It’s a big week for Superman fans – DC’s “Summer of Superman” initiative is kicking off this week with the Summer of Superman Special. Not only that, but April 18th is the anniversary of the release of Action Comics #1 back in 1938, and therefore DC has declared it “Superman Day.” It also happens to be the first day of my spring break, so I’m intending to put my son in his Superman t-shirt (matching my own) and going down to BSI Comics that day to celebrate.

And since this week marks the Man of Steel’s anniversary, it feels like a good time for another one of those themes that I had marked off at the beginning of the year: it’s gonna be Origins Week. Superman’s origin has been told many, many times over the years, and in many different continuities. Last week, for instance, I read the first Earth One graphic novel, which was such a take on Superman’s origin. But I’m going to focus on the ways his origin has been told in-continuity. DC’s continuity has been retold and rebooted a ridiculous number of times over the years, of course, but this week I’m going to plant my flag on stories that were considered the definitive origin of the “Prime Universe” Superman at the time of publication. And even then, I’ve got plenty to choose from.

Wed., April 16

Comics: Superman #53, Superman #146, Challengers of the Unknown Vol. 5 #4 (Guest Appearance)

Notes: I read Action Comics #1 back on January 1st, so I’m not going to include it again in Origins Week. Besides, there wasn’t a lot of detail in that first iteration of the origin anyway – so many of the details, including the name of his home planet, weren’t filled in until later. The origin presented in Superman #1 wasn’t much better, expanding to a whopping two pages before jumping into the issue’s first story. So I’m going to look instead at a couple of later issues that filled out the story, beginning with Superman #53 from 1948, a special “tenth anniversary” story. To be honest, I’m not 100 percent sure that this is the first time the origin was told in full, but the text on the first page DOES say “Now, at last, you’ll know all the answers,” so at the very least not all of this stuff was yet common knowledge.

The story begins on Krypton, with Jor-El warning that the planet’s uranium core is breaking down, transforming the planet into an enormous atomic bomb. The planet’s rulers, of course, don’t believe his warnings, and Jor-El makes it home just as the final cataclysm begins. He has room in his prototype rocket for his wife and child, but Lara insists her place is with her husband, and thus they send their baby to Earth alone. His rocket lands in the American heartland, where he is found by an elderly couple who bring him to an orphanage. The super baby causes chaos in the orphanage, and when the older couple returns hoping to adopt the child, the orphanage rushes through the paperwork to get rid of him quickly. Bringing them home, he is named Clark Kent. He grows up, gradually discovering more and more powers, until as a young adult his foster mother dies, followed by his father, who urges Clark on his deathbed to use his powers for good. 

As you can see, the basic framework of Superman’s origin is all here, the skeleton which has provided the structure of his story for the past 87 years. But the story cuts off before he goes to Metropolis, joins the Daily Planet, first encounters Lois…in other words, a lot of the stuff that really helps make Superman who he is. There are also an awful lot of details that haven’t been filled in yet. Jor-El and Lara are both named, but their baby is not specifically called Kal-El in this story. The Kents’ first names aren’t mentioned until the scene where Clark stands by his graves, and then the names inscribed as “John” and “Mary,” before they were codified as Jonathan and Martha. And even though he clearly grows up in a small town, the location is not specified as Kansas, and the name “Smallville” is never mentioned.

You could honestly do this same experiment with any of the Golden Age heroes who have stood the test of time – go back and read their earliest stories and see which elements were missing, which pieces of their mythology that seem so critical to us now were in fact later additions. And “mythology” really is the appropriate word – you could do this same task with the stories of Thor, of Odysseus, of any character from classical mythology. Stories grow and build and evolve over time, and our modern stories are no different. It’s a process that honestly fascinates me, which is one of the reasons I’m approaching this week the way that I am. 

We got a more complete version of the origin in Superman #146 from 1961. In “The Story of Superman’s Life,” a lot of those little details that hadn’t solidified yet in ‘48 had come into focus. Once again we see Jor-El warning the people of Krypton of the planet’s impending doom, but only his brother, Zor-El, believes him. In this version, he first uses Krypto as a test subject, sending him into space first before the final cataclysm that causes him and Lara to send Kal-El (now named) to the stars. This version also covers how the nuclear reaction transformed the fragments of the planet into Kryptonite, then shows Kal-El’s rocket landing in Smallville, where he is found by Jonathan and Martha Kent. This time, the Kents leave the baby on the orphanage doorstep, coming back to adopt him after a few days of superbaby hijinks. He grows up, gaining power as he does, and the Kents eventually discover that the blankets he was wrapped in when they found him are just as invulnerable as their son. 

