Superman is getting a lot of spotlight, and that makes complete sense. The last few years have been very good for Superman. His comics have had some outstanding stories that get to the core of the character and his word. My Adventures with Superman is animated series perfection, modernizing the character and supporting cast, concentrating on the relationship between Superman, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen. And, of course, James Gunn’s Superman is outstanding; while it’s not a perfect movie, it is a perfect live-action snapshot of comic Superman unlike anything we’ve got on the big screen since Christopher Reeve played Superman. Superman is again taking his place at the top of the superhero pecking order and for long time fans who have always known this was possible, it’s something of a vindication.
Over the decades, Superman has had some brilliant stories. They’ve showed who Superman is and why he matters, as well as giving readers one of the best supporting casts in comics, if not the best. Everyone loves books like All-Star Superman, but there are many, many more Superman stories that every fan should read. However, there are also a lot of Superman stories that have become overrated. Now, overrated is a loaded phrase; some people think it means bad, but that’s not the case. The stories are still good, but overpraised. These seven Superman stories fit that description, stories that have taken on legendary reputations that they don’t actually deserve.
7) “The Return of Superman”
“The Return of Superman” brought back the Man of Steel after his death against Doomsday. This is a perfectly fine story, seeing the weakened Superman, Superboy, the Eradicator, Steel, and Hal Jordan battle Cyborg Superman and Mongul after their destruction of Coast City. It does everything that it needs to be, but it’s one of the weaker chapters of the entire “Death and Return of Superman” saga. It doesn’t really deal too much with the effects of Superman’s return, just immediately throwing him into a battle against his enemies. The main problem with the story is that it’s pretty basic. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it’s still an entertaining story, but it just doesn’t have the impact that it should.
6) Grant Morrison’s Action Comics
In their Action Comics run, Morrison, working with artists Rags Morales, Andy Kubert, Gene Ha, Travel Foreman, and Ben Oliver, gives readers a very complicated story without a lot of characters that new readers would recognize. For example, Lex Luthor is in it, but he’s not the main villain; in fact, he really doesn’t appear all that much in the story. Instead, Morrison decided to use villains like Metallo, Captain Comet, and an all-new Fifth Dimensional Imp Vyndktvx, with OG Fifth Dimensional Imp Mr. Mxyzptlk playing a quasi-heroic role in the story. It’s a classic complicated Morrison story that plays with the medium of monthly comics to tell its story, which has hurt its reception with fans who don’t love Morrison’s writing. Morrison definitely gave readers an interesting story (all 19 issues tell one story that comes together in last story arc), but this isn’t the best book to start on if you’re a new fan. It definitely has its moments like Action Comics (Vol. 2) #9, which introduced Calvin Ellis, the Barack Obama-influenced Superman of Earth-23 to the New 52, and Action Comics (Vol. 2) #0, a touching story about Superman’s cape, and is honestly the best Superman story we got in the New 52, but it has a lot of drawbacks that keep it from being perfect for any reader.
5) “Brainiac”
Geoff Johns’s post-Infinite Crisis work on Superman has a lot going for it. I’d definitely argue that “Last Son,” “Superman and the Legion of Superheroes,” and Secret Origin are peak Superman, but not every story is as flawless of those three. A perfect example of that is “Brainiac,” a story that reintroduced a more classic version of Brainiac to the DC Multiverse, while also trying to make sense of the various other versions of the character. However, I think that the biggest problem with the story is the change made to Brainiac. Brainiac was always a dangerous villain, but this story made him into a musclebound bruiser who can punch it out with Superman. This is an interesting change of pace, but it also just doesn’t feel like Brainiac. We’ve gotten multiple versions of Brainiac over the years, some better than others, and this one is one of the lesser versions of Brainiac. I don’t have a problem with a super strong Brainiac, but this version of the character never really felt right, and latter appearances by the villain would make him more like the classic Brainiac. This story is an important step in that direction, but it goes much too far. This is still a great story — it has a cool horror vibe to it, a heartbreaking Superman moment, and some amazing art from Gary Frank, but it’s not as excellent as some of Johns’s other work on Superman.
