The Superman Chronicles, Vol. 3 by Jerry Siegel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects Superman #4 and #5 along with Superman stories from Action Comics #21-#25 and New York World's Fair 1940.

Overall, we're given a high quality product with some pretty decent stories.

In Action Comics #21, we're given another story with Ultra (formerly the Ultra-humanite who changed his gender by transporting his mind into a female body in a previous story). In Actions Comics #22 and #23, with the war in Europe brewing, Lois Lane and Clark Kent were dispatched to Europe where two fictional countries fighting and Luthor was the villain of piece.

Yes, this book introduces the first version of Lex Luthor (though known only by his last name in this early book) and Superman had earned his greatest rival. The two faced off in two stories in Superman #3 including one awesome story where Superman fights a Pterodactyl and also another Superman #4 which states Luthor was killed off (but we all know better). Superman battles illegal slot machines and then takes on a crooked politician who is using extortion to take over a competing paper to the Daily Planet.

All the Superman stories are fairly good for the golden age with a few milestone stories and they're worth a read. The only reason I'm not rating this five stars is this book lacks the extra special memorable stories that the first two volumes did that made those a cut above. Anyway, it's still a great collection of the greatest selling comic book hero of the time.



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