Category: Superman

By Kurt Busiek, Peter Vale, Jesús Merino, Renato Guedes, Jorgé Correa Jr & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-146-5

Following directly on from Superman: the Third Kryptonian (ISBN: 978-1-84856-005-5) the tales in this package originally appeared as issue #671-675 of the monthly Superman comicbook, divided into two yarns thematically harking back to the gloriously innocent Silver Age Superboy stories as drawn by George Papp.

First up is a thoroughly tumultuous modern interpretation of Lana Lang’s finest, daftest schoolgirl moments. ‘Insect Queen’ is a cracking invasion thriller in three parts (illustrated by Peter Vale, Wellington Dias and Jesús Merino) wherein the adult Lana has assumed control of Lex Luthor’s old company, only to be abducted to a hidden moonbase and made the DNA template for an alien arthropod hive-brain’s new body.

The deadly insect queen has even made Superman her slave…

This delightfully gratifying “Saves-the-World” romp rattles along with sharp dialogue and lots of movie in-jokes; a superb palate cleanser before ‘Shadows Linger’ re-retools the story of “Superboy’s older brother” Mon-El for the post-Smallville/Superman Returns generation.

An alien from the Krypton-like world of Daxam, Mon-El is, like all his species, hyper-sensitive to common lead. Once exposed, a Daxamite will inevitably die. When this happened to the solitary star voyager, Superman was compelled to banish his new-found friend to the nebulous Phantom Zone to preserve his life.

Just as Mon-El reveals the horrific fundamentalist regime he fled from, three Daxamite Priest-Elders of the Protonic Flame appear on Earth demanding Mon-El’s surrender… or else. To further complicate matters a super-villain with the ability to duplicate and magnify an opponent’s powers is loose, wanting what they all want (world domination and busty super-heroines as willing handmaidens)…

A crazed ego-maniac and three intractable zealots with all his powers were bad enough for the Man of Tomorrow, but then some fool had to unleash the planet-consuming Galactic Golem…

Fun-filled and action-packed, this a well-told traditional tale beautifully realized by Renato Guedes & José Wilson Magalháes (with Jorgé Correa Jr. pitching in at the end), another swift, punchy antidote to those interminable multi-part cosmic sagas. There’s life yet in the World’s Most Senior Superhero…

© 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Wayne Boring, Jack Burnley and the Superman Studio (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-895-9

By the time these tales first saw print Superman was a bona fide phenomenon, and had utterly changed the shape of the fledgling comicbook industry. There was a popular newspaper strip, foreign and overseas syndication and the Fleischer studio was starting production on some of the most expensive -and best – animated cartoons ever produced. Thankfully the quality of the source material was increasing with every four-colour release, and the energy and enthusiasm of Siegel and Shuster had transferred to the burgeoning studio that grew around them to cope with the relentless demand.

This fifth collection of the Man of Steel’s earliest adventures, reprinted in the order they originally appeared, takes us from the beginning of the year to May of 1941; another astounding voyage of thrills and chills that covers his appearances in Action Comics #32-36, the bi-monthly Superman #8-9 as well as his first landmark appearance in the legendary publication World’s Best Comics #1.

As ever, each tale is preceded by the original cover illustration, and the unsung talents of Paul Cassidy and especially Fred Ray should be appreciated for the huge part they played in capturing the attentions of the millions of kids who were daily bombarded by a growing multitude of garish, gaudy mystery-men

We lead off with Action Comics #32 (cover-dated January 1941), ‘The Gambling Racket of Metropolis’ (although like many stories of the time there was no original title and it’s been designated as such simply to make my job a little easier…) wherein the Action Ace crushes an illicit High Society gambling operation that has wormed its nefarious way into the loftiest echelons of Government, a typical Jerry Siegel social drama magnificently illustrated by the great Jack Burnley

Superman #8 (Jan/Feb 1941) was another spectacular and varied compendium containing four big adventures ranging from the fantastic fantasy ‘The Giants of Professor Zee’ (illustrated by Paul Cassidy), topical suspense in ‘The Fifth Column’ (Wayne Boring & Don Komisarow), common criminality in ‘The Carnival Crooks’ (Cassidy again) and concluding with an increasingly rare comic-book outing for Joe Shuster – inked by Boring – in the cover-featured ‘Perrone and the Drug Gang’, as the Metropolis Marvel battled doped-up thugs and the corrupt lawyers who controlled them.

Action Comics #33 and 34 are both Burnley extravaganzas wherein Superman goes north to discover ‘Something Amiss at the Lumber Camp’, before heading to coal country to save ‘The Beautiful Young Heiress’; both superbly enticing character-plays with plenty of scope for eye-popping super-stunts to thrill the gasping fans.

