Superman Through the Ages! Forum

I just started a page compiling a few of the ORIGINS of SUPERMAN (http://superman.nu/tales/origins.php)!

(http://superman.nu/superboy-lives/takingtime/over.gif) (http://superman.nu/tales/origins.php)

There will be more added eventually.

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cool project!

I would like to read all the pre-crisis ones to see how it changed over the years, how many were there in all btw?

I can think of at least one other Superman origin story off the top of my head - The Story of Superman's Life! from Superman #146 (July 1961) which was reprinted in the Superman in the Sixties TPB.

The 1948 origin was also reprinted in the very recent Superman in the Forties TPB.

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A 287-page Superman origin?  Hard to imagine, but it exists.

Boy, do I hate decompressed storytelling.

I am sure glad Grant Morrison did the whole thing in one page.

I like it --some of it.  I just hate paying for it in tiny, 15-page, $4 sections.  Reading it all together is better.  Haven't read Birthright, though.

birthright stinks.

althought i do like The way A S S get's the origin in one page.

Thanks!

I don't know the answer to that, but I've added the two that Lee pointed out into the pipeline.

There is a new "Origin of Superman" coming out in Superman Secret Files next week - I'm curious to see whether it will be Birthright-ish, All-Star Superman-ish, or whether Superman will  have an as-yet unseen, all-new, pending-post-Infinite-Crisis origin.

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question: was the action comics #1 giant size published in the 70's added to with some of the 1939 origin? i remeber seeing the needle scene in my copy....

I noticed the 287 page origin story, but wondered whether it was actually a typo, or a mighty huge comic!

I've never read it, but I suspect I'd probably prefer most, if not all the much shorter pre-Crisis origin stories.

But then I've only read about 3-4 post-Crisis Superman stories, compared to more than 500 issues of pre-Crisis Action Comics and Superman comics.

There is one other in the Birth of Superboy, More Fun Comics 101, 1945.

Great Shuster studio art --lots of Wayne Boring???

http://superman.nu/tales3/birthOfSuperboy/

Not a typo.  In fact, the story should be longer but apparently a couple of pages were removed for the graphic novel collection of this 12-issue mini-series.

It's basically one part "Superman the Movie," one part Elliot S! Maggin, and one part Mark Waid.


That depends on whether or not you consider Superman and Superboy to be the same character.   :wink:

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I decided to take Telle's suggestion. I added the 1945 Superboy origin (http://superman.nu/a/origins/1945/) to the collection (http://superman.nu/tales/origins.php).

This one has got the best Kryptonian costumes of all of them.

In fact, after reading through all the other origins, I  realized that the Jor-El costume used in All-Star (http://superman.nu/a/origins/2005.php) is basically all of the previous Jor-El costumes rolled into one - a massive confluxuation of the Flash Gordon flight-hat outfit from 1945 and the Silver Age headband and the Birthright costume.

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I like it! And of course adding the 1945 origin is appropriate...

I would also point out this origin from 1978, which is one of the best I've read...

Last Son of Krypton! The first five chapters of this book tie the origin in beautifully, from the involvement of Albert Einstein, the Superboy career, childhood relations with Luthor...everything that I consider important in the Superman origin. Take another look:

http://superman.nu/thebook/lsok_contents.php


Then there is "The Greatest Green Lantern of All" from 1972, which added an Oan dimension to Superman's origin. However, I see that it's already in the "Untold Tales of Krypton" section.

There is Superman: The Secret Years (1985?), a 4-issue miniseries that covers the time period that the 287 pages of Birthright missed. I highly recommend it, yet do not own it.

I'm sure that others will come to mind. I'm trying to think of a good 50s origin, but can't. However, there was this great miniseries in 1986 called Man of Steel.

Just Kidding.

i'd love to see whatever happen'd without paying thru the nose for it.

It is, but most of the "origin" stories that I've added to the "origins of superman" section already exist elsewhere on the site.  This is just a common access point for all of them.  It's hard to tell whether or not that story counts as a new "origin" or if it's a separate story that happens around the origin.


You say you don't own it - have you read it?  To be honest, I think the Frank Miller covers are the best part.

