Recommend the best Superman comics for non-Superman fans

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For the origin -

Superman: Birthright
Superman For All Seasons
Secret Identity
Superman Earth One (if you want a modern take on the origin story. Otherwise this one's not so essential)

For the twilight of his career -

All Star Superman
Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow
Kingdom Come (more of a JLA story but Superman is at the center)
 
ViewtifulJC said:
All Star Superman

There are other Superman stories, and there are All-Star Superman. Aliens will come down to this planet and ask us, "Explain this...superhero thing to us", and you can give them a copy of All-Star Superman, knowing full well it contains the purest expression of the greatest superhero of them all. You will finally understand the inspirational power those two little Jewish kids saw when they created the character many years ago; God exists in comic book form, and he loves each and every one of us.

All-Star-Superman-10-Page-12.JPG
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You write the best pitches for All-Star, I swear. lol

Also, that page is my single favorite Superman moment. Bar none.
 
Kingdom Come is the best non-mainline Superman story. It's beautifully rendered, and gives all sorts of hints into the greater DC Universe.

supermankingdomcomedmxj1.png


Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman - A streamlining of his entire Silver Age history that's told incredibly well

Superman Last Son by Richard Donner/Geoff Johns - He adopts General Zod's son. It's a rare family story for him and Lois.

World of New Krypton - Offers a glimpse of Krypton's society and puts Superman between protecting them and Earth.

Superman and the Legion of Superheroes: Geoff Johns/Gary Frank - A way to get introduced to Legion stories and Superman's influence on them.

Superman vs. Emperor Joker - The World's Finest take on the Joker, who's stolen the powers of Mr. Mxyzptlk!
Spoiler: Batman dies A LOT!

Grant Morrison's current Action Comics run (#1-18) - It gets loopy towards the end (which involves 5th Dimensional beings), but the beginning features a rare appearance of street-level Superman. Some of the backup stories are incredible too (Krypto!).

ACTION COMICS #1 - The 1st appearance of Zatarra of course.
 
NotTheGuyYouKill said:
Im not the biggest fan of Superman. Always been more of non-powers dude (Batman/Punisher/Hawkguy). Plus I have some annoyances with how overpowered Superman feels at times. But I liked the movies, occasionally enjoyed Smallville, and the Man of Steel trailer was awesome enough to get me to give comic-Supes again.

So... Best Superman comics to read?
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how do you know how overpowered Superman is when you've never read a Superman comic in your life?
 
NotTheGuyYouKill said:
I've read some. Not much. It's more the concept of the character.
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there's a hundred guys in DC that can cave in Superman's head in. number two, since you have a bias of only caring about "real" heroes maybe you need to get your mindset into the more fantastical.

my favorite single issue of Superman is
Superman Vol 2 145
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Superman_Vol_2_145


it was right after Superman : King of the world. recommended.
 
So all the people saying 'All-Star Superna'...the animated version was terrible right? Becaus e I turned it off about 45min in, brcause it was easily the worst animted superhero film ive ever seen
 
MisterHero said:
Kingdom Come is the best non-mainline Superman story. It's beautifully rendered, and gives all sorts of hints into the greater DC Universe.

supermankingdomcomedmxj1.png


Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman - A streamlining of his entire Silver Age history that's told incredibly well

Superman Last Son by Richard Donner/Geoff Johns - He adopts General Zod's son. It's a rare family story for him and Lois.

World of New Krypton - Offers a glimpse of Krypton's society and puts Superman between protecting them and Earth.

Superman and the Legion of Superheroes: Geoff Johns/Gary Frank - A way to get introduced to Legion stories and Superman's influence on them.

Superman vs. Emperor Joker - The World's Finest take on the Joker, who's stolen the powers of Mr. Mxyzptlk!
Spoiler: Batman dies A LOT!

Grant Morrison's current Action Comics run (#1-18) - It gets loopy towards the end (which involves 5th Dimensional beings), but the beginning features a rare appearance of street-level Superman. Some of the backup stories are incredible too (Krypto!).

ACTION COMICS #1 - The 1st appearance of Zatarra of course.
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All great pics. Loved Emperor Joker & New Krypton.
 
@sn00zer- I sadly didn't like the animated adpatation, but the book is fantastic and has great moments.

KalBalboa said:
I've got you covered:

Birthright
Action Comics 775 (A single issue, but it's really that good)
Secret Identity
All-Star Superman
Superman For All Seasons
Luthor: Man of Steel
Kingdom Come
Superman and the Legion of Superheroes (the only story with these characters I care for and it's fantastic)
Red Son
Geof Johns Braniac
For The Man Who Has Everything
Earth One
Superman and the Men of Steel (Grant Morrison's New 52. I loved the vision for Superman so much but had issues with how fast it all escalated)
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I'd like to add Smallville by Bryan Q. Millar and Paul Cornell's The Black Ring. You don't need prior knowledge of past events to enjoy them, but they are among my fav. Superman series. Heck I hate Lex Luthor but The Black Ring has him at his best.
 
