Don’t know alot about Supes,but is he the strongest ever from his planet or is there evidence of others from his planet being even stronger?
Just read Emperor Joker, other than the confusing opening I liked it. Ignition, Bizarro and Superman were most interesting, and Joker played his part well lol.
Batman got messed up big time, honestly I think it’s one of the most brutal things I’ve seen in comics. (In a psychological way).
If they were to do another superman movie, I’d like to see Darkseid. Have supes’ ship pass Apokolips on his way to Krypton, insert shit about finding earth, show up to earth and try to take the mother fucker over.
Of course, that’s what the fanboy in me wants to see. Hell, I’d be happy with a movie version of the superman animated show where Darkseid shows up and merc’s turpin. lol
lol turpins death is one of the only animated deaths…permenant ones in kid cartoon history.
superman:tas was the truth
By mandate of the SRK Comic Book Forum Illuminati, Superman Annual #11 is a required favorite Superman story. It’s not enough to just read it or watch the JLU adaptation. You must also love it long and hard.
I will try to track those down somehow and get back to you. Then I, too, shall be able to look down from the mountaintop of Superman Readers and laugh at the masses who have not been able to experience the classics, and thus, who completely misunderstand the purpose of Superman’s existence.
Ha.
I think Superman is maybe the one superhero who looks okay as one of Alex Ross’ fat friends dressed up in a Halloween costume.
That sucks, dude, that we won’t be getting any ASS this week. On the other hand, at least goody can bump up his post count by restarting the countdown. Guess there’s a bright side to every sad situation.
I think that he is the strongest because he’s the only survivor of his planet. Unless Supergirl counts as a fellow survivor. Even so, Superman is still stronger than Supergirl because he is a man and she is a girl.
I am not too sure about the Kryptonians who survived by being trapped in the Phantom Zone. I presume they are about as strong as Superman (assuming they can gain power from our galaxy’s yellow sun). If they worked out in the Phantom Zone, maybe they could be stronger than Superman, but he was a farmer, so he probably has pretty good fitness even without his powers.
I think my two of my favorite Superman stories (other than Alan Moore’s and ASS) are still It’s A Bird… and Secret Identity.
Action Comics #775 is another one of the best. That was the one where Superman fought the Elite, who were basically an analogue for The Authority. Joe Kelly wrote some goodass shit about why Superman is still relevant in a postmodern world. The comic just works because it has a great plot that’s also a great metaphor. It’s Superman vs. The Authority!
Action Comics #800 was memorable, too. Maybe because I only read it like a few months ago, but it’s another Joe Kelly story about why Superman is such an icon. There’s a series of connected vignettes illustrated by various artists but it’s only at the end when you really see where Kelly’s going with his story. Pretty skillful writing. There’s a lot of cool imagery in the comic, like this one scene Lee Bermejo drew of a firefighter wearing a t-shirt with the S-shield.
Speaking of Bermejo, Lex Luthor: Man of Steel is another one of my favorites.
I just got Joe Casey’s entire run on Adventures of Superman from eBay and read it all. Casey’s one of my all-time favorite writers but I have to admit that his Adventures of Superman run is uneven due to the terrible editorial situation (early 2000s). A lot of his issues were forced crossovers with the other three monthly Superman comics at the time, so that sucked. (I think that’s why Superman comics generally sucked through the entire '90s.)
But the issues when you could tell he was allowed to do his own thing really shined because Casey had generally had Superman use his mind to defeat his foes, and Superman mostly used his powers to help people. There was a good mix of Silver Age-style adventuring and British Invasion-style meditative storytelling. He had some great artists working with him, too, like Wieringo and Pete Woods. Some dude I ain’t ever heard of, Derec Aucoin, did a bunch of Casey’s issues, too, and they were pretty outstanding. What happened to Aucoin?
Other than that, I don’t really know what else are my favorites. I like Superman For All Seasons and Birthright, but I don’t know if I would proclaim them from the mountain and laugh down at the people who haven’t read them. Maybe it’s because lots of people already did read them and I wouldn’t be able to feel as unique, pretentious, and elitist by claiming them as my favorites.
Oh, I guess Alan Moore’s complete run on Rob Liefeld’s Supreme ranks pretty highly. We all know Alan Moore’s Supreme is basically all the Superman stories he ever wanted to tell. That’s the best stuff, probably.
And Casey’s run on Mr. Majestic is basically a pre-Crisis Superman thing. Ed McGuinness drew awesome stuff for those, back before he got stuck drawing things written by hacks like Jeph Loeb and… uh, Jeph Loeb.
Just bought the Death of Superman TPB.
the best part about that story is STILL when Doomsday steamrolls the Justice League.
because they fucking sucked back then (and that’s saying something, considering I’m a HUGE fan of Guy, Ted, and Booster).
My love is always long and hard.
Upon checking into it, I’m pretty sure all three of these stories are in the Greatest Superman Stories volumes. I feel like a poseur now.
These are both very good, though I’m hesitant to call them Superman stories. They’re tangentially related to Superman, but I tend to think of them as independent of the mythology.
