Inside the Guide: Daredevil #1

Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil, is a unique kind of superhero who overcomes his disability to help people as both a lawyer and crimefighter. He lost his sight during childhood when radioactive material hit his eyes, and if that wasn’t shocking enough, Matt gained superhuman senses that compensated for his loss of vision. He can track people by their scent, can hear a person’s heartbeat from over 20 feet away, and hear cries for help from across city blocks. What is perhaps Matt’s greatest ally is the radar sense he uses to perceive the distance and location of objects around him.

As his origin was expanded later, Matt was trained by Stick, a martial arts expert who is also blind, who taught him combat skills and how to use his newly acquired heightened senses. Using these abilities and skills, the Man without Fear skips across rooftops, jumps off edifices, and dodges attacks in his unwavering determination to protect his home and community of Hell’s Kitchen.

When Stan Lee and Bill Everett introduced Matt in Daredevil #1 (April 1964), it carried a cover price of 12¢. When Robert M. Overstreet published The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #1 in 1970, a Near Mint copy was valued at $6. Ten years later in the Guide #10, it took a significant jump to $90. That momentum continued, and in 1990’s the Guide #20 it was up to $525.

Over the next decade, Daredevil #1 nearly quadrupled in value to $1,900 in the Guide #30. It was approaching the $10,000 mark in 2010’s the Guide #40, landing at $7,500. After another ten years, the first appearance of Daredevil was up to $12,500 in the Guide #50. In just two years, Daredevil #1 more than doubled in value with a Near Mint copy valued at $28,000 in 2022’s the Guide #52.