Action Comics and Curt Swan. Following the events of "Crisis on Infinite Earths", writer/artist John Byrne relaunched the Superman franchise in "The Man of Steel" limited series in 1986. "Action Comics" became a team-up title with issue #584 (January 1987) featuring Superman and the New Teen Titans. Other costars during this period included the Phantom Stranger, the New Gods, the Demon, Hawkman, the Green Lantern Corps, the Metal Men, Superboy, Big Barda, Mister Miracle, Booster Gold, the Martian Manhunter, the Spectre, Lois Lane and Lana Lang, Checkmate, Wonder Woman, and Man-Bat. The first "Action Comics Annual" was published in 1987 and featured
Action Comics #1 (June 1938) sold at auction for $1 million, besting the $317,000 record for a comic book set by a different copy, in lesser condition, the previous year. The sale, by an anonymous seller to an anonymous buyer, was through the Manhattan-based auction company ComicConnect.com. Although DC had initially announced Marc Guggenheim as writer of the title following the "War of the Supermen" limited series, he was replaced by Paul Cornell. Cornell featured Lex Luthor as the main character in "Action Comics" from issues #890–900 and Death appeared in issue #894, with the agreement of the character's creator, Neil Gaiman.