Golden Age Superman (1938 into the 1940s) Debuted in Action Comics No. 1 in 1938. A social crusader who could only leap an eighth of a mile (but not fly). Gritty but a little dull.
Grade: B-
AP
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Fleischer cartoons, early ’40s
Superman flies! Gorgeous cartoon shorts feature grand adventure and, later, a healthy helping of wartime propaganda. Highly entertaining:
Grade: A
Handout
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Silver Age Superman (Mid-’50s through the ’60s)
The boring dad. Blandly drawn, most famously by Curt Swan, Superman’s adventures were largely benign and silly. The popular television show with George Reeves (1952-58) was more of the same. The Silver Age gave us Supergirl, Brainiac and General Zod — but also a lot of sexist idiocy.
Grade: C
Courtesy Everett Collection
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“Superman: The Movie” (1978, plus sequels into the ’80s)
DC Comics tried to make Superman a little more relevant — mostly by giving Clark Kent a TV job — but it was Christopher Reeve’s delightfully understated performance that set the standard for decades to come. The shadow of this movie looms large over the franchise to this day, despite some crappy sequels. Richard Donner’s direction of the first film is spot on.
Grade: A
Warner Bros./ Courtesy: Everett Collection
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The 1980s Artist/writer John Byrne was brought over from Marvel to revamp the character in “Superman: The Man of Steel,” published in 1986. Byrne deftly fused Golden Age concepts and the Christopher Reeve model — in neither case was Superman ever a teenage Superboy — with modern sensibilities. Still the best version Lex Luthor: Megalomaniacal industrialist.
Grade: A
AP
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The 1990s
DC shocked the world with the 1992 “Death of Superman” storyline. Upon his inevitable return, Superman sported a — gasp! — mullet. Superman got yet another origin story, “Superman: Birthright,” written by Mark Waid. Though there was an A-rated animated Superman television series from producer Bruce Timm, overall the decade was a fallow period.
Grade: C
Warner Bros.
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Late ’00s
Writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely turned in the stellar alternate-universe “All-Star Superman,” a Silver Age tribute better than the Silver Age ever was. Writer Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank gave Superman a redundant if entertaining origin reboot in Action Comics and the miniseries “Secret Origin.” The CW’s “Smallville” dominated the public perception of Superman to a largely credible degree. Low point? 2006’s morose “Superman Returns.”
Grade: B
The WB/ Frank Ockenfels
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Today
DC has revamped Superman yet again as part of the linewide New 52 relaunch that started in 2011. Reviews have been downbeat: Grant Morrison’s recently completed run on Action failed to capture the public’s fancy and the flagship Superman title has been critically panned. The publisher hopes that the forthcoming “Superman Unchained” by superstar writer Scott Snyder and co-publisher Jim Lee, the industry’s most popular artist, will reignite interest. “Man of Steel” opens June 14.
Grade: Incomplete
