EXCLUSIVE: A Superman landmark issue that also gave us Kandor!
DC Comics has five Facsimile Editions set for March 2026, and the highlight is 1958’s Action Comics #242, featuring the debut of Brainiac and the Bottle City of Kandor. (Click here for the other four.)
Dig the solicitation info, which will be formally released by DC later this week:
ACTION COMICS #242 FACSIMILE EDITION
Written by OTTO BINDER
Art by AL PLASTINO, JIM MOONEY, and HOWARD SHERMAN
Cover by CURT SWAN and STAN KAYE
Foil variant cover by CURT SWAN ($6.99 US)
Blank sketch cover ($4.99 US)
From out of the cold depths of space, a malevolent master of super-science has turned his technological terror toward Earth, shrinking the world’s major cities and taking them as his own! When Superman infiltrates the alien’s ship, what he discovers will change the Man of Steel’s life forever! Witness the first appearance of Brainiac—and the bottled city of Kandor!
$3.99 US | 32 pages
ON SALE 3/11/26
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A few thoughts:
— I’m sure this has nothing to do with laying any groundwork for James Gunn’s 2027 Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow.
— As I mentioned above, there are five other Facsimiles coming from DC in March. Link below!
— Obligatory Price Comparison: An unslabbed, low-grade original copy of Action Comics #242 recently sold on eBay for $966.
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MORE
— DC COMICS to Publish FIVE Facsimile Editions in March. Click here.
— ACTION COMICS #419 — Featuring NEAL ADAMS’ Classic Cover — to Get FACSIMILE EDITION. Click here.
December 18, 2025
Doing some rough math for my own amusement:
There have been 11 Superman facsimiles (including pending) that I can find: (Action #1, 23, 242, 252, 419, & 775; Adventure #210 & 260; Superman #1, 233, & 243).
There have been *60* Batman facsimilies (various issues of Batman, Detective, various Batman specials and spinoffs–there might be some room to argue over what constitutes a “Batman facsimile” but “60” is my fair estimate. I’m not counting the LCE/ANCEs in here, maybe I should).
Anyway, that’s a signficiant imbalance between DC’s two top titans. I wonder if that’ll gradually shift over the next year. Of course, Batman may have a lot more wiggle room for significant stories that are facsimile-worthy. I’d take a complete reprint of Knightfall if we could get it.