Batman First Appearance: Detective Comics #27 Value by Grade

Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 (cover date May 1939), published by DC, by Bob Kane, Bill Finger. The source puts it this way: "The very first appearance of the Bat-Man in the six-page story".

PriceCharting values for Detective Comics #27 (1939) by CGC grade, based on recorded sales and updated September 25, 2026:

• CGC 2.0: $75,506
• CGC 3.0: $324,151
• CGC 4.0: $648,117
• CGC 5.0: $1,124,961
• CGC 6.0: $1,519,260
• CGC 7.0: $1,671,187
• CGC 8.0: $1,823,113
• CGC 9.2: $2,370,047

The spread from CGC 2.0 ($75,506) to CGC 9.2 ($2,370,047) shows how much condition matters on a key issue. Restored, trimmed or incomplete copies sell far below these figures, and reprints and facsimiles (see below) are worth a small fraction. Grade and restoration are confirmed by a grading service such as CGC or CBCS; prices move with the market and the character's popularity.

• Cover date: the CGC census record lists the issue date as 5/39.
• Interior story content: the story also contains the first appearances of Commissioner Gordon and the revelation of the Bat-Man's secret identity as Bruce Wayne.

• Indicia: the small print on the first page or inside cover gives the issue number, date and publisher; reprints usually say so there.
• Cover price and barcode: a price or barcode format that did not exist in the year printed means a later edition.
• Paper and staples: decades-old newsprint is tan at the edges; bright white pages on an old date are a warning sign.
• Restoration: color touch, trimmed edges and married covers are common on expensive keys; a grading service can detect them.

Shoot the front cover flat, straight on, in even light, then the indicia page and the back cover. Include the top edge and staples in one frame. The app reads the title, issue number and cover and matches it against the checks above; the indicia photo settles most reprint questions.

Detective Comics #27 carries a May 1939 cover date but reached newsstands on March 30, 1939 (History.com). Batman's first story is the six-page "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate" (Wikipedia, Detective Comics), drawn by Bob Kane and written by Bill Finger, whom History.com credits as the writer of that first story. Batman got his own title a year later: Batman #1, spring 1940 cover date, published in late April 1940 (Wikipedia gives April 24; History.com gives April 25).

PriceCharting values for Batman #1 (1940) by CGC grade, retrieved September 25, 2026:

• CGC 2.0: $82,456
• CGC 3.0: $103,070
• CGC 4.0: $128,838
• CGC 5.0: $218,128
• CGC 6.0: $307,419
• CGC 7.0: $334,600
• CGC 8.0: $368,903
• CGC 9.2: $567,625
• CGC 9.4: $2,220,000

The 9.4 figure matches the record Wikipedia reports: in 2021 a near-mint copy sold at Heritage Auctions for over $2.2 million, the most paid for a Batman comic at that point. Compare Detective Comics #27 above: in the low grades Batman #1 is worth slightly more ($82,456 against $75,506 in CGC 2.0), but from 3.0 upward Batman's first appearance costs far more.

• Two first appearances: it introduces both the Joker and Catwoman, who is called "the Cat" there (Wikipedia; History.com).
• Four new stories: two with the Joker, one with Hugo Strange and one with the Cat (Wikipedia).
• The first Batman title: it starts Batman's own series, which began as a quarterly and went bimonthly after issue #5 (Wikipedia).
• Survival: 1940 newsprint rarely survives in high grade, which is why the step from CGC 9.2 ($567,625) to 9.4 ($2,220,000) is almost fourfold in PriceCharting's figures.

More on the Joker's debut is on our Joker first appearance page, and Catwoman's on our Catwoman page.

• February 2010: a copy sold for $1,075,000 (Wikipedia, Detective Comics).
• April 2024: a copy sold at auction for $1.825 million (History.com).

For comparison, PriceCharting's figure for CGC 8.0 is $1,823,113 and for CGC 9.2 is $2,370,047 (retrieved September 25, 2026).

Stan Lee did not create Batman; Batman is credited to Bob Kane and Bill Finger. Lee's first published comic-book work was a text filler story, "Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge", in Captain America Comics #3 (cover-dated May 1941), the first time he used the pen name Stan Lee. His first superhero co-creation was the Destroyer in Mystic Comics #6 (August 1941) (Wikipedia, Stan Lee).

Detective Comics #27 went on sale March 30, 1939, with a May 1939 cover date. Its lead story, "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate" by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, is Batman's first published adventure, and Commissioner Gordon appears in it too (Wikipedia). The rest of the issue was an anthology of other detective features, including Slam Bradley, the Crimson Avenger and Speed Saunders, because Batman was not yet the star of the title.

Wikipedia calls it one of the most important and valuable first-appearance debuts, comparable to Action Comics #1, and notes it is very rare in high grade. CGC's list of top sales (updated July 13, 2026) includes $2.32 million for a CGC 7.0 copy (Heritage Auctions, 2026), and $1.82 million for CGC 6.5 (ComicConnect, 2024).

Detective Comics #1 came out in March 1937 from Detective Comics, Inc.; the company's later name, DC, comes from this title (Wikipedia). Batman did not appear until issue #27. PriceCharting values retrieved September 25, 2026:

• CGC 2.0: $14,569.00
• CGC 3.0: $18,211.04
• CGC 4.0: $28,680.00
• CGC 5.0: $108,000.00
• CGC 6.0: $228,000.00

These rest on very few sales: the 6.0 figure matches a 6.5 copy sold in April 2025 for $228,000, and the 4.0 figure matches a 4.5 sale from August 2010. PriceCharting says values for grades without sales are estimates from other grades and the book's age.

The series itself ran 881 issues from 1937 to 2011, was relaunched at #1 in September 2011, returned to its original numbering with #934 in June 2016, and reached #1,000 on March 27, 2019 (Wikipedia).

Bob Kane made the first sketch, and Bill Finger changed it: he suggested grey instead of Kane's original design, came up with the chest emblem, and gave Batman a cape instead of real wings (Wikipedia, Batsuit). As drawn in May 1939 the costume had:

• Body: a grey suit with black or dark blue accessories.
• Gloves: short purple gloves that stopped at the wrist, with no fins.
• Cowl: ear-like points to suggest a bat's head.
• Cape: stiff and wing-like, held out rather than hanging.
• Belt: yellow.

It changed fast. His second adventure showed no gloves at all; by 1940 he wore longer gloves with fins, first shaped like small scalloped bat wings and later three triangular fins. The cape became a normal draped cape with scalloped edges, and the yellow oval around the chest emblem arrived in 1964 with the "New Look" stories. Knowing these details helps date a Batman cover: short purple gloves and a wing-like cape point to 1939.

In Batman Begins, as in earlier Batman films, the actor could not turn his head in the suit. For The Dark Knight a new suit let him turn his head, and the film has Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox discuss the change on screen instead of making it silently (Screen Rant).