Superman Chronicles, Vol. 1

This is the original Superman, the one who made the character a hit. His powers have limits - a fire threatens his life! - and he uses them for the little guy, against social injustice. One of the best stories, from Action #5, has Supes fighting a breaking dam and flood, but mostly he's fighting human crookedness - crooked lobbyists, crooked football coaches, crooked mine owners, crooked taxi rackets. This Superman is a law unto himself, dependent on nothing but his strength and his personal sense of right. He's a lot more like Samson in that way than he's a Christ figure, and the result is stories in which he lightheartedly smashes slums so the government will have to build decent housing for the poor, smashes cars of reckless drivers, smashes an oil well to bankrupt the crooked promoters. Private property means nothing to him. Neither do legal rights. He's not here to fight for law and order, he's here to fight for justice as he sees it. The police? the government? They're feckless at best, and more often they're part of the problem. There's a strong Progressive sensibility here: if institutions don't benefit the people, the people need to take charge and change things. That's the Superman we see here, and it's the Superman I like best - the original Superman with brute vigor, a passion for justice with no subtlety, and no taking himself too seriously. It's not art, but it's what made comic books. And it still stands up.

Superman was a hit almost from day one, selling not only millions of comics but quickly went on to star in radio shows, movie serials, TV shows, cartoons, movies and every other media under the sun. And it all starts here. This volume reprints the very first Superman stories from 1938 - the Superman chapters from Action Comics 1-13, the New York World's Fair special and Superman #1, some of the rarest and most valuable comic books ever published. The art is crude but serviceable, but the stories are surprisingly political. Rather than fighting super villains or aliens Superman spends more of his time taking on corrupt businessmen and politicians. In one early story he ends a war in Europe by kidnapping an arms maker and forcing him to fight in the trenches. After his experience he swears never to make weapons again. This is a Superman who takes on the real issues of his time, and while the solutions are simplistic his goals are a lot more impressive than stopping bank robbers or killer robots. An early super villain, the Ultra Humanite, puts in a appearance but even his plot is centered around labor unrest rather than death rays. This is a fascinating look into the history of American comics. politics and popular culture. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in those subjects.

This story tracks Superman's first fifteen stories beginning with Action Comic #1 through Action Comics #13 and also includes the New York World's Fair Comics #1 story and a few pages that Superman #1 added to its reprints of the stories in Action Comics #1-#4. These fourteen stories features Superman as defender of the weak against a variety of foes including munitions dealers who Jerry Siegel charged with starting wars to line their own pockets, heartless mine owners, gangsters, and slum lords. Superman's tactics were far rougher than they would become as Superman became a little more mild during the 1940s. Superman,like Batman struck fear in the hearts of criminals. Though Batman needed a cool name and a scary costume, all Superman needed to was to keep dropping and catching suspects until they talked. Superman's rough edge would begin to get out of line. In Action Comics #8, he decided to solve the problem of slums by tearing them down forcing the government to rebuild as they had during recent hurricanes. The police responded by putting a warrant out for him for understandable reasons. From here, Siegel made Superman even more forceful culminating in Action Comics #11 which sees the Man of Steel declare war on "Reckless Drivers." Declaring war involves forcibly seizing control of a radio station to broadcast a warning and then destroying all the automobiles in the police impound lot, among other very destructive acts. The stories serve as an almost cautionary tale of the danger of someone with unstoppable and no humility. It reflects the brashness of a 23-24 year old writer. Thankfully Superman would grow in the 1940s into a character that inspired by hope than by fear. However, despite the more menacing Superman in this book, there are some fun stories in here. My Absolute favorite is Action Comics #6 which features an agent pretending to represent Superman and selling merchandising rights for the Man of Steel, which turned out to be prophetic of the merchandising machine Superman would become. Action Comics #7 features another story of Superman helping out somebody whose just in trouble and needs help. Action Comics #13 introduces the Ultra-Humanite, the first real supervillain, though we only get to meet him briefly. Overall, this is great for adult Superman collectors who want to read all of his stories. For kids, I'd probably recommend Superman in the Forties for a more balanced look at the Man of Steel.

Old one but in good condition my son really liked.

If you're looking for an anthology of early Superman stories, this book will meet all your needs. It has full-color pictures, entire stories, and cover pages (even when Superman wasn't featured on the cover). If you're in the market for a historical, nostalgic, read: this is a good book. If you're in the market for great Superman stories, you might want to look elsewhere: these early, experimental tales are exciting, but the best of the character is yet to come. As is noted on the back, this rough-and-tough defender of the oppressed isn't the 'boy scout' Superman most of us know and love.

今から７７年も前のスーパーマンの漫画を見ることができます。英語が読めなくても、スーパーマン好きなら買っても損はしません。何故なら、あのジェリー・シーゲルとジョー・シャスターによるスーパーマンの最も初期のactioncomics#1~actioncomics#13とsuperman#1が収録されているからです、私はスーパーマンが一番好きなヒーローでしたのでこの本を開いた時とても感動しました。それと同時に昔のスーパーマンってこんなオジサンぽかったんだ。とか、最初は空を飛ぶことができなかったなど色々な発見もありました。スーパーマン好きの人、ぜひ手に取って見てくれ！。としかいえません。

There's something very refreshing about this book. Each decade has spawned a different take on Superman. As the years roll by he's been depicted with ever-slicker artwork and more involved storylines, but this volume is where the Superman story began. Yes, the artwork is crude, and yes the plots are basic, but there's a raw unfettered energy to the stories. Inspired by the movie heroes of the day, this early Superman is a no-nonsense tough guy, not the "boy scout" he'd later become. He fights racketeers and corrupt businessmen and throws them around with an almost sadistic enjoyment. Then in his alter-ego of Clark Kent he acts the part of an often spineless nerd. Lois Lane falls for Superman but she absolutely detests weak Clark Kent. She doesn't realize they're the same person because she never sees past the surface. This dichotomy has long been lost from the Superman comics, which is a shame as it was essential to the entire premise of the strip, and in execution was a far more sophisticated metaphor on relationships than often given credit for. Treat yourselves to an affordable journey into the 1930s to see Superman from the very start.

temevo di trovarmi un prodotto datato. l'avevo preso solo per curiosità. invece mi sono ritrovato a leggere delle storie bellissime e ho deciso di continuare la collezione

It's action comics 1 and so on, right from the start, it's pretty cool to see how far superman comics have come. Worth the price for sure

The book was all I hoped for. As a avid fan of the DC hero's of the 1940's called The Justice Society it was a must to get these wonderful stories of Earth Two's Superman for my collection.