Otto Binder is the name you want to look for, if you want the real crazy Silver Age Superman, and not Moore and Morrison's inauthentic version of it (They meant well, but just didn't have it in them to do what Binder and company did. Moore did much better with Superman when he just did his own thing and not the Supreme stories, and Morrison likewise did better work when he wasn't trying to ride that Binder style.)

If you don't mind black and white, you can get loads of Binder and other Silver Age Superman stories in the Showcase Presents series, for cheap. A 500 something page Showcase can be had for as little as 10 bucks from amazon or ebay.
 
Secret Identity is amazing, but it's not a typical Superman story.

I really really like the #1-17 run of Action Comics that Grant Morrison just wrapped up. It encompasses Superman well, and you get some time travel and multi-dimensional insanity that Grant Morrison is known for.

All-Star Superman is a no-brainer. In general, Grant Morrison writes an awesome Superman.

EDIT: How could I forget Kingdom Come, one of my most favorite comics of all time?
 
I usually don't enjoy work from Kurt Busiek but Secret Identity was(is) an amazing read.

Kingdom Come and All Star Superman are also excellent shout-outs.
 
See You Next Wednesday said:
Posted this today on another thread.

Not using the Superman name, but comics based on Superman that are very notable well told stories.
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While Moore's Miracle Man is great, I wouldn't say it was based on Superman at all. It's clearly a Captain Marvel knock off. Mircale Man even gets his powers from saying a magic word, just like Captain Marvel.
 
KalBalboa said:
I've got you covered:

Birthright
Action Comics 775 (A single issue, but it's really that good)
Secret Identity
All-Star Superman
Superman For All Seasons
Luthor: Man of Steel
Kingdom Come
Superman and the Legion of Superheroes (the only story with these characters I care for and it's fantastic)
Red Son
Geof Johns Braniac
For The Man Who Has Everything
Earth One
Superman and the Men of Steel (Grant Morrison's New 52. I loved the vision for Superman so much but had issues with how fast it all escalated)
Click to expand...

this is a good post
 
Red Son was my favorite until I read the new Injustice prequel comic, which is actually really well done. The entire Injustice storyline is brilliant and may have my favorite representation of Superman yet. It's actually legit scary to see everything fall apart from Batman's perspective.

I definitely recommend the Injustice series, and the game's story mode is worth watching on Youtube as well.
 
adamsappel said:
I acknowledge Alex Ross is a very talented artist, but I hate his character designs. I don't like my superheroes to be fat.
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I always saw them as more muscular instead of fat. In the case of Superman and Bruce Wayne, they're old at the time this comic takes place. Kind of made sense they had a bit of weight on them.
 
My vote goes to Red Son

Kingdom Come and All Star superman are all great, but they are basicaly ... superman stories.
If you are not fan of superman than a superman story will not do anything to you.

But Red Son is something completly diferent.

edit :
If everything goes wrong ...
FEsQpjU.jpg
 
Platy said:
My vote goes to Red Son

Kingdom Come and All Star superman are all great, but they are basicaly ... superman stories.
If you are not fan of superman than a superman story will not do anything to you.

But Red Son is something completly diferent.

edit :
If everything goes wrong ...
FEsQpjU.jpg
Click to expand...

Stories can vary so much from one tale to the next that it feels ok to recommend a particular really good example of the essentials of the character. It feels like a lot of the negative opinions aren't actually based on reading specific stories but on overly general assumptions.
 
Alan Moore's stories are the best at humanizing Superman, All Star is the best at exemplifying the ideal of Superman.

Secret Identity is the straight best Superman.
 
KalBalboa said:
I always thought Godfall was a big retread of this idea.
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Havent read that. I've been pretty selective when it comes to Superman, though to be fair I'm that way with super hero comics from the Big Two in general.

For the Man also has an amazing adaptation in Justice League, but Justice League in general was high quality stuff.
 
HK-47 said:
Havent read that. I've been pretty selective when it comes to Superman, though to be fair I'm that way with super hero comics from the Big Two in general.

For the Man also has an amazing adaptation in Justice League, but Justice League in general was high quality stuff.
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It's a great story, for sure. The episode was solid too.
 
ReiGun said:
Seasons doesn't get enough love.



Beautiful from start to finish. It was where I really started to love Superman.
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While I never was a huge fan of Loeb's its just a shame how his work plummeted in quality after his son died. What he did to the Ultimate universe was horrible.
 
Dead Man said:
So what's a good source for trades on these?
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Amazon generally. Trades hold their value too well on ebay.

Though I'd generally recommend nowadays for any comic to look around on Comixology to see if the first issue is available free, and see if you like it.
 
Mindwipe said:
Amazon generally. Trades hold their value too well on ebay.

Though I'd generally recommend nowadays for any comic to look around on Comixology to see if the first issue is available free, and see if you like it.
Click to expand...

Cool, I'll have a look around. Thanks.
 
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