expatNERD

Tag: Superman

  • Superman: Exile

    I will continue the Superman recommendations in preparation for the movie that will come out…golly…next week! Last week’s recommendation was what I personally consider to be one of the best Superman storylines of all time: The Death of Superman.

    This week’s Superman recommendation definitely gives The Death of Superman a run for its money. And I am referring to Superman: Exile.

    Superman: Exile ran for 13 issues in 1989 and was a direct consequence of when Superman was forced to take the lives of three Kryptonian criminals. There were many consequences for Superman from this action, but it all cumulated to his decision to go into a self-imposed exile and find himself again.

    Much like the Death of Superman, this ran through all the Superman issues at the time. But what makes this unique, at least in my mind, was that this event would bring into fruition the so-called ‘Triangle Era’ where all the Superman books continued from each other and you could follow the order with the numbered Superman shield-triangle on the front cover. This is the event that started it all.

    What’s more, is that it has all the creators that we love and who would continue to bring impact to not only Superman as a character, but to the world of Metropolis and beyond. Jerry Ordway, Roger Stern, Dan Jurgens guided by Mike Carlin brought Superman’s inner turmoil to the page, and set it in a universe full of aliens, war, conflict and Mongul. Not only did they flesh out the character, but I would argue they fleshed out the DC Universe. I included the reading order below, but DC did recently release a beautiful Omnibus sized edition of the event and that is definitely worth checking out.

    Superman Exile Reading Order:

    • Superman 28
    • Adventures of Superman 451
    • Superman 29
    • Adventures of Superman 452
    • Superman 30
    • Adventures of Superman 453
    • Adventures of Superman 454
    • Action Comics Annual 2
    • Superman 32
    • Adventures of Superman 455
    • Superman 33
    • Adventures of Superman 456
    • Action Comics 643

    All of these issues are affordable and you can find them quite easily at a Comic Book store that has a solid back issue bin. Hunt these down and I promise you, you won’t regret it.

    I hope you enjoyed this recommendation! If you would like more consider subscribing to our newsletter. You will get both the comic and the Thursday recommendation right in your inbox every Monday before they are published.

    Bis bald,

    Franka

  • The Death of Superman

    The Death of Superman

    With the new Superman movie pretty much around the corner, I thought I would do some Superman centric recommendations.

    First up, is what I consider to probably be one of the best Superman storylines of all time: The Death of Superman.

    This one gets overlooked because when we talk about the Death of Superman, we then talk about the insane hype around it, as well as the comic book crash that occurred shortly thereafter. But let that not deter you, because when you get into this thing, it is an incredible story that is absolutely action packed.

    And when you look inside, every artist, and I do mean EVERY artist was flexing hard. Jon Bogdanove, inked by Dennis Janke; Dan Jurgen, inked by Rick Burchett (on Justice League America) and inked by Brett Breeding (on Superman); Tom Grummett inked by Doug Hazlewood; Jackson Guice inked by Denis Rodier. The whole thing is incredibly beautiful.

    And even though it is a Superman centric title and probably the most famous Superman events of all time, the impact of this would not have been possible without the other super-heroes who make an apperance.

    Doomsday basically destroys Justice League International. In particular he absolutely pummels Guy Gardner, Booster Gold, and Blue Beetle. It was the latter that made my heart skip a beat when I read it for the first time.

    With Doomsday wiping out the Justice League, you know he was a threat. And each artist could depict those epic punches and hits that were thrown by Superman and Doomsday. Jurgens made the windows on the Daily Planet shatter in the concluding issue, Superman #75. And I always cry when I reach the last page. Seriously. Every. Single. Time. This thing brought everyone’s A-game and it still holds up.

    As of today you can find literally thousands of iterations of this. The best way of course is to collect all 8 issues that also crossed over in Justice League America at the time. But you can also find tons of collected versions in both trade paperback and hardcover format.

    Seriously, I love this epic event and so far, in my honest opinion, it has yet to be faithfully adopted into television, movie, or video form.

    Tschüss,

    Franka