Showcase Presents: Superman, Vol. 1 by Jerry Siegel

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This monster sized 560-page collection contains 17 months of Superman stories from June 1958-November 1959.

To enjoy this book, you have to understand Superman of this era. The Superman Stories of the early Silver Age are not primarily considered about Superman's rogue's gallery or finding some challenge that's physically equal to the Man of Steel. Very few stories in this book are about that. What made Superman stories interesting to folks in the late 1950s was that the books were about Superman. Superman has a ton of superpowers and is the type of scientific genius/troubleshooter who could give modern-day Batman a run for his money.

But the guy's got problems. He wants to maintain his identity as Clark Kent and keep his job at the planet. He's got countless villains after him and Kryptonite seemed to be plentifully available. Superman's problems are different, though, so more people will empathize with Peter Parker being bullied then Superman having his head turned into a lion.

Simply put, Superman is pretty interesting guy and complaining about quality of villains is like whining about the quality of opponents the Harlem Globetrotters play. No one is there to see the Washington Generals. Same thing with Superman. Who cares if he's taking on Sinister Thug #20. The writers make it seem interesting.

So what does this book have? It features issues of Both Superman and Action Comics. The Action Comics story would usually be 12-13 pages long. The Superman books were longer but usually came with three stories eight-to-nine pages in length.

Superman firsts and old favorites: DC's decision to begin in 1958 wasn't arbitrary. Some pretty amazing things happen right off the bat. Action Comics #241 introduces the arctic Fortress of Solitude. In the course of the book, we see the first appearances of Brainiac, Metallo, Supergirl, the bottled city of Kandor, and the adult Bizarro. In addition, Luther comes in for several appearances. All very amazing stuff to see all these firsts.

Comedy: People always talk about unintentional humor in these books, but I think there's plenty of intentional humor, such as in "Superman Joins the Army." when a headstrong Captain is determined to have Superman drafted and treated exactly like any other soldier. Hilarity ensues. There's the story where Superman forgets his identity of Clark Kent, so he adopts another identity as a British man-name of Clarence Kelvin. Superman in this book has its serious moments but is far more light-hearted.

Emotion: There are some pretty moving moments in the book. There's the story in which the Kents (deceased during the Silver age) travel forwards in time to meet their boy. Superman gets all emotional and takes them to the Fortress of Solitude. They're disappointed when they found the room dedicated to Superman's parents is for Jor-el and Lara. However, Superman had a special one for his Earth Parents. Superman says to them, "I have two sets of parents and love them both dearly...I can never thank you enough for having adopted me." Very sweet. Another favorite scene is when Superman finds himself with a head of a lion. Lois Lane's interest in Superman often seems shallow and a little creepy but when she kisses him while he's got the head of lion, it's absolutely beautiful.

Untold Tales of Superman and Imaginary Stories: Some of the Superman magazines included Untold Tales of Superman. These range from so-so to fascinating. None is better than, "The Girl in Superman's Past" that has a college-aged Clark Kent considering ending his career as Superman to be with a beautiful girl in a wheelchair in a beautiful story. There's also a full-length Adventures of Superman that was dedicated to imagining Clark Kent's life had Krypton not blown up. It's an early pre-cursor to the Elseworlds stories that DC has released in recent years.

Not every story is "Super" but most of them are great and these 17 months of comics are highly entertaining. See Superman battling Lex Luthor as the Kryptonite Man and Jimmy Olson has a crazy battle with Superman with a nice surprise twist.

The book's not without its flaws. My personal pet peeve is "*choke*" being used repeatedly to show emotion. But other than that, this really is light and unbelievably fun. Silver Age Superman is a courageous, funny, smart, and sweet Superhero, and definitely makes for some worthwhile reading.



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