Posted By Dan Greenfield on Jul 6, 2025 | 10 comments

SUPERMAN WEEK: Comics! Books! Movies! Cartoons! You name it!

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It’s SUPERMAN WEEK! Because there’s a fancy new movie coming out! Click here for the COMPLETE INDEX of columns and features! Look, up in the sky! — Dan

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By PAUL KUPPERBERG

For me, there was only ever one brass ring on the merry-go-round of my comic-book writing career that I wanted to grab: Superman.

Sure, I loved them all, the DC superheroes I grew up reading through the 1960s and early 1970s, and I was anxious to get my hands on them all, but there could be only one greatest and that one could only be the first, the mightiest, and the best.

The story of his birth has become almost as familiar as his origin story. Superman was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, debuting in 1938’s Action Comics #1. The character quickly became a cultural icon, soon starring in his own radio serial, newspaper comic strip, and as a licensed figure on everything from toys to sliced bread, but Siegel and Shuster sold the rights to DC Comics (then National Periodical Publications) for just $130.

As Superman’s popularity soared, the creators fought for recognition and compensation. In the 1940s and again in the 1970s, they launched legal battles for credit and royalties. They never regained ownership, but public support eventually led DC to grant them lifetime pensions and proper creator credit, and, in 2008, the Siegel estate regained partial control over the Superman copyright.

When I discovered Superman sometime around 1960, the Man of Steel was up to his super-eyeballs in the silliness of editor Mort Weisinger’s long run on the title. Juvenile and ridiculous as these stories seem today, Weisinger had an instinct for what his 8- to 13-year-old readers wanted, and, to keep them on their toes, he was always introducing new, random bits and pieces to the Superman mythos, from new colors of Kryptonite to cast members like mermaid (and one-time Clark Kent fiancée) Lori Lemaris and the Bizarros.

Weisinger changed somewhat with the times, working with younger writers like Jim Shooter and Cary Bates during the 1960s, but his corny sensibilities still showed through, and it wasn’t until the editor’s retirement in 1971 that Superman got a shot in the arm under its new editor, Julie Schwartz. I was 16 at the time and Schwartz was the editor, the man who had overseen the new superhero age of revitalized heroes, starting with the Flash, Green Lantern, Atom, and Hawkman, and who brought the moribund Batman franchise back to life in 1964 with the “New Look” introduced in Detective Comics #327 (May 1964). Now, he was going to apply that same energy to the Metropolis Marvel, debuting in “the amazing new adventures of” Superman #233 (January 1971).

It took me a few years. I broke into comics in 1975, and by the early 1980s, I was, in fact, writing Superman. For Julie Schwartz! That was, for me, the sign that I had made it in my chosen profession.

Superman first burst on the scene 87 years ago, written and drawn since then by I can’t tell you how many hundreds of different hands and points of view, who, with rare exceptions, have found the simple and elegant core of this character that enabled him to endure.

Here then, and because this time I couldn’t trim my list down any further, are 13 (+3) SUPER WAYS TO CELEBRATE SUPERMAN WEEK:

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Action Comics #1 (June 1938). So, who is Superman? You need look no further than Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s iconic and much reprinted introductory tale to learn all you need to about the Man of Steel and his mild-mannered alter ego! For the true 1938 experience, I recommend the recent Action Comics #1 Facsimile Edition, printed in its original Golden Age trim size!

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Max Fleischer’s Superman Cartoons (1941-43). My first exposure to Superman came from these classic cartoons made by the legendary Max Fleischer Studios (Betty Boop, Koko the Clown, Gulliver’s Travels) that ran on the kid’s show I watched on New York TV every night before bedtime. Since I was a 4- or 5-year-old watching them on a 17-inch black and white TV, it wasn’t the quality of the animation that held my attention, but the super exploits of the Superman doing them. That was confirmed a few months later when I finally put two and two together and realized the gray-toned caped flying man in those cartoons was the same as the one in the blue, red, and yellow costume on the covers of the comic books in the local candy store. I was hooked.

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The Adventures of Superboy (DC, 2010). At some point, someone must have said, “Superman must have been super when he was a kid, right?” and “the adventures of Superman when he was a boy” was born, introduced in More Fun Comics #101 (January/February 1945). It was a charming strip, focusing on a 10-year-old Superboy and his Smallville pals. The original stories by Siegel, Shuster, Don Cameron, Bill Finger, Win Mortimer, and others from More Fun and Adventure Comics were reprinted in a 2010 hardcover.

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The Adventures of Superman (1952-58). When I was a boy, only two people had ever played Superman on film, but I was only aware of one of them: George Reeves (Kirk Alyn appeared in two earlier movie serials that I would learn about years later). It was a natural progression for me from the Fleischer cartoons to the comic books to the live-action show, and Reeves’ Superman/Clark Kent permanently imprinted itself onto my psyche from my years of repeated childhood viewings of the 104 episodes every afternoon after school.