But I do like it, and think it's a prime candidate for Graphic Novel compilation.  It's been on my list to add to STTA for quite some time, but I'd also want to include all the back-up stories that lead into it. (attn DC:  if you do a graphic novel, you should hunt down those lead-in back-up features too)


We've got that covered - you must have missed the "1993" origin.

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Well, that was from the Comic based on the cartoon which was the old origin dressed up to look like redbeard's version to please DC ;)



You can just buy the reprints, they don't cost that much.

I sometimes think that "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" is effective not because of its story per se or its "ending" of the pre Crisis, but more that everyone showed up to the party and gave it their all...

I've read it, but don't currently own it. I love the story though...I grew up reading Superboy comics. I even added Billy Kramer to Supermanica, though I haven't gotten to the other roommates, like Ducky, yet.

I see your point about "The Greatest Green Lantern of All." Upon rereading it, it seems to just be the same origin viewed through a different lens, much like "How Jimmy Olsen First Met Superman" or "Superman's Return to Krypton." "How the Green Lanterns First Gawked at Superman" would be an alternate title.

It's kind of bugging me that I can't think of a 50s origin, because there must be one. Of course, there was the "Sarah and Eben Kent" origin on the TV show, but I doubt that was replicated in canon.

"Superboy’s Darkest Secret!", from Superboy No. 158 (July 1969), by the team of Frank Robbins, Bob Brown and Wally Wood, would probably have to be the most controversial retelling of Superboy/man's origin of all, and is probably regarded by most learned fans as non-canonical.

Still, the Robbins/Brown era is probably my favorite with regards to Superboy, particularly when Wood and Murphy Anderson added their lush inks to Brown's pencils. I also like Robbins' noirish take on Superboy.

Not quite - this origin is from 1993 - the animated series didn't start until 1996, and the spin-off comic book, Superman Adventures, didn't start until 1997.  In that Universe, the origin had been told in the pilot episode, and it looked nothing like this story.

At the time, the most controversial elements here were that Jor-El and Lara liked each other and had good physiques; Superman had powers as a tot; and that he had short hair (instead of a mullet) as an adult!


With a statement like that, you've got me curious what happened in it that's so controversial!

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Just off the top of my head that would be the issue where Superboy finds Joe-El and Lara having survived the K-ctaclysm and floating in suspended animation.  If he revives them - they die, so he decides to leave them floating in hibernation.  

Never addressed elesewhere again - ever. Kinda like the story "LOst- One Hundred Years" where on the trip to Earth baby Kals rocket went into another dimension and lived a full life time and then was returned to baby state and resumed his journey to earth (in the blink of an eye in our time)

Yup thats the one

http://www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=22829

the same team did this tale: http://superman.nu/tales2/strangedeath/?page=1

I hope you'll consider including Action Comics # 500 "The Life Story of Superman!" from October 1979 on your list.  It has one of the coolest Superman origin stories because Superman himself is the narrator!

I'm curious if this has been posted before. I know that there are aspects of the Birthright origin that have already been incorporated into continuity. But when you read the story itself, something's wrong: even though it's the origin of a character who's been around for a fairly long time in the DC universe, the story of Clark first getting to Metropolis and coming out in public as Superman seems to take place post-9/11. There's a reference to the color-coded terrorism alert levels, and there seems to be a general paranoia about terrorism. This presents a paradox that can only be resolved one way:

Birthright is actually Superman's post-IC origin; instead of waiting till after the crisis was over, like with Man of Steel, they got it out of the way early. Something else to support this: Superman has been said repeatedly to be an eternal 29 (although he seems older than that now)... during Birthright he was 25... IC wraps up in 2006. Do the math. Obviously they're changing things with IC. I think we'll return to an eternally 29-year-old Superman, who first arrived in Metropolis shortly after 9/11, and is the first hero of his generation (possibly of all time on his earth, if they bring back Earth-2).

What that implies is that DC's super-heroes are being changed for the new millenium, recast as terrorism-era heroes (since all others would have come after Superman, who was first).

Believe me, I see the inconsistencies in this theory, not the least of which would center around who Robin would be, what would happen to Nightwing, etc. But they could get around those things with a major revision, which they seem to be planning anyway. The thing is, without this being the case, Birthright would amount to nothing more than an imaginary story because it clearly takes place post-9/11. That may have been sloppy writing, but I like to think that Mark Waid is above that, at least on such a massive scale.

Any thoughts?

