ACTION COMICS #673

Cover shows sharp corners and clean, unblunted edges with no visible creases or color breaks. Spine appears tight with no stress lines visible in this view. There is minor surface sheen loss/glare from the protective sleeve making fine assessment difficult, and the book is bagged so back cover and interior pages were not assessed. No staining, writing, or tears are visible on the front cover.

Cover-dated January 1992, Action Comics #673 arrives from the tightly coordinated Superman office of the early 1990s, when Action, Superman, Adventures of Superman, and Superman: The Man of Steel functioned as a single weekly serial. Roger Stern scripts "Friends in Need," with interior art by Bob McLeod and Denis Rodier, color by Glenn Whitmore, and lettering by Bill Oakley; the cover is a Dan Jurgens and Bob McLeod collaboration. The story turns on a Thanksgiving-holiday framing device, pairing quieter Metropolis material involving Jimmy Olsen, Bibbo, Lois Lane, and the Lane family with a Superman confrontation against Hellgrammite, and it hands off directly into Superman: The Man of Steel #8. Bruno Mannheim, Emil Hamilton, Lana Lang, and the Lex Luthor of the period round out the supporting cast. The issue sits shortly before the Panic in the Sky crossover and roughly a year ahead of The Death of Superman, placing it in the run-up to the title's most commercially visible stretch without itself carrying a first appearance, origin, or death.