2023 In Review - How was the 85th Anniversary Year?

[daBronzeBomma]

The Year 2023 is almost at an end. No better time to reflect on the time from Jan 1st thru Dec 31st than right now on the 30th on how the past 12 months have been for our boy Clark in all his various projects and news.

Personally, I think 2023 was a **Great** year for Superman.

The comics seem in better shape than they've been in a long while, especially the current volume of Superman.

Superman And Lois finished a solid 3rd season and did get renewed for a 4th and final one.

My Adventures With Superman was an animated hit as the show brought new and different demographics into the Fandom.

Superman Legacy cast its Clark, Lois, and Lex for its major motion picture production.

Honestly, the 85th Anniversary was a smashing success IMHO.

Comparing 2023 to other Superman Anniversary Years is a bit harder.

I do think Supes is in a better place now than he was in 2013 for the 75th Anniversary when he had MOS in theaters and was dating Wonder Woman in the comix.

Definitely better than 2008 (70th Anniversary) which wasn't celebrated at all.

Better than 2003 (65th Anniversary) which really only had All-Star Superman debut.

Better than 1998 (60th Anniversary), although he had 4 solo titles back then.

Better than 1993 (55th Anniversary)? That's tricky. Funeral For A Friend / Reign Of The Supermen / Return Of Superman in the comics was going on. Lois & Clark just started on TV. Tough to outright beat that Anniversary year.

Better than 1988 (50th Anniversary)? Yeah ...I still think so. Time magazine cover, Byrne left the Superverse, Superboy the Series debuted.

Probably better than any Super Anniversary Year prior to that ... right?

Wait, 1978 (40th Anniversary) had Superman The Movie.
That was huge.

Yeah, I got 2023 as the 3rd Best Super Anniversary Year at worst. Could be 1st or 2nd still.

Your take?

[DochaDocha]

Casting news is a positive, but not a strong positive. You gotta see results, i.e. a great movie. When you compare Superman Legacy to MoS, you have the benefit of seeing MoS' whole life cycle whereas we're still early in Legacy's preliminary stages. If Legacy fizzles, nobody's gonna consider the casting any meaningful sort of accomplishment.

Overall the year was fine, but in terms of actually doing anything to celebrate, the celebratory stuff seems to have flown under the radar.

[CosmeticSkull]

We also have a great ongoing Superman comic series.

Superman 003 (2023) (Webrip) (The Last Kryptonian-DCP)-000.jpg

Action Comics is in a good place too.

Action Comics 1051 (2023) (Webrip) (The Last Kryptonian-DCP)-000.jpg

[Ra-El]

This was one of the best years for Superman, since I started reading comics, not only in quality, but also in the amount of different projects we had.

[Thor-Ul]

I think it was a good year. Far better than five years ago, definitively.
80th anniversary was for sure the worst of a long time.

[Kuwagaton]

There's something I tend to enjoy comics wise each (arbitrary) anniversary. 50 was Byrne's best stuff and getting a cartoon, 60 was another cartoon with Superman Forever, 75 was the climax of Morrison along with the movie, 80 had #1000, and this year was just a solid stretch of comics to go with another cartoon. Space Age, Lost, Action, Superman, Supergirl, Jon, Power girl, and Steel all popping off.

This happened to be one of the better years in recent memory.

[Ascended]

Been very satisfied with the "S" line for the last few years, and 2023 was another quality entry. Maybe not "best anniversary ever" material, but definitely worth being happy about. The comics are in a really good place, plenty of self-contained oddball stuff like Space Age and Lost, plenty of great stuff in the core titles, secondary characters are getting all kinds of love and minis, a fun new cartoon and the CW show got to live for another season apparently. Getting the casting news from Gunn has been nice, but not really a factor for whether this was a good year or not.

[Knightsilver]

This was a pretty good year for Supes. Good comics...good TV shows...all that was missing really was a good movie.