Elseworlds 80-Page Giant Recalled Microwaved Baby

DC COMICS, August 1999.

In Kyle Baker and Liz Glass' story, "Letitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter," the super-toddler climbs into a microwave and gets zapped. When Paul Levitz (editor and vice-president of DC Comics) objected to the portrayal of the little Clark Kent, most issues were recalled and pulped.

Ironically, the offending story won an Eisner Award, was subsequently reprinted in DC's Bizarro Comics Collection and the Elseworlds 80-Page Giant was also reprinted in full at the end of 2011 in DC Presents: Elseworlds 80 Page Giant. All this seems to imply that DC's decision to recall the original comic book, for what is simply an amusing story, was a rash one.

Initially around 1,500-2,000 were thought to exist but the current CGC quantity (under 100) appears to be on the low side for a modern collectable hinting that the original estimates may have been far too high. Other sources have since quoted much lower figures, 700 being the lowest quoted so far.

The raw copies of this comic have been steadily rising in value over the past couple of years with a number of sales, however, CGC graded copies are not selling as well.