Superman (series of comics)

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This article provides an overview of the various comic series that the US publisher DC-Comics has published or published since 1938 about the fictional character of the superhero Superman .

A brief summary is provided which, in addition to the formal publication dates (period of publication, number of issues reached) of the series listed, also notes information about the authors and draftsmen involved , as well as about outstanding, publication-historical features. If there is a main article on one of the comic series, a reference is made to it.

Superman series

Action comics

In June 1938, Action Comics # 1 was the first issue of this series, in which Superman made his first appearance and which has since appeared regularly on DC . In 2011 the first series ended and the second series started.

Adventure comics

A series that largely showed the adventures of Superboy , the teenage Superman.

Adventures of Superman

Adventures of Superman (also: The Adventures of Superman ; dt. The adventures of Superman ) is the title of a series that DC Comics published between January 1987 and April 2003. The series reached 226 issues which were identified as numbers # 424 to # 629. There were also the two special issues # 0 (October 1994; between # 516 and # 517) and # 1,000,000 (November 1998; between # 562 and # 563) as well as nine special editions titled the Adventures of Superman Annual (1987–1997).

The cumbersome numbering mechanism is due to the fact that after its start the series did not begin with issue # 1 - as is usually the case - but with the numbering of the original Superman series, which was discontinued in 1986 with issue # 423 - which was briefly titled as Superman (the first Superman series, later with the addition “Vol.1” to distinguish it) - picked up: The first edition of the Adventures of Superman appeared with the number # 424 following Superman (Volume 1), the second edition as # 425 etc. The title Adventures of Superman was chosen based on the television series of the same name from the 1950s and as an allusion to the classic series Adventure Comics - in which stories about Superman's youthful alter ego Superboy were once chosen.

The main authors of the Adventures of Superman were Marv Wolfman , Jerry Ordway , Dan Jurgens , Karl Kesel , Stuart Immonen , JM DeMatteis and Greg Rucka . Ordway, Jurgens and Immonen - who also illustrated many of the stories they wrote in personal union - and Tom Grummett worked on the series as regular drawers . Guest draftsmen were among others José Luis García-López . In addition, artists such as Doug Hazlewood and Joe Rubinstein as a tuscher and Glenn Whitmore as a colorist were involved in the series.

DC Comics Presents

A team-up series that published stories of Superman going on adventures together with a variety of other DC-owned characters.

Superman

First series

The original Superman series (Volume 1) started on December 24, 1938. After initially appearing quarterly, the publication mode was finally changed in favor of a bimonthly publication cycle and at the end of the 1950s, the changeover to a monthly publication took place. The first issue of the series was auctioned in August 2016 for around one million euros.

Second series

The second series, briefly titled as Superman , which is usually referred to as Superman (Volume 2) or Superman (Vol.2) in collector's catalogs and specialist databases in order to distinguish between issues of the first Superman series with identical issue numbers , was published between January 1987 and April 2006 The series reached 226 issues as well as two special issues, which had the numbers # 0 and # 1,000,000 on the title pages.

Among the issues of this series, issue # 75 from January 1993 should be highlighted, which describes the death of the title hero in the fight against a murderous creature called Doomsday, and which is the best-selling comic book of all with more than seven million copies sold.

The series' lead writers were John Byrne (# 1–23), Roger Stern , Jerry Ordway , Dan Jurgens (# 60–150) and Jeph Loeb . The most important draftsmen were Byrne, Ordway and Jurgens - who also visualized many of the stories they wrote in personal union - as well as Ron Frenz . Mike McKone and Gil Kane , among others, acted as guest artists . Among the inkers who worked on the series include Brett Breeding and Joe Rubinstein , while the coloring was particularly often done by Glenn Whitmore .

Third series

When all of DC Comics' comic book series were discontinued for a restart of the DC universe in 2011, # 714 was the last issue of the second series in the fall, and there was a new # 1 as one of 52 comic series .

Superman / Batman

Superman / Batman is a series released by DC Comics since August 2003. The series appeared on a monthly basis and had reached 87 issues by the end of the series in autumn 2011.

