 1963

  Civil rights activist Medgar Evers is assassinated in Mississippi.

• Jun 16, 1963

  Valentina Tereshkova, aboard Vostok 6, becomes the first woman in space.

• Jul 1, 1963

  ZIP codes are introduced in the United States.

• Aug 5, 1963

  The United States, Britain and the Soviet Union sign the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

• Aug 28, 1963

  Martin Luther King Jr. gives his 'I Have a Dream' speech at the March on Washington.

• Nov 22, 1963

  President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas.

• Nov 23, 1963

  Doctor Who premieres on BBC television.

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, The Avengers #1 is number 17 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 (35 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The Avengers got their name from the Wasp, at the end of the very first story.
• The Hulk was a founding Avenger for exactly one issue; he quit in #2.
• Captain America, now thought of as the heart of the team, did not join until issue #4.
• Avengers #1 and X-Men #1 share the same September 1963 cover date.
• Jack Kirby drew only the first eight issues of the series.
• No copy of Avengers #1 has ever been graded above 9.6, and none of the 9.6 copies known in 2012 had white pages.