As Clark gets older, Martha unravels the threads of the blankets (because they can’t be cut) and re-weaves them into his first Superboy costume. Clark adopts his glasses – made from glass from his rocket ship which is impervious to his head vision – to help protect his secret identity from the likes of his nosy next-door neighbor Lana Lang. In fact, he even builds his first robot duplicate in order to trick Lana. We get his reunion with Krypto  and how he uses the information he learns to determine his true origin, coming from Krypton, and how the Earth’s yellow sun and lower gravity give him his powers. His first interaction with Kryptonite is rather benign – Jonathan brings home a rock for his son’s mineral collection that instead makes him sick. The next stage of his life comes when his foster parents again die, with his father again urging him to use his powers for good before he’s gone, and Superboy decides to leave Smallville to come to Metropolis. 

Clearly, this is much more detailed than the previous version, including a lot of the bits and pieces that had become standard by then. However, because of this, the comic book doesn’t read so much as a story as a checklist ” here are the things that we know about Superman, so let’s make sure that we mark them off along the way. There are even a few elements that are covered in footnotes – such as how Zor-El (who would become Supergirl’s father) escaped Krypton’s destruction and how a pack of green Kryptonite meteors were transformed into red Kryptonite. And even though this story ends with Clark Kent working for the Planet, we don’t actually get the story of HOW that happened. 

It’s more detailed, but honestly, I like the story from issue #53 better.

That said, this story pretty much laid out the important details, and it would be 25 years before there was any serious revision again. That would be John Byrne’s Man of Steel, and that’s what I’ll tackle next. 

Thur., April 18

Comics: Man of Steel #1-6, Detective Comics #1095 (Guest Appearance), Justice League of America #21

Notes: If I were to take a guess as to which Superman comic I’ve read more than any other…well, it would be impossible to say for sure, but I would wager that Man of Steel #1 is a close contender. I don’t remember exactly when I got this first issue or how, but I know that it was in my collection even before I became an adamant Superman reader a couple of years later. I read that issue many times, I liked that first issue quite a bit, and I know that I’ve returned to it over and over again in the years since. Man of Steel was DC (via writer/artist John Byrne) attempting to update Superman for the 80s, and on that note, it succeeded beyond all measure. Superman was reinvigorated, given new life. It made Clark Kent the character’s heart and Superman the mask, as opposed to the reverse dynamic which most older stories had employed. It crumbled up and threw away the lovelorn man-chasing Lois Lane once and for all, replacing her with a fearless reporter who was every bit the equal of the Man of Steel – a portrayal more than a little inspired by Margot Kidder’s performance. And perhaps the greatest change, at least in my opinion, was that unlike every version of Superman that had come before, in this version Jonathan and Martha Kent were still alive, still able to be family and confidants to the adult Superman, giving him something he had never had before.

This isn’t to say that I love everything about his version of Superman. My biggest beef is the enforced notion that Kal-El be the ONLY survivor of Krypton, which did away with such things as Krypto, Supergirl, the bottled city of Kandor, and so forth. These elements would drip back in over the years, fortunately. But for the most part, this is the origin of Superman that is most firmly etched in my brain, and when I think of the architecture of Krypton or the clothing that Jor-El and Lara wore, this is still the version that comes to mind most fervently.

Let’s break it down, shall we?

Man of Steel #1 begins on a Krypton that is dying. Millions are succumbing to a plague they are calling the “green death,” but only Jor-El has been able to uncover the truth. A chain reaction in the core of the planet is transmuting the entire world into a new, radioactive metal that is killing them all, and what’s worse, that same reaction is soon going to destroy the planet. Jor-El takes the gestation matrix carrying his unborn son and outfits it with a hyperdrive to send it to another world, which he does so mere moments before Krypton’s death. With his final breath, he expresses his love to Lara, something that on this Krypton – a cold world devoid of emotion and feeling – is strictly forbidden. 

Byrne skips ahead now to Clark Kent’s senior year of high school, where he wins the final football game of the season virtually singlehandedly. Slightly disappointed, Jonathan Kent reveals to his son that he is not their natural born child, but rather that he was found in a spacecraft 18 years prior. Clark decides to leave Smallville and begin using his gifts to help other people. Another time skip sends us ahead seven years, where Martha Kent has compiled a scrapbook of newspaper clippings of all manner of disasters that were averted – a puzzle solved when the newest headline reads “Mysterious Superman Saves Space Plane.” Clark comes home and tells his parents how he was forced to use his powers openly for the first time, preventing the crash of an experimental spacecraft that happened to include among its crew a reporter for the Daily Planet – one Lois Lane. Together, the Kents decide that in order to operate freely, Clark needs a new identity. They craft a costume, design a symbol, and Superman is born.

