THE GREEN HORNET #1

Cover shows sharp corners, strong color and gloss, and no visible creases or spine stress; edges appear clean with no chipping. There is very minor surface texture/handling wear visible under lighting but no significant defects. Interior pages and back cover were not assessed, so grade is based solely on this front cover image.

NOW Comics launched its licensed Green Hornet series in late 1989, opening with a double-sized premiere written by Ron Fortier and penciled by Jeff Butler, inked by David Mowry and Mark Nelson. The story, "My Last Case," frames the entire Reid dynasty as the aging first Britt Reid dictates his memoirs, running from a Texas Ranger ancestor through the founding of the Daily Sentinel, the meeting with Ikano Kato in the Far East, and the 1936 debut of the Hornet identity, then carrying the lineage forward to the generations NOW intended to build its ongoing continuity around. The commercial hook was the cover: a painted Jim Steranko image, produced during a period when new Steranko comic art was scarce, and still the reason most collectors seek the issue out.

The book was printed in the glut years of the late 1980s independent market, and it survives in quantity. Direct-edition copies dominate; a newsstand edition and a second printing with an alternate cover also exist, and the second printing is routinely misidentified by casual sellers, so buyers should confirm the indicia. Circulation of raw copies is steady on eBay and through mail-order dealers, but pricing is compressed and largely condition-indifferent below the near-mint tier, since supply comfortably exceeds demand at every mid grade. What separates this issue from the rest of the run is the Steranko name, which supports a modest premium over sibling issues and drives most of the demand for certified examples; signature-series copies signed by Steranko trade on a separate, higher track and should not be used as comparables for unsigned slabs.

Buyers are Green Hornet completists, Steranko cover collectors, and dealers assembling licensed-character runs, and the whole 1989-1991 NOW series is inexpensive enough to acquire complete in one transaction. In low and mid grades the issue functions as inventory rather than investment, typically moving as part of a run or a bulk lot. Certified value concentrates almost entirely at the top of the scale, where the graded population remains thin, print-quality defects in the era's covers make high grades less common than the print run implies, and the certification cost approaches or exceeds the market price for anything below 9.6. The sensible approach is to buy raw when a sharp copy appears and reserve slabbing for the Steranko-signed route, where the premium is real.