Single issue Superman stories

[comicstar100]

What do you consider the best single issue stories for Superman?

[Vordan]

For The Man Who Has Everything
Jungle Line
The Boy Who Stole Superman’s Cape (Action Comics #0)
DC Comics Presents #97 by Steve Gerber (acts as an epilogue to his Phantom Zone mini)
Our Town (Superman Rebirth #7)
Solitude (Superman: Man of Tomorrow #18)
World’s Vilest (Superman: Man of Tomorrow #19)
How Much Can One Man Hate? (Superman Adventures #27)
Up in the Sky #2 & #4

[K7P5V]

"The Second Coming of Superman"







"The Living Legends of Superman"







"Of Thee I Sing"

[HsssH]

For The Man Who Has Everything
Jungle Line
The Boy Who Stole Superman’s Cape (Action Comics #0)
DC Comics Presents #97 by Steve Gerber (acts as an epilogue to his Phantom Zone mini)
Our Town (Superman Rebirth #7)
Solitude (Superman: Man of Tomorrow #18)
World’s Vilest (Superman: Man of Tomorrow #19)
How Much Can One Man Hate? (Superman Adventures #27)
Up in the Sky #2 & #4

A bit surprised that you rate something from Tomasi's run that highly

[Venomized-spider-man]

Action comic 775 "What so funny about truth justice and the American way"
The Boy Who Stole Superman’s Cape: Action Comics #0
The Sound of One Hand Clapping: Adventure of Superman #14
Our town: Superman 7
Tangle up in green: Superman Annual (Volume 4) #1
Action Comics #761 "For a Thousand Years..."
Foe the man who has everything

[Vordan]

A bit surprised that you rate something from Tomasi's run that highly

I enjoyed the first half of his run (Son of Superman to Black Dawn) except for Multiplicity and I enjoyed the final Bizarro story + issue 45. I’m less harsh on him than others are, I just don’t think his run was perfect. Even those who don’t like Tomasi’s run usually like issue 7, that’s the fair issue, it’s the one issue that shows what Rebirth could be at it’s best.

Also I was trying to name some issues that’s rent the same ones we get all the time like Action 775

[Jon Clark]

DC Comics Presents #50- Superman teams up with Clark Kent.

Superman Vol 1 #281- First encounter with Vartox

Superman Vol 2 #18: Post Crisis 1st "return" to Krypton

Superman Family #200- Superman supporting cast in later life.

Action #500 (also in a B&W paperback) - The Superman Story

[Riv86672]

Action comic 775 "What so funny about truth justice and the American way"

^^^Definitely.

MAN OF STEEL 3
It’s Superman and Batman’s first Post Crisis meeting.


SUPERMAN 9
Another first time meeting, as The Joker shows up in Metropolis.

[K7P5V]

"The Origin of Superman"







"The Life Story Of Superman"







"For the Man Who Has Everything..."

[The Frog Bros]

Another Kelly:

Action Comics #766: DOA. Kelly with Cary Nord on art. Clark (while dying) and Bruce trying desperately to find and save Lois. "Stop calling her victim... her name is Lois!" Love the way Nord draws him.

Edit:
Couple other personal faves...

AC #651: Not of this Earth. Stern/Perez. Maxima had been watching Superman fight Draaga on Warworld, makes her move, thwarted by Superman (of course!)

Man of Steel #100: Creation Story, Schultz/Mahnke. Fortress, tesseract, Steel, Nat, Steelworks!

[K7P5V]

"The Man Who Destroyed Krypton!"







"Must There Be a Superman?"







"The American Way"

[daredevil1]

^^^Definitely.

MAN OF STEEL 3
It’s Superman and Batman’s first Post Crisis meeting.

SUPERMAN 9
Another first time meeting, as The Joker shows up in Metropolis.

I love Byrne's run, although hI realized he has everyone declare things like "But I thought you were of somewhat stronger moral fibre, my dear!" every issue incessantly lol.