A few other things of note in this first issue: besides the dramatic change to Krypton, Byrne also canonizes the idea that Superman’s first public appearance is saving Lois Lane from an air disaster – in essence a much more dramatic version of the helicopter rescue from the first Richard Donner/Christopher Reeve movie – as well as that it is Lois who dubs him “Superman” in the press. There have been lots of revamps to Superman’s origin over the years, lots of versions that have bled into other media, but I always like it when they keep these two particular elements. It just feels right. It doesn’t quite work in versions where he was SuperBOY before he grew up, of course, but I’m willing to pick my battles.

This issue also set the tone for the rest of the five-issue miniseries that preceded Byrne’s runs on Superman and Action Comics. DC wanted a new Superman, but they didn’t want to have to tell an ongoing story where he’s still brand new and unknown to the world. So like this first issue, the rest of the miniseries skips ahead to high points in Superman’s career, important first encounters, that sort of thing, before finally catching up to a “modern day” at the end of issue six. This was, I think, probably the best way to handle it, and it left room for Byrne and future writers to fill in some blanks, which of course they did.

Issue two probably has the briefest time skip of the series, picking up shortly after Superman has gone public. As he makes his first appearances in uniform, Lois finds herself determined to get the story of this remarkable newcomer to Metropolis. She spends days following him from one encounter to another, always showing up just after he’s finished saving someone or thwarting a crime, but never getting close enough to talk to him. Lois decides to get his attention by driving her car off the pier, prompting him to swoop in and save her for the second time, and she manages to pressure him into an interview, although he isn’t too forthcoming. As he takes off, he casually asks her if she always drives around with an aqualung under the front seat of her car. Lois, clearly smitten, rushes the story of Superman, bringing it in to Perry White’s office, only to have all the wind blown out of her sails when Perry reveals that the Planet has already gotten the same story from their newest reporter: Clark Kent.

This issue nails the Lois Lane that I love – unflinching, brave, willing to do anything for her story. It also sets the gait for their relationship: Superman knowing full well that she was never in any danger but playing along anyway is just the perfect dynamic for the two of them. If anyone asks me who Lois Lane is, I can’t think of a better way to answer that question than to just show them this issue.

Man of Steel #3 reintroduces another of Superman’s most important relationships: that with Batman. But this isn’t the best friend he had in the Silver Age, or even the slightly strained friendship they enjoyed in the early 80s. Superman comes to Gotham City to round up the vigilante who has been making the news, only to be told by Batman that he’s rigged a device that will set off an explosion somewhere in Gotham City, killing an innocent person, if Superman touches him. With Superman temporarily helpless, Batman explains that Gotham requires a different approach – for example, he’s tracking down a thief and murderer called Magpie who has been terrorizing the city. Superman reluctantly goes along and helps capture Magpie, only to learn at the end that Batman’s “bomb” was in his utility belt the entire time – the “innocent” person in danger was himself. The two leave not as friends, but at least with a truce and the understanding that their different worlds require different methods.

This issue illustrates the other thing from this era of Superman that bothers me – the antagonistic relationship he had with Batman. Frank Miller loves to take credit for destroying their friendship (via The Dark Knight Returns), and DC ran with that dynamic for far too long. That’s not to say that this isn’t a good issue – Byrne does a fine job – but it set Superman and Batman at odds with one another for quite some time before the relationship finally began to soften, becoming allies again, and eventually the friends that they should be. 

Issue four brings Superman, for the first time, in conflict with his greatest enemy. Byrne’s revamp of Lex Luthor transformed him from the evil mad scientist of the old days into a ruthless, brilliant, corrupt businessman. Rather than operating out of a secret lair, he’s got a huge building shaped like his own initials, and he controls Metropolis fairly openly – until Superman shows up. He hires thugs to fake a terrorist attack on his cruise ship, horrifying Lois and seemingly “killing” Clark Kent. (Spoiler alert: Clark isn’t really dead.) Superman rounds up Lex and arrests him for the first time, setting the tone for their relationship from then on. LexCorp (sometimes “LuthorCorp”) would become a permanent addition to the Superman mythology, and the current iteration of Lex is somewhere between this one and the old version – still a ruthless businessman, but ALSO with the incredible scientific mind that Superman mourns whenever he uses it for evil. One other element added here is Lex’s pursuit of Lois Lane. This is a bit that’s come and gone over the years, but for this version of Lex, it works just fine. This was the perfect Lex for the time, but I think the gestalt version we have these days is probably the ultimate form of Lex Luthor.

