Inside the Fortress: The Books Behind Quest 4

Twelve books. Eighty-six years. One shelf that tells the whole Superman story.

Quest 4: House of El closes Friday, October 2, at 2 PM ET. We called it the hardest quest of the season because every entry is a specific issue, and because the five Fortress books at the top of the list are the kind of comics collectors spend years chasing. Here is why those books matter, what they mean to the hobby, and why finishing this one says something about your shelf.

If you need the mechanics, the full rules and list are here. The short version: own any four of the twelve entries, with at least one from the Fortress, in your linked wallet at the snapshot.

Heads up: You must opt in on the Quests page at candy.io/quests before the quest deadline, or you won’t qualify for the reward.

The Fortress

Superman #1 (1939)

This is the one. A year after Action Comics #1 introduced him, Superman became the first superhero ever to get his own title. The book retold and expanded his origin, and it made the case that one character could carry a comic on his own, an idea the entire industry runs on today.

The physical copies are the most valuable comics on Earth. Last November, a CGC 9.0 copy that three brothers found in their late mother’s attic sold at Heritage Auctions for $9.12 million, the most ever paid for a comic book, beating the record Action Comics #1 had set the year before. Owning the Candy edition puts the book that started solo superhero comics on your shelf.

All-Star Superman: Crafted Edition

Ask a room of Superman fans to name the best Superman story and this is the answer you hear most. Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s twelve-issue run gives Superman one year to live and spends it showing what he does with the time: he solves the unsolvable, forgives the unforgivable and leaves the world better than he found it. It won Eisner Awards, got its own animated film and reset the bar for what a Superman story could be. The Crafted Edition puts a book that already belongs in every collection on your Candy shelf.

Absolute Superman #6 (2025)

The Absolute Universe asked a simple question: what if Superman had none of the advantages? No Kent farm, no Daily Planet, no Fortress of Solitude. Jason Aaron’s answer became one of the most talked-about books of the past two years, and issue #6 is where the series finally lands in Kansas and shows us a very different first meeting with the Kents. If you collected Quest 2 around the Absolute line, this is the Superman chapter that completes the picture.

Summer of Superman Special #1 (2025)

DC kicked off its Summer of Superman publishing event with a 48-page oversized one-shot from Dan Slott, Mark Waid and Joshua Williamson, with Jorge Jiménez on art. The occasion is the wedding of Lana Lang and John Henry Irons, which turns into a who’s-who of the Superman family and launches the storylines that ran through the rest of 2025, including Slott’s Superman Unlimited. A line-wide event starter from the biggest Superman summer in a generation.

Supergirl #2 or #3 (2025)

Sophie Campbell’s Supergirl brought Kara Zor-El back to Midvale with a new look from Artgerm and a tone pulled straight from the 1970s comics and the 1984 film. It launched in May 2025 as part of Summer of Superman and gave Kara her own voice at exactly the moment the wider world was paying attention to her again. Either #2 or #3 counts as your Fortress entry.

The Rest of the Shelf

The open slots on the list are not filler. Several of them are first appearances that collectors chase on their own.

Action Comics #23 (1940) is Lex Luthor’s first appearance, full head of red hair and all. Every version of Superman’s greatest enemy traces back to this issue.

Adventure Comics #210 (1955) is the first appearance of Krypto. Otto Binder, Curt Swan and Sy Barry meant him as a one-off. Seventy years later he stole every scene he was in during the 2025 Superman film and has his own animated series on the way. Pair it with Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton #2, Ryan North and Mike Norton’s 2025 miniseries that tells his story as an actual dog, no narration, no dialogue.

Superman #199 (1967) is the first Superman versus Flash race, the argument that launched a thousand playground debates and is still going.

DC Comics Presents #26 (1980) is a Superman team-up book that happens to contain the sixteen-page preview where Marv Wolfman and George Pérez introduced Cyborg, Raven and Starfire. The New Teen Titans debuted a month later and became DC’s biggest team of the decade. One of the most important inserts in comics history, hiding inside a Superman book.

All-New Collectors’ Edition #54 (1978) is Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, Neal Adams’ treasury-sized classic with a wraparound cover packed with celebrity cameos. Superman and the Greatest, in the same ring. There is nothing else like it.

Round it out with Action Comics #93 (1946), a Golden Age Superman book in its own right, and you have the full list.

The Longbox: Put Metropolis Back on the Market

Some of the most-held Superman books on Candy almost never get listed. Thousands of collectors have Superman #75, Superman (2023) #1 or All-Star Superman #1 sitting in their wallets, and nobody can buy them because nobody puts them up.

This week, that changes. List any three qualifying Fortress Archive items on OpenSea during the quest window and it counts as one of your four entries. It fills an open slot, not your Fortress entry, and you still need the other three in your wallet at the snapshot. The full Fortress Archive list is in the Quest 4 post.

For collectors still hunting a Fortress book, it also means more Superman inventory on the market this week than there has been all season. Check OpenSea and Magic Eden.

The Prize

Complete your first quest of the season and your ComicBookVending.com account is funded for a free $25 pull within 24 hours of the quest closing: a graded DC card, a graded DC comic or a vintage DC pack, revealed live and shipped to your door. Every completed quest builds your season standing, five earn a $50 pull, and running the whole season puts you in the Finale Drawing.

The Clock

Quest 4 closes Friday, October 2, at 2 PM ET, with the snapshot in the final stretch of the window. Four books, one from the Fortress, in your linked wallet. Opted in on the Quests page.

The first Superman. The best Superman. The newest Superman. Go build your Fortress.