Price history & market evidence
Price observations belong to this edition. Guide estimates, catalog references and completed sales are separate kinds of evidence.
| Grade | Amount | Evidence | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10.0 | $65.00 | PANEL_PROFITS · grade_10_0_valueguide | 2012-12-01 |
| 9.6 | $55.00 | PANEL_PROFITS · grade_9_6_valueguide | 2012-12-01 |
| 9.8 | $49.99 | PANEL_PROFITS · grade_9_8_valueguide | 2012-12-01 |
| RAW | $2.95 | PANEL_PROFITS · ungraded_valueguide | 2012-12-01 |
Reading this edition’s market
Compare the same cover, printing and grade before setting a bid. A raw guide or a higher-grade price does not establish a slab’s value. Include selling fees, shipping and the depth of completed-sale evidence when assessing an exit price.
The table includes 4 guide observations and 0 catalog references. These are reference values, not guaranteed sale proceeds.
Graded population
CGC records 12 graded copies for Before Watchmen: Minutemen #4 (2012). Population is the number recorded by this grading source, not the total print run or all surviving copies.
War Stories
Having received a chilly response to his memoirs from two of his former colleagues, Hollis Mason travels to Maine to reunite with Byron Lewis, formerly the Mothman and now a mental patient, hoping that Byron will understand his intentions. But Byron is catatonic, and does not even acknowledge Mason's presence.
Resolving to sit with his old friend for a while, Mason's mind travels back to 1946, to the day he and Byron learned of Silhouette's murder. She had been cast out of the Minutemen six weeks earlier, after her relationship with her doctor was exposed in the press, but she, Nite-Owl, and Mothman had resolved to continue working together, operating out of a sub-basement workshop, and had been closing in on the "Friend of the Children" murderer. But a pervert calling himself the Liquidator killed Ursula and Gretchen.
When word of Silhouette's murder reached the Minutemen, they scrambled to track down the Liquidator. Captain Metropolis and Hooded Justice's investigation focused on gay circles while Nite Owl and Dollar Bill searched other neighbourhoods. Eventually, a disgusted Silk Spectre tracked down the Liquidator herself and brutally killed him. When Metropolis and Justice confront her, she quits the team, leaving them to clean up the mess.
As Sally Jupiter pays her respects to Silhouette, she is reunited with Eddie Blake, who has parlayed his Comedian persona into war-hero status. He tells her about his experiences in the war. At one point, he was badly injured, but was nursed back to health by a local woman and her son. However, when he managed to return to his superior officer and inform him of what happened, the captain ordered an artillery strike that killed the mother and son.
Elsewhere, Nite-Owl breaks into Gretchen's house to collect her and Ursula's work from their investigation into the "Friend of the Children". He finds a tape recorder and several spools, as well as Gretchen's copy of *A Child's Garden of Verses*, then returns to Byron's hideout. Unbeknownst to him, Hooded Justice has been watching him.
Back at their hideout, Nite-Owl and Mothman listen to one of the tapes, labelled "Ursula". The tape reveals that Gretchen first met Ursula and her sister Blanche at an orphanage in Linz, where Gretchen had been working as a chemist. Gretchen and Ursula fell in love, and planned to escape with Blanche to the United States, but the Nazis took Blanche away. Enraged, Ursula mounted a failed attempt to rescue her sister, only to find her dead.
Elsewhere, after a nightmare about being lost at a circus, Hooded Justice wakes up screaming...
| Appearing1 = **Featured Characters:** * Mothman (Byron Lewis)) * Nite Owl (Hollis Mason)) * Silhouette (Ursula Zandt)) Also in photo **Supporting Characters:** * Comedian (Eddie Blake)) * Gretchen) Also in photo * The Minutemen) ** Captain Metropolis) ** Dollar Bill) ** Hooded Justice) ** Silk Spectre (Sally Jupiter)) **Antagonists:** * The Axis ** Imperial Japanese Army ** Nazis *** Wehrmacht * Liquidator) * Minutemen's villains ** Iron Lid) **Other Characters:** * Blanche Zandt) * Bluecoat (Character) Real name revealed * Jacob (Young boy)) * Larry Schexnayder) * New York City Police Department * Soloman woman ** Woman's boty * United States Air Force * United States Marine Corps ** Comedian's unit All die *** Captain Peterman * United States Army * God * Mrs. Musante * The Screaming Skull) **Locations:** * Watchmen Universe ** 1942 *** Austria **** Linz ***** Orphanage *** Pacific Ocean *** Solomon Islands **** Guadalcanal ** 1945 *** United States of America **** Japan ***** Hiroshima ***** Nagasaki **** United States of America ***** New York City ** 1946 *** United States of America **** Massachusetts ***** Marina Bay (Quincy, Massachusetts)|Marina Bay ****** Marina Bay Motel ***** Boston **** New York ***** New York City ****** Deli Madison ****** Hollis Mason's Secret Headquarters ****** Ursula Zandt's Home ** 1962 *** Atlantic Ocean *** United States of America **** Maine ***** Fitzgerald Mental Home **Items:** * "*A Child's Garden Verses*" * "*Bluecoat and Scout*" * *National Regaler* * "*Under the Hood)*" **Events:** * World War II ** Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ** Guadalcanal campaign ** The Holocaust
| Writer2_1 = John Higgins | Penciler2_1 = John Higgins | Inker2_1 = John Higgins | Colorist2_1 = John Higgins | Letterer2_1 = Sal Cipriano
| StoryTitle2 = Wide Were His Dragon Wings: Part Two | Synopsis2 =
| Appearing2 = **Featured Characters:** * Gordon McClachlan) **Supporting Characters:** * **Antagonists:** * Slavers All die ** Snakehead) * Mesoamerican tribe **Other Characters:** * Ju-ju Lady) * N'Tunga) ** N'Tunga's baby * Quetzalcoatl **Locations:** * 1771 ** Mexico **Items:** * "*The Curse of the Crimson Corsair*" **Concepts:** * Magic
| Notes = * "*Wide Were His Dragon Wings*" continues from Before Watchmen: Doctor Manhattan Vol 1 2 and is continued in Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre Vol 1 4. * "*War Stories*" is reprinted in Before Watchmen: Minutemen/Silk Spectre (Collected). * "*Wide Were His Dragon Wings, Part Two*" is reprinted in Before Watchmen: Ozymandias/Crimson Corsair (Collected). | Trivia = * One of the villains seen fighting the Minutemen appears to be Iron Lid, one of the rejected auditioners from Issue 2. | Recommended = | Links =
Creative credits
Writers: Darwyn Cooke, John Higgins
Interior art: Darwyn Cooke, John Higgins
Color: Phil Noto, John Higgins
Source records & attribution
Panel Profits keeps each source identity attached to its edition record.
COMICBASE: comicbase:143033
GCD: 1016186
PANEL PROFITS: 3346066