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Superman Annual #1 (1960). It was only fitting that DC’s first superhero star in their first superhero annual, which gave its readers a whopping 80 pages for a mere 25 cents. It collected classic Superman stories, including origin tales and early adventures, and a nostalgic look back at the Man of Steel’s not-so-distant Golden Age. It featured iconic characters like Superboy, Lois Lane, and Krypto the Superdog, and its success led to the publication of more annuals starring Batman, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, the Flash, and others.

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Superman #233 (January 1971). “Kryptonite Nevermore!” by O’Neil, Curt Swan, and Murphy Anderson announced there was a new Super-editor in town and things were going to be different! The story eliminated all Kryptonite on Earth, reducing Superman’s vulnerabilities and grounding his powers. It launched a new era of storytelling aimed at modernizing the hero, and its Neal Adams cover became one of the most iconic in comics history.

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The Amazing World of DC Comics: Official Metropolis Edition (1973). This special tabloid edition celebrating the fictional city of Metropolis, home of Superman, was produced for a “Superman Day” event in Metropolis, Illinois. It blended in-universe lore with real-world fandom and featured articles, maps, and stories that deepened the mythos of Metropolis.

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Superman: Serial to Cereal by Gary Grossman (Popular Library, 1976). This is a definitive chronicle of Superman’s transition from 1940s film serials to the 1950s television series The Adventures of Superman. The book offers in-depth interviews with key cast members, including George Reeves, Noel Neill, and Jack Larson, and provides behind-the-scenes insights into the show’s production. It also features rare photographs and detailed episode guides.

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Superman vs Muhammad Ali (1978). Adams, with O’Neil, delivered a knockout punch with this landmark comic, originally published in the oversized tabloid/treasury format.

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Superman: The Movie (1979). Christopher Reeve. Superman. We believed a man could fly!

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Superman: The Last Son of Krypton by Elliot S! Maggin (Warner Books, 1979). I love this book. Elliot S. Maggin reimagined Superman’s origin, blending Silver Age storytelling with hard science fiction. Despite its cover photo of Christopher Reeve and being released at the same time as Superman: The Movie, this isn’t a novelization but an original tale that explores Kal-El’s journey from Krypton to Earth, his upbringing in Smallville, and his complex relationship with Lex Luthor, set around a story that leads to an alliance between the foes to thwart an alien threat tied to Albert Einstein’s lost papers.

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World of Krypton (1979). Another not-a-movie-tie-in was my World of Krypton miniseries (with art by Howard Chaykin, Anderson, and Frank Chiaramonte), a three-issue compilation of all the Kryptonian history and lore editor E. Nelson Bridwell could have me stuff into the scripts. This became, incidentally and by accident, the first comic-book miniseries, and has since been reprinted along with older “World of Krypton” back-up stories and later miniseries about Superman’s homeworld.

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Superman: From the ’30s to the ’80s (Random House, 1983). One of the all-time great compilations, edited by Superman super-fan Bridwell! This hardcover anthology — updated from the more widely available 1971 Superman: From the ’30s to the ’70s — showcased the evolution of the Man of Steel through five decades, featuring landmark stories from each era, including his 1938 debut, Golden and Silver Age adventures, and Bronze Age developments.

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The Man of Steel (1986). John Byrne’s miniseries rebooted Superman’s origin for a modern audience after Crisis on Infinite Earths. It redefined Clark Kent as the true identity, emphasized his human upbringing, and altered key relationships, marking the hero’s first major reboot in his then almost 50-year history.

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It’s Superman by Tom De Haven (Chronicle Books, 2005). Simply one of the best “Elseworlds” ever! De Haven reimagined Superman from the get-go in a post-Depression, World War II era America that goes straight to the heart of what makes the character great, blending historical realism with superhero lore. I advise you to track down a copy and put it on the top of your to-read pile. You’ll thank me.

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Super Boys by Brad Ricca (St. Martin’s Press, 2013). Brad Ricca’s Super Boys is the first comprehensive biography of Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Heavily researched, it uncovers their early collaborations, the real-life inspirations behind Lois Lane and Superman’s costume, and their subsequent battles with DC Comics.

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MORE

— The Complete SUPERMAN WEEK INDEX of Columns and Features. Click here.

— KERRY CALLEN: The Day JIMMY OLSEN Went Too Far Trying to Prove CLARK KENT Is SUPERMAN. Click here.

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PAUL KUPPERBERG was a Silver Age fan who grew up to become a Bronze Age comic book creator, writer of Superman, the Doom Patrol, and Green Lantern, creator of Arion Lord of Atlantis, Checkmate, and Takion, and slayer of Aquababy, Archie, and Vigilante. He is the Harvey and Eisner Award nominated writer of Archie Comics’ Life with Archie, and his YA novel Kevin was nominated for a GLAAD media award and won a Scribe Award from the IAMTW. He also wrote an essay for DC’s Aquaman: 80 Years of the King of the Seven Seas. Check out his new memoir, Panel by Panel: My Comic Book Life. 

Website: https://www.paulkupperberg.net/

Shop: https://www.paulkupperberg.net/shop-1