Quote Originally Posted by MRP View Post
Golden Age but ending earlier than the OP lists. I prefer Superman to leap buildings in a single bound not fly, and I think the character was fundamentally changed from its core concept before the 40s ended.

-M
I agree. I've been reading the newspaper strips, and honestly I have a very real sense that Superman began to slowly but irrevocably change, literally as soon as Siegel and Shuster started responding to Pearl Harbor in the strips, which happened in mid-'42.

I wouldn't say Superman jumped the shark by the mid forties, though. Obviously, they made it work, and I have a lot of fondness for many developments that happened in the next two decades - like the George Reeves show, especially the first season, and the Silver Age, with the likes of Brainiac, Kandor, Supergirl, Krypto, and of course my personal favorite, the Legion.

Not to mention, the Bronze Age might be one of my absolute favorite eras of Superman overall, and I still maintain that the specific Metropolis from post-Crisis is my favorite take on the city and the people who live there.

Still, I think there's a reason why so many creators from Byrne to Morrison have tried, to lesser and greater degrees of success, to bring back that early Golden Age magic. There's just something about the Golden Age that nothing else quite matches to me.