SUPERBOY #112

Silver Age book pre-dating direct/newsstand distinction, so no variant designation applies. Cover shows moderate wear typical of the era: soft, rounded corners, light surface scuffing and a faint vertical crease near the spine, plus mild edge wear along the top and right border. Colors remain bright with no major fading or staining visible, and there's no evident tape or tears, though the book is in a protective sleeve which limits close inspection. Interior and back cover were not assessed.

Superboy #112, cover-dated April 1964, arrived during DC's mid-1960s stretch of Superman-family titles built around imaginative, high-concept Kryptonite and Bizarro premises. This issue is best remembered for its lead story, "The Army of Living Kryptonite Men," in which the Boy of Steel confronts a horde of animated Kryptonite duplicates, a plot device that recurred in Superman-family lore for years afterward. The book reflects the house style of the era, with Curt Swan's polished, dynamic cover work helping anchor a lineup of Superboy titles that were reliably strong sellers for DC through the 1960s.

Market data for this issue is thin across the board, with single-digit sale counts recorded at nearly every certified grade and no examples graded above 9.4. The steep climb in fair market value between the mid-grade tiers and the 9.2-9.4 range is typical of lower-key Silver Age issues: demand is modest and driven mainly by Superboy/Superman-family completists and Silver Age DC collectors rather than broad crossover interest, but scarcity at the top of the grade curve still pushes prices upward sharply once a copy clears the low 9-point range.

This is a collectible mid-run Silver Age Superboy issue rather than a recognized key, so it trades primarily on condition and completeness for run-builders rather than on speculative first-appearance demand. Entry-level and mid-grade raw copies remain affordable and are commonly picked up to fill Superboy or Superman-family runs, while a true Universal 9.8 — untested on the current census — would likely draw strong competitive bidding from grade-conscious Silver Age DC collectors and registry participants given its apparent non-existence at that tier.