The Best Superman Comic for the Curious Reader
- CBCCPodcast
- Jun 13
- 13 min read
We asked 21 creators to name the Best Superman Comic for the curious reader stepping out of James Gunn's new movie. Some answers may surprise.
Selecting the Best Superman Comic is a nearly impossible task. When Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's character arrived on newsstands in 1938, he altered and dominated the culture. The Last Son of Krypton has populated thousands of comic books, cartoons, and movies. He adorns underwear and bedsheets. Every person on this planet has encountered some version of him and probably has a strong opinion of how he should behave and whether or not the red trunks should be on the outside of his pants.
We're less than a month away from Superman returning to cinemas. James Gunn's new movie promises a Man of Steel unlike any other we've seen cinematically while showcasing a grand universe familiar to comic book readers. Considering our adoration of Gunn's previous filmography, we were sold before we saw a frame, but the latest trailer somehow stoked our excitement to even greater heights. We don't think we're alone, and we're hoping many people stumbling out of the theater on July 11th will be compelled by James Gunn's vision to find their nearest comic book store.
With that in mind, we asked twenty-one comic book creators to name the Best Superman Comic for that curious reader eager to extend their newfound Superman fandom. We've been building this list for the last six months, gathering blurbs from our podcast guests and artist friends and assembling their picks for your consideration and discussion.
We made sure to ask the creators who are currently steering DC's Summer of Superman: Jason Aaron, Rafa Sandoval, Dan Slott, Joshua Williamson, and Mark Waid. You'll also find past Kal-El caretakers like Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Tom King, Grant Morrison, Gail Simone, and Scott Snyder. Folks like Jadzia Axelrod and Nicole Maines have also flirted with the character and significantly contributed to Big Blue's supporting cast. Plus, you'll find a few other surprise guests.
Some titles celebrated below, like All-Star Superman, will not surprise you. However, we're betting several others will. By reading this list, we hope you discover some new Superman comics, and if not, may this article spark internal conversation regarding what you think should belong in a movie lover's first Superman comic.
Best Superman Comic: Jason Aaron
"Am I an asshole if I say my own comic? Clearly, I would like to think that Absolute Superman is something that anyone could pick up. It just started. It's a brand new take on Superman, and you don't have to read anything else before. You can get in on the ground floor. It's a different version of Superman than what you'll see in the film, obviously, but I still feel like it's a Superman book for anybody, whether you've been reading Superman your entire life or if you've never read a comic book. I think this could be a version of the character that you can relate to and surprise you in many different ways.
Something that is not by me? My go-to is always All-Star Superman. What Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely did is still so profound and good. It's not just one of the most perfect Superman comics I've ever read; it's just one of the most perfect comic books of any sort that I've ever read. You'll see the influence of that book on the movie as well.
Best Superman Comic: Jeremy Adams
"I always go to All-Star Superman. It's phenomenal, but at the same time, I realize that All-Star Superman caters to people who already know about Superman. It's very specific. "For the Man Who Has Everything" by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons [aka Superman Annual #11] is great. Just being pragmatic, though, I think Joshua Williamson is doing a great job on the book right now. It's an incredible throwback but also a jumping-on point to help people acclimate to Superman in general. But man, it's hard. I have four collections of the greatest Superman stories ever told, and they're all different. It's difficult to narrow down."
Best Superman Comic: Mahmud Asrar
Absolute Superman by Jason Aaron and Rafa Sandoval. It's an amazing book. It's a really great jumping-on point for a new reader. It's a modern book. You can't go wrong with that. My favorite Superman story, of course, is All-Star Superman, just because of the art. I'm a visual person. So when I buy a comic, I buy it for the art first, and then I read the story. Frank Quitely's work on that book is sublime. The scene where Superman flies in front of the sun stands out. And I love Jamie Grant's colors in that book. Amazing.