Superman Family

The Superman Family was a series that DC Comics released between April and May 1974 and September 1982. The series reached 59 issues, which were identified on the title pages as numbers # 164 to # 222. The beginning of the issue numbering with # 164 is due to the fact that it was linked to the numbering of the series Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane , which had been discontinued shortly before with issue # 221.

The series initially appeared every two months, but eventually - beginning with # 207 from 1981 - changed its publication mode in favor of a monthly publication. In 1982, the Superman Family was discontinued to make way for the relaunching series Daring New Adventures of Supergirl .

In terms of content, Superman Family summarized the titles Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, which were previously published as separate series, in a common format in which stories were told about both characters. In addition, the Superman Family often included stories from the loosely continued series Supergirl , Superboy , The Private Life of Clark Kent , Mr. and Mrs. Superman , Nightwing and Flamebird, and Krypto that had not previously appeared in any stand-alone series. In addition, there were reprints of old Lois Lane , Jimmy Olsen or Supergirl stories from the two previous titles or the core Superman series Superman and Action Comics .

Superman: The Man of Steel

Miniseries

After the Crisis on Infinite Earths , the story of Superman's origins was retold in 1986, which happened as part of the six-part series Man of Steel , whose author and illustrator was John Byrne .

Monthly series

Superman: The Man of Steel was a comic strip series that DC Comics released between 1991 and 2003.

The series reached 134 issues plus two special issues that were labeled # 0 (October 1994; appeared between issues # 37 and # 38) and # 1,000,000 (November 1998) and of six special issues titled Superman: The Man of Steel Annual ( 1991-1995, 1997). In addition, there was a poster collection published in December 1995 as Superman: The Man of Steel Gallery # 1.

The series' main authors were Louise Simonson (1–85) and Mark Schultz (# 89–120). The series' main cartoonists were Jon Bogdanove and Doug Mahnke , with Paul Pelletier and Scot Eaton more frequently serving as guest artists , and occasionally Tom Grummett , Bob McLeod , Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway . Dennis Janke , who was occasionally represented by Brett Breeding , was the long-time main brush of the series , while Glenn Whitmore took care of the coloring .

Superman: The Man of Tomorrow

Superman: The Man of Tomorrow (Eng. "Superman - The Man of Tomorrow") was a four-time series that DC Comics published between 1996 and 1999.

The series reached fifteen issues (# 1–15) as well as a special issue identified as issue # 1,000,000. The idea behind the start of the series was to close the quarterly " Sabbath Week " in which, due to DC's Superman publishing schedule from 1991 to 1995, no Superman comic book was released. The monthly publication cycle of the four main Superman series of this time (Action Comics, Adventures of Superman, Superman, Superman: Man of Steel) meant that four times a year - in those months with a fifth week - no Superman magazine was published. In order to satisfy the wish expressed in numerous letters to the editor to cover not just 48 but all 52 weeks of the year with Superman comics, the then editor-in-chief of DC's Superman department, Mike Carlin , decided to launch a fifth, four-time-a-year Superman series Closing this gap. To distinguish it from the other Superman series, the series received the subtitle The Man of Tomorrow - which was chosen based on an old nickname and nickname of Supermans - and was initially always published in months with five weeks in the fifth week of the month.

From 1998, however, DC began increasingly to publish other special editions - the so-called “Fifths Week Events” - in those months with a fifth week of the month. As a result, Man of Tomorrow was no longer published quarterly, in order to avoid collisions with the FWEs, but simply four times a year at any time, which often meant that the Man of Tomorrow booklets parallel to the booklets of other Superman Series came on the market. Since this undermined the sense of the series, DC decided in 1999 to discontinue the series - the four annual issues between 1996 and 1999 were sent to subscribers who received all four other Superman series as a free subscription gift (“Subscribe 48, get 4 free”).

