The Silver Age is arguably one of the best periods in comic book history. Spanning from approximately 1956 to 1970, the era saw the creation of new characters and concepts that would go on to be iconic and important decades later, fantastic art, and the reemergence of superheroes after a time when such stores had struggled, thanks to societal controversy that blamed comics for juvenile delinquency. The Silver Age was also an era of absolutely wild stories, including those that put beloved characters in strange (and often hilarious) scenarios that can only be described as “quirky.”
This is especially true for Superman‘s Silver Age. Full of campy stories that often leaned into sci-fi territory, it’s an era that was often lighthearted, but is also one that deeply expands the Superman mythos. Silver Age stories introduced major concepts about Krypton, Superman’s powers, and even saw some of his classic villains start to coalesce into the threats they are today. It’s a great time to be a Superman fan — and here are seven of the greatest Superman stories from that era.
Superman has died a lot in comics; with the Silver Age being full of “what if” scenarios, that era gave us the first story to bear the “The Death of Superman” title. Superman #149 takes place in an alternate reality that sees Lex Luthor actually manage to successfully take out Superman. The story sees Lex in jail, working to redeem himself. The villain develops the cure for cancer as a way to make up for his evil past, and Superman even speaks on his behalf at his parole hearing. Redeemed, Lex is now Superman’s friend and even refuses to help some other bad guys kill him. Superman ends up making Lex his own space lab to work in, and one day, Lex calls him there. Turns out, it’s a trap. Lex turns on Superman and uses Kryptonite to kill him, forcing Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Perry White to watch.
The story is absolutely bonkers. Supergirl disguises herself as Superman (yes, really) and apprehends Lex. Lex goes on trial not on Earth but on Kandor and is found guilty and subjected to an appropriate punishment. They use a Phantom Zone Ray, and he’s turned to a phantom “for all eternity.” It’s a bleak tale in that Superman doesn’t come back in the end, but it certainly helps establish Lex as a truly vile villain.
The Silver Age is full of Superman stories that feature Lois Lane, and this might be one of the wildest. Another imaginary tale, “Lois Lane, the Supermaid From Earth!” flips Superman’s story around and gives it to Lois. This time, it’s Earth that explodes, and Lois is sent from Earth to Krypton. There she grows up and gets superpowers. Instead of Superman saving Lois all the time, it’s Supermaid always saving the powerless Kal-El.
The story is surprisingly progressive for its time and is honestly a fun and refreshing look at the idea that women can take care of themselves — and the men, too. It’s also always just entertaining to see Kal-El be the one in need of a rescue. The story does ultimately revert to the normal status quo, but it’s still a fun little exploration.
This might be the best story to pit Superman and Lex Luthor against one another in the comics, period. In the story, Lex goes to the planet Lexor to lick his wounds after a battle with Superman, and because of Lex’s efforts with technology, the people of Lexor see Lex as a savior. However, Superman does end up traveling to Lexor and, since Lexor has a red sun, Lex ends up fighting with a depowered Superman. The fight unfortunately destabilizes Lexor’s core, and the planet is ultimately destroyed — along with Lex’s wife and son.
This story is really significant in that we see elements of this sort of hero-villain dynamic between Superman and Lex in future stories, but it also goes a long way to humanize Lex. The consequences of his hate-fueled actions are tragic and serve as a cautionary tale about what this kind of bigotry can cause.
This might be one of the weirdest Superman stories ever. The Man of Steel is looking into something causing earthquakes in Metropolis, and in dealing with the issue, he finds a spaceship. That spaceship blows up when Superman touches it, and a short time later, he starts exhibiting new powers. He also seems to have lost pretty much all of his old powers, except for this weird finger glowing situation he has going on – but we’re just getting started. Turns out, a tiny replica Superman shoots out of his hand, and that tiny Superman has his regular powers. Tiny Superman is so effective that even regular Superman gets jealous, and he realizes that he might have to kill Tiny Superman to get his powers back, using him to fight off a meteor shower full of Kryptonite.
Ultimately, Tiny Superman ends up sacrificing himself to save Superman when some criminals get hold of Kryptonite from the meteor. His death restores Superman’s powers, and we go back to normal. However, this story shows that Silver Age Superman was not always the best guy. He did want to kill Tiny Superman after all. Yikes.
A story from the Silver Age that isn’t completely bonkers, Action Comics #242 features the introduction of one of Superman’s great villains: Brainiac. The story also introduces the bottle city of Kandor, which makes this a major moment for Superman comics. Brainiac is introduced as an alien traveling around collecting cities from all over the place. He also has a pet monkey-like creature. When Brainiac shrinks Paris, Superman springs into action and discovers — thanks to Brainiac putting himself to sleep for his long journey to the next bottling opportunity — that the alien has actually bottled Kandor, a city from Krypton before it exploded. Superman returns the other bottled cities to where they belong, but since Krypton is no more, he takes Kandor back to the fortress with him.
The story is interesting because we get an early version of Brainiac, but also because we get to see Superman get to interact with his own culture, which is pretty great considering that Krypton is a lost world. And yes, Brainiac seems relatively harmless here, but don’t worry. He gets more developed in the years and appearances to come.
This one started as an imaginary story and ended up being considered an alternative universe story from Earth-162. Superman finds out that the Kandorians are disappointed in him for a variety of reasons (including not being able to un-shrink them), so they make a deal where he can’t handle things in six months, and he has to swap places with a Kandorian. Superman feels bad, decides to try to boost his intelligence with a device called the “brain evolving machine,” and it works, but it also splits him into two people: Superman Red and Superman Blue. Superman Red ends up living in New Krypton with Lois Lane, where they have twins, while Superman Blue marries Lana Lang and stays on Earth. The two Supermen manage to handle the issues with Kandor, too, eradicating crime and restoring Krypton. It’s… a lot.
What’s interesting about this story is that it’s a “twin” storyline in which neither Superman is an “evil twin.” It’s also a kind of crazy “have your cake and eat it, too” situation since Superman ends up with both Lois and Lana. Jimmy Olsen also ends up marrying Lucy Lane. It’s just a wild story and very fun, and there really isn’t anything else quite like it in Superman history.
This is not only the best Silver Age Superman story (by a wide margin), but probably one of the best Superman tales of all time. In “Clark Kent’s Incredible Delusion”, Clark wakes up one day to find that he has no powers, no super suit, and someone else is claiming they’re Superman. This prompts Clark to seek therapy, and the therapist tells him that he’s delusional. Per the therapist, he told himself the story that he was Superman because his real life was disappointing.
This story is such a gem because it asks a pretty fundamental question for everyone: what happens when the world sees you differently from how you see yourself? It also poses questions about what is real and what is not in terms of how we see ourselves, and when readers see Superman struggle with those big questions, it humanizes him even more. Of course, Superman is actually, well, Superman, but it’s a powerful story and an all-time classic.
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