WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #182

Cover shows moderate wear with a slight vertical crease running through the center-left of the cover and some minor edge wear along the top and right border. Corners appear only slightly blunted with no major chipping. There is mild handling wear and light surface scuffing but colors remain bright with no notable fading or staining. Book is in a protective sleeve which obscures fine detail; interior pages and back cover were not assessed.

World's Finest Comics #182, cover-dated February 1969, arrived near the close of the Silver Age as the long-running Superman/Batman team-up title was being reshaped by a new generation of artists. The issue is best remembered for its cover by Neal Adams, whose dynamic, shadow-heavy style was rapidly redefining the look of DC's line at the time. Interior story chores fell to the title's regular Silver Age creative team, continuing the World's Finest formula of pairing the two flagship heroes in a single adventure. No first appearance, origin, or other landmark story event is attached to this issue; its significance rests almost entirely on the cover art and its place in a well-collected, continuously published series.

Market data shows a book with ample certified supply, 72 Universal copies recorded against a total graded population of 78, which keeps values modest and steady across the mid grades. Sales cluster in the $40 to $80 range from grade 4 through 7.5, reflecting a book collected primarily by completists of the World's Finest run and by admirers of Adams cover work rather than speculators chasing a key. Prices climb sharply only at the top of the census, where 9.6 and 9.8 copies command a real premium over 9.4 and below, consistent with the usual late-Silver-Age pattern of scarce high-grade survivors driving disproportionate demand.

This is a book that trades in the mainstream Silver Age DC market: affordable in low and mid grades for readers and series collectors, and reserved at the top end for buyers assembling a Neal Adams cover run or a complete high-grade World's Finest set. Raw copies in low to mid condition see steady but unspectacular turnover, while a 9.8 Universal slab represents the ceiling of the market given the thin population at that grade. It is a solid secondary piece for a Bronze-adjacent Silver Age collection rather than a headline lot.