Superman #9 (March/April 1941) was another four-star thriller with all the art credited to Cassidy and the Shuster Studio. ‘The Phony Pacifists’ is an espionage thriller that capitalised on increasing US tensions over “the European War”, ‘Joe Gatson, Racketeer’ recounts the sorry end of a hot-shot blackmailer and kidnapper, ‘Mystery in Swasey Swamp’ combines eerie happenings with ruthless spies and the self-explanatory ‘Jackson’s Murder Ring’ pits Superman against an ingenious gang of commercial assassins.

The success of the annual World’s Fair premium comic-books had convinced the editors that an over-sized anthology of their characters, with Superman and Batman prominently featured, would be a worthwhile proposition even at the exorbitant price of 15¢ (most 64 page titles retailed for 10¢ and would do so until the 1960s). The 96 page World’s Best Comics #1 (and only) debuted with a Spring cover-date, before transforming into the venerable World’s Finest from issue #2 onwards. From that landmark edition comes a gripping disaster thriller ‘Superman vs. the Rainmaker’ illustrated by Cassidy, whilst Action Comics #35 headlined a human interest tale with startling repercussions in ‘The Guybart Gold Mine’, and this volume concludes with Superman mightily stretched to cope with the awesome threat of ‘The Enemy Invasion’, a canny taste of things to come if America entered Word War II.

Stories of corruption, disaster and social injustice were typical of the times, but with war in the news and clearly on the horizon, the content of Superman adventures was changing: and so, necessarily, did the scale and scope of the action. The raw intensity and sly wit still shone through in Siegel’s stories which literally defined what being a Super-hero meant, but as the world became more dangerous the Man of Tomorrow simply became stronger and more flamboyant to deal with it all, and Shuster and his team stretched and expanded the iconography that all others would follow.

These Golden Age tales are priceless enjoyment at an absurdly affordable price. What more so you need to know?

© 1940, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

By Kurt Busiek, Dwayne McDuffie, Rick Leonardi & Renato Guedes (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-005-5

After interminable page counts and the never-ending angst of hyper-mega-ultra braided multi-part cross-overs, it’s quite nice to pick up an – admittedly slim – endeavour of more modest means and intent: to wit, a book with a couple of stories that actually begin, occur and end.

Collecting the contents of Action Comics #847, Superman #668-670 and Superman Annual #13, this tome actually has three yarns to delight, beginning with Busiek, Leonardi, and Dan Green’s mini-epic in which all the survivors of lost Krypton on Earth, including Power Girl, Clark and Lois’ adopted son Chris (don’t fret, it’s all explained in the story) and even Krypto are targeted for destruction by brutal space pirate Amalak, hungry to take vengeance for the misdeeds of the long dead Kryptonian Empire.

Imagine how the irascible rogue reacts when he discovers that unbeknownst to all, an actual survivor of that long-dead galactic aggressor state has been living secretly on Earth for years…

Good old-fashioned romp though it is, the real meat of this tale is the rewriting of Kryptonian history (Again! Better keep a scorecard handy!) for the post-Smallville/Superman Returns generation. As the disparate continuities of TV, Cinema and comic-books are massaged closer to homogeneity, the best of the old is being refitted to the new and if the result is more readers then I’m all for it.  This is an uncomplicated adventure thriller with nostalgic overtones that has a lot to recommend it.

‘The Best Day’ (Busiek, Fabian Nicieza, Guedes and José Wilson Magalhães) is a sheer delight, beautifully executed. In a quiet moment Superman and Supergirl take the Kent clan on a picnic to the stars and we get a chance to see beloved characters interact in joy and relaxation, when the skies of a million universes aren’t collapsing around their invulnerable ears. It’s a brave, rewarding return to old ways and I want to see more of it.

So go no further than ‘Intermezzo’ (McDuffie and Guedes), another introspective segment sliced from a longer epic, short on punching but big on emotional wallop as Jonathan and Martha Kent share secrets and reveal close-held fears as their adopted son struggles off-camera with another “Never-Ending Battle.”

It’s the gentle moments and the emotional beats that give the best adventure fiction its edge, and this book has them in delightful quantities. This is the stuff that made Superman a legend, and I’m so very glad it making a comeback.

© 2007, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

By various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-56389-826-6

Part of a series of trade paperbacks intended to define DC’s top heroes through the decades (the other being Batman, of course) these books always deliver an unbeatable dollop of comicbook magic and a tantalising whiff of other, arguably better, times. They’re divided into sections partitioned by cover galleries, and this second volume of comic cuts begins (after an introduction by the ever informative Mark Waid) with “Classic Tales” culled from the period when the Superman TV show propelled the Man of Tomorrow to even greater levels of popularity.

