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Great Superman stories....are they few and far between?
SolitaireRose
Posts: 1,445
I was talking with a co-worker last night about Superman, and I finally put into words something I have been thinking about for quite some time:
There are not a lot of great Superman stories.
There are memorable ones, they are ones that people have fond memories of, but great? Not so much.
The few that came to mind were: All Star Superman, The Alan Moore finale, the "Luthor offers a woman money to be his mistress" story by Byrne, Forever People #1 by Kirby and....
Nothin.
The best selling Superman story (Death of Superman) is a nearly beat for beat knockoff of the Mangog story in Thor by Kirby, a lot of the "Silver Age Classics" are overwritten gimmick stories that have NOT aged well at all and the one era when I really liked Superman (post Byrne up to Death of Superman) were decent enough stories, but nothing that I could point to as great.
I think a lot of it was the editors in charge of the character for years. Weisinger's sheer contempt for his audience comes through STRONGLY in every issue he edited. Superman's a jerk, Lois is a pain in the ass, everything's a gimmick and the writing is the worst of DC's house style. Schwartz is better, but still not good, as he just feeds off of all of the stuff Weisinger added to Superman and MORE gimmicks of Superman loses his powers, Superman fights a realistic version of Popeye, Superman outsmarts Luthor again, ad infinitum.
Maybe I'm wrong and I have missed something, or I am too much of a Kirby/Lee/Ditko guy. Convince me there have been MORE great Superman stories because as I see it, Superman may be the biggest wasted potential in all of comics.
There are not a lot of great Superman stories.
There are memorable ones, they are ones that people have fond memories of, but great? Not so much.
The few that came to mind were: All Star Superman, The Alan Moore finale, the "Luthor offers a woman money to be his mistress" story by Byrne, Forever People #1 by Kirby and....
Nothin.
The best selling Superman story (Death of Superman) is a nearly beat for beat knockoff of the Mangog story in Thor by Kirby, a lot of the "Silver Age Classics" are overwritten gimmick stories that have NOT aged well at all and the one era when I really liked Superman (post Byrne up to Death of Superman) were decent enough stories, but nothing that I could point to as great.
I think a lot of it was the editors in charge of the character for years. Weisinger's sheer contempt for his audience comes through STRONGLY in every issue he edited. Superman's a jerk, Lois is a pain in the ass, everything's a gimmick and the writing is the worst of DC's house style. Schwartz is better, but still not good, as he just feeds off of all of the stuff Weisinger added to Superman and MORE gimmicks of Superman loses his powers, Superman fights a realistic version of Popeye, Superman outsmarts Luthor again, ad infinitum.
Maybe I'm wrong and I have missed something, or I am too much of a Kirby/Lee/Ditko guy. Convince me there have been MORE great Superman stories because as I see it, Superman may be the biggest wasted potential in all of comics.
Comments
There is rarely a moment that I think Superman can lose. While I know they will win in the end, Batman gets beat up all the time, the Flash is a one (very impressive) trick pony, Green Lantern is subject to the power levels of his ring and the corrupt ness of the guardians, and Wonder Woman is powerful but not to the levels of Superman. They all seem vulnerable in some way. Superman does not.
Often the story can be great without the tension of whether Superman will be killed (he won't), or will Batman escape that death trap (he will).
I remember Greg Rucka's run of stories being particularly good, also the Byrne revamp was good. Jerry Ordway's run was also good but very little of that is collected.
And while I think Weisinger was reprehensible in the way he treated the creators who worked for him—and in certain aspects of his personal life—I don't think he held his audience in contempt (at least no more so than he held anyone else). He was targeting his books for a very specific audience—the aforementioned eight- to twelve-year-olds—and was giving them what the sales figures told him that audience wanted. In the ’60s that audience began to change, and Weisinger wasn’t able (or perhaps willing) to change with the times, but that doesn’t take away from his success with the Superman books over a long period of time. For decades, Superman was the gateway for the rest of the DC universe titles, in no small part due to Weisinger’s direction. Could more have been done with the character? Sure, but that could be said of practically every character during that time period.
