Top 5 Desert Island Superman Collected Editions

[daBronzeBomma]

You are indefinitely going somewhere with no internet access (not necessarily a deserted island). You happen to have your Top 5 favorite Superman trade paperbacks with you for potentially the rest of your life.

Scenario has only 3 ironclad caveats:

1. The selection has to be already officially collected in some fashion.

2. Each selection has to tell a singular overall story with a beginning and an end (no anthology-style formats, aka no "Superman in the ___ decade" collections, no "Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told" editions, etc).

3. No single-issues


Mine, right now (subject to change).

1. All-Star Superman
2. Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow
3. Reign of the Supermen (no Death of Superman, no Funeral For A Friend, unless a single omnibus edition already exists that covers all 3)
4. Birthright
5. Lex Luthor graphic novel

Yours?

[K7P5V]

1. The Phantom Zone (1982)
2. World's Finest (first mini-series, 1990)
3. Speeding Bullets (1993)
4. Emperor Joker (2000)
5. Public Enemies (2003)

[mikelmcknight72]

The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told trade paperback from the 80's - it includes wonderful stories from the Golden, Silver, Bronze, and a post-COIE Byrne issue, including a couple of great imaginary stories
All-Star Superman
The 4 that cover his death, the funeral, the new Supermen, and his return as an omnibus - I believe there was either a one or two volume set covering all of it.
Public Enemies
Superman and the LSH

I know the first one is against the rules, but I'm breaking that rule. It is too good to not include.

[Yoda]

My top five:

1. American Alien
2. Superman Rebirth Deluxe Edition Vol. 1
3. Birthright
4. Absolute All Star Superman
5. Death & Return of Superman Omnibus - This covers Death, FFAF, Reign and Return all in one massive volume.

[Vakanai]

1. Birthright
2. Man and Superman
3. Earth One volume one
4. Earth One volume two
5. Earth One volume three

That kinda worked out. List is liable to change as I read more stories of course.

[The I.A.D.C.]

1. The Golden Age Vol. 1 (Siegel & Shuster)
2. The Adventures of Superman by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez
3. The Man of Steel (John Byrne) Vol. 1
4. Brainiac (Geoff Johns)
5. All-Star Superman (Grant Morrison)

[Kuwagaton]

Unfortunately I suppose that eliminates all but one of the popular pre crisis collections and... I don't really care for Kryptonite Nevermore.

They definitely do have the Death and Return omnibus in a few print runs. It's almost cheating to me though because why would you not pick an omnibus? It's like wishing for more wishes. I have the one with the Jurgens wrap around cover from a few years ago. But yeah that's #1.

#2 would be the Supergirl Saga, which was collected in Man of Steel volume 9. I'm really a sucker for those weird Egyptians and the widescreen panels in the final chapters. Simple but brilliant. I'd have picked Exile but the omnibus is kind of too big a cheat, with all the "other stories" in there.

#3 would be All Star Superman, since it has the best variety within one story arc. It was really developed to be something you read more than once.

#4 would be this upcoming "City of Tomorrow" trade since all four titles shared Y2K as their culmination.

#5 would be Coming of the Supermen, which is short but dense and delightfully insane. Wish the art was more polished but I'll always be a Neal Adams fan.

[SiegePerilous02]

1. All Star Superman
2. Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (which would also include For the Man Who Has Everything)
3. The Phantom Zone
4. Superman: Action Comics- the World Against Superman
5. Whatever the follow up volume to #4 will be collecting the rest of the Action run

[Kuwagaton]

Of the trades with less than six issues, I'd definitely say the Alan Moore trade (Whatever Happened, Jungle Line, Annual 11) would be my favorite read.

[daBronzeBomma]

Unfortunately I suppose that eliminates all but one of the popular pre crisis collections and... I don't really care for Kryptonite Nevermore.

They definitely do have the Death and Return omnibus in a few print runs. It's almost cheating to me though because why would you not pick an omnibus? It's like wishing for more wishes. I have the one with the Jurgens wrap around cover from a few years ago. But yeah that's #1.

#2 would be the Supergirl Saga, which was collected in Man of Steel volume 9. I'm really a sucker for those weird Egyptians and the widescreen panels in the final chapters. Simple but brilliant. I'd have picked Exile but the omnibus is kind of too big a cheat, with all the "other stories" in there.

#3 would be All Star Superman, since it has the best variety within one story arc. It was really developed to be something you read more than once.

#4 would be this upcoming "City of Tomorrow" trade since all four titles shared Y2K as their culmination.

#5 would be Coming of the Supermen, which is short but dense and delightfully insane. Wish the art was more polished but I'll always be a Neal Adams fan.

Let me just check the interwebs for this thing you speak of ...

Holy crap.







1,100+ pages???

With the JL stories and the specials included?

Yeah, this omnibus edition just became #1 on my list with a bullet! How much?

[MeGrimlock420]

1. Death and Return of Superman

2. Superman Rebirth Deluxe Edition Vol. 1

3. All Star Superman

4. Public Enemies

5. Birthright


This one likely won't count towards the list, I would also put in Super Sons (Jon Kent and Damian Wayne) Omnibus.

[Super4Ever]

Let me just check the interwebs for this thing you speak of ...

Holy crap.







1,100+ pages???

With the JL stories and the specials included?

Yeah, this omnibus edition just became #1 on my list with a bullet! How much?

They also just released a new edition that, at Jurgens’ request, has the fold out 3 page death scene. I just got this one.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/14...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Kuwagaton]

Let me just check the interwebs for this thing you speak of ...

Holy crap.



1,100+ pages???

With the JL stories and the specials included?

Yeah, this omnibus edition just became #1 on my list with a bullet! How much?

99. Which for perspective, is 25 less than the 800 page X-Men edition containing X-Men #1.

[Adekis]

That's the ticket. I don't have a list here, but basically five big huge hardcover brick-like omnibuses are the way to go, I figure.

I might try to grab a bunch of stuff from different eras of the character's history. Either way, this is one time I think quantity and diversity of content probably wins out over quality of stories. I might really love Absolute All-Star Superman, but it's only twelve issues, and if I only have twelve issues per book, that's... not enough! I definitely need more material than that if I'm going to keep from going mad in an isolated place without internet! Er, even if I do assume I have enough food and insulin not to die in a matter of days to weeks.

[daBronzeBomma]

That's the ticket. I don't have a list here, but [b]basically five big huge hardcover brick-like omnibuses are the way to go, I figure.[b]

I might try to grab a bunch of stuff from different eras of the character's history. Either way, this is one time I think quantity and diversity of content probably wins out over quality of stories. I might really love Absolute All-Star Superman, but it's only twelve issues, and if I only have twelve issues per book, that's... not enough! I definitely need more material than that if I'm going to keep from going mad in an isolated place without internet! Er, even if I do assume I have enough food and insulin not to die in a matter of days to weeks.

So, who remembers this little gem?:



The Complete Frank Miller Batman.

A Leather-bound single volume hardcover containing THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, YEAR ONE, and a 3rd story I never heard of.

Can you imagine ...

The Complete Grant Morrison Superman.

ALL- STAR SUPERMAN + his entire ACTION COMICS vol 2 run in one leather-bound single Volume hardcover?

A) how many pages would that be?

B) how much would something like that cost?