Best Years to be a Superman fan
With DC’s announcement of the Summer of Superman, I got to thinking. What was the best year to be a Superman fan? An argument can be made for several years as being the biggest for the Man of Tomorrow. Here are some of my personal favorites.
1938-1941
During this time, there were major expansions of Superman every year. Makes sense since everything was so new and there were so many places to go. In this period, you have the first appearance in “Action Comics”, the first solo comic in “Superman” #1, the radio show, and the Fleischer shorts. It must’ve been exciting to be a fan at this time.
1952
The television debut of the “Adventures of Superman”. While this was a huge moment for the character, the show wasn’t as big then as it would become in reruns later. This might have been the first year where people realized this Superman thing had staying power. It had been more than ten years, and he was bigger than ever.
1958
Twenty years after his debut, we have the beginning of the Silver Age. This was a huge year for new ideas in the comics. Bizarro, the Arctic Fortress of Solitude, Kandor, Brainiac, Supergirl, Metallo. An incredibly inventive time period. Because this was a very comic book-focused year, it’s big for me, but it may not have been as impactful for a wider audience. These concepts would hit other media, but not for years.
1966
This might be a sleeper year/time period. 1966 is probably better known for the Batman television series, but Superman wasn’t snoozing.
The era really starts with the 1964 release of the Aurora Superman model kit; this unleashed a wave of merchandising!
In late 1965, Jules Feiffer’s “The Great Comic Book Heroes” was released. It was really the first book on comic history and is an awesome insight into the early years of the industry.
1966 had the Broadway debut of the musical “It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman”. It didn’t last long, and the television revival of the 70s is notably terrible.
The Filmation Saturday morning cartoon debuted this year. I love this show, and as I’ve written before I watched the VHS of it in the 80s regularly. Saturday morning cartoons were new, and Superman was there for it!
The second Macy’s Thanksgiving parade Superman balloon, along with licensed Superman ads for Continental Insurance, Newsweek magazine, and other major brands, kept Superman in the mainstream consciousness for possibly the first time since the golden age.
These shots from 1988’s “The Adventures of Superman Collecting” show the wide variety of collectibles available to Superman fans at the time. So many of the vintage Superman collectibles I see come up for sale are from this period.
Those color “Adventures of Superman” episodes filmed back in the 50s but broadcast in black and white? Well, they finally paid off around this time with the first color broadcasts of the show. I think this is when the show really took off with fans. The baby boomer generation became transfixed with George.
The era comes to a close in 1967 with the purchase of National Periodicals (DC Comics) by Steve Ross, who later bought Warner Bros. and formed Warner Communications in 1971.
1970-1971
This is another year that is very comics-focused. The general audience may not have been clued in to what was happening, but these ideas eventually made their way into other media.
Kirby comes back to DC and injects the universe with a huge number of new ideas. Many of them become integral parts of the Superman lore, especially in the 90s triangle era. I’ll be writing more about this later this year.
Denny O’Neil starts the “Kryptonite Nevermore” storyline with the classic Neal Adams cover. Trying to update Superman for the 70s. Now he’s a television reporter for WGBS!
1978
“Superman: The Movie”! Possibly the biggest year for Superman to the everyday public. Sure, there were a few years of “Super Friends” cartoons leading up to this, but those were for kids. “Superman: The Movie” was a hit for everyone. It cannot be overstated how big this movie was at the time. There was, of course, a mass merchandising push to capitalize on it. Books records, toys, the lunchbox. Superman in live action will forever be judged against this version. We are even reusing the music this year!
1983
Of course, I would consider my birth year an important one. Despite 1983’s “Superman III” underperforming commercially and critically, the comics were reaching new creative heights. This year had the introduction of the robotic Brainiac design and Luthor’s Lexor suit. The comics also debuted the wordmark that I love so much.
Outside of comics and film, there was the end of the “Super Friends” show, and the beloved Super Powers toy line was about to launch.
1988
Superman’s 50th was a big one. The cover of Time Magazine, a radio drama in the UK, new merchandising, the aforementioned “Adventures of Superman Collecting” book. In the comics, the Post-Crisis era was in full swing. John Byrne was remaking the Man of Steel for the 80s and beyond. This was still pre-Batman ’89, so not everything at DC revolved around the Caped Crusader.
1993
1993 is a great contender for best year. The debut of “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” on a major television network brought in fans that had never read comic books and probably only knew Superman from the movies.
“The Death of Superman” was the biggest comics event ever and is frequently noted as the story that brought in many fans of my age range. It was on the news! It was the height of the Triangle Era of comics, and all the groundwork they laid over the years was a huge part of making this book as good as it was.
This was possibly the biggest influx of new people into Superman fandom since 1978.
1998
Another underrated year. For his 60th birthday, they wrapped up the electric Superman storylines. The “Superman Forever” special was published with a very cool Alex Ross lenticular cover. The Dominus storyline allowed each of the monthly books to pay tribute to different eras of the character. The “Man of Steel” issues from here are particular standouts with Bogdanove doing an awesome Shuster-inspired champion of the oppressed.
We were also dead in the middle of the “Superman: the Animated Series.” Spinning out of the Batman show and eventually turning into “Justice League” in 2001, this version is still beloved by fans today.
