Superman and his Super Family and supporting cast have achieved many important milestones through DC’s many New 52 reboots and Rebirths.
Superman‘s adventures have spoken to people across the globe. Superman has appeared in nearly every form of media, thrilling fans with stories that run the gamut of touching and personal to bombastic action on a multiversal scale. Over the years, readers of Superman comics have seen the Man of Steel go through multiple changes, with these milestones forming the road that made up Superman’s history.
Some events in Superman’s history are much more important than others, creating the hero as he is today. While not all of these changes have been beloved by fans, that doesn’t change how important they to the tapestry of Superman.
10. The New 52 Reboot
While the New 52 was a success at first, things soured quickly. Unlike characters like Batman and Green Lantern, Superman’s New 52 reboot completely changed the Man of Steel. Action Comics, written by DC superstar Grant Morrison with art by Rags Morales, Andy Kubert, Talent Foreman, Gene Ha, and many others over Morrison’s eighteen issue run, started Superman over from the beginning, showing his early days as Superman in Metropolis.
Morrison brought Superman back to his Golden Age roots, making him the man of the people ready to break any system that hurts the common person. Superman’s time in New 52 has a mixed reception from fans. Morrison’s time writing Superman is beloved, as are Greg Pak and Gene Luen Yang’s runs, but like most of the New 52, the reboot was mostly considered a failure.
9. First Appearance Of Superboy
Superboy is a name with a very important history in Superman’s mythos. For modern fans, characters like Conner Kent and Jon Kent are their Superboys. For pre-Crisis fans, Superboy was Clark Kent as a teenager, using his powers to fight evil and protect Smallville, eventually even joining the Legion of Superheroes. Superboy has been around in some way, shape or form since 1945, when this version of Clark Kent first appeared in More Fun Comics #101, in a story by Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
Superboy proved to be a hit with young fans and eventually moved over to his own title. Readers learned about Superboy’s history in Smallville, revealing that even back then, Lex Luthor was a part of his life. Crisis on Infinite Earths wiped out this part of the Superman’s history, but it’s been brought back and taken out of DC continuity several times since Crisis.
8. The First Appearance Of Supergirl
Supergirl is another classic part of the Superman. Kara Zor-El is Kal-El’s cousin who lived in Argo City and her father Zor-El made her a rocket to allow her to survive the destruction of Krypton, following her infant cousin to protect him. However, Kal-El’s rocket was faster and got to Earth first. When Supergirl arrived on Earth, she was the same age she was when she left Argo City, but Superman was an adult.
Supergirl first appeared in Action Comics #252, by Otto Binder and Al Plastino. Binder had been the architect of the Captain Marvel books, so he gave Superman his own version of Mary Marvel in Supergirl. Supergirl joined the Legion of Superheroes and got to meet the younger version of her cousin, and would die during Crisis on Infinite Earths.
7. The Post-Crisis Reboot
Crisis on Infinite Earths completely rebooted the DC Universe. Writer/artist John Byrne joined the Superman books, and immediately started trimming away much of Superman’s lore. He completely changed Krypton into an antiseptic, loveless society, had Superman launched to Earth in a birthing matrix so he would be born on Earth as an American when he landed and wouldn’t be an immigrant, and drastically cut down Superman’s powers.
It’s impossible to deny that the post-Crisis reboot of Superman was a success, but most fans have a huge problem with a lot of changes Byrne made. Byrne recreated Superman for the 1980s, making him into Reaganite yuppie, which is a problem for a lot of people. It did create a whole new generation of Superman fans, though, and some still love this version of Superman.
6. The First Appearance Of Jon Kent
Jon Kent’s runs as Superboy and Superman have made him extremely important to the Superman mythos, despite not being around nearly as long as other characters and concepts. Jon has become a beloved part of the current Superman comics, which is ironic considering that he debuted in a tie-in comic for what is DC’s most panned event of the last decade, Convergence.
