Been on a bit of a Golden Age kick lately - reading Superman Smashes the Klan, watching the Flesischer shorts, and a few days ago I took it up a notch by going back to the source and reading the original Siegal/Shuster Superman stories.
Now it'd been years since I'd last read them chronologically and my knowledge of Superman and my perception of the superhero genre has evolved considerably over time, so in a sense it almost felt like I'm reading them for the first time.
The omnibus covers Action Comics # 1-19 and Superman # 1-3 (as well as the World's Fair special).
Here are some of my thoughts from the (re)read:
-Yup, Superman is very much the ultimate vigilante here, doing whatever the f#ck he wants and not giving a sh#t about public opinion, politics, the police, the media, anybody! In many ways he reminded me of Batman in the way he threatens to kill criminals to get them to give up information. He doesn't really have a specific agenda as such, beyond destroying anything that harms people and taking down any kind of bad-guy - be it a white-collar criminal, 'respectable' businessmen who skimp on worker/customer safety, corrupt officials, street criminals and racketeers, war-mongers...the list goes on. A lot of people tend to cite Superman's actions in these stories against businessmen to present him as a 'socialist' or 'left-wing' hero, but I don't see that as being the case. This is a Superman who doesn't care about politics just like he doesn't care about anything other than helping the helpless.
-This bit actually surprised me...its amazing just how important Clark Kent and his role as a Daily Star reporter is to these stories. Virtually every story begins with Clark carrying out an investigation as a reporter and uncovering some crime/conspiracy/problem which he then solves as Superman (though he often gets to work solving things as Clark). He may be 'mild-mannered' and occasionally act as a weakling, but Clark Kent is no disguise or bumbling idiot in these stories, but a fearless reporter who's probably second only to Superman in cleaning up Metropolis, through his exposes. Frankly, I never get the perception from these stories, which some people like to impute to the Golden Age Superman, that ''Superman is real'' and ''Clark Kent is fake''. There's no split-personality or disguise here - Clark Kent and Superman are both equally important parts of the protagonist's crusade. Also, the narration sometimes interchangeably uses 'Clark Kent' or 'Superman' at times when describing the title character regardless of what he's wearing (there's a panel in one of the issues where the narration refers to Superman while we see him using his powers dressed as Clark Kent during an emergency...and of course Action Comics # 1 refers to Clark Kent's superhuman strength).
-Another bit which surprised me was Lois Lane's role, or rather, lack thereof. Clark Kent is the top reporter of the Daily Star in these stories, not Lois Lane. Lois in fact is mostly relegated to writing sob-stories and other such stuff, and only gets to be involved in investigative journalism when Clark requests her to assist him. I guess this is down to the sexism of the era, where a female journalist would be unlikely to get all the important and/or dangerous assignments, but its still a bit jarring. This actually explains some of the downright contempt Lois displays towards Clark in these stories - its not just because he appears to be a coward and doesn't fare well against Superman; its because he gets to be the hotshot reporter with all the big scoops while she hardly gets out of the office on an assignment at all. This is made explicit in Superman # 3 where Lois gets 'demoted' to handle the lovelorn desk, while Clark gets promoted for all his investigative work. Lois also isn't in as many stories as you'd think...there are long-ish stretches of stories where she either doesn't appear or appears very briefly.
-The ''triangle for two'' is very much present and a lot more explicit and blatant than probably any other version of it since. And frankly, no one comes off looking particularly good here! The triangle actually starts around Action Comics # 5, which is the story where Lois first explicitly says that she's in love with Superman and starts obsessing over him. Clark is smitten by Lois since Action Comics # 1 and keeps trying to date her (and later on, uses his clout with Editor George Taylor to force her to accompany him on assignments, which I must say comes across as a mildly creepy). Lois practically hates him because she thinks he's a pathetic spineless coward (but also because she's low-key envious of his professional success). Lois is in love with Superman for his strength and the mystery surrounding him, and because he keeps saving her. Superman goes out of his way to be cold and indifferent towards Lois every time he saves her. And when Clark first finds out that Lois, the girl he keeps pestering for a date, is in love with Superman, his response is to...go to his office to have a private laugh! Yeah, the whole thing comes off as a bit neurotic...
-Superman's powers are of course limited, but his super-hearing and X-ray vision are actually introduced a lot earlier than I'd have thought (somewhere around Action Comics # 10 give or take a couple of issues). He also isn't completely invincible...a powerful explosion or getting hit by a locomotive is presented as being potential fatal to him. That said, in the context in which he's operating, where all his antagonists are ordinary human beings, he pretty much is unbeatable in a way no later incarnation of Superman will ever be. In all the stories I've read so far, the only villain who has actually posed a physical threat to Superman is Ultra-Humanite, owing to his powerful and dangerous weapons. It got to the point where, if a criminal has a device that actually makes him a challenge to Superman, you can bet he's working for Ultra!
But above all, I have to say that these stories are FUN! Simplistic, yes...but it really is entertaining to see Superman beat the crap out of criminals without thinking twice and figuring out how he's going to investigate and solve a particular problem. Looking forward to getting Vol 2 soon...