Customer Reviews

Superman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told, Vol. 2

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

DC Comics re-printing of the earliest Superman adventures isn't a new idea. We've seen them numerous times over the years both in regular comic reprints, Famous First Editions Treasuries, as well as the Action Comics Archives. But in Superman Chronicles, DC gives readers a slight variation. Rather than just providing reprints of a particular title, the Chronicles will be re-printing Superman stories in chronological order as they first appeared beginning with Action Comics #1 back in 1938. Thus this volume goes in order of Action Comics numbers 1 through 12, then New York World's Fair #1, Action Comics #13, and finally concluding with Superman #1. Obviously the often re-printed Action Comics stories are at the front of the line in this first volume but that will change in the future editions.

If you haven't read these stories before this is a Superman who is very different in both powers and appearance than the one we know today. Early on Superman did not fly, but could merely leap up to an 1/8th of a mile. No real origin is presented other than a brief preface that Superman was found by some motorists and placed into an orphanage. No mention of ma & pa kent whatsoever... And it wasn't the Daily Planet where Clark Kent got his start as a reporter but the Daily Star. While Lois Lane was around from the beginning, to say her and Clark didn't quite get along at first is putting it mildly. Lois is downright nasty to Clark leading to a surprised exclamation by Clark when Lois actually says hello to him one day.

The villains early on are not exactly on the par of Lex Luthor, Brainiac, or Doomsday. Mostly Clark battles two-bit villains who are pretty indistinguishable from those that Batman may have fought. One may almost consider these early adventures mundane. In one, Clark goes up against a ruthless mine owner who refuses to improve the safety of his mines even after an accident traps several of his employees. Another story finds Clark impersonating a football player in order to bring down some gangsters who've hired thugs to purposely injure a rival teams best players.

One of the most humorous and most prophetic stories in the book is the one where a man shows up at the Daily Star claiming to be Superman's manager and saying he has the rights to license Superman's name for use in films or on products like bathing suits. One wonders if writer Jerry Siegel knew just how big Superman would become back in the late 30's, and how he would have to fight legal battles with DC over the character. Joe Shuster's art was a bit primitive even for the Golden Age and not on a par with others of the period like Kirby, Schomburg, Molduff, and Kubert. The real star, art-wise of these early issues of Action was cover artist Leo O' Mealia who contributes some dazzling covers. O' Mealia was an old pro who was perhaps best known for illustrating the Fu Manchu newspaper strip in the early 1930's. Kudos to DC for including all of these great covers.

One can question whether or not there's a need for these to be re-printed in chronological order. Continuity wasn't all that important back then and stories were rarely continued across different titles, but for those who have not read them it further preserves important comic book history. And on top of that, the soft cover format makes these far more affordable than the Archive editions.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

This is a collection of the earliest Superman comics, they are in color and affordable. I would consider these a must own for any Superman fan. Overall production value, although not flashy, is excellent and the stories are classics. This is where it all started.

Almost a year after the release of Volume 1, DC finally gives us SUPERMAN CHRONICLES VOLUME 2, continuing the admirable but somewhat laughable effort (at this rate, at least) of reprinting every Superman appearance in chronological order. This book features classic tales from Action Comics #14-20 and Superman #2 & 3, from 1939-1940. All stories are written and illustrated by Superman co-creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Keep in mind that these are some of the earliest adventures of Superman from comics' Golden Age, so the style is very direct, almost to a fault. Looking back on them, there's no real narrative complexity or character development - more like Siegel and Shuster were simply producing stories to fill a demand. It actually seems that the boys from Cleveland weren't quite sure what to do with their fantastic creation now that he was finally in comics. Superman didn't have much of a rogues gallery at this point; instead, he deals with white-collar criminals and thugs, with everyone behaving similarly to what was seen in the Superman TV series of the `50s. The only remarkable villain is the Ultra-Humanite, whose appearance in the final story of this volume is something no fan of James Robinson's THE GOLDEN AGE will want to miss. In any case, you're experiencing comics history in the making, getting a look at stories that your parents or grandparents enjoyed as kids, and gaining an understanding of why comics caught on as they did in a world that had a need for fantastic heroes. Even though these stories may be somewhat bland, they have an appeal that can't be ingnored.

I just wish DC would speed up their reprinting of these stories so that readers don't grow old before the Golden Age stories wrap up. There are certainly plenty of stories and other characters to choose from to keep these books coming. Get it in gear, DC!

Superman was a hit almost from day one, selling not only millions of comics but quickly went on to star in radio shows, movie serials, TV shows, cartoons, movies and every other media under the sun.

And it all starts here. This volume reprints the very first Superman stories from 1938 - the Superman chapters from Action Comics 1-13, the New York World's Fair special and Superman #1, some of the rarest and most valuable comic books ever published.

The art is crude but serviceable, but the stories are surprisingly political. Rather than fighting super villains or aliens Superman spends more of his time taking on corrupt businessmen and politicians. In one early story he ends a war in Europe by kidnapping an arms maker and forcing him to fight in the trenches. After his experience he swears never to make weapons again. This is a Superman who takes on the real issues of his time, and while the solutions are simplistic his goals are a lot more impressive than stopping bank robbers or killer robots.

An early super villain, the Ultra Humanite, puts in a appearance but even his plot is centered around labor unrest rather than death rays.

This is a fascinating look into the history of American comics. politics and popular culture. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in those subjects.