What are you guys calling Superman Rebirth, Man of Tomorrow and Adventures of Superman? All I remember is the 1995 Man of Tomorrow quarterly series that lasted only a dozen issues, and AoS never had an issue below 424...

[kingaliencracker]

I love Byrne's run, although hI realized he has everyone declare things like "But I thought you were of somewhat stronger moral fibre, my dear!" every issue incessantly lol.

What are you guys calling Superman Rebirth, Man of Tomorrow and Adventures of Superman? All I remember is the 1995 Man of Tomorrow quarterly series that lasted only a dozen issues, and AoS never had an issue below 424...

Superman Rebirth was the Jurgens/Tomasi run post-DC Rebirth and pre-Bendis MAN OF STEEL.

I assume Man of Tomorow is the quarterly series...? Could also be Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, although that was a 2-parter.

Superman Adventures was the comic book based on the animated series but also featured some amazing stories by Mark Millar.

[K7P5V]

Hopefully this one counts, since it's an all-time favorite...

"Doomsday Rex"

[Jim Kelly]

For my lists, I've imposed some limitations on myself.

I'm going to say a single issue story is a maximum of 26 pages. Sure there are longer stories than that, but the bulk of these are in comics with a greater number of pages--like two or more regular issues in one.

Some stories stretched over multiple issues are shorter than that--so it doesn't seem fair to include an extra long story that was in one giant issue, but not a three part story that was originally in three separate issues.

Plus I admire stories that are economical. When I get to the end of a really good story and I see it was only eight pages or sixteen pages, I'm all the more impressed.

As I'm excluding stories that were part of a longer arc, this means I can't include some of my favourite tales--but those would go on a list of story arcs and multi-part sagas.

I've made two top twenty lists (Superman and Superman Family), for a total of forty. I haven't ranked these yarns; I've simply put them in chronological order.

Single Issue Superman Stories:

1.Untitled Superman story by Siegel, Shuster and Cassidy, ACTION COMCS 6 (November 1938) 13 pages

2. Untitled Superman story by Siegel and Burnley, ACTION COMICS 31 (December 1940) 12 pages

3. "Meet the Squiffles" by Siegel and Riss, SUPERMAN 22 (May-June 1943) 12 pages

4. "The King of the Comic Books" by Siegel, Shuster and Yarbrough, SUPERMAN 25 (November-December 1943) 12 pages

5. "Lambs Versus Wolfingham," by Cameron, Yarbrough and Roussos, SUPERMAN 28 (May-June 1944) 12 pages

6. "The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk" by Siegel, Shuster and Yarbrough, SUPERMAN 30 (September-October 1944) 12 pages

7. "Superman's Return to Krypton" by Finger and Plastino, SUPERMAN 61 (November-December 1949) 12 pages

8. "The Terrible Trio," by Woolfolk, Boring and Kaye, SUPERMAN 88 (March 1954) 10 pages

9. "The Super-Family from Outer Space" by Unknown, Boring and Kaye, SUPERMAN 104 (March 1956) 8 pages

10. "The Superman from Outer Space" by Binder, Swan and Forte, ACTION COMICS 265 (June 1960) 13 pages

11. "Superman's Greatest Feats" by Siegel and Plastino, SUPERMAN 146 (July 1961) 13 pages

12. "Superman Owes a Billions Dollars" by Bernstein, Swan and Moldoff, SUPERMAN 148 (October 1961) 8 pages

13. "The Super-Revenge of the Phantom Zone Prisoner" by Hamilton, Swan and Klein SUPERMAN 157 (November 1962) 10 pages

14. "The Amazing Story of Superman-Red and Superman-Blue" by Dorfman, Swan and Klein, SUPERMAN 162 (July 1963) 25 pages

15. "The Showdown Between Luthor and Superman" by Hamilton, Swan and Klein, SUPERMAN 164 (October 1963) 17 pages

