Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…

Superman!

First and greatest of the superheroes, one of the best-known fictional entities ever created, the backbone of the comics industry for nearly 70 years. The Man of Steel. The Man of Tomorrow. The Last Son of Krypton. Superman.


The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told is a collection of stories spanning the five decades from Superman’s first appearance in 1938 to the revamp (see my reviews of Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow and John Byrne's Man of Steel for more info) in 1986. The purpose of this collection is to celebrate the major artistic eras in the life of a character that invaded the popular imagination to a degree that had never been seen before – comic books, newspaper strips, television series, video games, movies…especially comic books.


First off, it must be said that the standard of comic book art and writing has improved dramatically since the earliest days of the superhero. The earlier stories in this collection are extremely simplistic, heavily overwritten, feature way too much unrealistic dialogue and thought balloons and explanatory captions, and tend to have extremely basic art – and I’m talking about the kind of art that I could probably do myself! Despite this, there are a few real gems in this collection, not all of them in the latter half of this collection, chronologically speaking.


There are a few Joe Schuster and Jerry Siegel stories included in this collection, but the very first Superman story, from Action Comics #1, does not feature here. Still, the one where Lex Luthor steals an earthquake machine and forces the Man of Steel to compete with his machines to prove whether Kryptonian muscle can match evil genius brainpower shows that the writer/artist team that brought us the first superhero knew what made Superman comics special. A simple story, with rather simplistic art, but very entertaining nevertheless, especially as it showcases Superman’s abilities as they were back then (before he could see through walls, fly faster than light and juggle planets).

The single version of the Superman origin story included in this book dates from 1948. It’s wonderfully primitive, a simple tale from a more innocent time. The basic story is the same as it’s been since it was first set down on paper. Jor-El, realizing that his planet Krypton is about to explode, sends his baby son off in a rocket ship, which lands on the planet Earth. There, the Kryptonian child was discovered by the elderly Kents, who delivered him to an orphanage. The child’s extraordinary nature soon became obvious to the hapless orphanage staff, and they were more than happy to allow the Kents to adopt him. Clark grew to maturity in Smallville, his powers manifesting themselves one by one over the years, but his special nature kept hidden from the outside world. It features a wonderful explanation for his superpowers – the people of Krypton were superevolved both mentally and physically (as illustrated by the Kryptonian parents discussing their “slow” child who had not yet mastered calculus by the age of three, and by Jor-El taking giant Hulk-type leaps on his way home to save his infant son from the demise of Krypton), and Earth’s weak gravity enhanced the physical side of Superman’s powers even further. While the explanation for the Man of Steel’s powers would change several times over the years, this particular explanation is not in any way inferior to the final official explanation (he absorbs energy from the sun), which some people seem to find more (pseudo-)scientifically satisfying.

It’s interesting to read the two “imaginary novels” included in this book. These were an invention of the 1960’s, breaking established Superman continuity and telling “what if” tales. Both of these tales in this volume are drawn by Curt Swan, my all-time favourite Superman artist, as are a few other tales in this collection, and this only adds to their quirky, innocent charm.

By far the most enchanting of the Silver Age Superman stories is “The Amazing Story of Superman-Red & Superman-Blue”. It’s such a silly, frenetic, fantastic, optimistic story that one can’t help but love it. When Superman is confronted about his inability to solve such problems as enlarging the bottle-city of Kandor and ending crime on earth, he undergoes a dangerous kryptonite-powered experiment to enhance his mental powers, so that he could finally accomplish what he needed to do. Of course, the experiment goes awry, and there’s a big explosion, and then there are two Supermen (Red & Blue), both superintelligent versions of the original. These two Men of Steel then go about systematically solving all the problems you can imagine, finally marrying Lana and Lois and settling down to retirement in a universe of perfection. Pure crazy delight.

The other “imaginary novel” is a story entitled “The Death of Superman”. Unsurprisingly, this is exactly what it’s about, with Lex Luthor fulfilling the role of murderer. This story showcased the importance of Superman in the DC universe (before there was even a word for it), ad also featured Supergirl revealing herself to the world and adopting her fallen cousin’s mission. It’s actually quite moving, really.

“The Forever People” is a marvelous illustration of all that was good and cosmic in comics in the seventies. Written and drawn by Jack “King” Kirby, this is one of the very first installments of Kirby’s “Fourth World” saga about the warring superhero-gods of Apokolips and New Genesis. It’s big-time cosmic superhero action at its finest, but also manages to show that Kirby understood more about what it means to be a Superman on an alien planet than most of his contemporaries ever did.

“For the man who has everything”, written by Alan Moore and penciled by Dave Gibbons, is a wonderful story showing how Kal-El celebrates his birthday with his best friends and one of his worst enemies. It shows great insight into Superman’s psyche, and also delves into his relationship with the Kryptonian father he never really got to know. But don’t worry that all this high-brow stuff will get in the way of good old-fashioned action. This story also features a battle between Superman and the alien warlord Mongul that surely ranks as one of the greatest fights in comicbook history.

The final story in this book is there to serve as an example of the more modern stories that John Byrne started telling when he revamped the Man of Steel. While this story is good, I can’t help but feel that it’s in poor taste to end a collection celebrating 50 years of Superman with a story wherein the hero is basically beaten at every turn by the villain. Not very inspiring, but still well-told.


Overall, I’d have to say that this collection really does the job of giving you a sense of where Superman comes from and what he’s been through. And it contains some good stories, even some excellent stories. But I’d have to say that the overwhelming impression that this book gives you is that comics in general, and Superman comics in particular, just keep getting better. And if that’s the case, I just can’t wait to see the Superman stories that will be told when he reaches his 100th birthday!


Recommended: Yes

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