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Post by rberman on May 6, 2020 16:54:18 GMT -5
I'm honestly not trying to stir anything up, but that's a really weird and random assortment of Superman stories. Nothing from before his 40th year in the business and no comics predating 1985? It's sort of like conducting a 'Greatest Paul McCartney Song Ever' poll and not giving any options prior to 1987. I was just trying to stir discussion and was confident that forum members would rise to the occasion of appropriate earlier stories. I wish they could be added as poll options.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on May 6, 2020 17:48:08 GMT -5
Wait...people actually like Death of Superman (that abomination in the 90s, the other one is almost a good story)? Geez...next thing you know someone will contend that Knightfall was a good storyline. Oh, it's not a good story at all. The crossover is tedious, forced, and unnecessary, but the actual death itself was handled tastefully and poignantly. That is not the guy who should have killed Superman, nor should Supes have died, but as the final act of an otherwise tasteless and substance-less story, it's first class. I just read that issue and insert my own backstory for who Doomsday is and why the two are fighting.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on May 6, 2020 17:49:06 GMT -5
I'm honestly not trying to stir anything up, but that's a really weird and random assortment of Superman stories. Nothing from before his 40th year in the business and no comics predating 1985? It's sort of like conducting a 'Greatest Paul McCartney Song Ever' poll and not giving any options prior to 1987. I was just trying to stir discussion and was confident that forum members would rise to the occasion of appropriate earlier stories. I wish they could be added as poll options. Would it make sense to remove the poll and then, once everyone has chimed in with nominations, create a second thread with a poll incorporating all the nominations? I'd be really into seeing how that pans out!
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Post by rberman on May 6, 2020 17:57:19 GMT -5
I was just trying to stir discussion and was confident that forum members would rise to the occasion of appropriate earlier stories. I wish they could be added as poll options. Would it make sense to remove the poll and then, once everyone has chimed in with nominations, create a second thread with a poll incorporating all the nominations? I'd be really into seeing how that pans out! I'm down with that. Or just go without the "poll" option altogether if it can't do what we need it to do, which is to facilitate people sharing their thoughts on favorite stories from a particular character.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 6, 2020 18:47:57 GMT -5
I'm honestly not trying to stir anything up, but that's a really weird and random assortment of Superman stories. Nothing from before his 40th year in the business and no comics predating 1985? It's sort of like conducting a 'Greatest Paul McCartney Song Ever' poll and not giving any options prior to 1987. Anyhoo... My favorite comic story of all time is " The Showdown Between Luthor and Superman!" ( Superman 163). To be honest, that's more of a Luthor story than a Superman one - Luthor challenges Superman to a fight on a planet with a red sun where the man of steel will have no powers, Superman accepts, Luthor discovers that the planet has succumbed to a scientific Dark Age and is about to succumb to a drought, Luthor offers to help, his battle with Superman comes, Luthor is about to win as the planet cheers him on but knowing that only Superman can save these people, he decides to throw the fight and with it, possibly the only chance he'll ever have of killing Superman. Luthor returns to prison where Superman later pays him a visit to inform him that the people of that barren world are safe and have named their world Lexor in his honour. So it's a Luthor story, but it showcases a lot of what I loved about Superman as well. When Lois points out that the showdown is just macho posturing on Luthor's part, Superman explains that he can't let the public think the only battles are the ones you're guaranteed to win. There's Superman the way he sees himself - as a mortal man simply looking to do the right thing and there's Superman the way the world views him - as a flawless champion who the world can count on to keep them safe. Superman makes a very conscious choice to discard the mortal, vulnerable, not all knowing or all powerful side of himself to play the role that Earth has created for him as flawless champion by ironically making himself weak, vulnerable, and powerless. Lexor hates Superman because they love Luthor and Superman is Luthor's enemy. The only reason Superman isn't killed on sight is because Luthor's code of honour prevents it. Nevertheless, when Superman takes Luthor back to Earth and his nemesis points out that even his genius can't fix their drought, Superman picks up on the "hint" and reminds Luthor that he doesn't do what he does for accolades. That the whole planet despises him doesn't even enter into the equation, Superman anonymously supplies them with water and lets Luthor get the credit. That Superman even makes the effort to photograph the giant statue Lexor built in his enemy's honour and present it to his foe is testament to his faith in redemption for even his greatest adversary. Plus, hey - Curt Swan art, hallucinations of his Krytonian parents, those weird beasts that carry water in their horns, and Superman and Luthor using their scientific skills against one another don't hurt either. The County Library a couple of towns over has a TPB of Luther vs. Superman stories, and this one is reprinted. I never checked it out of the library. I was just hanging around downtown and I was at the library and I flipped through the TPB. I honestly don’t remember anything else from the TPB, but I read the SM 163 story very slowly and carefully ... yeah, it’s great! My other favorite Luthor stories are the one from the 1940s where he has the Powerstone and Joker #7 and I also love that bit in Batman #293 where he thinks he beat Superman to death in Batman’s body but it’s just Superman and Batman playing an extra super-dickerish prank on old Lex.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 6, 2020 18:50:50 GMT -5
I voted for All -Star Cabbage Patch Superman. Because it’s awesome, despite my nickname for it.