The fifth issue gives us another time skip, and this time, the creation of a new Bizarro. This time around, an effort by Lex to clone Superman results in a duplicate that is slowly deteriorating. Meanwhile, Lois’s sister Lucy is dire straits, contemplating the futility of her life as the result of a terrorist attack that left her blind. This is a really odd way to reintroduce Lucy Lane into continuity, although I suppose it does somewhat continue the trend of Lucy being treated like the universe’s punching bag. This is perhaps the oddest of the six issues. The others all have a specific point or person in Superman’s life that they focus on: his origin, Lois Lane, Batman, Lex Luthor, and in the final issue we’ll see him learn about his heritage. The creation of a new Bizarro – particularly one that doesn’t even survive the issue – is an odd choice. It does show a bit more just how crafty Lex can be, but issue four already established that pretty handily. There’s nothing wrong with it, of course, but it’s always felt a bit out of place among the other five chapters. 

In the final issue of this miniseries, Superman returns to Smallville to visit his parents and comes face-to-face with Lana Lang. Lana had only been mentioned briefly back in issue one, so this is a pretty big deal – we learn that before Clark left Smallville, he told Lana about his powers. To him, he was confiding in a friend, but Lana – who had always harbored dreams of a future as Mrs. Clark Kent – saw it as the end of the future she had always imagined. This was a totally new dynamic for Clark and Lana, and it lasted for some years as Lana slowly evolved as a character. I like this as a chapter in her past, but I’m glad it’s behind her and she’s taken her place as one of Clark’s closest friends. In fact, she’s even – you know what? I’ll wait until tomorrow to talk more about what Lana is up to these days.

The other big thing about Clark’s return to Smallville is his interaction with the matrix that brought him to Earth. A hologram of Jor-El downloads the history of Krypton into Clark’s brain, telling him the truth of his origin for the first time. He knows the history of Krypton, can speak its languages, knows of its great literature…but in the end, decides that it isn’t important. He may be the last son of Krypton, but it is Earth that made him who he was.

Yeah, that’s pretty much my thesis on Superman too. Thanks for confirming, Mr. Byrne. 

Fri. April 18

Feature Film: Superman III (1983)

Notes: I decided to pause “Origin Week” just for today, Superman Day, so that I could celebrate it properly. I put a little video on TikTok explaining what’s so darn great about Superman. I put my son in his Superman T-shirt and I put on mine. (Well, I put on ONE of mine. I have…several.) We went out to our local comic shop, BSI Comics in Metairie, Louisiana, and we came home to watch a Superman movie. It may not be the most obvious choice for this most glorious of occasions, but I’ve already rewatched the first two Christopher Reeve Superman movies for this blog experiment, so I decided to continue on with the infamous Superman III. In this one, a man named Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) struggling to keep employment suddenly finds a talent for computer programming . His skills – and the use of those skills to defraud the company – brings him to the attention of his boss (Robert Vaughn) who, rather than throwing Gus in jail, decides to use his skills for the benefit of them both. Meanwhile, Clark Kent returns to Smallville for a high school reunion, bringing him back into the orbit of Lana Lang (Annette O’Toole), the girl he left behind.

I hate to admit it, but I do have something of a soft spot for this movie. It’s not great, of course. Lois Lane is reduced to a cameo, the villain quite clearly SHOULD have been Brainiac – but for some reason, wasn’t – and the attempts to make it into a comedy so as to justify Richard Pryor’s presence are…well…strained.

But despite that, there are things about this movie I enjoy. Richard Pryor was funny. Even when the material he was working with wasn’t great, he had a talent to elevate it and make it more entertaining, and it’s fun to watch him on screen. Then there’s Annette O’Toole, an absolutely radiant Lana Lang. She’s sweet and gentle, the polar opposite of everything Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane is, and while everyone knows that Lois and Clark is the endgame, watching O’Toole as Lana for a few minutes is enough to make you believe he could be reconsidering it. 

But the best thing about this movie comes after Gus hits Superman with a chunk of synthetic Kryptonite that slowly turns him bad. In what is honestly one of the best scenes in the entire Reeve Superman series, he splits into two people – an Evil Superman vs. a Good Clark Kent. The scene – a battle in a junkyard where Christopher Reeve battles himself – is well shot and has impressive effects, but it also really works thematically. Even in an era where “Clark” being the real guy and “Superman” the mask was perhaps a minority opinion, this movie kind of puts forth that thesis, and I love that about it.

