Every single Cary Bates or Elliot S! Maggin Superman story counts as a favorite of mine, with very few exceptions. Obviously Maggin's "Who Took the Super out of Superman" is in there, as is any story featuring that colony of bird-riding Vikings that either Bates or Maggin created. As for the other comics, I can only divide them by my favorite TYPE of Superman story:
My favorite "fakeout" story: I forget the name and the issue number, but it was that story where Superman is about to die from a Kryptonian Virus and so with the help of the Legion of Super-Heroes, he performs several titanic tasks before his death. One especially poignant moment was when Superman burned on the Moon something to the effect of "BE EXCELLENT TO ONE ANOTHER, AND EVERY MAN A SUPERMAN." (I think that was from BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE, so I might have mixed that up). One particular charming-cum-insane moment was when Sun Boy was persuaded to create a Second Sun right over the polar ice caps so that they would melt. NO, SUN BOY! NOOOOOOOO!
BAD IDEA!
Favorite "Weird Transformation" Story: My favorite of the transformation stories was the one where (issue number forgotten for the moment) where Superboy was temporarily transformed into a giant ape by Red Kryptonite and Beppo was changed into a duplicate of Clark Kent.
Favorite "Jimmy Olsen" Story: Wow, this is a tough one. Generally I prefer any "Mr. Action" Jimmy tough-guy story. But I'd have to say any appearance of Diana Savage, who was Jimmy Olsen's own personal little Lex Luthor, especially SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN #162, written by Leo Dorfman.
Favorite Lois Lane Story: Here's another one where I forget the issue number. This one is by far my favorite kind of Lois story because it demonstrates her incredible sneakiness, cleverness and overall thinking ability - Lois is best characterized as a devious trickster than as a screaming distraction. This story is the one where Lana Lang steals a potion that gives her superstrength and invulnerability. It looks like the the Lois/Lana rivalry is all over - now Superman's got a girlfriend who is every bit as "super" as he! But Lois pretends to be glad for her new buddy, and Lana - who apparently doesn't know Lois too well at this point - is taken in by her obvious trick. Lois says that "maybe Superman will appreciate Lana if she performs good deeds." So, day in and day out, Lana performs feats like pulling ships to shore, and so forth. Then, when Superman is about to ask Lana to be his wife, Lana refuses to see anyone. Lana comes out, muscular and grotesque. You see, Lois knew that constant exercise would give Lana muscles, and so she tricked Lana into performing her feats. I always found this story cute and embarassingly chauvanistic, and also rather baffling, being the sort of guy that finds muscular girls sexy.
Favorite "Fighting in Space" Story: "Earth's Sister Planet," ACTION COMICS #576 (1985), by William Wolfolk, and with art by the brilliant Kurt Schaffenberger, one of the better Superman artists in my view, who is less remembered only because he lives in the shadow of that genius giant, Curt Swan. This one is by the most Flash Gordon-y of all the Superman stories, with Superman racing to intercept a planet hurtling on a collision course with earth, only to discover that it is inhabited by a race of dinosaurs that evolved, who doubt any warm blooded life exists. It features Superman getting out of a high-gravity deathtrap about to be fed to giant ugly purple beak mastodons {"SUMMON the HYVULTS! It should be their FEEDING time! Heh HEH heh..."), Superman fighting a horde of flying intelligent Pterodactyl men, and a planet converted into a spaceship that acquires its heat by geothermal energy...wow. This was old school comic book cool at its very finest.
Favorite "Villain" Story: The first appearance of the Legion of Super-Villains. Many of the worst Superman writers chafe at Superman's power level for the simple reason that they think of stories for other characters and insert Superman in them, instead of the other way around. Lazy writers who don't get the point of Superman (*COUGH* Dennis O'Neil *COUGH*) always try to create drama for Superman by limiting his powers; this can be compared to someone turning off Kung Fu in the Matrix. Not Jerry Siegel. He invested the time in creating challenges and dilemmas for Superman to solve, and the most satisfying Super-Solutions are achieved by mental action, detective work, and clever thinking on Superman’s part instead of an overwhelming application of power. The Super-Villains are never as competent as they are in their debut: Lightning Lord threatens to use his electric powers on a bus unless Superman retreats, and Saturn Queen traps Superman using an illusion of a monster to lead him into a Kryptonite Trap. Throw in a TANTALIZINGLY brief appearance by the adult Legion (a promise that the later "adult Legion" story by cute little 14 year old moppet Jim Shooter kept years later), and the presence of Luthor. raging with all the fist shaking he can muster, shouting "BAH!" at the moment of his defeat, and you have a Superman story that really has everything. It even has Superman defeating his enemies in a clever but plausible explanation that like all great solutions, makes one clock one's head against the wall and say, "hey, why didn't *I* think of that?"
Favorite Lex Luthor Story: “The Man Who Stole the Sun!” SUPERMAN #48 (1947). Special thanks to this wonderful website for bringing this story to my attention; I was totally blown away when I read it. It can be hard to imagine how a chubby bald Jewish man with no powers in machine shop clothes can be the rival and archnemesis of the Most Powerful Man in the Universe. “The Man Who Stole the Sun!” answers that question, and does it ever! Never before was Luthor ever at his most megalomaniacal: suddenly and dramatically, all over the world, the sun disappears from the sky. The world begins to freeze. Raining like arrows are tiny rockets, inside their hatch commands from Lex himself: “I will return the sun...for a PRICE! The PRICE of your LIBERTY!” Never since the opening five minutes of “Infra-Man” has the world faced such titanic peril. Superman, in a grandiose scheme, constructs entire underground cities beneath the earth to hold mankind; suddenly, however, each of the cities is destroyed by a thunderbolt from above! The source is soon apparent when Superman flies high: with letters each several miles tall, is spelled one word: “LUTHOR!” The fact this story was published in black and white is hardly a drawback: Curt Swan’s beautiful art suffered a great deal from the garish color technology that existed at the time, and black and white best shows off his clean, correct inks (like John Totleben, Swan is an artist
best seen in black and white).
Favorite Supergirl Story: "Supergirl's Greatest Victory" (reprinted in SUPERMAN FAMILY NO. 167, 1974) by Otto Binder and Jim Mooney. This one had Supergirl believe she acquired Kryptonite immunity, however, the reality of it is, that Superman's Metal Eater in his Kryptonite zoo was in fact, a MOTHER (surprise!) and her baby had escaped, which made her very, very sad and mopey. The tiny cute little baby Metal Eater was living inside the lump of Kryptonite Supergirl used to acquire immunity, eating its' favorite food little by little every day, which was why Supergirl believed she had acquired an "immunity." Combine this with wonderful little details like the supercousins using their X-Ray Vision to change gold into lead ("It's WORKING! Our X-Ray Eyes are acting as ATOMIC RAYS!") and even neater vistas of the Fortress of Solitude including a flower kept in a cube of darkness that is destroyed by light, and what do you get? Pure gold, that's what!
I would also like to add that I am personally a big fan of any story where the following oath appears:
"Dog Star! Dog Star! Bow wow wow!
We'll fight evil now now NOW!"
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