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From graphic novels to non-fiction to paperbacks to childrens books, Superman is everywhere, and deserves his own "Best Of" list. Just try and avoid books where he only makes a cameo.
- Superman, Vol. 5: President Lex
Joseph "Jeph" Loeb III is an Emmy and WGA nominated American...
- Superman Books
Books shelved as superman: Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar,...
- Superman, Vol. 5: President Lex
- These are the Man of Steel's most enduring comic books.
- 25. Brainiac
- 24. The Mighty One
- 23. The Curse of Superman
- 22. Speeding Bullets
- 21. Last Son
- 20. On Our Special Day
- 19. Superman Beyond
- 18. Man of Steel
- 17. 22 Stories in a Single Bound
By Joey Esposito
Updated: May 10, 2018 5:36 pm
Posted: Jun 5, 2013 12:27 am
Superman is known across the globe as a comic book icon, pop culture mainstay, and a beacon of courage and hope. After making his first appearance in Action Comics #1 75 years ago in 1938, Superman became a pop culture sensation and remains the archetype for all the heroes that have followed.
What Superman Means to Us
With his latest cinematic adventure on the way and in celebration of his 75th birthday, we thought it was the perfect time to take a look at Superman's most enduring tales. These are the stories that explore Superman -- or even the idea, concepts, and philosophies behind Superman -- to the fullest.
As Seen In: Action Comics #866-870
“Your greatest power isn’t being able to fly or see through walls. It’s knowing what the right thing to do is.”
In Geoff Johns and Gary Frank’s Brainiac storyline, the creators mined the Silver Age for kooky concepts and turned them into a focal point of the Superman mythology. Here, we learn that despite all of Superman’s battles with Brainiac in the past, he’s never come face-to-face with the one, true being that is Brainiac, rather just incarnations of him. More importantly, this arc re-introduces the bottled city of Kandor to the Superman lore, which leads to the primary exploration of this tale: Superman rediscovering the culture of his home planet, but possibly at the expense of his humanity.
Johns and Frank develop a bond between Superman and his recently returned cousin, Supergirl, juxtaposed with a focus on his upbringing from the Kents. Johns angles the Brainiac story as a cycle of death and rebirth, as the story concludes with the double whammy of the re-emergence of Kandor – which would pave the way for the New Krypton saga – and the poignant death of Jonathan Kent.
As Seen In: Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth #29
“Like the ‘Golden Fleece’ of ages past, the suit of ‘Mighty One’ awaits… waits for the return of its original owner.”
Jack Kirby’s seminal Kamandi series is fondly remembered for many things, but this tale of Superman as legend in the far future has to be one of the best. The first entry on this list that focuses on Superman as an idea rather than a character, Kamandi #29 found our titular hero and his companion Ben Boxer discovering a tribe of advanced apes who worshipped a legend they called, you guessed it, the Mighty One.
This is of course Superman, who never appears in the story save for comics-within-comics style drawings from the ape culture and the presence of his suit. What Kirby explores here is the mythical aspect of Superman, suggesting that, like our own cultural myths, the Man of Steel would be an inspiration even in the far future, only to be reinterpreted for new cultures and new civilizations.
As Seen In: Action Comics [2011] #9
“That’s it. The dotted line. You won’t regret this.”
The most recent Superman story to appear on this list, Grant Morrison and Gene Ha’s Action Comics #9 departed from Morrison’s regularly scheduled Superman tale in DC’s New 52 reboot and spun a surprisingly accusatory metaphor for the corporatization of the Superman ideal and the harsh treatment of his creators.
In this story, we’re taken to Earth 23 where President Superman meets a group of dimension hoppers that inform him of how the Superman idea they’d created was co-opted by an evil corporation and watered down in order to have cross-market appeal. But Morrison doesn’t portray just DC’s history in a negative light, he also makes it perfectly clear that this problem comes from the fandom as well.
As Seen In: Superman: Speeding Bullets
“You can’t right wrongs with a fist or a sword, Bruce. It just doesn’t work that way.”
One of the best Elseworlds tales of the 90s, J.M. DeMatteis and Eduardo Barreto asked the question, “What if Kal-El’s rocket had landed in Gotham City and was found by the Waynes?” Here, Thomas and Martha Wayne raise a young Kal-El as Bruce Wayne, until Joe Chill takes their life one fateful evening in Crime Alley. Except this time, the murder of the Waynes is what sparks the appearance of Kal-El’s powers, incinerating Chill accidentally with his heat vision.
Speeding Bullets manages to blend together many different elements of the Superman and Batman mythologies, but it ultimately remains a tale about the Man of Steel and his purity as a symbol. Even when faced with these great tragedies in Gotham City, Kal-El ultimately finds his way to being a symbol of hope. Though Superman is “the Batman” for a majority of this story, Speeding Bullets teaches us the strength of Superman’s inherent moral compass and integrity.
As Seen In: Action Comics #844-846, 851, Action Comics Annual #11
“Who’s Batman?”
“Someone you’re not meeting until you’re sixteen.”
“Who’s Wonder Woman?”
“Someone you’re not meeting until you’re eighteen.”
In 2006, Geoff Johns took over Action Comics alongside his longtime mentor and the man responsible for many of our mutual childhood memories of the Man of Steel, director Richard Donner. Along with artist Adam Kubert, the duo reintroduced General Zod in a way fans of Superman: The Movie would certainly appreciate.
As Seen In: Superman #654
“You save millions of people on a regular basis, so if I get to save you once in a while, it’s only fair.”
Though technically the first chapter of the epic Camelot Falls storyline, Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco’s Superman #654 is perfectly readable as a self-contained story and is overflowing with utterly fantastic characterization. Coming off his year-long hiatus, Clark is back at it as Superman and struggling to make both halves of his life work.
