A rare first edition comic of the action foursome is set to fetch a minimum of $1.5M at an upcoming auction.
The comic book was first released in 1961, and is the highest graded copy of Fantastic Four that the auction house has ever offered.
The book was rated a 9.6 by the Certified Guaranty Company.
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Another well preserved copy of the first issue, rated 9.2, went for $1.5M (USD) (£1.2m) in 2022, so this is expected to fetch similar – if not more, as reported by What’s The Jam.
The auction house, Heritage Auctions, said: “Most copies of this Marvel landmark didn’t look this clean and crisp, [or] this impressively immaculate, when they rolled off the printing press, fell off the distributors’ truck and landed on newsstands 63 years ago.
“It’s the Silver Age dipped in platinum, a sonically sealed time machine heading to auction for the first time.
“In more than two decades as the world’s premier comic book auction house, Heritage has never offered so highly graded – and coveted – a copy of the first Fantastic Four as this one.”
The book features Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing.
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The four superheroes “utilise their scientific backgrounds to band together and defend the world against perilous threats”.
The book also serves as a springboard for the most anticipated Marvel movie in a long while: July 2025’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
The film will be starring Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm and The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm.
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According to Heritage Auctions, Fantastic Four No. 1 was far more than just a superhero tale.
They claim it created “the entire foundation upon which the Marvel Universe was eventually built and commingled numerous genres into a singular, riveting narrative”.
The book will be up for auction from 12-15 September, with no minimum bid, and will be sold on the same days as similar comics.
Heritage Auctions Vice President Barry Sandoval said: “This catalog reads like a pie-in-the-sky wish list filled with all the important books and iconic moments you likely remember as though you just read them yesterday.
“Who could have imagined a single auction during which you could find the best Fantastic Four No. 1, the page of art on which Iron Man takes his first steps or some of Steve Ditko’s most memorable pages from the 1960s?
“Yet here they are, among so many other historic and meaningful works, offered in a single place.”
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