Comics: Superman Day 2025: Jimmy Olsen’s Supercyclopedia Special Edition #1, DC X Sonic the Hedgehog #2, Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #38, Action Comics #1085, Summer of Superman Special #1

Notes: I also sat down this afternoon to read the last couple of weeks of Superman comics, so let’s run through those together, shall we? 

There were several free Superman comics available today, but I already had most of them (All-Star Superman #1, Superman For All Seasons #1, and so forth), so I passed on those in the hopes that they would pass into the hands of people who haven’t read them a dozen times before. I did, however, get the preview edition of Gabe Soria and Sand Jarrell’s graphic novel Jimmy Olsen’s Supercyclopedia. The hook of this graphic novel, it seems, is that Jimmy Olsen is getting a little tired of living in Superman’s shadow. Not that he blames the big guy, but it’s easy to get lost when the world only thinks of you as “Superman’s pal.” Then someone shows up who seems interested in Jimmy himself, and that changes things. It’s an interesting concept, but I have to admit, it didn’t totally grab me. Although I could see myself reading the rest of the book via DC Universe Infinite, I don’t know that I’d buy it.

DC X Sonic the Hedgehog #2: The crossover event of the century continues with Sonic and the Flash chasing after Darkseid to try to wrest the Chaos Emerald from him. When he manages to escape, the Justice League and Team Sonic manage to chase him down to the Ragna Rock for a fateful confrontation – with a shocking ending. I don’t have a lot more to say about this book other than what I said about the first issue – it’s so much fun to see these characters together, and really refreshing to have a crossover that bypasses the requisite “heroes fighting heroes” tropes and just gets to the fun stuff. Once this series is over, the collected edition is going to be a perfect book to get for my son and my nephew. 

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #38 begins the “We Are Yesterday” crossover in earnest. Clark Kent is covering the test flight of a Wayne Aeronautics jet plane – piloted by one Hal “Highball” Jordan – when the plane is destroyed and Jordan abducted by Gorilla Grodd. Superman, Batman, and the Flash take off to rescue Hal from the superintelligent simian, whose sights are higher than ever. This is the beginning of the time travel story Mark Waid is weaving between this series and Justice League Unlimited, with the modern-day Grodd interacting with his past self. It’s a great start to the story, full of superheroics, great artwork, and lots of monkeys. These are all good things.

Action Comics #1085 is the beginning of the two-part “Solitude” arc by G. Willow Wilson and Gavin Guidry (who previously did a great stint on the Superman ‘78 comic, and I’m happy to see him here). Clark is sent to the arctic to cover an experiment at a research station. Shortly after his arrival, though, the local wildlife takes undue interest in the station – they’re attacked by cyborg polar bears! And lemme tell ya, that sentence is as much fun to write as it is to read about. Anyway, it’s a good first half of the story, plus Guidry gets to design a new white and blue “polar” costume for Superman. It’s odd that Superman has so comparatively few variants, as opposed to Batman, but I have no doubt that we’ll be seeing this outfit in action figure or Funko Pop form sometime soon. 

And of course, the big release this week was Summer of Superman Special #1, a one-shot that sets the stage for the next several months of Superman comics. The book is co-written by Joshua Williamson (regular writer on Superman), Mark Waid (who’s about to take over as the regular Action Comics writer), and Dan Slott (who will launch a third ongoing Superman title, Superman Unlimited, soon). “The Past, the Present, the Future,” begins in…well…the past. Validus, one of the foes of the Legion of Super-Heroes, is attacking Smallville, and Clark – as Superboy – and Krypto have to leap into action to stop him. There’s a really interesting bit here about how the Legion has placed a mental block to prevent Superboy from remembering things about his own future (this was well established in dozens of classic Legion stories, that’s not the clever bit), but nevertheless, he glimpses something that gives him a lingering memory that will change his entire life.

The story then jumps to the present day, and it’s a joyous day – it’s the wedding of Lana Lang and John Henry Irons. Lana is worried about some sort of super-chicanery messing things up, but that’s silly, right? RIGHT? Oh, no, Validus is back. This time, though, there’s a whole Superman family to take him on. The whole issue is great, and it’s highly successful at setting a tone for the upcoming storylines – especially the epilogue, which ties in to a story that started last year in the DC All-In Special and that we’ve been left dangling on for months now. The end of the issue also gives us the lowdown on several new books coming – not just Slott’s new title, but new books for Supergirl and Krypto, a treasury-sized one-shot by Dan Jurgens, and more. 

The summer of 2025 is already shaping up to be a great time to be a Superman fan. 

