DEAN POLING BOOK REVIEWS: Choices for some ‘Super’ reading

Published 7:55 am Saturday, July 12, 2025

While superhero movie fans argue which is the better movie Superman of recent years – Henry Cavill from the Zack Snyder-directed DC movies, or David Corenswet from the new James Gunn-directed DC movies (the best movie Superman was Christopher Reeve, by the way), comic book fans know you can love all sorts of takes on the Man of Steel.

In 1939, two young men named Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created the story of a baby from another planet landing on Earth, empowered by our yellow sun, raised by a kind couple in the Midwest, to become a super-powered hero able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, be more powerful than a locomotive, be faster than a speeding bullet.

Since, there have been dozens of variations of Superman, especially in the last few decades.

Here’s a look at a few collections available in trade paperback editions or digitally online through DC Universe Infinite.

All Star Superman

Lex Luthor has plotted a means to kill Superman by overexposing him to the source of his strength: Earth’s yellow sun. Superman dives into the sun to rescue a troubled space mission to our solar system’s star. The close proximity to the sun distends his capacity to absorb its rays, effectively triggering cell death. So, Superman makes the best of the time he has left.

Writer Grant Morrison takes readers on a homage to the career of Superman. Several incidents read like Superman comics from the 1950s-70s. Clark Kent is a bumbling hayseed in the big city here. Because he’s dying, Clark confirms Lois’ suspicions by stating he is Superman. But once he confesses, Lois can’t believe it and thinks it is a joke being perpetrated by Clark and Superman, etc.

Morrison brings a great sense of fun to the book … even though Superman is dying.  Frank Quitely pencils the book with a series of beautiful contour drawings. He creates a plausible physical difference between Clark and Superman. Clark is too big for the city in a bumbling, shoulders-slumped, belly-out kind of way.

“All-Star Superman” doesn’t just stand on its own. It soars. Up, up and away.

Superman Smashes the Klan

In the 1940s, a Superman radio program, “Clan of the Fiery Cross,” pitted the Man of Steel against the Klan. Inspired by this radio show, author Gene Luen Yung, artists Gurihiru and letterer Janice Chiang created a graphic novel titled “Superman Smashes the Klan.”

The story is set in 1946 in post-World War II Metropolis. Roberta and Tommy Lee are the children of an Asian family that has moved into a white neighborhood. The family is confronted by the Klan. Metropolis is the home of Superman, too.

Yang and Gurihiru tell a story about “immigration, battling adversity, and finding home,” according to the book’s cover blurb. The story reminds readers that though Superman was long the champion of “truth, justice and the American way,” he is an immigrant. An alien from the doomed planet of Krypton, whose rocket ship landed on Earth while he was a baby, raised by an American couple in the rural farm community of Smallville.

“Superman Smashes the Klan” was released in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. Otherwise, it may have received more attention. It deserves to be a smash hit.

Red Son

What if baby Superman’s rocket landed in the Soviet Ukraine instead of the American farmland of Kansas? Question answered in “Superman: Red Son,” a masterful what-if story by writer Mark Millar and artists Dave Johnson and Kilian Plunkett.

Superman becomes the Soviet superweapon in the 1950s. Russia doesn’t need the bomb when it has a person who can stop any American weapon. The arms race is stalled. Though the young Soviet Superman is Stalin’s handpicked successor, he does not allow nationality to stop him from saving people around the world. President Eisenhower taps Lex Luthor to find a way to either compete with Superman or eliminate the Soviet threat.

A Russian Batman rises to defy Superman. Brainiac shrinks Stalingrad and places it in a bottle. Wonder Woman works with Superman. Luthor strives to defeat his foe.

“Superman: Red Son” pays tribute to a skewed vision of numerous Superman traditions, while making the defender of the American way into the sentinel of the Soviet Union.

“Red Son” is masterful what-if storytelling.

Up in the Sky

Batman tells Superman that a small girl named Alice has been abducted by aliens. Batman may be the world’s greatest detective but he cannot travel to other worlds. He pushes Superman to find her. But Superman has a dilemma. Can he balance the fate of one child against the safety of an entire planet? What will happen on Earth while he searches the cosmos? What will happen to Lois?

What happens is a powerful story of humanity placed on the shoulders of a fictional caped superhero. Writer Tom King and artist Andy Kubert tell the story in an episodic style. One chapter may have Superman in an intergalactic boxing match, the next has him suffering a series of nightmares where Lois Lane faces constant peril without him on Earth to save her, the next may have Superman and Clark Kent physically split. Throughout is the search for little Alice, a search to save a girl, a search that may save more than expected.

This story proves there are ways to tackle generations-old characters with a new eye but always with a deep nod to what has come before.

Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

In the mid-1980s, DC decided to reboot Superman. DC Comics handed its flagship character over to John Byrne, the premier superstar comic book creator of the time. Almost 40 years later, the Byrne era remains influential on the character. But it broke away from decades of previous continuity in the “Superman” comics.

Then, Lois Lane wasn’t married to Clark/Superman … she still didn’t even know they were the same person. So, in the last issues of the “Superman” comics prior to the Byrne reboot, DC editors let writer Alan Moore and artist Curt Swan tell one last tale of the “old” Superman.

Moore and Swan imagined a world 10 years after Superman “died.”

They were allowed to conclude the Superman iteration that readers had known for decades. Moore was set loose to let his imagination run free. Coupled with the familiar Swan images, “Whatever Happened” became an almost instant classic.  “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” is a must-read for old-school Superman fans. A fun and nostalgic trip back to the yesterday of the Man of Tomorrow.

Superman for All Seasons

For a quick primer on who and what Superman is, writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale’s “Superman for All Seasons” is the book. Even though nearly 30 years old, the storyline isn’t just the origin of the character but a look at Superman, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and the world of the character boiled down to a story where each issue of the original four-issue run was set in a different season. Each issue is narrated by different characters from the Superman story: Pa Kent, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, Lana Lang.

Through bold, double-page spreads, “Seasons” captures the awe of a world with a Superman. The book tells the familiar story but captures the wonder of the character.