Last Monday, I guessed that Francis Manapul was teasing his cover for the upcoming Action Comics issues featuring Booster Gold. This weekend, he proved me right.

Said Manapul on Instagram: "I'm taking over the variant cover art duties for #ActionComics and I couldn't be more excited! Here's the first cover of my run, #Superman along with time travelling #BoosterGold"

Presumably, that's the alternate cover for Action Comics #993, due December 13. DC has already released an image by Dan Jurgens presumed to be the standard cover. Neil Edwards and Jay Leistin were originally announced as the variant cover artists; I assume at this point that was an error.

(A quick note for new collectors about DC's "variant" covers. Traditionally, "variant" covers have been used as retailer incentives: "for every 2 of cover A, you can purchase 1 cover B," etc. This led to cover B being more expensive than cover A because retailers passed along the cost of acquisition. However, these days DC offers each issue in two covers to be ordered independently by retailers. Since the two covers exist in equal numbers, it's entirely arbitrary which is the "variant" as in practice they are both "regular" covers. So buy the one you like, or both, as neither inherently has more value or is rarer than the other.)

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