Sat., April 19

Comics: Superman: Birthright #1-12

Notes: By 2004, Superman had changed enough that DC decided it was time to revamp the origin again. That job went to the phenomenal writer Mark Waid, whom they paired off with a rising star named Leinil Francis Yu. The result, Superman: Birthright, is a solid Superman origin story that’s kind of been lost to time. A few years later, Geoff Johns would revamp the origin yet again (we’ll read his version in a couple of days), and then the New 52 hit and everything was upturned. But in these 12 issues, Waid did some really interesting things, a few of which have managed to stick.

The story begins – act surprised here – with the destruction of Krypton. This version is neither like the Silver Age version nor the cold, sterile world that John Byrne created. There’s a more modernistic sci-fi bent to it, and this time around it’s Lara who urges Jor-El to send their child to Earth when the latter begins to bend. Waid carries this theme forward after a time skip, when we see a Clark at age 25, covering news stories freelance in Africa and finding himself in a position to use his mysterious abilities to help people. Again, it’s Mom who turns out to be the impetus here – Martha pushes the creation of the Superman identity, while Jonathan is upset that Clark wants to hide his true name. Don’t worry, Jonathan comes around.

From there, from the point where Clark goes to Metropolis for the first time and saves Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane from a helicopter disaster (NEVER get into an aircraft of any sort with Lois Lane, you’re just asking for trouble), the story takes a turn. While the elements of the Daily Planet staff are still there and still important, from here on out the story becomes largely about Superman vs. Lex Luthor. Waid brings back the Silver Age conceit of the character, in which Superboy and Lex had been friends, but he modernizes it. Since there never was a Superboy in this continuity, Lex was friends with Clark Kent (I feel like this was a deliberate effort to echo the popular Smallville TV show, which isn’t a bad thing). Waid puts a different light on the unique friendship – although Lex’s arrogance existed even then, both young men carried with them an air of alienation that made them bond. Lex, of course, didn’t know what exactly made Clark different from everybody else, but it was Lex’s intelligence that set HIM apart. 

In the Silver Age, Lex had the worst supervillain motivation of all time – Superboy saved him from a failed experiment, but the fumes released made him lose his hair. So he decided to become a criminal mastermind. And that’s terrible. Waid brings back the basic idea of Lex’s villain turn coming from a disaster that involves Clark, but he does it in a much more believable way. The adult Lex in this story is the fusion of super scientist and super businessman that he still mostly is today, and he carries that brilliance and anger with him as he cracks the secret of Superman’s heritage – discovering that Superman is an alien from the distant planet Krypton, which even Clark doesn’t know yet. Lex decides to turn the world against its new hero by faking an invasion from Krypton to draw him out, culminating in a fantastic battle scene that includes, among other things, a fantastic moment where the S-shield becomes literally that.

Like I said, this origin has been largely pushed aside by DC, but there are a few elements that I think are worth mentioning, at least one of which has become a staunch part of canon. One is the explanation for Clark’s glasses. Waid clearly decided to address the old (tired) complaint that the glasses aren’t enough of a disguise by establishing that Clark’s eyes are a truly unearthly shade of blue, a color that no one not from Krypton would have seen before. Superman still has those eyes, but Clark’s glasses dull the color and make his eyes seem more mundane, helping with the disguise. I don’t know if that tidbit is still canon, but with Waid about to take over Action Comics, I hope he brings it back.

The other thing that we get here is – as far as I can tell – this is the story that first established the concept that the Superman symbol stands for hope. As Clark studies the holograms sent to Earth with him, he doesn’t understand the Kryptonian language, so he tries to unlock his past by watching the images and videos sent by his parents. The S-shield of the House of El is a persistent image, and it comes to represent hope to Clark, something he pushes forth when he adopts the symbol as Superman. The idea that it was literally the Kryptonian character for their word meaning “hope” isn’t there yet – that, I believe, came a few years later during DC’s 52 series (which Waid co-wrote), but I think that we’ve found the genesis of one of my favorite little details of Superman lore.

It’s a good story, and even if it isn’t canon anymore, it’s still an enjoyable read. 

Sun., April 20

Comics: Secret Origins Vol. 3 #1

Notes: It’s Easter Sunday here, and Easter is a big family day for us, so I knew I would need something quick for today’s Origins Week installment. How handy, then, that back in 1985 DC Comics relaunched their old Secret Origins series, re-presenting the genesis of heroes from the Golden Age to the Bronze, and kicking it off with an issue dedicated to the Golden Age Superman. The series was the brainchild of Roy Thomas, who also wrote this issue, and frankly there couldn’t have been a better candidate. I don’t think there’s a human being on the planet with a greater love for Golden Age comics than Roy Thomas, as evidenced by his All-Star Squadron from DC, Invaders from Marvel, the Alter Ego miniseries he wrote for First Comics and the subsequent comic book magazine he produces that carries the same title. Mark Waid is kind of a spiritual successor to him, in that both men are walking encyclopedias of comic book history, and it shows through in their work.