4) Superman (Vol. 2) #20-21
Writer/artist John Byrne rebooted Superman for the post-Crisis DC Universe. Byrne’s run was considered the gold standard for modern Superman for a long time — and there are some good stories from his run — but recent years have seen it get a re-evaluation. Byrne removed many fan-favorite aspects of the character and went out of his way to take away Superman’s immigrant heritage. He wrecked the Krypton mythos, and even disrespected Jack Kirby with Action Comics (Vol. 1) #593 because of a personal feud between him and the King. Byrne did bring Zod back in Superman (Vol. 2) #20-21, with an alternate universe Supergirl asking Superman for his help against General Zod, who killed everyone on her Earth. It’s a good story, but it ends with Superman using Kryptonite to kill Zod, Ursa, and Non. This is a huge misunderstanding of who Superman is; Superman doesn’t kill, he figures out a way to win without killing. Byrne made a lot of mistakes with Superman, and this is honestly one of the biggest. It led to 2013’s Man of Steel killing Zod in that film, another gross misunderstanding of Superman’s character that allowed fans who liked that moment to point at this comic and argue that it was comic accurate for Superman to kill Zod in the movie.
3) The Tomasi/Gleason Run on Superman
Pete Tomasi and Patrick Gleason’s run on Superman brought back the original post-Crisis Superman, and was massively popular while it was coming out. DC Rebirth was a huge success at first and this book was a prime reason why. However, the longer we get away from this run, the cracks in the book have become more apparent. This is basically the Byrne Superman, a more conservative version of the character that never really captures the captures the soul of Superman. That’s the problem with Tomasi and Gleason’s run on Superman. While there are some cool stories, it never has the right feel. While it did give readers some Jon Kent excellence, there are a lot of problems with the it. The latter half of the 45 issue run is also way worse than the first half; the book sort of fell apart as it went on. This is good Superman, but it’s not the great, timeless run on Superman that a lot of fans say it is. It did bring back a lot of lapsed Superman fans, but it doesn’t stand up when compared to other Superman runs that came after it (although compared to the Bendis run that replaced it, it is pretty good).
2) The Man of Steel (1986)
John Byrne’s run on Superman began with this six-issue miniseries. This story told the new history of Superman, doing away with multiple aspects of the character. Gone was Superboy, the Legion of Superheroes, and the various other surviving Kryptonians. Krypton was transformed into a sterile science based society that took away a major part of pre-Crisis Superman. Clark Kent was suddenly a football playing All-American, sent to Earth in a “birthing matrix” and born on Earth in Kansas, taking away his immigrant status. Byrne was going super conservative with his version of Superman and it honestly never felt right. Now, that said, there are some cool parts to the book — the Superman/Batman story is pretty great and Byrne did introduce the corporate mogul version of Lex Luthor. However, the way Byrne fundamentally changed Superman was a huge mistake, and it took years for fans to get back the best parts of the pre-Crisis. I was personally a fan of this story for years, but it just doesn’t stand up when compared with the more classic versions of the character that came in the years after it.
1) “The Death of Superman”
“The Death of Superman” is an iconic story in the history of comics. It made real world news, and lived up to its name. There are some great Superman creators involved — Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Roger Stern, Tom Brummet, Louise Simonson, the late great Butch Guice, and Jon Bogdanove. The art is awesome throughout, capturing the spectacle of this massive fight. However, the fact that this is just a massive fight that repeats itself every chapter is the problem with the story. Every issue of this story follows the same formula — Superman and his friends get trounced by Doomsday, and Superman vows to stop the monster. The last issue is the only different chapter in the entire story, because it ends with Superman dying. “The Death of Superman” is a beloved story, but that’s mostly because of the place it holds in comic history. Even the choice of villain, the then all-new Doomsday, didn’t really feel right. This is a good story, but it’s more because of the spectacle, and the much better stories that came after it — “World Without a Superman,” “Funeral for a Friend,” and “Reign of the Superman” — than for its own quality.
What Superman stories do you think are overrated? Sound off in the comments below.
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