ACTION COMICS #663

Cover shows strong, glossy colors with sharp corners and no visible creases or spine stress; slight edge wear is possible at top but obscured by the protective sleeve's reflection. There is minor glare across the top of the cover from the plastic sleeve, making it hard to fully assess for scuffing or minute stress marks. No tears, stains, or writing are visible on the front cover. Interior and back cover were not assessed, so grade is capped conservatively despite the clean apparent surface.

Published with a March 1991 cover date, Action Comics #663 carries "Phase Two: Lost in the '40s Tonight," the second chapter of the Superman: Time and Time Again storyline that ran across the four interlocking Superman titles. Roger Stern scripts and Bob McLeod draws; the chapter opens with Superman among Legion of Super-Heroes members in the 30th century before an explosion knocks him loose in time and deposits him, powers dimmed and vision failing, in the World War II era, where he falls in with a traveling circus. The arc arrives immediately after the run's biggest character beat, Clark Kent's revelation of his identity to Lois Lane in the preceding issue, and it functions as DC's post-Crisis reckoning with Superman's absence from the Golden Age, letting the modern Man of Steel brush against the wartime DC universe he was written out of.

Market behavior is that of a story-arc issue rather than a key. Raw copies trade constantly and cheaply, most often bundled with the other Time and Time Again chapters or absorbed into Superman run lots, and the storyline's availability in collected form since 1994 removes any reading-copy scarcity premium. Certified activity is minimal: the issue was printed in the heart of the speculation boom in enormous quantities, and few owners see reason to pay grading fees against a book with no first appearance or death to support it. That combination produces a market with a hard floor at bin level and an unusually wide gap up to the top certified bracket, where value reflects grading cost and registry-set completion demand rather than collector competition for the issue itself.

Buyers are set builders working the 1987-1993 Superman titles, Time and Time Again completists, and readers chasing Stern's Action run, plus the occasional registry collector filling a high-grade slot. Across the low and mid brackets the book behaves as inventory, best moved in runs; condition barely moves the needle below Near Mint because supply of clean copies is deep. Only at the top of the scale does the pricing curve steepen, and even there the driver is population thinness rather than issue significance, so certified copies should be viewed as a completion purchase rather than a position.