Joker Bronze Age Key Issues: Real Market Values (June 2026)

The Joker first appeared in Batman #1 (Spring 1940), created by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson. Through the 1950s and 1960s, the Comics Code Authority progressively defanged the character, reducing him to a prankster rather than a murderer. The 1966 Adam West television series cemented this buffoonish image. It was the Bronze Age — beginning in 1973 — that restored the Joker to his founding darkness.

This guide sticks to the verifiable: eBay medians from our estimator (eBay.fr + eBay.com, June 2026) and records documented by Heritage Auctions, ComicLink, and the specialist press. The reliability threshold is set at 15 listings minimum: below that count, no precise median is cited. High-grade CGC copies can trade at significantly higher levels than all-grades medians.

Joker Bronze Age key issues (real market values, June 2026)

The Batman (1940) and Detective Comics (1937) series are both covered by our estimator. The The Joker (1975) series is not recognised by the tool under the slugs tested: figures cited for that title come exclusively from documented auction records.

Record sources: ComicLink, Heritage Auctions, CGC Census (June 2024).

Batman #251 (1973): the Joker gets his teeth back

Published in September 1973, Batman #251 contains "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge!", written by Denny O'Neil and drawn by Neal Adams with inks by Dick Giordano. The plot is efficient in its brutality: the Joker escapes a psychiatric hospital and hunts down the five members of his former gang who betrayed him to the police, intending to murder each one. In twenty pages, O'Neil strips the character of every trace of TV-era buffoonery: this Joker kills deliberately, plans carefully, and savours others' suffering. Neal Adams's cover — the Joker grinning in front of a bullet-riddled target — is one of the most reproduced images of the Bronze Age, and the issue appears on Overstreet's Top 25 Bronze Age Comics list. Our estimator returns a median of €9 across 65 listings — a reliable signal for the entry-level market. In high grade, a CGC 9.8 copy set a record at $38,000 at ComicLink in June 2024; at that date the CGC Census recorded 4,261 copies in all grades, of which only 30 reached 9.8.

Detective Comics #475 and #476 (1978): the fish that laughed

The "Laughing Fish" arc (February–April 1978), written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Marshall Rogers with inks by Terry Austin, is one of the most original Joker stories of the Bronze Age. In Detective Comics #475, the Joker poisons coastal waters with his signature toxin, giving every fish along the shoreline his fixed grin — then demands copyright royalties from the government Patent Office. When the official refuses, the Joker announces he will kill him. #476 brings the confrontation to a close: Batman foils the scheme, but not easily. Both issues are regularly cited among the finest Joker stories ever published; the storyline was adapted for Batman: The Animated Series in 1993 ("The Laughing Fish" episode). Our estimator returns a median of €84 across 28 listings for #475 and €46 across 20 listings for #476 — medians substantially higher than Batman #251, reflecting a tighter print run and sustained collector demand even at entry-level grades.

The Joker #1 (1975): the Prince of Crime gets his own title

Published in May 1975, The Joker #1 was the first issue of a series devoted entirely to a supervillain as its lead — a near-unprecedented move for DC at the time. The script is by Denny O'Neil (who had relaunched the character in Batman #251 two years earlier), with cover and inks by Dick Giordano. The main story, "The Joker's Double Jeopardy!", pits the Joker against Two-Face. The series ran for only nine issues (1975–1976), making a complete run an easily defined collecting goal. Our estimator returns no reliable median for this title (series slug not recognised): the market reference is the Heritage Auctions record of $2,760 for a CGC NM/MT 9.8 in December 2021. For ungraded copies in fine condition, the Overstreet guide lists NM- 9.2 at approximately $105.