16. "Superman--Weakest Man in the World" by Hamilton, Swan and Klein, ACTION COMICS 321 (February 1965) 14 pages

17. "The Sun of Superman" by Bates, Swan and Anderson, SUPERMAN 255 (August 1972) 16 pages

18. "Mystery Mission to Metropolis" by Bates, Swan and Oksner, SUPERMAN 281 (November 1974) 20 pages

19. "The Midnight Murder Show" by Bates, Swan and Schaffenberger, ACTION COMICS 442 (December 1974) 14 pages

20. "The Turnabout Trap" by Pasko, Swan and Chiaramonte, SUPERMAN 349 (July 1980) 17 pages


Single Issue Superman Family Stories:

1. Superman, Batman and Robin: "The Three Super Musketeers" by Hamilton, Sprang and Kaye, WORLD'S FINEST COMICS 82 (May-June 1956) 12 pages

2. Kandor: "The Super-Family of Steel" by Binder and Schaffenberger, SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 15 (February 1960) 27 pages

3. Jimmy Olsen: "Miss Jimmy Olsen" by Bernstein, Swan and Kaye, SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 44 (April 1960) 9 pages

4. Superman, Batman and Robin: "The Menace of Superman's Pet" by Coleman, Sprang and Moldoff, WORLD'S FINEST COMICS 112 (September 1960) 12 pages

5. Krypto: "Lois Lane's Secret Helper" by Binder and Schaffenberger, SUPERMAN 142 (January 1961) 8 pages

6. Lois Lane: "The Mad Woman of Metropolis," by Bernstein and Schaffenberger, SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 26 (July 1961) 9 pages

7. Jimmy Olsen and Supergirl: "Jimmy Olsen Marries Supergirl" by Siegel, Swan and Kaye, SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 57 (December 1961) 17 pages

8. Superman and Supergirl: "Superman’s Super-Courtship" by Siegel and Mooney, ACTION COMICS 289 (June 1962) 12 pages

9. Nightwing and Flamebird: "Superman in Kandor" by Hamilton, Swan and Klein, SUPERMAN 158 (January 1963) 26 pages

10. Lois Lane: "The Monster Who Loved Lois Lane" by Hamilton and Schaffenberger, SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 54 (January 1965) 8 pages

11. Krypton: "Superman's Day of Truth" by Dorfman, Swan and Klein, SUPERMAN 176 (April 1965) 8 pages

12. Superboy: "The Mysterious Mighty Mite" by Dorfman, Papp and Stone, SUPERBOY 137 (April 1967) 14 pages

13. Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes: "The Five Legion Orphans" by Bridwell, Swan and Klein, ADVENTURE COMICS 356 (May 1967) 13 pages

14. Superman and the Flash: "Superman's Race With the Flash" by Shooter, Swan and Klein, SUPERMAN 199 (August 1967) 24 pages

15. Fortress of Solitude: "The Secrets of Superman's Fortress" by Dorfman, Swan and Anderson, ACTION COMICS 395 (December 1970) 13 pages

16. Krypton: "A Name is Born" by Bates and Morrow, SUPERMAN 238 (June 1971) 7 pages

17. Supergirl: "The Alien Among Us" by Albano and Oksner, ADVENTURE COMICS 411 (October 1971) 16 pages

18. Clark Kent: "The Baby Who Walked Through Walls" by Wein and Adams, SUPERMAN 254 (July 1972) 7 pages

19. Superman and Krypto: "Who Was That Dog I Saw You With Last Night?" by Maggin, Swan and Oksner, SUPERMAN 287 (May 1975) 13 pages

20. Morgan Edge: "My Son, the Orphan" by Pasko, Swan and McLaughlin, ACTION COMICS 468 (Februay 1977) 6 pages

***

I should probably include more stories from the 1940s and 1950s. But the 1960s and 1970s stories are the most memorable for me. As we go along, the number of story arcs and multi-part stories increases. Other than extended stories in giant size issues, you don't get a lot of done in one stories in the later decades.