Cover: John Byrne

Action Comics #595

Dec 1987 · DC · 0.75 USD; 1.00 CAD; 0.40 GBP

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“The Ghost of Superman”

★ 1st appearance — Silver Banshee

About this Issue

Action Comics #595 delivers the first appearance of Silver Banshee (Siobhan McDougal), one of the most enduring supernatural villains in Superman's post-Crisis rogues' gallery. Created by John Byrne as a deliberate counterpoint to Superman's predominantly science-fiction adversaries, she brought Irish folklore and lethal sonic horror into Metropolis at a moment when the Man of Steel's new continuity was still being built issue by issue. The issue also plants an early seed of Lex Luthor's pathological obsession with being the one to destroy Superman — a character note that would resonate all the way through to 'The Death of Superman.' As a done-in-one team-up with the Martian Manhunter, it showcases the creative format that Byrne used to weave Superman back into the broader DC Universe after Crisis on Infinite Earths.

In "The Ghost of Superman," Superman faces a chilling threat when he confronts the enigmatic Silver Banshee, a woman whose deadly voice forces him to stage his own death to protect Metropolis. Written and illustrated by John Byrne, with inks by Keith Williams and colors by Tom Ziuko, this 1987 issue delivers a haunting blend of suspense and emotional weight, all framed by Byrne’s striking cover art.

writer, artist John Byrne · inker Keith Williams · colorist Tom Ziuko · letterer John Costanza · cover John Byrne

ComicBooks.com Value

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Raw (VF) $5

CGC 9.8 · 63 in census $154*

CGC 9.6 · 61 in census $70

CGC 9.4 · 32 in census $49*

CGC 9.2 · 28 in census $44

CGC 9.0 · 12 in census $40*

CGC 8.5 · 14 in census $39*

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CGC 8.0 · 3 in census $35*

CGC 7.5 · 7 in census $20*

CGC 7.0 · 3 in census $20*

CGC 6.5 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 6.0 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 5.5 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 5.0 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 4.5 · 1 in census $20*

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Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

More listings for this title

VF $3.5 VG+ $3.5 FN $4.7 Direct $5 VF+ $7.52 VF/NM $9 FN $9.99 VF $9.99

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History

Action Comics #595 was written, penciled, and cover-drawn by John Byrne — the architect of Superman's entire post-Crisis relaunch — and inked by Keith Williams, colored by Tom Ziuko, lettered by John Costanza, and edited by Mike Carlin, with Dick Giordano serving as executive editor. It appeared during the run in which Action Comics functioned as a Superman team-up anthology, a format Byrne had established with issue #584 (January 1987) as a way to systematically re-introduce the post-Crisis Superman to the wider DC Universe through mostly self-contained stories. Byrne designed Silver Banshee specifically to break from Superman's science-fiction villain tradition and anchor a new supernatural threat in Celtic mythology, giving the character an origin rooted in clan ritual, cursed transformation, and a compulsion to recover a stolen occult book.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of Silver Banshee (Siobhan McDougal), a supernatural villain created by John Byrne, whose lethal sonic wail becomes one of Superman's most distinctive magical threats in the post-Crisis era.
Written, penciled, and cover-drawn by John Byrne; inked by Keith Williams; colored by Tom Ziuko; lettered by John Costanza; edited by Mike Carlin. Cover date: December 1987.
The issue's mystery guest star — teased on the cover only as 'Superman & ??????????' — is revealed to be the Martian Manhunter, whose shape-shifting and intangibility allow him to impersonate Superman's 'ghost' and survive the Banshee's lethal scream.
Action Comics was operating as a Superman team-up book at this time (since issue #584, January 1987), using done-in-one guest-star stories to re-introduce Superman to the post-Crisis DC Universe at large.
Story title: 'The Ghost of Superman.' Silver Banshee is driven to rampage through Metropolis bookstores in search of a specific occult book tied to her clan's ritual curse.
This issue marks the first time Lex Luthor is shown to be enraged that Superman could die at someone else's hands — a character beat that foreshadows his reaction to Superman's death fighting Doomsday years later.
Reprinted in Superman: The Man of Steel Vol. 6 (DC Comics, 2008) and in the Superman in the Eighties trade paperback collection (DC Comics, 2006), as well as Superman: The Man of Steel Vol. 3 (2021 Edition).
Silver Banshee's origin — Siobhan McDougal cursed by a demonic crone after failing an ancient Gaelic clan ritual — was elaborated upon in Superman (Vol. 2) #23 and further explored in the 1998 two-issue miniseries Superman: Silver Banshee by Karl Kesel and Terry Dodson.