Best Superman Comic: Jadzia Axelrod
"I am certain that anyone coming out of James Gunn's Superman will be curious to read more about Hawkgirl, and the recommendation then is, of course, Hawkgirl: Once Upon a Galaxy by me, Amancay Nahuelpan, Adriano Lucas, Alex Guimarãs, Carrie Strachan, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. But just in case you want to read more of the titular caped gentleman, you cannot go wrong with Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang, Gurihiru, and Janice Chiang. A period piece that is simultaneously timeless with absolutely gorgeous, kinetic art, Superman Smashes the Klan nails not only the importance of Superman, but also how Clark himself might feel about the whole business. A modern classic."
Best Superman Comic: Juni Ba
"Superman: Birthright might be my favorite. It crystallized the character for me. In the same way that I made The Boy Wonder, where I wanted to make a book that's accessible to people who don't know who these characters are, Birthright does this. There's a lot of presenting those characters to you. There's iconography in it that still sticks with me. There's a panel where Superman saves a kid by using the monument they made in his name. It's like a giant "S," and he's using that to block a laser. The guy using the monument of his own glory to protect a child, that's good. The book is full of stuff like that, little graphic ideas, and a really nice characterization of a guy who has everything in terms of power, but he's so humble that he decides to use it to be as useful as he can.
'For the Man Who Has Everything,' too. My girlfriend doesn't really know anything about superheroes. When we started talking about Superman, I was like, I'm going to show you a Justice League episode. It's based on a comic that Alan Moore made. It's going to explain everything about why there is a lot more substance to this character than you think. And it worked on her. It's just great storytelling. It does the job so well."
Best Superman Comic: Christopher Cantwell
"All-Star Superman. It's foundational, but it's shaking it up. At the same time, it feels dynamic and vital. It doesn't feel dusty, yet it's pure virtue and beauty. If I can give a non-comic book answer, the [Max and Dave] Fleischer cartoons are the best. Well, the non-racist Fleischer cartoons are incredible. Unbelievable, really. They're perfect.
Best Superman Comic: Tyler Crook
"All-Star Superman is great. The only problem with that book is that it's tough if you're not familiar with Superman. Even when I was reading it, I got halfway through, and I was like, 'What is happening?' It's the same feeling I had with The New Frontier. I tried reading that and thought, 'I'm not a big enough fan of DC to understand what is happening.'
Reading Superman #1 or Action Comics #1, I think, is really fun. To see where Superman started versus where he is today. I think he is a better character today, sure. And the best version of Action Comics to read is in The Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics. They use photos of the print pages so you can see what the original thing looked like. It's not recolored or anything. The pages are yellowed. Looks great.
Best Superman Comic: Nick Dragotta
"Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross. I love that story and the depiction of Superman. The way he comes back. He's just so powerful and majestic. All-Star Superman is a great book. Frank Quitely is a genius. Subconsciously, Kingdom Come is probably where my head is at with Absolute Batman, too."
Best Superman Comic: Morgan Hampton
Superman: For All Seasons by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. The humanity is the thing that shines the most in that. People who get Superman, that's what they get the most. And that's what everyone should get out of Superman. We should see ourselves in him.
Best Superman Comic: Daniel Warren Johnson
"All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely - no other Superman book comes close. A perfect comic."
Best Superman Comic: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
"The best, most representative Superman stories are the ones that focus on his empathy, compassion, and humility, and use his astonishing physical powers only to better illustrate those traits. The personal moments in which he shows the greatest care for the least of us. For a first-time reader, alongside all the other amazing stories on this list, I would offer Superman: For All Seasons. And if anyone wants the shortest, most representative example of who Superman is, read the last six pages of Daniel Warren Johnson's story in Superman: Red and Blue #5. I hear John Williams' music on those pages, as one should."