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Post by codystarbuck on May 6, 2020 19:24:10 GMT -5
Put me down for "None of the above." It's a tie between Elliot S! Maggin's two novels, Superman: Last Son of Krypton and Superman: Miracle Monday. Both have tremendous depth to the story and characterizations; in fact, Maggin's Luthor is the most believably complex version, ever. He nails what made Jonathan Kent's teaching so central to who Superman is, establishes both sides of the Superman/Clark identity, his relationship to his friends, and he is the rare writer to provide a strategy for how Superman applies his powers to deal with an emergency.
Maggin was always one of the better Superman writers; but, it seemed like he got more freedom to be mature, with the novels, than he ever did in the comics (probably not edited by Julie Schwartz) and he still stayed true to what had been done in the comics.
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Post by badwolf on May 6, 2020 21:03:53 GMT -5
All-Star Superman is perfection.
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2020 21:18:52 GMT -5
All-Star Superman is perfection.
Read the HCs first and then got the actual comics including a #1 signed by Neal Adams. I think the series won an Eisner award.
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Post by berkley on May 6, 2020 21:48:00 GMT -5
"The greatest Superman story ever told"? I haven't read it, but I know what the title would be:
"A Contradiction in Terms" !
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Post by Cei-U! on May 6, 2020 22:02:26 GMT -5
I voted for the two Moore stories, but I too would've preferred a more chronologically diverse selection of choices. My third choice would be the Tom De Haven novel "It's Superman!," an odd, "realistic" take on the mythos I really dug.
Cei-U! Up, up and oy vey!
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 6, 2020 22:04:34 GMT -5
I voted for the two Moore stories, but I too would've preferred a more chronologically diverse selection of choices. My third choice would be the Tom De Haven novel "It's Superman!," an odd, "realistic" take on the mythos I really dug. Cei-U! Up, up and oy vey! Have you read De Haven’s Derby Dugan books? They are brilliant.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on May 6, 2020 23:23:55 GMT -5
I mean....I just had to get it. It's not bosom-friendly though....like lying on the bed with a concrete block on your chest. They also make your arms ache like f@%$. I love me a nice omnibus, but they're not exactly the easiest things to actually read.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on May 6, 2020 23:44:35 GMT -5
I voted Superman The Movie (still he best superhero movie ever made) and Alan Moore's Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow. For my third choice, I'm going off list and picking the four-issue "A Mind-Switch In Time" arc from Superman #380-382 and Superboy#38 from 1983, featuring Superman and Superboy. This is just a wonderful body-swap story, with time travel thrown in, and is written by Cary Bates and drawn by the amazing Curt Swan.
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Post by dbutler69 on May 7, 2020 5:17:53 GMT -5
I voted Superman The Movie (still he best superhero movie ever made) and Alan Moore's Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow. For my third choice, I'm going off list and picking the four-issue "A Mind-Switch In Time" arc from Superman #380-382 and Superboy#38 from 1983, featuring Superman and Superboy. This is just a wonderful body-swap story, with time travel thrown in, and is written by Cary Bates and drawn by the amazing Curt Swan. Hey, I actually read that story some time in the past year. It was quite good. I don't have a huge collection of Supermans in my long boxes, but I do have this story, for whatever reason. Maybe the Superman/Superboy team-up appealed to me.
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