In the previous thread I asked about the worst versions of Superman. Now, for some positivity: Which are the BEST versions of Superman? It can be any version from any medium.
Ruby Spears Superman: This is, far and away, my favorite version. It defined the character for me as a kid in a way that I didn't realize even then. Mostly it was the Family Album segments. It was the first time I actually saw him as a person and not just a figure. As a kid, seeing one of your heroes as your age getting to use his powers was one of the best experiences of my life. If there is a downside, it's that 1) the show really hasn't aged well and 2) all other versions compare poorly to it. Particularly their origins.
Donner movies: Like RS this version also defined the character for me even earlier on. Now, we've hashed out all the problems with it in the previous thread and I don't think we necessarily need to go over them again here. Suffice it to say, this isn't exactly the most realistic version they've ever done. But Christopher Reeves is probably the closest version to a real life Superman that will ever be. Both in terms of look and personality. He also defined Zod for all time. It was also the first real "alien" looking version of Krypton ever done that inspired all future versions. From Byrne's MOS to the DCEU's MOS! It also opened the door for the very idea of super-hero movies. For better or worse, this movie changed how the entire world sees Superman.
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Golden Age: I think the appeal, at least for me, is the simplicity of it. The character was still being defined so much of what we know as the mythos hadn't been established yet. He was just a really strong guy who pretended to be weak in his everyday life until someone needed his help. Most of the stories were more down to Earth and he took on actual corrupt crooks and businessmen and politicians. And he had some abilities he doesn't have today! Like being able to reshape his face to look like other people and hypnotizing someone just by looking at them.
Silver Age: This is just a fun era for the character all around. Nothing too serious and plenty of mythos to work with. I like him somewhat for the opposite reason I like the GA version, more of a playground to play in. Curt Swan was THE definitive Superman artist and actually made the fifties and sixties a believable looking world. Much of what we know of as the mythos was established during this time and it was all done playfully and fun!
Bronze Age: This one's a little further down the list because I don't think it's quite as "fun" as it's earlier incarnation. But I still like it largely because it essentially is the same as the SA just a little more serious. The mythos was refined and more functional continuity was established. If there was a downside, it was that it wasn't a stable continuity in the sense that we know of one today. Which might have something to do with why he might have been rebooted.
Birthright: This is probably my favorite comic book origin. Krypton looks just right. Clark goes out into the world to find himself. You have both small town and evil billionaire Lex. The fake alien invasion sounds exactly like something Lex would do. Lois and Perry's relationship is about perfect. DC probably should have just sat on this script and turned it into a movie. I'm really disappointed this didn't work out. And I can understand why. Trying to force it into the mainstream books as the official origin was probably one of the stupidest things DC could have done thinking that fans wouldn't call them on it. It was also the start of all the continuity problems DC is currently facing. I'm guessing if they had this to do over again, they wouldn't.
Smallville: I feel like I'm going to have to justify some of these and this is one of them. COIE created a huge divide among Superman fandom. I feel like Smallville came the closest to bridging the two versions. It had all the best elements of both and knew how to use them. Lex was both his friend and a corrupt billionaire. Clark had powers early on but not all of them. He was a super-boy but not a Superboy. Smallville was still a suburb of Metropolis AND in Kansas. The downside being that a lot of the stories went off the rails sometimes. Their Doomsday comes to mind. Lana as an ancient witch for another. The teen angst got a bit much but consider the channel it was on. They took some creative liberties but I don't feel like they took too many.
New 52: Again, this is one that I feel like I have to justify. First of all, I know that it messed up the rest of the DCU and I'm sorry about that. It was handled poorly in other titles and a lot of characters, Superboy being one of them, didn't come out of it the best way. That having been said, I felt like Superman needed a clean slate. He had something like three origins alone in less than a decades time by then and a hard reboot seemed like the fresh start he needed. The callbacks to the GA were also a huge selling point. Yes, we lost the marriage. Again, another unnecessary casualty. And the WW relationship just seemed off. And the books went off the rails pretty quickly, unfortunately. I'm one of the ones who took it the hardest when Rebirth happened because I felt like it was going back to the things that New 52 were getting away from.
Earth One: Okay, I saved this one for last because I knew it would be the hardest to justify. But hear me out: First of all, I don't think this should be the mainstream version of Superman. At. All. That was the whole point of the series. To do a different take on DC's main characters. To show these heroes on a learning curve. The Batman and WW books did the same thing. And I think some people may have missed that. That having been said, there are things in it I wish they had done with the main books and maybe that's why I was drawn to it. I felt like it went back to the simplicity of the GA. Especially at a time when the main comics were in a weird limbo. I didn't like Johns SO and the two page setup in it was just the simple version I wanted. There was also the fact that his personality made sense. For someone who spent his entire life hiding, of course he'd be reluctant to come out of the shadows. This doesn't mean I agreed with everything he did, but when you consider his circumstances, super powered kid growing up in a small town with no one to relate to, his perspective starts to make a little more sense. I also think he mellowed out in the later volumes. Not as much as he probably should have but the kid who was reluctant to help people in the first volume was clearly gone by the second. All that having been said, his reluctance to help in the first volume, and some of his mistakes later on, are blotches against him and that's why he isn't higher on the list. But I DO feel the movies should have swiped his costume wholesale!
Feel free to share your list! And feel free to criticize mine if you want, I won't take it personally.