Best Superman Comic: Tom King
"'Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow,' 'For The Man Who Has Everything,' and 'The Jungle Line' [from DC Comics Presents #85], which also has Swamp Thing. Three Alan Moore Superman stories, and they're the three best Superman stories ever written. Yup, Alan Moore is pretty good at comics. Plus, Dave Gibbons, Curt Swan, George Pérez, and Rick Veitch are great collaborators.
'Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow' was DC at the end of Crisis. They knew they were going to shut down Superman entirely and start over with John Byrne's Man of Steel, which was going to be a reboot. One of the things I'm most jealous about in comics is that they went to Alan Moore and asked him if he'd like to write the last Superman story, which summarizes his first fifty years. Moore incorporated all of Superman's villains, friends, and relationships. Lois, Jimmy, etc.
To me, that's what Superman is: that family dynamic, how he talks to Perry, how he talks to Jimmy, what Lex means to him, and what Brainiac means to him. All of that stuff is in 'Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow,' and it's told just beautifully and brilliantly. You don't need to know a thing about Superman, and it will break your heart, and at the end, you'll end up laughing because the last page is a doozy."
Best Superman Comic: Jeff Lemire
"My go-to Superman books are always All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, and the Alan Moore story, 'Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" I'm not reinventing the wheel, here. Moore really celebrates the past of the character, the root of the character. Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely kind of do the opposite, where it takes the essence of the character, like what we're doing with the Flash, but make it very modern and it's accessible, big, and fun."
Best Superman Comic: Nicole Maines
"All-Star Superman. Has that been everyone's answer? That's where the goalposts are when it comes to Superman. We were doing a series of interviews at DC, and one of the questions was, "What's your favorite Superman comic? And if you can, can you say something that's not All-Star Superman? We've gotten a lot of those." And I was like, "Can I say a specific moment?" And they were like, "Is it going to be the one where he saves the girl from jumping off the building?" I was like, "I'm not going to apologize for being right." That's subjectively the greatest Superman moment, because as he's stopping meteors and fighting Lex Luthor and fighting for truth, justice, and the American Way, he absolutely has time to stop a girl from committing suicide, because her therapist did just get caught up. He has the time, because he is Superman. Read All-Star Superman. We have yet to top it, and I doubt we ever will."
Best Superman Comic: Grant Morrison
"The first thing I thought of was Superman vs. Muhammad Ali [by Dennis O'neil and Neal Adams], and that's totally wrong. It's wrong! But here's Superman, here's pop culture, here's the 1970s, here's Superman at his greatest, done by one of the greatest comic artists of all time. It has nothing to do with continuity; it has to do with pop culture, but I think I'm wrong. Superman vs. Muhammad Ali came out the same year as Superman: The Movie, but for me, Superman/Muhamed Ali was the cultural event of that year because the movie was just another Hollywood blockbuster as far as I was concerned. I was eighteen at the time. I was a fan of auteur cinema, especially Martin Scorsese and Nicolas Roeg. For me, Superman, Star Wars, and all of that stuff were like kids' stuff, but Superman vs. Muhammad Ali was the real deal.
Also, just read a collection of Silver Age Superman. Those stories are more universal. In the way that Archie was universal. My sister was not a comics fan; she would read Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen because they were like Archie comics. I think, honestly, if you really want to get people into Superman, you give them a great collection of Silver Age stuff with some of the best stories like 'Death of Superman' and 'Superman Red/Superman Blue.' In their heads, most people think of comics being like that anyway. You know, that slightly overdone storytelling style.
But to me, those things are like Beatles records. They're the best, the most imaginative, with the most ideas. They're about basic stuff. They're about jealousy, love, grief, loss, pain, and joy. Most of the modern stuff is continuity-driven. It's about here comes this villain you haven't seen for ten years. This big last page, and 'Oh my god, he's back!' It only means something to comic fans. I think the stuff that works best is the Silver Age books that were just aimed at a wide general audience and used to sell in the millions. And the reason they sold in the millions is that they were stories that anyone could understand.