The issue is bookended by a very special anniversary for Lois and Clark – the anniversary of what isn’t revealed until the very end – and lets us watch as Clark struggles to make it special for Lois while being called away constantly by Super-matters. In the end, it’s Lois that makes the day special for Clark as the two enjoy a romantic evening together. It’s a simple idea, but the spot-on characterization of Lois and Clark and their unique relationship is what makes this story so special; it’s impossible not feel gooey inside by its end.
As Seen In: Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #1-2
“To be continued.”
Superman Beyond was a two-issue tie-in series to the Final Crisis event, and though it’s a key aspect to the overall narrative of that story, the trippy tale in these two issues is great independent of the main story. Grant Morrison and Doug Mahnke devote these two chapters to a meta exploration of Superman that sneaks up on you just as you think you’re totally and completely lost.
With Lois dying, Superman is offered a chance to travel to the world of the Monitors and get elixir from the Bleed, which will heal her. Willing to do anything for his love, Superman accepts and is whisked off to Limbo, where he meets a variety of DC Comics characters from different Earths that have been tossed away and forgotten about.
As Seen In: The Man of Steel #1-6
“You can’t arrest me. I’m Lex Luthor. I’m the most powerful man in Metropolis!”
“No, you’re not, Lex. Not anymore.”
John Byrne was tasked with retelling Superman’s origin for a new generation in a post-Crisis on Infinite Earths world. Gone was the Silver Age, and what Byrne did with Man of Steel was envision a far more technical and somewhat less idealistic version of Superman’s origin. In this incarnation, Kal-El was not yet an infant on Krypton, instead encased within a birthing matrix that “gave birth” to him when the Kents found him on Earth.
The Man of Steel mini-series goes through vignettes of key moments in the early days of Superman, from his days at Smallville High to his first team-up with Batman (which is far less jovial than the original one seen in Superman #76), his first encounters with Lex Luthor and Bizarro, and his first encounter with the ghosts of his past.
The most poignant moment, though, comes when Clark learns of the despair he’s caused his high school sweetheart Lana Lang. When he returns to Smallville a few years after becoming Superman, he learns how he upturned her life by revealing his secret to her – flying her around the world in a night – and then leaving for Metropolis. “You opened a door for me, Clark. And then you closed it again,” she tells him. It’s this moment that makes this new origin for Superman feel different; something that fit right in with the evolving nature of superhero comics of the time. Superman’s journey wasn’t simplistic anymore; he didn’t put on costume, become a hero, and have everyone love him. Though the world was better off with him in it, it seemed it was often at the personal sacrifice of those he held dear – himself included.
As Seen In: Superman Adventures #41
“To be honest, I am Superman. So are you, and all the people watching this.”
This is kind of a cheat, I guess, considering that I’m counting this as one story, though as the name suggests, it’s actually 22. For Mark Millar’s final issue of the comic based on Superman: The Animated Series, he went out in style, bringing aboard pencillers like Cameron Stewart, Ty Templeton, Joe Staton, Craig Rousseau, Darwyn Cooke, and Philip Bond to tell 22 one-page stories.
Some stand out more than others, of course, but as a collective whole it’s at once a brilliant exploration of confined sequential storytelling as well as a remarkable portrayal of Superman and his vast cast of characters. It’s an homage to the Sunday newspaper strips of old while doing something bold with the modern format of a monthly periodical comic. Plus, it’s got Clark Kent admitting on live television that he’s Superman before he spins it into a clever (and inspirational) line.
- Mike Carlin’s “Triangle Era” with Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Louise Simonson, Roger Stern, Jon Bogdanove, Tom Grummett, Karl Kesel. Our number one slot of Superman eras is a weird one, because it doesn’t belong to one creative team.
- Mort Weisinger’s Silver Age Era. with Otto Binder, Jerry Siegel, Al Plastino, Curt Swan. Most of the names on this list are modern, adhering to what we think of as a creative team “run” on a specific title.
- John Byrne. with Jerry Ordway, Marv Wolfman. Despite massive success on the big screen, by the early ‘80s, comic book Superman was seen as a relic of a bygone era.
- Grant Morrison. with Frank Quitely, Rags Morales. Grant Morrison is one of the greatest voices in comics, and has written definitive runs on most of the famous superheroes at this point.
- Superman vs Muhammad Ali (1978) Very much a product of its time, but a hell of a read regardless. The title says it all, Superman Vs Muhammad Ali, but unlike many “vs” events, the reasoning behind their fight is deeply interesting.
- For the Man Who Has Everything (1985) Alan Moore didn’t write that many stories featuring Superman, but the two he has produced are perhaps some of the greatest Superman stories produced.
- Man of Steel (1986) Man of Steel should be spoken of in the same vain as Batman: Year One. Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths, John Byrne steps in and provides one of the best retellings of Superman’s origin.
- Superman: Exile (1989) To anyone who says that Superman is not relatable, take a look at the “Exile” storyline from 1989. The storyline revolves around Superman feeling so guilty for his actions that he decides to exile himself and go on a journey out in space to rediscover himself.
- Becca Caddy
- All-Star Superman. From £20.52. Created by writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely, this 12 issue series ran from 2005 to 2008.
- Superman: For All Seasons. From £11.39. Another short and sweet series here with only four comics, Superman For All Seasons was written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by Tim Sale in 1998.
- Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? From £8.67. We've got some series in this list, but we also have one off-stories – this one was actually published over two instalments – and Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?
- Man and Superman Deluxe Edition. From £10.89. Written by Marv Wolfman with art by Claudio Castellini, this is a four-part mini series.
Books shelved as superman: Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar, All-Star Superman, Vol. 1 by Grant Morrison, Superman for All Seasons by Jeph Loeb, Superman...
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