Whether it was planned or not doesn't matter, and whether DC even does a reboot or not doesn't matter.  Waid was writing with both a modern audience and the long-term in mind.  5-10 years after it was written, Birthright will have taken place long enough ago in our past past that it'll be Superman's "current" origin with no problems at all.

As you've figured out, this ends up making it extremely easy for DC to make it the "post-IC" origin.

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Mr. Bones figured it out well enough, since DC has gone on record to say that Birthright's Origin will make more sense post-IC.

Given that (mainstream) superheroes and their supporting casts aren't supposed to age (much) anyway -- or at least that was the rule when I was a kid -- explaining all the fully-contemporary stuff in Birthright is easy: it's a called a "sliding timeline." Assuming that DC quits aging its characters and freezes them where they are now -- something they should do, if DC wants them to be commercially viable -- then in ten to fifteen years everything in Birthright will seem completely "right."

superman stopped aging the day kal-l went into limbo.

Indeed it is. I did a review of that very book at the Superman Homepage. Needless to say, it received my highest recommendation.

I HATE IT
with a passion.
I'm the greatest Superhero of all history and yet you can some up my origin in just one comic page?
I don't think so.
Not and do him justice.
He deserves better than that. He's super man not superficial man.
one page? come on now.
It's story telling not joke telling! So lets have some story.
I know we live in the microwave oven, 20 second tv commercial, 1 minute speed dating age of immediate gratification but gimme a friggin break already. He's got background and depth in his origin and is not a shallow character.
In my mind Superman's origin should not be short sheeted. He doesn't have to have a 18 hour miniseries to explain it but a super hero's origin story should be intriguing and original, and it should be like a woman's dress:  Long enough to cover the subject , but short enough to keep it interesting.

Also lets look at the figures of history famous and infamous and give them the one page treatment...ludicrous and funny

Abe Lincoln:

Antebellum ,Rail Splitten yokel gets an education, grows a beard, is elected 16th US President, goes to war, frees the slaves and is assassinated for it so that in 2005 the youth don't even realize his face is on the penny and the five dollar bill.

Psybertrack, I've been trying to figure out just what it is that you hate but I haven't had any luck.

Are you referring to the one-page origin from All-Star?

Or are you referring to Birthright or possibly  Action Comics #500?  Those were the only two origin stories discussed on the same page as your post, but they are each much longer than one page!

Any hints?

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No birthright was from what i read a very good deal. I didn't like the Allstar one page version I read on the site.
I just don't like my favorite hero getting only a one page origin for Superman.  Its not a normal begining. Its not in my opinion subject to the reader's digest treatment. I like the longer versions of the origin story. I realize the one page version assumes the reader already knows the story very well.  Still I like to hear it again.
But birthright was a good comic, I just haven't read the whole thing just 18 pages.
I don't remember Action 500, but i'll go back and re-read that one. I have nothing against it.

I have to admit, I really enjoyed Grant Morrison's one-pager. The whole point about the All-Star series, as I understand it, is to be picked up by casual readers who want a Superman story, not to provide a dramatic new reinterpretation of the character. What Morrison meant, I think, is this: "You know the origin story, you know the players, so I'm not going to belabour the obvious. Let's cut to the chase!"

oh well uh hmm in that case....never mind

I thought that the one page origin  in All-Star was a nice touch - after all Superman's origin story is well known and basically stayed in the same form for almost 70 years.

Personally I would like to see Action Comics #400 added to the origins as it was after all " The Life Story of Superman" with art by Curt Swan

I thought that was Action Comics #500.

You are right it was Action comics 500

What about Elliot S! Maggin's "Last Son of Krypton"?

And Secret Origins #1 "The Secret Origin of the Golden Age Superman" April, 1986?

I wonder if Nightwing would be willing to turn "The Adventures of Superman" episode "Superman On Earth" into a photo comic?  That might make a nice addition to this collection.

Cap, you should look around this site some.  Both stories are already here.

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I knew that.  I just meant that you should add them to your collection of Superman Origins.

Here on the DC boards (http://dcboards.warnerbros.com/web/thread.jspa?threadID=2000086026&tstart=0) is another origin of Superman, from the Sunday newspaper strip from December 1945.  You might want to see if you can get together with the guy who scanned these in to see if you can host them here.