Books : Superman Chronicles, Vol. 1

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- Man of Socialism
I hate Superman. I have always hated Superman. This has nothing to do with my childhood years and my brother always calling Superman before I could get a chance to. I just hate Superman. Too damn good. Too patriotic. Too one-dimensional. Too authoritarian. I always gravitated to the more grey area heroes like Batman, SPider-Man, Daredevil, Dr. Strange. This being said, Superman Chronicles is a wonderful collection and allows the scholar to see Seigel and Schuster's creation in its original context. This has opened a new window on the character for me, and for that, this book is worth exploring if you have ambivalence toward the Superfascist.

Rating:

- I hope DC comics sees this series through to the end
I've been looking for several years for a way to go back and read the original Superman comics without necessarily becoming a comic book collector. The goal of this series is to reprint every single Superman comic book story from 1938 to the present. I don't know when Volume 2 will come out, but I intent to collect all of them! I just hope that sales are sufficient for DC Comics to keep publishing these.

In terms of the content of the book, as other reviewers have already pointed out, Superman is quite different from the one we know today, both in terms of his powers and his sense of ethics. All of this adds to the sense that you're reading a bit of American cultural history.

Rating:

- A Lifeform that was born out There Begin In Here
He was the World's first comic book superhero, the sole survivor of Krypton, who works for a great newspaper as Clark Kent & fights for truth, justice & the American way as the amazing man in blue tights & a red cape, SUPERMAN, In this book our his early comic book adventures begining with his debut in Action Comics #1 followed by 13 more Action comics, New York World's Fair comic & Superman # 1 reprinted for a new generation to thrill to his adventures & for the older folks who bought these seperatley for a dime. It's a must have for a Superman fan, to read where his legacy begin from the imagination of two cleveland teenagers Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster. Featuring the debuts of fiesty reporter Lois Lane, Perry White when he was George Taylor, also when Daily Planet was the Daily Star. Buy the Superman Chronicles Vol. 1

Rating:

- A MORE AFFORDABLE RE-PRINT FORMAT
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

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