In terms of modern stuff, give them Alex Ross' Hope. Again, it's easy to grasp for people who don't get superhero comics but understand Superman. It's drawn in such a way that it looks like a movie. Anything that's out of continuity, I think, give to people. Anything that shows Superman in his basic natural state but isn't connected to the latest big trend, crossover, change of costume, or change of powers is probably the best way to introduce people to Superman.
If it were one of mine, I'd give them Superman Beyond. That's my favorite Superman story that I've ever written, and yet it's one that's kind of just forgotten."
Best Superman Comic: Rafa Sandoval
There are many titles I could recommend. Of course, I recommend Absolute Superman, but I also recommend Superman: Lost by Christopher Priest and Carlo Pagulayan, a story with an absolutely disturbing premise. I also fondly remember the Gary Frank and Geoff Johns run, where I got to see Christopher Reeve playing Superman again. And finally, I love to remember and reread 'Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?' and 'For the Man Who Has Everything,' two incredible stories by Alan Moore with great artists like Dave Gibbons and Curt Swan.
Best Superman Comic: Gail Simone
"One of my favorites is Superman: Birthright, written by Mark Waid and penciled by Leinil Francis Yu. It is not always included in lists of best Superman comics of all time, but damn well should be. A great tale that incorporates elements of real-world problems in a way that doesn't feel cheap or exploitative. It's just a beautiful story that rewards repeated readings."
Best Superman Comic: Dan Slott
"This is the mission statement of Superman Unlimited #1. If you have never read a Superman book, a DC book, or any comic book, this is your ground-level book. This book has been designed in Kryptonian labs to be the ultimate Superman jump-on book. It doesn't matter if you have this book in your store until doomsday, it will always be the single greatest jump-on point for modern-day Superman comics. James Gunn's Superman will be one of the single greatest motion pictures known to man. People will see this and will leave the theater saying, "I wish to feel this good again. I wish to receive this exact dosage of dopamine in my brain." Therefore, we are giving you this comic. Even if the movie goes away for a while, you can hold onto Superman Unlimited #1, and it will give you this continuous dopamine hit."
Best Superman Comic: Scott Snyder
"My favorite is going to be above their heads, obviously. All-Star Superman can be a bit of a lift for new readers. There's Birthright, which I love to death, which is a sort of modernized origin. Superman: For all Seasons. Honestly, one of my favorites that flies under the radar is Superman Adventures, which is based on the animated stuff that Mark Millar wrote. It has the Bruce Timm kinda art. That series is so wonderful. The animated series is great, yes, but the comic that came out of that had no reason to be as awesome as it was, but Mark really killed it. It's a great series."
Best Superman Comic: Mark Waid
"I would love to say Superman: Birthright, I really would, but I think you should give that curious reader All-Star Superman. It's going to plague me until the end of time. I'm the Salieri to Grant's Mozart. The best I can hope for is maybe the second-best Superman story ever told someday, if I get there. But if they want more, give them Superman: Birthright."
Best Superman Comic: Joshua Williamson
"It's good to pick up the hits like All-Star Superman and Superman: Birthright. Those are places you could start at. However, when I started reading Superman, it wasn't like somebody handed me a Superman comic and said, 'Start here.' I picked the comics off the shelf. One beautiful thing about Superman is that you can start anywhere. I think the stuff that we've been doing for the Summer of Superman, you can grab these books off the shelf. The story that Mark Waid is doing next with Superboy in Action Comics is a great place to start. I think Superman #1, which we did, is a good place to start.
You don't have to be so precious about starting at the beginning with comics. You can go with the expected and look at All-Star Superman, but that's not how my Superman fandom started. My Superman fandom started by grabbing what was on the rack. Like going to Target and just buying a book or going to Costco and getting a giant stack of comics, and there's a whole month's worth of Superman comics in there. If you're starting out, just grab a book.
James Gunn's Superman arrives in cinemas on July 11th. Watch the film, then seek out your nearest comic book store.
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