Clark Savage Jr., often referred to as the first superhero, had a long history before he ever made his way into the pages of Marvel Comics. He was in magazines, trade paperbacks and even had a radio show long before that ever happened.
Obviously, this issue of Doc Savage isn't the true first appearance of The Man of Bronze. His true first appearance in any medium was way back in March 1933, when he appeared in Doc Savage Magazine #1.
This isn't the first appearance of Doc Savage in comics either, even though it's implied on the cover. Gold Key released one issue in Nov. 1966, that retold the story of "The Thousand Headed Man". That comic was supposed to lead into a movie starring Chuck Connors, but because of legal issues, that movie never saw the light of day. Now, a new movie Doc Savage has recently been announced by Sony Pictures, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is the latest actor has been confirmed to play the lead.
Doc Savage gets his nickname, The Man of Bronze, from the color of his hair and skin. I guess he has a perpetual tan. He was trained at a very early age by a team of scientists. Because of this training, Clark Savage Jr. has a high strength and endurance, a photographic memory, a martial arts master and he has a great scientific mind. Oh, did I mention that he's also a master if disguise?
Doc Savage also has his "companions", who are known as The Fabulous Five. His five fellow adventurers comprise of Andrew Blodgett "Monk" Mayfair, Theodore Marley "Ham" Brooks, John "Renny" Renwick, Thomas J. "Long Tom" Roberts, and Willian Harper "Johnny" Littlejohn.
Andrew "Monk" Mayfair also has incredible strength that rivals that of Doc Savage's and is an industrial chemist. He gets his nickname because his long arms and low forehead make him resemble a monkey.
Theo "Ham" Brooks is a very well dressed attorney, who carries around a sword cane that has it's blade coated in an anesthetic. Monk framed Brooks for stealing hams from a commissary. That's how he got the nickname Ham.
John "Renny" Renwick is a beast of a man who had huge fists and a grimace on his. It's said that he would punch his way through doors. He is also a construction engineer and held the rank of Colonel in the military.
Thomas "Long Tom" Roberts is a thin sickly looking man, but he is a master when it comes to electricity. It is said that, while serving in WWI, he used an ancient cannon known as a Long Tom to help defend a European city, hence the nickname.
And the final member of the Fabulous Five is William "Johnny" Littlejohn. He is the worlds greatest archaeologist. He would accompany Doc Savage when his knowledge of ancient countries and ruins was essential.
It's listed on the Marvel Wiki that the first appearance of these characters is in this issue of Doc Savage #1 as well, but since the all of the comics in the eight issue volume one series are reprints of previous stories, I'm going to assume that they are not, so I'm not going to list them on the key issue notes above. Any one of these characters, if not all could show up on the big screen when the Doc Savage movie is released. As of now there is no release date set.
There are not a lot of copies of Doc Savage #1 that are already graded out there right now, but I'm sure that's going to change really soon. As I'm writing, there are only 47 copies in the CGC census. Of those, there are 4 that are graded 9.6 NM+. Most of the available copies fall between an 8.5 VF+ and 9.0 VF/NM. I don't know where the picture at the beginning of this post came from, but there aren't any 9.8 NM/M copies listed in the census.
Sales for Doc Savage #1 have seen really nice bump in value over the last two months since the announcement was made. Between May 2 to May 30 we've seen sales shoot up from $78 all the way up to $260. There were some sales previous to that, that were hovering around the $100 mark. Even the mid grade copies have seen a nice boost.
I have no idea whether Sony will decide to use stories from this series of from the many stories that came before it. Either way, in my opinion, this could be a good book to pick up now, while prices are still somewhat low. If you decide to buy a raw copy, you might want to have it slabbed, and try and flip it. But that is, like I said, just my opinion.