In 1961 the dream team of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created Marvel’s first superhero team in the Fantastic Four. The quartet of Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (then Invisible Girl), Johnny Storm/Human Torch, and Ben Grimm/Thing became a huge hit, building legions of comic fans and cementing themselves as some of Marvel’s most bankable characters.
When Fantastic Four #1 hit comic shelves in ’61 it carried a cover price of 10¢. In 1970, when Robert M. Overstreet published The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #1, a Near Mint copy was valued at $30. Ten years later, the book took a huge jump to $1,000. Its momentum slowed a bit by the Guide #20 when it was priced at $2,650.
In 2000, the first issue of Fantastic Four took a big jump to $19,000. It nearly quadrupled in value for the Guide #40 when it landed at $70,000. When the Guide reached its 50th edition in 2020, a Near Mint copy of Fantastic Four #1 was valued at $190,000.