Leading off is ‘Three Supermen from Krypton!’ written by William Woolfolk and illustrated by Al Plastino (one of a talented triumvirate who absolutely defined the hero during this decade). From Superman #65, (July-August 1950) this classy clash revealed more about Superman’s vanished homeworld whilst providing the increasingly untouchable champion with a much needed physical challenge.

Outer Space provided another daunting threat in ‘The Menace from the Stars!’ (World’s Finest Comics #68, January-February 1954). However all is not as it seems in this quirky mystery by a now unknown writer and the exceptional art team of Wayne Boring (another of the triumvirate) and inker Stan Kaye.

‘The Girl Who Didn’t Believe in Superman!’ by Bill Finger, Boring and Kaye, is a fanciful, evocative human interest tale typical of the times and sorely missed in these modern, adrenaline-drenched days. It originally appeared in Superman #96, cover-dated March 1955. From the very next issue came the canonical landmark ‘Superboy’s Last Day in Smallville!’ (by Jerry Coleman, Boring and Kaye) which revealed that particular rite of passage by way of exposing a crook’s long-delayed master-plan.

The first section ends with a tale from one of the many spin-off titles of the period – and one that gives many 21^st century readers a few uncontrollable qualms of conscience. Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane was one of precious few titles with a female lead, but her character ranged crazily from man-hungry, unscrupulous bitch through ditzy simpleton to indomitable and brilliant heroine – often all in the same issue.

Most stories were played for laughs in a patriarchal, parochial manner; a “gosh, aren’t women funny?” tone that appals me today – but not as much as the fact that I still love them to bits. It helps that they’re all so very well illustrated by the wonderfully whimsical Kurt Schaffenberger. This one, ‘The Ugly Superman!’ (#8, April 1959), deals with a costumed wrestler who falls for Lois, giving the Caped Kryptonian another chance for some pretty unpleasant Super-teasing. It was written by the veteran Robert Bernstein, who unlike me can use the tenor of the times as his excuse.

As the franchise expanded, so did the cast and internal history. The second section is dedicated to our hero’s extended family and leads with ‘Superman’s Big Brother’ by famed pulp writer Edmond Hamilton and Plastino, (Superman #80, January-February 1953) wherein a wandering alien is mistaken for the aforementioned sibling, followed here by the introduction of a genuine family member in ‘The Super-Dog from Krypton!’ which originally saw print in Adventure Comics #210, March 1955.

Here Otto Binder and Curt Swan (the third of three and eventually the most prolific Super-artist of all time), aided by inker John Fischetti, reveal how baby Kal-El’s pet pooch escaped his home-world’s destruction and made his way to Earth.

Another popular animal guest-star was ‘Titano the Super-Ape!’ a giant ape with kryptonite vision, and this tale (from Superman #127, February 1959) is still one of the best Binder, Boring or Kaye ever worked on, combining action, pathos and drama to superb effect. This section ends with the inevitable landmark which more than any other moved Superman from his timeless Golden Age holdover status to become a part of the DC Silver Age revival. ‘The Supergirl from Krypton!’ introduced the Man of Steel’s cousin Kara Zor-El (Action Comics #252, (May, 1959) in a captivating tale by Binder and Plastino.

There had been numerous prototypes (one was included in the previous volume of this series, Superman in the Forties, ISBN: 978-1-4012-0457-0) but this time the concept struck home and the teenaged refugee began her long career as a solo-star from the very next issue.

Section three highlights “the villains” and leads with a rarely seen team-up of The Prankster, Lex Luthor and that extra-dimensional sprite Mr. Mxyztplk in ‘Superman’s Super-Magic Show!’ by Hamilton, Boring and Kaye (Action Comics #151, December, 1950) – tale more of mirthful mystery than menace and mayhem. It’s followed by the still-impressive introduction of alien marauder Brainiac in ‘The Super-Duel in Space’ by Binder and Plastino, from Action Comics #242, (July, 1958) and ‘The Battle with Bizarro!’ from Action Comics #254, (July, 1959) by the same creative team. This story actually re-introduced the imperfect duplicate, who had initially appeared in a well-received Superboy story (#68, from the previous year). Even way back then sales trumped death…

So popular was the character that the tale was continued over two issues, concluding with ‘The Bride of Bizarro!’ (Action Comics #255, August 1959), an almost unheard of luxury back then.