Superman Chronicles, Vol. 3 by Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster is another batch of
Golden Age goodies at a great price.
This is a very different Superman than the one I'm used to. One can only
wonder what he would be like today if the original creators had maintained
control of their character.

It's nice to read Superman's early stories. This is the way, he is supposed to be. Excellent kick back reading.

I got into Superman after getting into Smallville. It's very enjoyable to get back to the origins of this impressive legacy. I can't wait to see the evolution of Superman personally and in his powers. I will collect all of these chronicles as long as they publish them, and hopefully they will publish them all the way through.

The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told volume two is out, containing nine stories from throughout Superman's long and colorful history. Are these truly the greatest Superman stories? Probably not. The real goal of the DC editors seemed to be to select one story from each decade as opposed to honestly giving readers the best stories. It's more a decade-by-decade sampler of Superman. Good stories no doubt but you could find better I'd argue.

The first story seems to be included more for its historical significance rather than its greatness. "The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk" was originally presented in Superman #30 from 1944 and features Superman's first encounter with the troublesome imp from the 5th dimension. Mxyztplk is presented as a cartoon-like character, content to play practical jokes and far removed from the most sinister personality of the modern day character.

"Superman's Other Life" from Superman #132, 1959 presents an interesting "what if" story. Batman feeds all data about Superman into a super-computer called the Univac (which sounds more like Hoover's latest model...) and Superman can visually see how his life might have been if Krypton had not exploded and he was sent to Earth. It's actually an interesting story though hindered by Wayne Boring's art who I never much cared for due to his blocky character appearances.

Superman #141 gives us "The Team of Luthor and Brainiac" a pedestrian title for sure but a solid story written by popular Sci-Fi author Edmond Hamilton. Includes early Curt Swan art.

I'd say my favorite story in the book is "The Secret Revealed" from Superman #2 (2nd series) by John Byrne. Luthor is delving into Clark Kent's mysterious past and goes so far as to kidnap and torture Lana Lang. When all his data is processed by computer it reveals that Clark Kent is Superman. Luthor refuses to believe this as he thinks no person could hold such power without abusing it. A truly chilling look at Luthor's twisted personality.

Jonathan Kent is the true star of "Life After Death" from Superman 500. As Jonathan fights for life in a hospital, his spirit travels far and wide to try and return his son to life after being killed in the battle with Doomsday.

These aren't the greatest Superman stories ever but then again, ask a hundred people to give you their top Superman stories and you'd get a hundred different answers. Most of the stories are very good, a few are exceptional, and a few are ordinary. Great cover by Alex Ross!

Reviewed by Tim Janson

There are virtually no supervillains to be seen; instead, Superman started out as a kind of progressive icon, fighting the good fight for the common man. He takes on unjust death sentences, the military-industrial complex, unsafe working conditions, torture in prisons, and lax enforcement of traffic safety laws. It's incredibly bizarre and clearly written for an era with a different set of ideas about how superhero comics worked. In fact, it takes until the final issue of this collection - Action Comics #13 - to introduce a recurring villain, and that makes for a lot of extremely forgettable stories.

A few of the details of the Superman mythos have yet to be worked out. For starters, he works for the Daily Star at this point, and the chief doesn't appear to be named Perry White yet. The Kents are dead (which is something that will be changed later) and there is no Lex Luthor to speak of. Lois is here, though, and the love "triangle" between her, Clark, and Superman is hammered into place with some extremely hilarious thought-bubbles (turns out Lois loves Superman for his strength and hates Clark for his weakness - feminist comics, these ain't).

The narrative is also kind of choppy. There are a few false starts, with the plot changing halfway through an issue. In other cases, the story will end abruptly and then be picked up again the next issue as if nothing changed. In a digest format, these issues are weird; in a serial I can imagine they would be downright jarring. And while there is less of the casual murder we see in early Batman, Superman is not exactly violence-averse. He is more than willing to destroy property (I'm not even sure how to justify his behavior in his fight for automobile safety), punch people out, and threaten the bad guys until they agree to confess their crimes. The 1930s were a simpler time for those who relied on forced confessions, and apparently for many other things as well.

I don't own this book (though I own most of the stories in it in other collections), so take my 4-star rating of it with a grain of salt. I'm posting this primarily to point out that Amazon's editorial review is for "The Superman Chronicles," which is a different book entirely. (You'll notice that most of the other reader reviews are also for volume 1 or 2 of the Chronicles.) Here's a more accurate description, from [...]:

Collects SUPERMAN (Vol. 1) 130, 132, 141, 167, 233, 400, SUPERMAN (Vol. 2) 2, and ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN 500, 638. Written by Jerry Siegel, John Byrne, and Greg Rucka. Art by Curt Swan, Frank Miller, and Matthew Clarke. Cover by Alex Ross. A second collection of Superman's greatest adventures, reprinting several classic tales of Superman's battles between Luthor, Brainiac, Mr. Mxyztplk, and more!

Even that's not _completely_ accurate: there are other writers and artists who aren't listed (Edmond Hamilton and Wayne Boring, at least). And judging from Tim Janson's review, that first issue number should be 30, not 130.

Anyway, as Mr. Janson says, it's a very good survey of Superman stories from over 50 years. (I will say I'm fonder than he is of that first Mxyztplk story!) Even better is "The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told" (note slightly different title); at 336 pages long, it has a bigger selection (including three that are in this book). It's out of print, but used copies are easy to find.