LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #44

Cover shows strong gloss and vibrant color with sharp corners and no visible creases or spine stress. There is a small dark mark/dot near the lower left edge and the book is in a protective sleeve which slightly obscures fine detail assessment via glare. No major defects like tears, folds, or discoloration are visible; back cover and interior were not assessed.

Cover dated March 1988, this installment of the Baxter-format Legion of Super-Heroes carries "Quislet's Story," in which a summons home from his own people frames the origin of the Legion's most abstract member. Paul Levitz scripts, with pencils by Greg LaRocque, inks by Mike DeCarlo, colors by Carl Gafford and letters by John Costanza; the cover is by Steve Lightle. The issue sits in the late stretch of the Levitz run, immediately after the team's Millennium crossover chapters, with Polar Boy leading a shorthanded roster and the Luck Lords maneuvering in the background u2014 groundwork that carries forward into the following issues.

Market behavior here is typical of mid-run Copper Age DC: distribution through the direct market on heavy Baxter stock produced a large surviving population in high grade, and the issue trades as a run-filler rather than as a speculative target. Raw copies move in bulk lots and single-issue want-list fills at modest levels, with little grade premium until the top of the VF/NM range. Certification is effectively absent u2014 price-tracking services record no meaningful graded sales for this portion of the series u2014 so any slabbed copy prices off comparable Copper Age DC non-keys rather than off its own sales history.

The buyers are Legion completists assembling the 1984 series, Levitz-run readers, and collectors following Steve Lightle cover work, interest in which firmed modestly after his death. Below the mid grades the book is a reading copy and is best sold in runs; VF and better copies satisfy nearly all demand at retail, which is why certification rarely pays for itself. Dealers should treat this as inventory that sells on completeness and presentation of a full run rather than on individual scarcity.