June 1938. Almost 80 years ago. That's when Action Comics appeared and brought Superman into the world. And sure, there are other characters who have been around that long or even longer, but name another character who's been in continuous publication for 80 years. I am pretty sure that the answer is g00se egg.
I'm not sure what my first Superman comic book was. I remember buying Justice League of America #45 (June 1966), my first comic book purchase, and he was in that--albeit only in the last panel in a "Whu hoppen?" moment. And I have a pretty clear memory of World's Finest #160 (September 1966), in which Superman and Batman fought against The Fatal Forecasts of Dr. Zodiac. (I also remember that for some reason I took a red pen to the cover of this comic book and drew blood dripping from Superman's leg. Go figure.) But it wasn't until Action Comics #354, September 1967, that I actually bought a Superman book. I think. The cover looks familiar, anyway. As does the cover of the next issue, for that matter. And if not either of those, then definitely by issue #364 (June 1968), as I not only actually remember that story, but I still have a copy of the book.
So Superman and I have some history. And of course I've read reprints of some of the old stories. And have seen hundreds of hours of movies, cartoons, and television shows.
And every iteration of Superman runs aground on the same sand bar: How do you write a story in which a being as powerful as Superman has difficulties? Hell, I remember an episode of a cartoon in which Superman pushed the Earth out of its orbit. Just bare-handed it. Now that's power, ennit? Kind of hard to stop a guy like that for more than a nanosecond.
The funny thing about that is that it didn't have to be a problem at all. In the first stories, Superman wasn't nearly so God-like. In fact, in Action Comics #1, we're told that Superman can "leap 1/8th of a mile . . . hurdle a twenty-story building... raise tremendous weights... run faster than an express train... and that nothing less than a bursting shell could penetrate his skin!" Impressive, for sure, but hardly in the I-Can-Play-Volleyball-With-A-Planet category. I don't know when he became the God that we now know, but I do know that that presents nearly insurmountable story problems for most of the writers who have taken him on.
In fact, looking back at those early Action Comics covers to try to figure out which was my first purchase, there's a clear pattern to be discerned. Check out the cover copy from all three of the previously mentioned issues:
"Stronger, swifter, and more invulnerable than Superman! Meet that puny powerhouse . . . 'Captain Incredible!'" (Action Comics #354)
"Who is the only man Superman fears?" (Action Comics #355)
&
"His heart's stopping! The world's strongest man is dying from a microscopic virus!" (Action Comics #364)
So maybe I was attracted to my first Superman comic book because his awesome powers had been arrested or superseded. (That would also explain the need to see blood trickling from his leg. I was just trying to humanize the son of a bitch.)
And that happens an awful lot in Superman stories. He loses his powers, he meets someone who can negate his powers or someone who is more powerful than he is, or, if all else fails, he dies. It's not the set of problems that most superheroes encounter, and the collateral damage is immense. For instance, if a character dies and comes back to life a dozen times, then that character's death doesn't mean anything, does it? I think that's why the Dan Jurgens scripted Death of Superman (1992) was so good. You actually believed that Superman had died. The Superman books all went on hiatus for three months, and when they returned, Superman was nowhere to be seen. And that went on for awhile. I was buying those issues like a hungry man at the donut counter. But then Superman returned and I was out de doah. You know.
So I've dipped in and out of Superman books for the past 50 years, but I've rarely been a regular reader.
Until now.
When DC decided to go back to the original numbering on Action (and Detective) Comics, I was happy. Happy enough that I put Action Comics on my holds list starting with issue #957. I didn't bother with Detective, and I really wasn't anticipating staying with Action, for that matter. But when I read the story--again written by that Dan Jurgens fellow--I was more than a little bit interested. Superman was operating at full power, but things were still going sideways on him. Hmmm.
And now it's gotten to the point where I actually look forward to Action Comics coming out. In fact, it's gone to the top of the read pile. And when a crossover story with the Superman book was announced, thus effectively making for a weekly comic book (since both titles were biweekly), I was not only happy, but (oh, nerd!) I was relieved that I wouldn't have to wait two weeks between stories. In fact, I'm hoping that this becomes A Thing . . . the way that it was back in the old days when you had a number in a triangle in the top corner of the Superman books so you knew what order to read them in, as they were all intertwined. Oh, yeah. The stories weren't great back then, but they were at least okay, and the sheer volume was very satisfying.
SO . . . Action Comics. Buy it, read it, enjoy Superman for as long as this lasts. And hey, in a mere 26 issues (13 weeks!) Action Comics #1000 hits the stands. There aren't a hell of a lot of comic books that have made it to 1000 issues, for sure.
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