This issue is a pretty straightforward adaptation of the “origin” story I mentioned from Superman #53 grafted together with the story of Superman’s first adventure from Action Comics #1. Thomas, along with classic Superman penciler Wayne Boring and inks by Jerry Orway, re-tells the story that we’re all intimately familiar with, and does so almost beat-for-beat. Even panel compositions and little tidbits like a ticking clock in the corner of the panel to count down to an innocent man’s execution are carried over from the original Siegel and Shuster panels to the new ones. As such, it’s a retelling of the original story, but not really an update. The oddest thing, though, is the fact that Thomas makes reference several times to the fact that this Superman and – in fact – his entire universe no longer even existed, following the events of the recently-concluded Crisis on Infinite Earths. It’s an odd take, to build a series built on what, at that point, had essentially been relegated to “imaginary” stories. Still, if you’re looking for an old-school origin of Superman with a slightly more modern bent, this issue is worth reading. The whole series is, actually. I was always a fan of Secret Origins, and it’s a shame that anthology books like this one just don’t seem to have legs in a modern market. 

Mon., April 21

Comics: Superman: Secret Origin #1-6

Notes: Six years after Birthright, and following another reset in Infinite Crisis, DC handed Geoff Johns the reigns to do his own take on Superman’s origin. Johns was one of DC’s top writers at the time, having taken both The Flash and Green Lantern and expanded their respective corners of the DC Universe exponentially, making them more exciting and (frankly) more significant than they had been in years, if not decades. Johns had also cut his teeth working as an assistant to Richard Donner, director of the first Christopher Reeve movie (and most of the second), and the two of them even wrote a run of Action Comics together. It’s not really a surprise, then, that Johns’ version of the origin borrows as much from the classic movie as it does from the classic comics, right down to artist Gary Frank drawing a Clark Kent that looks so much like Reeve you’d think he was doing a straight-up adaptation of the film. In the scene in issue #3 where he first arrives at the Daily Planet, it’s even more pronounced. Frank draws Clark with Reeve’s physical mannerisms and characteristics, the bumbling fake persona that he wore in his “disguise.” It’s so effective that every line you read goes through your head in Reeve’s own voice.

Johns merges a lot of elements from the various Superman eras and blends in some of his own. His version was, in fact, Superboy, and had been a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. His costume was made from his Kryptonian blankets, and Clark’s glasses were made from glass taken from the spacecraft to help him control his heat vision. To help reconcile some of the elements that work better with Superman making his debut as an adult, Johns has Clark keep “Superboy” a secret, operating as privately as possible and being considered little more than an urban legend in Smallville. That way he maintains the big moment of his public introduction later in Metropolis where he…oh, look at that. He saves Lois Lane from a helicopter accident.

NEVER. GO. NEAR. AN. AIRCRAFT. WITH. LOIS. LANE.

Unique to this version, Lana Lang knows about Clark’s powers since childhood, having been saved by him from a wheat thresher (a scene quite reminiscent of Superman saving Lana’s son from a similar fate in Superman III). Lex, once again, is from Smallville, and a few years older than Clark, but still friend-ish with him. I particularly like Lex’s introduction, where he asks Clark if he’s smart, reasoning that wearing glasses either means you’re genetically inferior or you read a lot. 

I’ve read this series more than once, but reading it all together creates some interesting juxtapositions. In issue #2, for instance, when Superboy first meets the Legion, I’m struck by how Johns writes Brainiac 5. His intelligence leads to incredible arrogance and condescension towards everyone around him…which seems pretty darn familiar if you flip back a few pages to a scene where Clark is talking to Lex in the school library. Johns writes Brainiac as Lex Luthor with a fundamentally good core – but “good” doesn’t necessarily mean “nice.” It’s pretty funny, and really spot-on in terms of characterization.

It’s not just the people whose characterization changes, though, it’s the whole city of Metropolis. When Clark first arrives it’s a cynical place, a place where nobody ever looks up, where everybody is out for themselves, where the Planet is on the brink of ruin, and where people line up for hours in the hopes of catching a few scraps from their oh-so-benevolent top citizen, Lex Luthor. The presence of Superman chances the whole town, making it a bolder, more optimistic place, a town where the potential for the future seems real and not just a pipe dream. Lex, naturally, hates it. I love it. 