Authors who wrote for the series were Roger Stern , Louise Simonson and JM DeMatteis . The list of illustrators includes Tom Grummett , Tom Morgan , Paul Ryan, and Ryan Sook . Brett Breeding and Jeff Gan were among the Incers of the series .

Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane

The series Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane brought comics published by v. a. were about Lois Lane .

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen , was a spin-off series from Superman and Action Comics that ran from 1956 to 1974. The series was primarily about the adventures of Superman's self-proclaimed “best friend”, the young photographer James “Jimmy” Olsen, but as the mention of Superman in the title's name suggests, the superhero played a role that went far beyond a normal minor character and was de facto a second main character who played a significant role in practically every story.

World's Finest Comics

World's Finest Comics was a series published between 1942 and 1982 that contained stories of Superman and fellow hero Batman .

Superman stories and miniseries

Over time, complete stories by and with Superman have appeared again and again, some of which spanned several series (list not complete):

Triangle number

With the realignment of DC Comics in the mid-80s (see Crisis on Infinite Earths ), a single narrative thread of the Superman Comics was replaced by an ever more multi-stranded and interleaved narrative structure with further, more and more independent side stories. At the beginning of the 1990s, the comic book authors had pushed this concept so far that the narrative structure of the Superman series became similar to the American daily soaps . A 22-page booklet consisted of various action sequences. There were always new "jumps" from one setting to the next and back again, which sometimes only took up two, sometimes even one, pages before the next change of scene took the reader to another location and thread. This concept was taken into account in that the various Superman series, which had previously been largely detached from each other, were connected to one another by constant cliffhangers according to the principle "to be continued ..." . The team of author and draftsman who oversaw a series was commissioned to not only tell their own stories from then on, but to take up the storyline from the last Superman booklet - regardless of which of the various Superman series - and continue in their own series . The three series Action Comics , The Adventures of Superman and Superman were also supplemented in 1991 by the fourth series Superman: The Man of Steel , so that a Superman comic was now published almost every week.

In order to show the reader in which order the individual issues should be read in order to be able to pursue the various storylines continuously without gaps and jumps, the title pages of all issues of these four series have been given so-called triangle numbers. At the beginning, Superman (Vol.2) # 51 was given the number 1/1991, the related issue of the series The Adventures of Superman # 474 was numbered 2/1991, the following issue from the Action Comics series # 661 was numbered 3/1991 etc. The designation of the numbers can be traced back to a small triangle standing on its tip , which frames the respective number and looks like a triangle . With the introduction of the fifth, quarterly series Superman: The Man of Tomorrow in the summer of 1995 (28/1995), there was an issue of Superman every week. When the comic series became less closely interwoven again at the beginning of the 21st century, the triangle numbers temporarily ended with number 4/2002 ( Action Comics # 785).

At the end of 2008 the story of "New Krypton" began, for which the series was numbered from number 1 onwards ( Superman: New Krypton Special # 1), this time in a pentagon based on the Superman emblem, but without specifying a year. With the number 35 ( Superman (Vol.1) # 690) the count was stopped in order to start a new count for the new story line about the banishment of all Kryptonians from the earth in Superman Secret Files 2009 # 1 at 0 at the end of 2009 . This count was discontinued with triangle number 43 ( Adventure Comics # 11 (# 514)).

The eight issues of the last, as part of The New 52 published, cross-series Superman story The Final Days of Superman (mid-2016; German The Last Days of Superman ) had numbers in a Superman logo on the front of the booklet; Superman (Vol.3) # 51 was number 1, # 52 of the same series was number 8.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.comics.org: Adventures of Superman , February 1, 2014 (English).
  2. ↑ www.süddeutsche.de: First Superman comic auctioned for one million dollars , August 5, 2016.
  3. ^ Christian Heiss, Jörg Krismann, Heiner Lünstedt: The everlasting fight (1988 - tomorrow) ; in Hit Comics Spezial # 2, Karicartoon Verlag , March 1999, p. 30.
  4. ↑ Superman: The Last Days of Superman. Panini Comics , 2017, accessed February 25, 2017 .