Pre Crisis Superman What is worth reading?

[comicstar100]

What Pre Crisis Superman stories do you consider must reads?

[Jon Clark]

Superman# 296-299 (Who Took The Super Out Of Superman)
DC Comics Presents #50 (When Wish Upon a Planetoid)
Superman #281- 1st Vartox story
Action #507-508 - Strange Resurrection of Jonathan Kent
DC Presents Annual #1- Earth 1 & Earth 2 Supermen Vs their Luthors with Earth 3 versions as well
Action #534-542- Superman is split into two beings while battling Lord Satanus
Action #500
Action #544 redesign of Luthor and Brainiac. It continues in Action for Brainiac and in Superman for Luthor but I'm not sure of the Superman issue numbers.

[Kuwagaton]

I'd say go with collections, which should be in all published from 2000 to now, so they should be in good condition and easy to find. They very broadly paint a picture of what was going on in those many, many "pre crisis" comics.

Adventures of Superman, Gil Kane - Wolfman has always been a solid writer for Superman outside of Crisis related stuff, and Gil Kane gave their shared work some amazing life. Kane also wrote himself, and it was awesome. I think that story, Superman Special #1, is the best of the bunch but it's good fun all around. Includes that Brainiac stuff beginning from Action #544, which ended up being a very huge part of the direction of the Brainiac character from then on (the Luthor stuff is also worth it, continued in Superman #385 and 386).

Superman #410-413: there's a slight break for a very special issue, but this is mostly an arc following that Luthor story where their rivalry is turned up.

Superman #416 and #417 - the first issue is made up by two very eloquent statements made about Superman and his slice of the pre-crisis world, the second is my favorite imaginary story of all time because it's the most simple premise: Superman on mars.

"Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" - the collected trade not only features an acclaimed writer's solid impression of "the last" pre-crisis story, but also Superman Annual #11 and DC Comics Presents #85. These are some of the most famous stories of Superman's history.

Superman: Past and Future - Superman's first time pulling off one very amazing trick, time travel, and the ripples it's had across his pre-crisis history. Superman #295 and #300 are easily some of my favorites ever, but the whole trade is good.

Superman #400 - go buy it! I found it in the dollar bin 3 days ago and resisted the temptation to get another, lol. I'm pretty sure the whole thing was Maggin but either way it is the most amazing line up of guest artists. Bendis recently mentioned it as his favorite ever, so I dug it out last night to read.

[superduperman]

I would also recommend the collected editions. The best ones, in my opinion, are the decades series. Superman in the Sixties, Superman in the Seventies, DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore. This includes For The Man Who Has Everything, Jungle Line, where he teams up with Swamp Thing, and Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? All of the Superman stories in it are pre-Crisis. This should give you a good overview of some of the best stuff. There's a lot of seventies stuff I wish they'd reprint. My first "real" outing of the pre-Crisis Superman: The Loser and New Champion, is one of my favorites. A guy gets the ability to duplicate the skills of the last person he fights so naturally he picks a fight with Superman. Probably one of the best multi-issue stories is Who Took the Super Out of Superman? where Clark loses his powers when he isn't wearing his costume. I don't know if it's been collected but it's a shame if it hasn't. There's a whole slew of pre-Crisis collected editions that are good. DC Comics Presents has a couple of Showcase volumes. I don't know if they've ever been reprinted in color. But most of the stories in them are really good. It's just Superman teaming up with a bunch of other heroes. There's a book of Superboy team up stories where he first meets Oliver Queen and Bruce Wayne. Superman Past and Future which has a bunch of time travel stories. Steve Gerber's Phantom Zone mini from the early eighties is great.

[Jim Kelly]

For the first thirty plus years of Superman, SUPERMAN FROM THE THIRTIES TO THE SEVENTIES was the first place where I gained an appreciation for the long and varied history of Superman. You would think it's impossible to get now, but I was walking past the local Sally Anne thrift store the other day and saw it in the window. I was almost tempted to buy it for myself, even though my original copy has served me well all these years. But better that someone else gets a copy.