Lois is Lois as Lois should be – smart unflinching. When given a chance, she goes for Lex’s throat without a second of hesitation. But what I really love is how she sees through Clark’s bumbling facade almost instantly. The same day he comes to work at the Planet, she sizes him up and calls him out on the false humility and ill-fitting clothes, declaring quite correctly that he obviously wants people to underestimate him. That insight is perfect for her…which actually makes it even funnier when she encounters Superman and fails to put two and two together. She continues being impressed by Clark throughout the miniseries, but even at the end she hasn’t dovetailed into the whole “is Clark really Superman?” bit from the Silver Age, and I’m glad for that.

In addition to Luthor, Johns brings in the Parasite, Metallo, and even Sam Lane as secondary antagonists, but when you get right down to it, this is a story about four characters: Superman, Lois, Luthor, and Metropolis herself. And Johns serves all four of them very, very well. 

Tues., April 22

Comics: Action Comics Vol. 2 #1-8

Notes: I’m going to close off Origin Week with what I believe is the most recent revamp of Superman’s full origin, from the New 52 reboot of the entire DC Universe that happened in 2011. Ironically, despite being the most recent, it’s also one that was sponged from continuity most completely. Still, it’s written by Grant Morrison, and I’ve never read anything by Grant Morrison that didn’t have at least SOME reading value in it. Let’s see how the New 52 handled our boy Clark.

Morrison’s Action Comics begins six months after Superman’s public debut in Metropolis (thus robbing us of the opportunity to see him save Lois Lane from a helicopter crash), and the inspiration here is clearly the earliest Superman stories of Siegel and Shuster. He’s not as powerful as he would become, he’s not flying yet, and he shows bruises and abrasions from some of his tougher battles. He’s also doing the “fighting for the little guy” thing that we saw so much of in the earliest tales, going after corrupt businessmen and politicians…which has made him the target of corrupt businessmen the likes of Lex Luthor. He’s not even wearing a proper costume at this point, prancing around the city in trousers, a t-shirt, and a cape. It’s a wild look, and if Morrison’s intention was to show that this was a Superman starting from scratch, it worked. 

The story sees Superman being captured by Luthor and Sam Lane, fighting against them, and rescuing Metropolis from Brainiac. Along the way, we discover that – although Couluan – Brainiac had a presence on Krypton and has one here on Earth. Clark also gets his hands on the Kryptonian armor that became the uniform of the New 52 Superman, and by the end of the story, he’s made enough of a name for himself to take a job at the Daily Planet.

What also works is John Henry Irons – in a world where the Doomsday fight never happened (although this would be reversed, like most of the New 52 changes) they made John one of the scientists working on the project that studied Superman with Luthor, then had him show his heroic side by turning on Luthor and Sam Lane, building his suit of armor in the process. If there’s no “Death of Superman” in the continuity to contend with, this is a decent enough way to get a Steel. 

But the thing is, there isn’t much else that works for me here. I get that the idea here was a whole new Superman, a whole new universe, but as turned out to be the case with much of the New 52, they threw out the baby with the bathwater. This is an origin that doesn’t just update the classic elements that make Superman who he is, it throws out many of them. We see only glimpses of Krypton, and we get more of the Kents through some of the back-up stories written by Sholly Fisch than the main stories written by Morrison. We only get a few pages each with Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, and although the attitude Morrison crafts for Superman works for a young man trying to find himself, ultimately, it’s somewhat unsatisfying.

I hate to say this, because Morrison has done excellent work with the Man of Steel. I’ve always enjoyed DC One Million and the Final Crisis tie-in Superman Beyond, and let’s be honest here, All-Star Superman absolutely deserves a place on the Mount Rushmore of Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told. But the New 52 Action Comics origin just falls flat for me. It would be one thing if this were an alternate universe – an “Ultimate” or “Absolute” Superman – but as the origin for the Prime DC Universe Man of Steel, it just doesn’t click. Out of all the different iterations of Superman’s origins I’ve read this week, I’m afraid I saved my least favorite for last.

This all begs the question, of course, of what exactly Superman’s origin is today. Like I said, I doubt that many remnants of the New 52 version have stuck with us. The Superman we read about in 2025 is kiiiiinda the New 52 Superman mashed together with the Post-Crisis John Byrne Superman, but even that Superman has had no less than three different versions of his origins over the years. And since DC Rebirth gave us the current iteration of Superman beginning in 2016, they haven’t really done a retelling of the origin again. But maybe Mark Waid will tackle that in his upcoming New History of the DCU. If he does, I’ll be sure to share with you my thoughts on his newest take. 

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. You can subscribe to his newsletter by clicking right here. You can join in the Kryptonian Konversation every day in the Year of Superman Facebook Group!