Action Comics #573

Someone has put the Earth up for sale — and Superman is furious about it. The cover by Howard Bender and Murphy Anderson captures a wonderfully absurd standoff: a green-clad alien smugly holds up a "SOLD" sign planted right on the globe, while a rotund, top-hatted con man named Wolfingham clutches fistfuls of cash and cheerfully defends the transaction, leaving a visibly outraged Superman caught between them. "The Sale of the Century!" promises a story as gleefully over-the-top as its cover, and this November 1985 issue delivers one of those Superman premises that only the comics of this era could pull off with a straight face.