The fourth and final section is dedicated to “Superman’s Pals” and stems once more from that epochal television show, which made most of the supporting cast into household names. ‘The End of the Planet!’ by Hamilton and Plastino, Superman #79 (November-December 1959) is actually about the famous newspaper’s imminent closure rather than a global threat, whilst ‘Superman and Robin!’ is a classic bait-and-switch teaser from World’s Finest Comics #75 (March-April 1955), and Finger, Swan and Kaye knew that no-one believed that they had really broken-up the Batman/Boy Wonder team….

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen also had his own comicbook, and ‘The Stolen Superman Signal’ (#13, June 1956, by Binder, Swan and Ray Burnley) perfectly displays the pluck and whimsy that distinguished the early stories. The last tale in this section – and the volume – is from Showcase #9 (June-July 1957) the first of two Lois Lane try-out issues. ‘The girl in Superman’s Past!’ by Coleman, Ruben Moreira and Plastino introduced an adult Lana Lang as a rival for superman’s affections and began the sparring that led to many a comic-book cat-fight…

Including an extensive cover gallery, text features and a comprehensive creator-profiles section, this is a wonderful slice of comics history, refreshing, comforting and compelling. Any fan or newcomer will delight in this primer into the ultimate icon of Truth Justice and The American Way.
© 1950-1959, 2002 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

By Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster & the Superman studio (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0457-0

Part of a series of trade paperbacks intended to define DC’s top heroes through the decades (the other being Batman, of course) these books always deliver a superb wallop of comicbook magic and a tantalising whiff of other, perhaps better, times.

Divided into sections partitioned by cover galleries this box of delights opens with the untitled initial episodes from Action Comics #1 and 2 (even though they’re technically ineligible, coming from June and July 1938) written and drawn by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. With boundless enthusiasm the Man of Tomorrow exploded into action, saving an innocent condemned to the electric chair, teaching a wife-beater a salutary lesson, terrorising mobsters and teaching war profiteers to think again. It’s raw, unpolished and absolutely captivating stuff.

Swiftly following from Superman #58, (May-June 1949) is a beguiling teaser written by William Woolfolk and illustrated by Wayne Boring and Stan Kaye. ‘Lois Lane Loves Clark Kent!’ found the intrepid reporter seeing a psychiatrist because of her romantic obsession with the Man of Steel. His solution?

The quack tells her to switch her affections to her bewildered, harassed workmate! A rare treat follows as the seldom seen Superman prose story from Superman #1 (Summer 1939 and of course written by Siegel with accompanying art by Shuster) reappears for the first time in decades.

In 1948 the editors finally declassified the full and original ‘Origin of Superman’ written by Bill Finger with art from Boring and Kaye (Superman #53, cover-dated July-August) It was followed a year later and directly after in this volume by ‘Superman Returns to Krypton’ by Finger and Al Plastino wherein the Man of Steel breaks the time barrier to observe his lost homeworld at first hand. This little gem (from Superman #61, November-December, 1949) provided the comic-book explanation for Kryptonite – it was originally introduced on the radio show in 1943 then promptly forgotten – opening the door for a magical expansion of the character’s universe that still resonates with us today.

During the late 1940s Siegel & Shuster retrofitted their creation by creating Superboy (“the adventures of Superman when he was a boy”) for More Fun Comics #101 (January/February 1945). An instant hit, the youthful incarnation soon had the lead spot in Adventure Comics and won his own title in 1949.

From Superboy #5 (November-December, 1949) comes the charming tale of a runaway princess ironically entitled ‘Superboy Meets Supergirl’ by Woolfolk and the hugely talented John Sikela.

The second section is dedicated to the Man of Steel’s opponents beginning with ‘Superman Meets the Ultra-Humanite’ from Action Comics #14 (July, 1939) by Siegel, Shuster and Paul Cassidy. They also produced a much more memorable criminal scientist in Lex Luthor who debuted in an untitled tale from Action #23 (April, 1940). This landmark is followed by ‘The Terrible Toyman’ (Action #64, September, 1943) by Don Cameron, Ed Dobrotka and George Roussos.

In such socially conscious times once of Superman’s most persistent foes was a heartless swindler called Wilbur Wolfingham. ‘Journey into Ruin’ by Cameron, Ira Yarbrough and Stan Kaye (from Action #107, November #107) is a fine example of this type of tale and the hero’s unique response to it.

A different kind of whimsy was apparent when Lois Lane’s niece – a liar who could shame Baron Munchausen – returned with a new pal who could make her fantasies reality in ‘The Mxyztplk-Susie Alliance’ from Superman #40, May-June 1946, charmingly crafted by Cameron, Yarbrough and Kaye.