There was apparently a SUPERMAN FROM THE THIRTIES TO THE EIGHTIES book a decade later that I never found. I've always wanted to get that book, as well as a few others like THE GREAT SUPERMAN COMIC BOOK COLLECTION--another big book of Superman reprints that I missed out on in the '80s.

[The Frozen Reptile]

Superman# 296-299 (Who Took The Super Out Of Superman)
DC Comics Presents #50 (When Wish Upon a Planetoid)
Superman #281- 1st Vartox story
Action #507-508 - Strange Resurrection of Jonathan Kent
DC Presents Annual #1- Earth 1 & Earth 2 Supermen Vs their Luthors with Earth 3 versions as well
Action #534-542- Superman is split into two beings while battling Lord Satanus
Action #500
Action #544 redesign of Luthor and Brainiac. It continues in Action for Brainiac and in Superman for Luthor but I'm not sure of the Superman issue numbers.

You need to add the New Adventures of Superboy 5 to the Jonathan Kent storyline of Action 508.

[The Frozen Reptile]

The Sandman Saga, starting with Superman 233.
The Toyman story from Action 432
the storyline from Superman 305 to approx Superman 312, where Supergirl tries to convince him he is from Earth.

[Johnny Thunders!]

So happy to see all the great suggestions. I am a big fan of the Decades Series TPB and I would love a big oversized hardcover for the 60s, 70s, and eighties.
I really like the versus series from DC for Superman. There are trades for Superman Vs. Luthor, Superman Vs. Braniac, Superman Vs. Mongul, Superman Vs. Flash, and Superman Vs. Shazam. The Mongul book chops up a great Jim Starlin epic Superman story but it's worth a read. I also absolutely love all the Terra Man stories.
I know with the Superman Comic I love the run from 290 to about 310. I really think Superman 400 and Action Comics 500 are huge single issue high points for the character. The act as terrific bookends of the Superman story, from Smallville to Infinity and Beyond! Superman 400 reminds me of Neil Gaiman's Sandman with all those short stories, or the Spirit. I also highly recommend the black and white Showcase Presents trades for DC Comics Presents.

[superduperman]

The Sandman Saga, starting with Superman 233.
The Toyman story from Action 432
the storyline from Superman 305 to approx Superman 312, where Supergirl tries to convince him he is from Earth.

Okay, I gotta know the backstory on THAT!

[KC]

I would also add Action Comics #252 (the first appearance of Supergirl) and Superman #199 (First race with the Flash) to the list of comics already mentioned.

[Kuwagaton]

The Sandman Saga, starting with Superman 233.
The Toyman story from Action 432
the storyline from Superman 305 to approx Superman 312, where Supergirl tries to convince him he is from Earth.

Ah, well done. I love Jack Nimball, actually, and he gives a significant boost back to Schott through their involvement. Nimball and Strong are my favorite era exclusive characters from then.

[Jim Kelly]

It's hard to respond to these kind of questions without repeating everything said before, when similar questions have come up. I think I've already said that one of my favourite issues of SUPERMAN was issue 284 (February '75). Of course, a good reason why I love this comic and others like it is because I remember buying it and reading it--so it's connected with memories of high school and family life. But as a 100 Page Super-Spectacular--between the new story and the reprints--it represents a great selection of Superman stories from the '40s, '60s and '70s.

Mycomicshop has it in good condition for only $7.20. But I wouldn't buy a 100 pager in that condition unless I was desperate. The problem with that format is, with their glued spines, it's hard to find a copy in vey good to near mint condition. And then there's that glorious crossword puzzle which some guys couldn't resist filling in. I always made a copy by hand on foolscap so I could solve the puzzle without ruining the comic.

