MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #4

Coverless and substantially incomplete: both covers and roughly half of the interior are missing. Present: Sub-Mariner pages 1-3, 6-9 and 12 (Bill Everett), the closing Masked Raider pages, the "Warning Enough" text story, and Electro pages 2-4 (1st Electro story, missing its page-1 splash). Missing entirely: the Human Torch, Angel, Ka-Zar and Ferret stories. Surviving leaves show heavy tanning/browning, brittle edges with chipping at corners, and marginal tears consistent with 1940 newsprint, though the remaining pages are intact and readable. Incompleteness caps the grade at 0.3; value lies well below a complete coverless copy — partial Golden Age Timely signatures trade to restorers and page completionists. Realistic market value for this partial copy is approximately $400–900 — incomplete partials trade well below the complete-copy LOW bracket shown in the valuation matrix.

Marvel Mystery Comics #4 sits at the foundation of the Timely line that would become Marvel Comics, carrying the twin marquee features of the early Golden Age: Carl Burgos's android Human Torch and Bill Everett's antihero Sub-Mariner. This issue also delivers the debut of Electro, one of Timely's lesser-remembered but historically documented early costumed characters, cementing the number as a recognized first-appearance book rather than a simple run issue. Books from Timely's earliest output survive in tiny numbers, and any 1940-dated copy tying together these creators and features holds standing well beyond its cover date.

Demand for this title is anchored by the enduring collector appetite for pre-war Timely material and by the scarcity that governs the entire early Marvel Mystery run. The certified population is thin and concentrated in low grades, with the census topping out well short of the mid-grade tier and no high-grade certified examples recorded at all. That structure produces steep, non-linear pricing: incremental grade improvements command outsized premiums because so few upgrade candidates exist. The offered copy is coverless and partial, placing it below the certified brackets, but its surviving Bill Everett Sub-Mariner pages preserve genuine appeal for readers and completists chasing the story content of an otherwise unattainable book.

Buyers here are advanced Golden Age specialists, Timely and Sub-Mariner collectors, and investors treating scarce first-appearance material as blue-chip. Complete graded copies trade almost exclusively through auction at strong five-figure levels even in low grade, while intact mid-grade examples are rare enough to be event pieces. Coverless and incomplete copies occupy a distinct value tier, serving collectors who want authentic period pages and creator content at a fraction of the cost of a certified complete book; such copies trade privately and reward careful assessment of exactly which leaves survive.