The Incredible Hulk #181, cover-dated November 1974, is the first full appearance of Wolverine and one of the most valuable comics of the Bronze Age. Written by Len Wein and drawn by Herb Trimpe, it introduces a Canadian government agent sent to stop the Hulk. Nobody at Marvel knew he would become the company's most popular character, which is exactly why so few high-grade copies were saved.
The Debate: #180 or #181?
Wolverine's very first appearance is on the last page of #180, the month before. He appears in a few panels, in costume, ready to fight. So why does #181 sell for many times more?
- The case for #180. It is the first time Wolverine appears in print. In a hobby built on firsts, that should count.
- The case for #181. It is the first full appearance: Wolverine fights the Hulk across the whole issue and is shown on the cover. Collectors value the issue that introduces a character, not one that teases him.
- And then #182. A brief appearance, and the third issue in a row.
The market's answer is clear, but #180 is not a cheap consolation prize. A high-grade #180 is a serious book in its own right, because the same scarcity applies.
| Issue | Raw | CGC 9.4 | CGC 9.8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Incredible Hulk #180 (cameo) | $270 | $2,638 | $13,493 |
| Incredible Hulk #181 (first full) | $1,945 | $9,304 | $59,584 |
Values are ComicValuator Fair Market Values on November 6, 2026.
Why the Grades Are So Far Apart
A raw copy of #181 is worth about $1,900, a 9.4 nearly five times that, and a 9.8 about thirty times the raw value. That spread is typical of a 1970s key: copies were read, folded and traded, and the ones that survived clean are rare. Before grading changed the hobby, nobody stored a Hulk comic in a bag and board.
Watch for one thing when you check a copy: the price and the date. Hulk #181 has been reprinted many times, and a facsimile looks nearly identical at a glance. An original is dated November 1974 and priced 25 cents.
How ComicValuator Values This Comic
Every value on ComicValuator is a Fair Market Value: an average of recent sales, drawn from PriceCharting's market data and refreshed every day for comics people track. A few things happen on top of that, and they matter for a book like this one.
- Each variant is valued on its own. Direct and Newsstand copies sell for different prices, so the app matches your copy to its own variant instead of averaging them.
- Your grade sets your value. Market data lists prices at set grades (raw, 9.4, 9.6, 9.8 and so on). For a grade in between, the app draws a straight line between the two nearest prices. Where no price exists for a grade, it projects one from the shape of the grades it does have and shows that value in orange, so you always know which numbers are sales and which are estimates.
- Your history is kept. Once a comic is in your collection, its value is recorded every day, so you can watch it move with the market and see when a new movie or announcement lifts it.
Hulk #181 came out before comic shops sold their own Direct variants, so there is one variant to match, and your value comes down to grade alone.
The grading recommendation is deliberately cautious. It says yes only when grading beats selling raw after the grading fee (which the graders set by the comic's declared value), and when at least three of four checks pass: the graded value still covers the raw value plus the fee even if the grade comes back lower than you hoped; the graded value beats what you paid plus the fee; there is real upside above your grade; and the possible gain outweighs the possible loss.
For a book with a raw value near $1,900, the grading fee rises with the declared value, but the gap between raw and a 9.4 is so wide that a solid copy usually clears it easily. The risk is grading a copy that comes back lower than you expected, and that is exactly what the "even if it grades lower" check is for.
Search for the issue on ComicValuator to see today's values for every variant, then add your copy to get a grading recommendation based on what you paid.