My favorite Superman story? His Death and Return.
...I also liked his time on Planet Krypton.
I have not read enough Superman myself to really be a good judge of this. But I will say that, compared to some other, long-lived characters who have long had multiple titles, I feel like I hear less great Superman stories remembered and referenced compared to Batman and Spider-Man. The ones that have been mentioned on this thread so far are almost all the ones that I hear get brought up, with maybe the addition to some of the origin retelling stories that have fans (eg Birthright).
But given how long he's been in comics, and how many comics he has had, it feels like there should be more great stories that come up in conversations. I feel like a list of great/beloved Batman stories would end up being longer, and more varied. And to me that says something about the differing challenges and opportunities of those two characters. I feel like Batman, even though he was only a year older, was already more modern. And Superman may suffer from being conceived as more of a classical character.
It reminds me of the differences between Greek Tragedy vs. Shakespeare Tragedy. The former suffers from being connected to fate, and thus it is harder to relate to, and the characters don't feel like they have agency or free will. The latter concerns tragedy born out of choice and human weakness, which continues to be relatable, and feels more modern. The one feels more the stuff of myth, and is about telling larger than life stories about gods; the other feels more human, and therefore feels more about humanity.
I, too, have reflected on how there really are not a lot of great stories featuring him. I think he's maybe an idea that is bigger than the sum of his parts... You know how when you look at a star in the night sky, you can sometimes see it better when you look slightly away from the star? I think that's how Superman is. The mystique, mythology, and honor of him is really almost too much to focus on. His legend, his environment, his enemies, and his friends, are part and parcel of who he is. The better stories, in my opinion, are the ones that look beyond all that power and explore who he is, and who he became in the farmlands of Smallville. His ability to change the course of mighty rivers might make for a good plot point, but the THEME of Superman is that he is loyal, and always strives to do the right thing, not because of, but in spite of, his great power.
I learned my sense of honor, right and wrong, from Superman. Before WWJD was even a thing, my 7-year-old self lived by the code of What Would Superman Do? Not that I was perfect, but he was the just-out-of-reach goal to shoot for.
I agree there are not a lot of GREAT Superman stories, but he is a character that has been sculpted, one small mark at a time, to be as well-defined as a fictional character can be. Indeed, it is a testament to the early creators' foundation-laying that he has SURVIVED some of the stories of his past.
Clearly thats not where it's going and I may be alone in this
That whole storyline was the end-all, be-all Superman story for me.
Many people miss the greatness in the Superman stories, because they either miss the mythic dimension, or miss how much the stories relate to the immigrant experience. Especially the Jewish immigrant experience.
When viewed through these lenses, the greatest of many of the Superman stories becomes immediately visible.
I see Superman as the ultimate wish fulfillment character for readers. He can do ANYTHING that fits, he can fly, he's strong, he has amazing abilities and he has the perfect angst-y love triangle: If Lois only knew I was really Superman, she'd love me.
How perfect is that for ANY outsider, if people knew the real me, they'd love me. It's SO powerful and SO perfect for hanging stories on, and yet the stories rarely rise about sit-com or super-hero soap opera. It's why the JMS storyline was SO disappointing: He said he would come in with a story showing his love for the character, and instead he sets him off on The Long Walk and doesn't even bother to hang around for the first 1/3rd of it.
I WANT some great Superman stories.
In many ways, the Superman stories are lesson in humility. And hubris.
Cary Bates wrote some great Superman stories during his lengthy run (as well as some fantastic Superboy stories) While far from earth shattering, they were fun stories that could only have been Superman stories, and there are a lot of gems in that run. Two of my favourites:
Action Comics 507-508 "The Miraculous Return of Jonathan Kent"
Jonathan Kent returns from the dead to visit his grown son.
Superman 338 (sigh) "Let My People Grow"
Not as cheesy as the title might lead one to believe.
http://www.amazon.com/Its-Bird-Steven-T-Seagle/dp/1401203116/
Its out there on the 'net. Find it. Read It.
While he's not the main character in the stories, I would also add the Jack Kirby run in Jimmy Olsen.