Rather than pasting the contents here, I'll put the link to Mike's Amazing World. There's not a bad story in the bunch. The stand-out from the 1940s is "King of the Comic Books" by Siegel/Shuster/Yarbrough--a brilliant bit of self-mockery. And from the 1960s it's one of my favourite stories, "Superman Owes a Billion Dollars" by Bernstein/Swan/Moldoff.

At this time I had a subscription to Warren's THE SPIRIT magazine and the stories stand favourable comparison. "Superman Owes a Billion Dollars" is very much a Spirit kind of story--I think there could have been a similar Spirit story where Denny owed back taxes, even though being officially dead.

[BBally]

If you're okay with reading novels, I recommend Miracle Monday written by Bronze Age writer Elliot S! Maggin, who was the main writer on the Superman line during that period, it's been recently reissued. He also written a novel before that called Last Son of Krypton, which hasn't been reissued yet (although he told me in a reply to an email i sent to him that he's working on working a deal with DC in order to reissue that book as well) but you read it on both his website and Superman Through the Ages site (who posted the whole book with his permission from what I understand)

Both books are considered at least in Maggin's eyes canon to his run on the comics that both his comic run and the books reference each other.

[Johnny Thunders!]

Both of the Maggin books are amazing as is the short story "Starwinds Howl". It seems funny reading a comic book character without pictures but in Superman's case and in those books, they are great comics!

I am going to argue for late Bronze Age Superman, right before the crisis. Maggin and Bates throw together some really odd, one shot big fable sci fi stories. They just seem to throw in whatever they got left in the tank. Superman 416, The Ghost of Superman Future is a time travel story that is uniquely Superman. The cover is awesome! It's far more fun than the equally terrific, the Einstein Connection. I would track down Superman comics from 410 to 420 to get a real flavor. In one story it's Superman Warrior of Mars! He's riding a dragon and carrying a sword.

[Truman Burbank]

I'd say go with collections, which should be in all published from 2000 to now, so they should be in good condition and easy to find. They very broadly paint a picture of what was going on in those many, many "pre crisis" comics.

Adventures of Superman, Gil Kane - Wolfman has always been a solid writer for Superman outside of Crisis related stuff, and Gil Kane gave their shared work some amazing life. Kane also wrote himself, and it was awesome. I think that story, Superman Special #1, is the best of the bunch but it's good fun all around. Includes that Brainiac stuff beginning from Action #544, which ended up being a very huge part of the direction of the Brainiac character from then on (the Luthor stuff is also worth it, continued in Superman #385 and 386).

Superman #410-413: there's a slight break for a very special issue, but this is mostly an arc following that Luthor story where their rivalry is turned up.

Superman #416 and #417 - the first issue is made up by two very eloquent statements made about Superman and his slice of the pre-crisis world, the second is my favorite imaginary story of all time because it's the most simple premise: Superman on mars.

"Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" - the collected trade not only features an acclaimed writer's solid impression of "the last" pre-crisis story, but also Superman Annual #11 and DC Comics Presents #85. These are some of the most famous stories of Superman's history.

Superman: Past and Future - Superman's first time pulling off one very amazing trick, time travel, and the ripples it's had across his pre-crisis history. Superman #295 and #300 are easily some of my favorites ever, but the whole trade is good.

Superman #400 - go buy it! I found it in the dollar bin 3 days ago and resisted the temptation to get another, lol. I'm pretty sure the whole thing was Maggin but either way it is the most amazing line up of guest artists. Bendis recently mentioned it as his favorite ever, so I dug it out last night to read.

Superman 400 was written by Maggin except for the last segment, which was done entirely by Jim Steranko. It's Steranko's only major work for DC Comics.

Second the recommendation on the Gil Kane collection. Some great stuff there - I've seen some people say Kane was past it when he was drawing Superman, but I always found his work on the character to be very dynamic.

There is also a similar trade featuring work by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, and it's also fantastic.

The giant Collector's Editions also had some important stories; Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man and Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, most notably. Unfortunately, even reprints of those get pricey.