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You mean the title being "Action Comics" or just "Superman"? Action Comics was the first title to introduce Superman way back in 1938. The comic book entitled just "Superman came along later.
Supes was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster. At first everyone rejected their Superman idea, and before they settled on anything appearing like Supes, they had a story about a Super-Man who looked like Lex Luthor and wanted to take over the world. That one was way back though and didn't take off.
Here's some stuff from wikipedia.org
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The first Superman character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster was not a hero, but a villain. Their short story "The Reign of the Superman", concerning a bald-headed villain bent on dominating the world, appeared in a science fiction fanzine that Siegel published. Jerry reconceived the character in 1932 as a hero, and began a six-year quest to find a publisher. This new heroic version of Superman wore the costume that is familiar to us today. The design was based on the traditional "circus strong-man" outfit. This "pants-over-tights" outfit became the basis for many future superhero outfits. This new version of Superman had vast physical superhuman abilities, as opposed to the mental abilities of the original, bald, and villainous Superman. The heroic Superman had many of the qualities of pulp action heroes before him, indeed, the moniker "Man of Steel" was directly based on that of "Doc Savage, Man of Bronze."
Humor Magazines almost published an early version in 1933, but the company dropped their comics line before the book was finished. Frustrated, Siegel and Shuster took a job with Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson's National Allied Publications, where they created many other comic strips. With some experience under their belt, they finally positioned Superman as the lead feature in Detective Comics Inc.'s new title, Action Comics.
The revised Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1 (June 193 ; a syndicated newspaper comics strip began in January of 1939, followed by the eponymous Superman comic book series that summer. Siegel and Shuster sold the rights to the company for $130 and a contract to supply the publisher with material.[citation needed] The Saturday Evening Post reported in 1941 that the pair was being paid only a fraction of Detective's Superman profits. Siegel and Shuster renegotiated their deal, but bad blood lingered and Siegel eventually sued Detective in 1947 over the rights to Superboy, which he claimed was a separate creation that Detective had published without authorization. Detective immediately fired them and took their byline off the stories, prompting a legal battle that ended in 1948, when they settled. Detective paid them for the rights to Superboy, which they had been awarded by the court, but refused to re-hire them.
Following the huge financial success of Superman: The Movie in 1978 and news reports of their pauper-like existences, Warner Communications gave Siegel and Shuster lifetime pensions of $35,000 per year and health care benefits. In addition, any media production which includes the Superman character must include the credit "Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster".
During a multimedia career spanning over sixty years, Superman has starred in nearly every imaginable situation, and his powers have increased to the point that he is nearly omnipotent. This poses a challenge for writers: "How does one write about a character who is nearly as powerful as God?" (Superman's Kryptonian name, "Kal-El," resembles the Hebrew words קל-אל, which means "voice of God") This problem contributed to a decline in Superman's popularity during the latter half of the 1960s and the 1970s, a period during which Marvel Comics brought a new level of character development to mainstream comic books.
1987 test logo.By the early 1980s, DC Comics had decided that a major change was needed to make Superman more appealing to current audiences. Writer/artist John Byrne was asked to revamp and revise Superman's continuity with his Man of Steel retelling of his origin. This 1986 reboot brought substantial changes to the character and met huge success at the time, becoming one of the top-selling books. The re-launch of Superman comic books returned the character to the mainstream, again in the forefront of DC's titles. Superman's sales declined again after Byrne left the Superman titles after almost two years, with only sporadic sales spikes since then (notably in The Death of Superman storyline).
In July 1987, DC released variant editions of Justice League #3 and The Fury of Firestorm #61 with a new DC logo. It featured a picture of Superman in a circle surrounded by the words "SUPERMAN COMICS." These variant covers were released to newsstands in certain markets as a marketing test [1]. The experiment was not repeated.
more info more from wiki
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but i would appreciate any help i get... as ive been looking through comic books and the different ages im getting confused.. y are there action comic and superman wats the difference? and if any1 could attemp to answer this it would b great 
.....what do the characters names reveal about the influence on the writer?