2001
While the animated “Justice League” show was carrying the cartoon torch into the new decade, it was “Smallville’s” debut that brought Superman to another generation: millennial teenagers! Running for ten years gives this show a massive part in the Superman legacy. I still watch two episodes of this show a week (for Always Hold On To Smallville and Talkville naturally).
On the comics side of things, we had just come off the Brainiac 13 Y2K storyline. The big crossover this year was Our Worlds at War, which weirdly mirrored real-world events. I don’t think creatively this reached the heights of some previous events, but it is well regarded by fans.
We got the Christopher Reeve Superman movies on DVD for the first time, but not the theatrical version of the first movie. We were instead given a Special Edition/Director’s Cut with some new scenes and sound effects. I like this version, but out of the 3 cuts, it is probably the one I revisit the least.
2006
This is a year many modern Superman fans will remember. DC went all out on Superman for “Superman Returns”“. There was the usual merchandising (every kind of toy you can imagine) and tie-in comics, but I think most fans will remember the DVDs. Being at the height of the DVD era, we got more home releases than my shelves at the time could handle. We started the year with”Lois and Clark” and “Adventures of Superman” and ended it with an Ultimate Collectors tin.
thanks to Superman in Advertising & Media on Facebook for the scan.
In between, we got releases of “Super Friends”“, the 90s Animated Series, and”Smallville” season five, to name a few. In one day, we got a direct-to-DVD movie “Superman: Brainiac Attacks”, “Adventures of Superman” seasons three and four, “Justice League” season two, “Lois & Clark” season three, and “Superboy” season one! The Superboy show got a DVD release!
In a move that would surely haunt Warner Bros., they released “Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut” on DVD (and the new-at-the-time formats of HD-DVD and Blu-ray). What would “Superman II” have been like if Richard Donner had never been fired? Probably not like this, but it was awesome to see a “Superman II” that better matched the tone of the first movie. Even if it wasn’t ever really finished. That same day, we got DVDs of the theatrical serials, the theatrical version of the first movie, and “Superman Returns”“, the latter two also in the Ultimate Collectors Tin.
On television, 2006 would see the latter half of “Smallville” season five and the start of season six. The biggest moment being the 100th episode: “Reckoning”. This was a major turning point in the show, and while we thought it would push us towards the conclusion, it ended up being the halfway point. We also had the short-lived “Legion of Super Heroes” cartoon (which is excellent).
The comics were doing big things this year too. The year started with John Byrne on “Action Comics” for the first time since his reboot in the 80s. It didn’t last long though because “Infinite Crisis” was on its way. “Infinite Crisis” was a major storyline throughout the DC Universe, and Superman was the main character. When it ended, we jumped ahead One Year Later to set up the new Superman status quo (“Up, Up, and Away” by Geoff Johns and Kurt Busiek with artists Renato Guedes and Pete Woods). This new status quo would end the “Adventures of Superman” and “Superman Vol. 2” titles that started after “Crisis on Infinite Earths”“, leaving us with just”Action Comics” and “Superman vol.1” picking back up the Adventures numbering. These are still the two books we have today (although “Superman” has restarted numbering a few times since then). A new Superman title, “Superman Confidential,” started with a run by Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale. Maybe the biggest Superman book of the 2000s, “All-Star Superman,” published issues 2-5. “Superman/Batman” was still going strong under writer Mark Verheiden and several artists. There was the “Justice” 12-issue maxiseries by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger, and Doug Braithwaite. Novelist Brad Meltzer was the big name on the “Justice League” comic. The “Superman Chronicles” trade paperback series started purporting to be republishing every Superman story in chronological order. It made it through ten volumes.
Superman Returns did well in theaters (I saw it five times), but apparently didn’t light Warner’s bottom line on fire. The film franchise would go dark for a bit after this.
2013
After we didn’t get our Superman Returns sequel, we had some quieter Superman years. The The New 52 came and went. Smallville ended. But in 2013, there was a light. After the success of the Dark Knight Trilogy, David Goyer would reboot the Superman film franchise with 300/Dawn of the Dead director Zach Snyder. Man of Steel would debut that summer and celebrate the 75th anniversary of the character. They even dedicated a Man of Steel Day. Sometimes people call this Superman Day—it’s not!
Probably my favorite thing we got that year was the 75th anniversary animated short. They repurposed it for the 80th anniversary with the new 80th logo. Almost as if nothing happened in the intervening five years.
On the comic book front, there was a new high-profile series, Superman Unlimited, by Scott Snyder and Jim Lee, launched. In hindsight, the best part of that book was the variant covers. The Grant Morrison new 52 Action Comics ended, and the rest of the books weren’t at creative peaks at this time.
2025
On deck for this year of course we have the new movie “Superman”. There are rumors of a blu-ray release of “Adventures of Superman”. We’ve had some toy leaks that if true are exciting. Plus the Superman toys that have been already released or announced officially. I mentioned at the top the Summer of Superman publishing initiative. The books are all in great places with cool stuff on the horizon.
Could this year rival 2006? I think it’s already on track to beat out 2013. Might we get some of the lost Superman media? Fixes to the 4K releases from a few years ago like the rumored new scan of the original? Superman is possibly the one thing to look forward to in 2025.