First Appearance of Namor: Marvel Comics #1 and Its Value

Namor first appeared in Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1, dated April 1939, and reached newsstands in Marvel Comics #1, October 1939 (Wikipedia). Bill Everett created him for the comics packager Funnies Inc., and Marvel Comics #1 was published by Timely Comics, the company that became Marvel.

Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1 was a giveaway meant for movie theaters and was never circulated. According to Wikipedia, the only eight known copies, made to send to theater owners, were found in the estate of the publisher after his death in 1974. For almost every collector, Marvel Comics #1 is the practical first appearance.

PriceCharting values retrieved September 25, 2026.

Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939), which sells about once a year per grade:

• CGC 2.0: $18,400.00
• CGC 4.0: $57,360.00
• CGC 6.0: $71,700.00
• CGC 8.0: $101,575.01
• CGC 9.2: $132,048.00
• CGC 9.4: a Windy City pedigree copy sold for $1.26 million in November 2019

PriceCharting notes that grades without recent sales are estimates from other grades. Fantastic Four #4 (May 1962), where Namor returns in the Silver Age, is the affordable Namor key:

• Ungraded: $512.00
• CGC 4.0: $1,947.28
• CGC 6.0: $2,643.75
• CGC 8.0: $9,899.04
• CGC 9.2: $20,411.93

We found no public price for Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1; with eight known copies, sales are very rare.

Namor, by about two years. DC's Aquaman first appeared in More Fun Comics #73, November 1941 (Wikipedia), while Namor was on newsstands in October 1939. See our Aquaman first appearance page for More Fun Comics #73 values.

Namor is the son of Fen, an Atlantean princess and daughter of Emperor Thakorr, and Leonard McKenzie, an American sea captain (Wikipedia). In the Golden Age he was one of Timely's "Big Three" with Captain America and the original Human Torch, and Wikipedia says he has been identified as the first comic book antihero; in one 1940 story he threatens to sink Manhattan under a tidal wave. Marvel has repeatedly called him its first mutant, which is true by publication date even though many mutants are older within the stories.

After the Golden Age he disappeared until Fantastic Four #4 (May 1962), where Johnny Storm finds him living as an amnesiac homeless man in Manhattan's Bowery.

Tenoch Huerta Mejía plays Namor in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) and is listed for Avengers: Doomsday (2026) (Wikipedia). Asked whether Namor is LGBTQ: Wikipedia's Namor article does not discuss his sexuality, and we found no source that describes him as LGBTQ.

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

Shoot the front cover flat and straight on in even light, then the indicia and the back cover. A Marvel Comics #1 is listed above $18,000 even in CGC 2.0, so photograph every page edge and the spine as well, and have any copy authenticated by a grading service before you buy or sell. ComicLens reads the title, issue number and cover art from the photo, and there are free scans every day.

Research and drafting were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed on this page. Prices are the figures shown by the named source on the date given; they change with the market, and a grade that trades about once a year can move a lot on a single sale.