Superman: Recommended Reading

After spending last week railing against DC and Warner Bros’ mishandling of the Superman franchise over the past twenty years and then pointing out arguably the most egregious case of DC’s editorial department missing out on an opportunity to revitalize The Man of Steel for a modern market, I suspect it’d be easy for a reader of this blog to assume I haven’t been a fan of any Superman project released during the past two decades save for Mark Waid’s Birthright and Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman, the only two actual published stories I positively mentioned in either of my previous two Superman-related posts.

That’s not the case, as I’ve thoroughly enjoyed quite a lot of modern Superman comics despite the fact that the forgettable, mundane and/or terrible books have greatly outweighed the ones that get the character “right.” I figure, after ranting in such detail about how Warners and DC in particular have gotten the character wrong, it’d only be fair to give them credit for their genuine successes in the modern era, and in doing so perhaps illuminate more clearly why I think the character remains one of the best superheroes ever created, and one that surely deserves a level of success on par with Batman, the X-Men, the Avengers and every other superhero property to enjoy mainstream popularity without having to be tinkered with drastically every five or so years.

So after the jump, let’s dive right into a few of my picks for Superman’s best modern comics stories, which will hopefully give you an idea of my take on the character’s vast potential and the elements DC and future Superman writers should focus on in order to capitalize on his appeal.

 All Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely

 I figure my favorite modern Superman story is as good a place to start as any. I’m not alone in calling Morrison and Quitely’s twelve issue maxi-series the high watermark of modern Superman comics, as multiple Eisner Awards and near universal critical acclaim seem to agree this is the pinnacle of stories starring the Man of Steel over the past two decades and possibly of all time. As is his specialty, Morrison is here able to distill Superman’s entire fictional and publishing history into one wonderful, cohesive tale, combining some of the more revolutionary aspects of the "Superman 2000" pitch with the madcap, over-the-top elements of the Mort Weisinger Silver Age Superman comics, the mythic archetype of Hercules’ twelve labors, a genuine sense of sci-fi wonder, plus plenty of the insane high concepts for which Morrison is best known.

 Nearly all aspects of the comic's take on Superman -- from the brilliant and powerful distillation of Superman’s origin in the comic’s single, four-panel opening page (included above), to its take on Luthor’s pathological Superman obsession, to The Man of Steel’s super-intelligence, the Lois/Superman/Clark love triangle and everything in between -- are handled in pitch perfect fashion by Morrison and Quitely, who captures every sweeping image in his majestic, playful and always dynamic art style. Above all else, the comic’s greatest accomplishment is forcing us readers to look upon Superman with the same sense of wonder and awe with which we viewed the character as children. The Superman seen in All-Star is heroic, noble, and kind – as morally unflappable as he is uber-powerful. The series’ tenth issue alone is one of the greatest comics I’ve ever read, and it’s climactic shot of a pocket-universe Siegel and Shuster creating their own Man of Steel not only echoes why the character remains such an important creation, but also serves as a snapshot of everything this series does so well.

Superman: Birthright by Mark Waid and Leinil Yu

The other great Superman comic to spring from the plethora of unused "Superman 2000" ideas, Waid and Yu’s Birthright is far more conventional in terms of modern comics standards than All Star, but one could argue therein lays some of its greatest strengths. By re-imagining the character’s origins, his years as Clark Kent in Smallville and then later traversing the world in search of a higher calling, and, finally, his first introduction to Metropolis and the world as Superman, Waid’s modernization succeeds in humanizing the character without depowering him as John Byrne had done twenty years earlier in The Man of Steel relaunch. Birthright’s Superman is every bit as heroic and powerful as he should be, with an arch-villain in Lex Luthor that’s every bit his jealous, maniacal and nefariously intelligent opposite.

With an epic, action-packed plot appropriate for comic’s most powerful sci-fi hero and some genuinely emotional, human stakes, the story also succeeds without “grounding” Superman’s adventure to a “grittier” (that word is almost always a bad sign when used in relation to the character) or more relatable scale. From the earliest shots of Krypton’s destruction to the book’s heartbreaking final page, this series nails the character’s mythology right on the head. Rereading Birthright a week ago, I couldn’t help but wonder why the hell DC even felt the need to replace it with Geoff Johns’ Secret Origin comic less than a decade later. But then again, it's best not to wonder why DC makes many of their Superman-related decisions.

Geoff Johns’ Action Comics –

Though Johns is certainly guilty of cheesy dialogue, Michael Bay-style dumb action and the type of gross simplifications and way-too-on-the-head character summations that Comics Alliance’s Chris Simscalls “Johnsian Literalism,” the writer’s penchant for big, summer blockbuster-sized action and his clear love of the Man of Steel both translated into some damn entertaining Superman stories during his run on Action Comics from 2006 to 2009. Starting with Last Son, which brought the iconic, Superman 2-inspired General Zod and company into comics continuity for the first time (that DC waited three decades to bring the most memorable version of Superman’s second most iconic villain into canon is another major black mark on their handling of the Man of Steel over the years), and continuing through Escape from Bizarro World w/ Goon artist Eric Powell and then Superman and the Legion of Superheroes and Braniac w/ artist Gary Frank, Johns’ run is driven by the earth-shattering, larger-than-life adventure storytelling so crucial to any great Superman tale.

Johns’ portrayal of Superman is faithful without being all that radical or even special, but that works fine considering Johns goes to great lengths to place him in action-packed struggles against memorable, recognizable foes like Bizarro, Zod and Brainiac, using the latter two villains in particular to help flesh out the mythology of Krypton. Sure, his run on Action Comics fizzled out into the needless Secret Origin retelling of Superman’s beginnings and the insufferably drawn-out World of New Krypton saga, but neither of those two stories make the earlier tales any less entertaining. Johns’ Superman comics got far more right than wrong, especially when it came to their epic scale and making Superman’s adventures matter to his greater mythology and cast of characters. For that, they land on this list.

What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way? by Joe Kelly, Dog Mahnke and Lee Bermejo

Original appearing in Action Comics #775 and conceived by Kelly as a response to the style of kill-first, ask-questions-later anti-heroes popularized by writers Warren Ellis and Mark Millar in The Authority, Kelly’s reaffirmation of Superman’s values in the face of the 1990’s wave of “extreme” superheroes remains poignant even if it comes off a bit heavy-handed in hindsight. You’ll find this story collected in the trade paperback of The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told, and for good reason: it reminds us that Superman as a character is above the type of morally nihilist pandering publishers often revert to in an effort to make their superheroes appealing to the increasingly morally ambiguous world in which we live. It’s point, which is a damn good one, is that Superman’s dedication to the preservation of life and upholding what is right never waver, even if the problems he faces and the world he protects have both grown more and more complex over the years.

That’s it for now. If you’ve ever found yourself struggling to find a version of Superman that appeals to you or that you remember from your youth, hopefully you’ll pick up one of these great stories and be reminded the character still works and remains relevant and culturally powerful despite the poor decisions made by DC and Warners over the years. Although this post is my last word on Superman for the foreseeable future, it’s possible I’ll return to the topic to recommend more great Superman stories over the years, including the near-perfect depiction of the character in Bruce Timm’s animated DC Universe, the hard-to-find but brilliant Last Son of Krypton and Miracle Monday novels by Elliot S! Maggin, and the odd, single-issue gem that’s popped up in recent years. Stay tuned.

As always, please spread word of this post and blog onto friends and likeminded fans.