Lulz. They’re really not bad at all. They just don’t have that light-shining-down-from-the-heavens-to-favor-us-mere-mortals quality that you get with something like ASS (for instance). And for Waid and Loeb, the storytelling and characterization are at least decent.
I haven’t read The Return, but I’ve read Story Of The Year. It’s superb. I bet Alan Moore is the kind of guy who looks in the mirror every morning and says, “Who’s a clever bastard? That’s right: Alan Moore is a clever bastard.” Great gimmickry in addition to the old-school storytelling.
Lulz x2.
Yeah, that was one of the especially irksome details of that arc. Maxima? Ice? Come on. You’d figure if someone as important as Superman is about to get snuffed, the least they could do is throw in a few A-list League members for the occasion.
I still don’t understand why Guy couldn’t have just chucked Doomsday into space with like a giant yellow spring or something.
Superman Annual #11 and Action Comics #775 rank in my top 10 favourite single issues of all time. I would never have suspected one of my top ten issues would be by Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke. I like both of them (Deadpool and JLA)…but what are the chances, you know?
But that comic was like Superman, Truth, and Justice punching Mark Millar and his ultra extreme team of assholes (regardless if it was The Authority or The Ultimates) right in the face. Feels so good every time I re-read it.
I don’t understand why Superman didn’t just float in orbit and just shoot fire from his eyes down at Doomsday while Batman thought up a plan to destroy that Hulk-ripoff motherfucker.
I think it was stories like Death of Superman that turned me off to Superman for so many years. They made me think that Superman was a dumbass because these writers would only show Superman solving problems by punching them out. Superman has more power than a million exploding suns and he is the original golden guardian of good, right? So how come when the going got tough he never used his powers and only tried to punch his foes. I never got that.
I do believe you mean to say “Superman, Truth, Justice, and the American Way.” Stupid Canucklehead. Get it right, bub. Go play some damn baseball and eat some apple pie.
Action #775 is one of my favorite single issues, too. I still reread it a couple of times a year. But I think Superman was punching Warren Ellis, not Millar. Doesn’t Action #775 predate Millar’s runs on The Authority and The Ultimates? I’m too lazy to check, so I will just confidently say that I am correct.
Zeph: The reason Supes didn’t use his powers?
had nothing to do with Superman, had everything to do with his shitty writers. “Superman isn’t relevant, anymore. Let’s kill him!”
“Brilliant!”
no, not brilliant. Superman wouldn’t BE Irrelevant if you were a competent writer, asshole.
Truer words were never spoken. And Supes isn’t the only classic hero who’s gotten this kind of treatment in the modern age.
Eight days. I have a five dollar bill on my wall. I put a push-pin through the Great Emancipator’s forehead. That money is just waiting to go to the comic book store so I can pull some ASS.
action comics #775 was fucking great. if anyone hasn’t read it, move it up on your list of things to do. superman, serious business.
It’s decent. I’ll always remember it as the comic in which Superman proved conclusively that psychic mutants don’t have shit on him.
I am a Superman newb you all will be laughing at from the top of that mountain.
Just a few questions
Isn’t he supposed to be just as intelligent as Batman?
Isn’t the only reason Batman “gets away” with “beating Supes” the fact that Superman would try his best not to kill him?
If Superman wanted to he could just obliterate the entire city block Batman was hiding in right?
It depends on who’s writing him and what time period you’re looking at. Classic Superman, among his many other super-abilities, was super-intelligent. He had a perfect memory, was an extraordinary lateral thinker, and had a knack for learning new things quickly. The modern Superman is much more average in this regard.
While Superman’s hesitance towards harming his friends is a factor, Batman is also the most absurdly broken character in all of comics. Really, if it is even thinkable for a human being to be able to do anything, Batman has already mastered it. He is an expert in anything and everything remotely relating to crime fighting, he is a brilliant tactician, and he is always prepared.
Sort of. It isn’t just an issue of whether Superman wants to do it or not. His sense of psychological restraint is so powerful that it prevents him from exercising his powers in lethal ways, even if he might want to.
That said, a guy with all of Superman’s physical power and none of his deeply-ingrained compassion could turn Batman into a cinder from miles away if he wanted to.
The reason Batman continually beats Superman has nothing to do with ‘in story’ ideas.
it’s simple: Frank Miller did it in DKR, and it was awesome, so awesome that anybody who came after had to try the same thing.
so awesome that it became cliche.
Superman would destroy Batman in a one-on-one fight, even if Batman WERE fighting dirty.
Sorry I don’t mean for this to degenerate into a vs thread, it’s a given that Supes would own Bats if things took a turn for the worst. Thing is what defintes "the worst?"
What would it take for Supes to pull the stops on his psyche and destroy his opponents?
What about how he was depicted against “Aliens?”
yeah, I’m not in the mood for a versus thread either.
I can’t think of very many epic Superman arcs. After you’ve read “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?”, “Superman for All Seasons”, and “For the Man who has Everything”…What else is there?
All Star Superman is a given, but I’ve read all of that too.
Exile At The Edge Of Eternity is pretty epic. It’s short, but it’s epic in scope. Check it out. It’s written and drawn by everybody’s favorite former escape artists-turned-awesome comic book guy.
Also, six days. Hopefully.