Superman in the Forties by Jerry Siegel

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This volume contains 192 pages of Golden Age awesomeness. To begin with, we get the first two Superman Stories from action comics in the 1930s. In them. Superman saved an innocent woman from execution, stopped a wife beating, and saves Lois from a psycho kidnapper. And that was just in the first ten pages. Next up is preventing a war.

We get a peak at Superman, both as a rough and tumble no nonsense Superhero whose rough interrogation methods would make Jack Bauer winces to the still strong, but also wiser and gentler role model we knew in the 1940s and 50s.

Along the way, we get to see Superman's first tangle with the Ultra-Humanite, Lex Luthor, and the Toyman, as well as an early encounter with Mr. Mxtztplk. All these characters are vastly different from their modern counterpart with Mxtztplk being more mischievous than truly a danger to the Man of Steel. We also get to see the first appearance of Krytonite in the comic books (after it'd been all over the radio series for two years). In the comics, it appeared as a gem on a phony swami's hat.

As Superman progressed, his writers gained humility. When Jerry Siegel began writing Superman at age 24, all war was the cause of manipulators, and Superman could end and avoid was in a single issue. When confronted with a real life conflict, Siegel imagined a year before Pearl Harbor that Superman could end the war in Europe in two pages by dragging Hitler before the League of Nations. Experience brought humility. However, when America entered the war, the writers knew they couldn't just have Superman end it. Thus Superman focused more on helping others with compassion and intelligence rather than using brute force all the time. (Though he could still use that when called for.)

Throughout the book, Superman cared about the concerns of ordinary Americans, from taking on warmongers and spies to giving what for to a crooked patent attorney, Superman was focused on helping out people in need. This book contains stories of that genuine American hero.

As a patriot, I loved the war story, "America's Secret Weapon," and the final story, "Christmas 'Round the World" was beautifully moving.

While DC has taken to releasing its Archive Collections (Hardback) and Chronicles (Paperback) chronicling the adventures of the Man of Steel, this book is more of a best of compilation from the 1930s and 40s. Its perfect for someone who wants a little Superman as he was meant to be in their library or who wants to see some of the more interesting stories of the era. In addition, the current Chronicles Collection is only up to 1942, so many of the stories in hear from 1944 and after won't be in Trade paperback for years.




View all my reviews