SUPERMAN #242

Graded at 7.5 (VF-) on 2026-10-15, from new photos taken out of the sleeve: front, back, interior page and spine. Bright, glossy cover. Sharp corners. Clean spine with one tiny tick. Spine lettering wrapped onto the front edge. Cream pages.

Superman #242 (September 1971) closes out the celebrated "Kryptonite Nevermore" arc that began in issue #233, the storyline in which writer Denny O'Neil and longtime Superman artist Curt Swan (inked by Murphy Anderson) had all of Earth's Kryptonite transmuted into inert iron, freeing the character from his signature weakness for an extended run of stories. This issue resolves the arc's final threat, the Kryptonite Man, and represents the tail end of one of the most talked-about creative reworkings of the Man of Steel in the Bronze Age, though it does not carry a first appearance or origin moment of its own and is not considered a standalone key by price guides.

Market data shows a typical mid-tier Bronze Age DC curve: steady incremental appreciation from the 6.5-7.5 range up through 8.5 and 9.2, then a pronounced acceleration at 9.4 and especially 9.6, where thinning census population and sustained collector demand for high-grade Swan-era Superman books push values sharply higher. Sales activity is concentrated in the 9.0-9.6 window, indicating most collector interest centers on assembling complete, high-grade runs of the storyline rather than chasing this single issue in isolation.

This book suits collectors building a complete Kryptonite Nevermore run or a broader Bronze Age Superman set rather than character-key specialists. Raw copies in low and mid grades trade as inexpensive reading or filler copies, while high-grade certified examples, particularly anything above the current 9.6 census ceiling, would draw premium interest from registry-focused buyers given how few copies exist at the top of the grade curve.