GREEN LANTERN #4

Cover shows strong gloss and vibrant color with sharp corners and clean edges visible through the protective sleeve; no creases, tears, or spine stress lines are apparent in this photo. The Green Lantern logo box in place of a barcode confirms direct edition. Minor glare from the plastic sleeve slightly obscures fine surface detail, and the interior and back cover were not assessed, so the grade is capped conservatively despite the apparently excellent front-cover presentation.

Green Lantern #4 continues the opening arc of DC's 1990 relaunch of the title, written by Gerard Jones with pencils by Pat Broderick and inks by Bruce Patterson, under editors Andrew Helfer and Kevin Dooley. The chapter advances "Among My Souvenirs," in which Hal Jordan investigates the disappearance of entire American towns while John Stewart struggles against his captor — threads that resolve into the Appa Ali Apsa "Mosaic" storyline and eventually spin off John Stewart's own series. Guy Gardner appears alongside Jordan and Stewart, with Justice League figures including Fire, Martian Manhunter, and Ted Kord in support, reflecting the era's practice of tying the Lantern books tightly to the wider post-Crisis DC lineup.

Market profile is that of an early-run issue in a long, well-collected series rather than a key. Print runs from 1990 were large and direct-market copies survive in quantity, so raw examples circulate constantly in dealer boxes and multi-issue lots, and grade has limited effect on price until the very top of the scale. Certified examples are scarce simply because almost no one pays submission fees on the book; that scarcity supports a premium at the 9.8 level, but it is a supply artifact rather than evidence of collector competition, and the census is too thin to establish a reliable trend line.

Buyers are primarily run collectors completing volume three, John Stewart and Guy Gardner followers assembling the pre-Mosaic material, and Broderick/Jones completists. Below the high grades the book trades as inexpensive reading and filler stock, most efficiently sold in runs; at the top it appeals to registry-minded collectors who need a high-grade slot in an otherwise unslabbed stretch of the series. Sellers should expect the spread between a well-worn copy and a top-census slab to be driven almost entirely by certification, and should price accordingly rather than anticipating movement from storyline significance alone.