The American Way section begins with a genuine war-time classic. ‘America’s Secret Weapon’ from Superman #23, July-August 1943, by Cameron, Sam Citron and Sikela is a masterpiece of patriotic triumphalism, as is the excerpt from the Superman newspaper strip which reveals how the over-eager Man of Tomorrow accidentally fluffed his own army physical. These strips by Siegel, Shuster and Jack Burnley, originally ran from 16^th – 19^th February 1942,

Look Magazine commissioned a legendary special feature by the original creators for their 27^th February 1943 issue. ‘How Superman Would End the War’ is a glorious piece of wish-fulfillment which still delights, and it’s followed by a less famous but equally affecting human interest yarn ‘The Superman Story’. Taken from World’s Finest Comics #37 (1947, by Finger, Boring and Kaye) it sees a pack of reporters trail Superman to see how the world views him.

The book ends with ‘Christmas Around the World’ as Superman becomes the modern Spirit of the Season in a magical Yule yarn by Cameron, Yarbrough and Kaye from Action #93 (February 1946).

With a selection of cover galleries, special features and extensive creator profiles this is a magnificent Primer to the greatest hero of a bygone Golden Age, but one who can still deliver laughter and tears, thrills and spills and sheer raw excitement. No real fan can ignore these tales…

© 1940-1939, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Wayne Boring, Jack Burnley and the Superman Studio (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 9781-84576-743-3

This fourth collection of the Man of Tomorrow’s earliest adventures, reprinted in the order they originally appeared, sees out the year 1940 in another tremendous little album that covers his appearances in Action Comics #26-31as well as the bi-monthly Superman #6-7.

Siegel and Shuster had created a true phenomenon and were struggling to cope with it. As well as the monthly and bimonthly comics a new quarterly publication, World’s Finest Comics (springing from the success of the publisher’s New York World’s Fair comic-book tie-ins) would soon debut and their indefatigable hero was to feature prominently in it. Also, the Superman daily newspaper strip, which began on 16^th January 1939, with its separate Sunday strip following from November 5^th of that year, was garnering millions of new fans.

The need for new material was constant and terrible.

From Action Comics #25 (July 1940) came ‘Professor Cobalt’s Clinic’ wherein Clark Kent and Lois Lane exposed a murderous sham Heath Facility with a little Kryptonian help, and the next month dealt a similar blow to the corrupt orphanage ‘Brentwood Home for Wayward Youth’. The September issue found the him at the circus, solving the mystery of ‘The Strongarm Assaults’, a fast-paced thriller beautifully illustrated by the astonishingly talented Jack Burnley.

Whilst thrilling to that, kids of the time could also have picked up the sixth issue of Superman (September/October 1940). Produced by Siegel and the Superman Studio, with Shuster increasingly only overseeing and drawing key figures and faces, this contained four more lengthy adventures.

‘Lois Lane, Murderer’, ‘Racketeer Terror in Gateston’, ‘Terror Stalks San Caluma’ and ‘The Construction Scam’ had the Man of Action saving the plucky newshen (you can’t imagine how long I’ve waited to type that term) from a dastardly frame up, rescuing a small town from a mob invasion, foiling a blackmailer who’s discovered his secret identity and spectacularly fixing a corrupt company’s shoddy, death-trap buildings.

Action Comics #29 (October 1940) again features Burnley art in a gripping tale of murder for profit. Human drama in ‘The Life insurance Con’ was replaced by deadly super-science as the mastermind Zolar created ‘A Midsummer Snowstorm’, allowing Burnley a rare opportunity to display his fantastic imagination as well as his representational excellence.

Superman # 7(November/December1940), and the Man of Steel was embroiled in local politics when he confronted ‘Metropolis’ Most Savage Racketeers’, quelled man-made disasters in ‘The Exploding Citizens’, stamped out City Hall corruption in ‘Superman’s Clean-Up Campaign’ (illustrated by Wayne Boring, who was Shuster’s inker on the other tales in this issue) and put the villainous high society bandits ‘The Black Gang’ where they belonged – behind iron bars.

This volume ends with Burnley drawing another high-tech caper as criminals put an entire city to sleep and only Clark Kent isn’t ‘In the Grip of Morpheus’.

Although the gaudy burlesque of monsters and super-villains still lay years ahead of our hero, these tales of corruption, disaster and social injustice are just as engrossing and speak powerfully of the tenor of the times. The raw intensity and sly wit still shine through in Siegel’s stories which literally defined what being a Super Hero means whilst Shuster and his team created the iconography for all others to follow. These Golden Age tales are priceless enjoyment at an absurdly affordable price. What dedicated comics fan could possibly resist them?

So don’t…
© 1940, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.