ACTION COMICS #669

Cover shows sharp corners and clean edges with no visible chipping or tears; colors appear vibrant with no fading. There is a faint printing/registration mark near the top center of the cover, likely from original production rather than damage, and the book is protected in a plastic sleeve which shows some crinkling at the top edge. No spine stress lines or creases are visible in this photo, though the spine itself is not fully in view. Interior pages and back cover were not assessed, limiting the grade to a near-mint estimate based on the front cover alone.

Cover-dated September 1991, Action Comics #669 is a Roger Stern-scripted chapter of the tightly interlocked post-Byrne Superman line, with pencils by Bob McLeod, inks by Denis Rodier, colors by Glenn Whitmore, and a cover by McLeod and Dick Giordano. Billed on the cover as "The Thorn by His Side," the story reintroduces the Thorn — the vigilante half of the early-1970s Rose and Thorn feature — into modern Superman continuity, setting her against Bruno Mannheim's Intergang after agents disguised as strike protesters firebomb the Daily Planet printing plant. The domestic thread running underneath, in which Clark and Lois arrange a first meeting between the Kents and the Lanes, places the issue in the period following Clark's identity reveal to Lois in Action Comics #662 and the run-up to the engagement, giving it more continuity weight than a typical mid-run installment.

Market profile is that of a late-Copper Age Superman run book with heavy print quantities and no first appearance to anchor demand. Supply is deep in dealer boxes and online inventory, and the issue is most often bought as part of a run or a Triangle-era reading set rather than as a single purchase. Certified copies are scarce not because the book is rare in high grade — 1991 direct-market production yields plenty of sharp copies — but because grading economics rarely justify submission. What demand exists comes from Rose and Thorn completists and from collectors assembling the Stern/McLeod stretch of Action Comics, both narrow constituencies.

Collecting outlook is steady rather than appreciating. Low-grade copies function as filler and trade at bulk rates; mid-grade copies move at essentially the same level, since condition sensitivity is minimal until the very top of the scale. The only bracket with any spread is the certified one, where a 9.8 commands a multiple driven by slabbing cost and thin registry-style supply rather than by underlying collector competition. Buyers are best served treating this as a run-completion book, with any premium reserved for pristine, well-centered copies.