Superman has reached a new level of popularity in the 2020s and last year’s Superman is a huge reason why. While there’s a cottage industry of people out there trying to tell you that the movie wasn’t popular because it didn’t make a billion dollars or whatever movable goal post they’ve set up, Superman did everything it needed to do and was able to make people take notice of the Man of Steel. DC Comics has done an excellent job of giving movie fans amazing comics since the dawn of the DCU and it’s an exciting time to be a fan of the Last Son of Krypton.
It can be hard to be a new comic fan, especially of a character as old as Supes. There are so many stories to choose from and it can often be hard to find the best of them. All-Star Superman is the book everyone points to and there’s a good reason for that – it’s a perfect comic book. However, it’s far from the only Superman story that a new fan should hunt down. The Man of Tomorrow has almost 90 years of stories under his belt, and there are a lot of gems to discover out there. These five Superman stories are perfect for DCU fans, giving them the kind of Super-action that they will appreciate.
I am a simple man; I write a Superman list, I include a Grant Morrison story. This time, I’m going with one that most fans probably wouldn’t – Final Crisis: Superman Beyond 3-D. This two-issue 3-D miniseries from Morrison and Doug Mahnke is a tie-in to the rather complex 2008 event Final Crisis, which might make it seem strange to be here. However, one of the weird things about Final Crisis is that the tie-in comics were often surprisingly standalone (Fiinal Crisis: Legin of Three Worlds is another perfect example of this). The events of book did spin out the main book – Lois Lane is injured in an attack on The Daily Planet and Superman has to take a multiversal trip in the Bleed with Captain Marvel of Earth-5, Captain Adam of Earth-4, Overman of Earth-10, and the Monitor Zillo Valla to help save the multiversal watchers from their greatest enemy and find what he needs to save his wife. The book is all about Superman trying to do anything to save the woman he loves and it insane in the best possible ways – we get to see Superman lift a book with infinite pages and the Cosmic Armor, ending in a massive kaiju fight. One of my favorite things about it is that it’s a showcase of numerous types of Supermen, showing the depth and breadth of the character. It’s a cool multiverse story that digs into who Superman is, with Morrison and Mahnke making an amazing team (as they usually do).
I was going to put “Panic In the Sky” here originally, but if I’m being honest, that story would be kind of confusing for DCU fans because it’s post-Crisis Brainiac, who was something of a mess for years. However, Action Comics #1000 is perfect for DCU fans. This is one of the most stacked anniversary issues in comics and it is worth every penny (although it was ordered to high Heaven, so you won’t be paying more than cover price for most of the covers). DC took the best talent they had – Dan Jurgens, Peter Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, Marv Wolfman, Curt Swan, Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, Olivier Coipel, Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, Tom King, Louise Simonson, Jerry Ordway, Paul Dini, Jose-Luis Garcia-Lopez, Brad Meltzer, John Cassaday, Brian Michael Bendis, and Jim Lee – telling amazing Superman stories from across the character’s history. I really can’t praise this book enough. Each and every story is a flawless snapshot of comics’ greatest hero and his history. These big anniversary issues can get kind of bloated and have very little impact, but this one is the platonic ideal of what an anniversary issue should be.
The Silver Age was when Superman was at his apex, but I don’t really recommend Silver Age comics to new readers. They’re quite different structurally from modern comics and their craziness would be a bit much for a lot of readers. However, numerous modern creators have taken the ideas of Silver Age Superman and brought them to the present and a perfect example of that is Superman: Space Age. This story follows the Man of Steel through the 1960s to the 1980s as he establishes himself as the world’ greatest hero, helps found the Justice League, and gets embroiled in a multiversal crisis that will look quite familiar to readers, all while Lex Luthor labors in the background (since this is DC, there’s also a lot of Batman). This three issue series from Mark Russell, Mike Allred, and Laura Allred is everything you could want from a modern Silver Age comic. It captures the wonder and imagination of those bygone days, all while taking the story and characters in directions they never would have gone back then. The Allreds are the key ingredient to the whole thing; their retro style fits the vibes of this story to a tee. Superman: Space Age is surprisingly great; while we all knew it would be good, I don’t think anyone thought it would be this good.
Superman: Secret Identity, by Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonene, is one of those books that should be a lot better known than it is and hopefully this list will help that. The story took the idea of Superboy Prime, the Teen of Steel from Earth-Prime (the “real” world), and used it in the best way possible. Clark Kent is the only person on his Earth with superpowers and decides to use those powers to make a difference in the world, leading him to a life unlike any other. The book follows him throughout his life in Smallville, Metropolis, and beyond, showing the trials and tribulations of the world’s most powerful person and his family. There have been lots of kinds of Superman stories over the years, but this is one of the most unique. A lot of people think that a real world Superman story needs to have some grit and darkness, because that’s “realistic”. However, this book has the classic optimistic Superman vibe but still is able to capture the realism that makes this story tick. It’s an all-time classic that should be talked about in the same breath as books like All-Star Superman.
The story of DC in the ’90s is surprisingly good; Marvel sold more books (while also having much bigger failures) but DC had built up the perfect corps of writers and artists. Some of the best DC stories of all-time were published in the decade of extreme, with the team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale being one of the best out there. They told numerous amazing Batman stories (and a Gambit and Wolverine series), including the classic Batman: The Long Halloween, and would get their chance at Superman with the fantastic Superman for All Seasons. The four-issue series focused on four different characters – Jonathan Kent, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, and Lana Lang – and their view of the Man of Steel, each story taking place in a different season (spring, summer, fall, and winter respectively). It’s a brilliant example of Superman as Americana, with Sale’s artwork having a sort of Norman Rockwell vibe despite the art looking completely different from Rockwell’s. It’s a classic, another book that should be talked about in the same breath as the all-time greats of the comic industry and perfect for DCU fans.