Convergence: Superman, by Dan Jurgens and Lee Weeks, brought back the post-Crisis versions of Superman and Lois Lane, and showed the birth of Jon. When the New 52 gave way to DC Rebirth, the Kent family returned as the Superman status quo and fans got to spend way more time with Jon. While not every decision made with the character has been celebrated, Jon’s popularity has allowed him to weather it all.
5. The First Time Superman Flew In The Comics
Superman’s powers have played a key role in the development of the character. When Superman first debuted, he was nowhere near as powerful as he would become. Back then, Superman didn’t fly, but instead jumped long distances, leaping tall buildings in a single bound. While many believe that it was the Fleischer Superman cartoon serials where Superman first flew, it was actually in the comics.
In Superman (Vol. 1) #10, new Superman artist Leo Nowak, working with writer Jerry Siegel, drew Superman flying. At this point, flight wasn’t an established power for Superman, but Nowak just assumed he did. While it was an accident, it’s still the first time Superman flew.
4. The First Appearance Of Lex Luthor
Lex Luthor wasn’t Superman’s first arch-enemy – that was the Ultra-Humanite – but he’d soon take the place that fans recognize for him today. Luthor has survived the test of time, growing and changing as a villain as comics changed. Lex Luthor stands among the greatest villains in pop culture and he got his start in Action Comics #23, in a story by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
Called Alexei Luthor in this first appearance, he was different from the Lex Luthor that fans would grow to love – he even had hair, but all the hallmarks were there. More the mad scientist than the genius businessman he is today, the character’s evolution began here. While it seemed like he died in this first appearance, he proved too good to lose.
3. The First Appearance Of Kryptonite In The Comics
Kryptonite is an extremely important part of the Superman mythos. Radioactive fragments of his destroyed homeworld and his main weakness, Kryptonite’s first appearance wasn’t actually in the comics, instead first appearing in 1943 in The Adventures of Superman radio show. It would take six years for Kryptonite to first appear in the comics in 1949’s Superman (Vol. 1) #61, in the story “Superman Returns To Krypton”, by Bill Finger and Al Plastino.
Superman encounters a red gemstone that saps his strength and learns that it came from a meteorite. He tracks the meteor back through time and learns that it came from Krypton. While in the past, Superman is a phantom, only able to tell what’s going because of his ability to read lips and learns what happened to his home planet on the day of its destruction, seeing his father and mother for the first time.
2. The Marriage Of Superman And Lois Lane
Superman and Lois Lane’s relationship set the tone for many comic book relationships that came after them, a decades-long will they-won’t they that took the characters to all kinds of places. The 1990s were time a seismic change for Superman, with DC constantly dropping massive events on Superman readers. They had already killed Superman and resurrected him, so it was time for him to marry Lois Lane.
Superman: The Wedding Album #1, by Dan Jurgens and every living Superman artist in 1996 including legends like Curt Swan and Al Plastino, gave readers the wedding of the century. The marriage has become a beloved part of Superman’s history. It was done away with in the New 52, but fans weren’t happy about that and DC’s first couple came back in DC Rebirth’s reboot.
1. The Death Of Superman
At a conference of Superman editors, writers, and artists, writer/artist Jerry Ordway did what he did every year and suggested they kill Superman. This time, editor Mike Carlin finally took it seriously and the Superman team – talents like Dan Jurgens, Roger Stern, Louise Simonson, Tom Grummet, Jackson Guice, and Jon Bogdanove – was off to the races. The Death of Superman would run through all four Superman books, and Justice League America, pitting the Man of Steel against monstrous new villain Doomsday.
The Death of Superman was a huge media event, and it delivered something many Superman fans never thought they’d see – the death of Superman. The book has its detractors, but this another story where it’s impossible to deny just how important it is to Superman’s history. Some love it, some hate it, but anyone who denies its importance isn’t being honest with themselves.
