Your Obedient Serpent's Top Five Superman Stories!
In the comments to my last entry, I opined that Superman vs. Muhammad Ali was "one of the top five Superman stories ever".
hitchkitty then decided to put me on the spot for specifics.
My current list, in chronological order:
I reserve the right to revise the list as my whims might demand.
Feel free to discuss this list and/or your own lists in the comments.
Edited to provide links to Amazon links for those stories in print, and online versions of those that aren't. Some additional notes:
Comments to the effect that Superman is "too powerful" to write interesting stories about will simply be deleted. Don't be a troll.
hitchkitty then decided to put me on the spot for specifics.
My current list, in chronological order:
- 1940: "The K-Metal from Krypton!", by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (et al.).
- 1978: Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams.
- 1978: Superman: Last Son of Krypton, by Elliot S! Maggin. (Novel.)
- 1985: "For The Man Who Has Everything", by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
- 2005: All-Star Superman, by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.
I reserve the right to revise the list as my whims might demand.
Feel free to discuss this list and/or your own lists in the comments.
Edited to provide links to Amazon links for those stories in print, and online versions of those that aren't. Some additional notes:
- Jerry and Joe wrote "K-Metal" in 1940, but the Powers That Be at DC shot it down in favor of indefinitely maintaining the status quo. It was never published, but over the years, the script and various pages of mostly-finished artwork made it to the collector's market. The link leads to a project to reconstruct the story, and if I'm interpreting recent court decisions correctly, this material would definitely fall under the auspices of the Siegel and Shuster heirs, rather than DC-AOL-Time-Warner-Mega-Huge-Conglomco.
- Neal Adams has repeatedly referenced Superman vs. Muhammad Ali as his favorite comic book work. It really is Adams at his best; he goes all-out on the art, and it is epic.
- Maggin's novel has been out of print for years, and DC shows no inclination to remedy that. The link leads to the entirety of the novel, online; Maggin himself has given his blessing to the web site, and has in fact contributed additional stories (an unusual instance of a former professional writing fanfic about the character he used to be paid to write).
- The link for the Alan Moore story goes to the recent trade compilation of Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? -- which includes "For The Man Who Has Everything" and another Superman story by Moore. "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow almost made this list, but as excellent as it is, I don't think it holds up as well as a stand-alone story.
- "For The Man Who Has Everything" was also adapted as an episode of Justice League Unlimited. All-Star Superman was recently adapted as one of the DC Universe direct-to-video animated movies. It's quite good, but has a slightly different tone than the graphic novel.
Comments to the effect that Superman is "too powerful" to write interesting stories about will simply be deleted. Don't be a troll.