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Superman: One-Shots
Superman: The Earth Stealers
A mysterious alien starship arrives in our solar system and literally grabs up earth and the moon, transporting them across the galaxy. Superman (scooped up right along with his adopted world) sets out to stop the earth stealers.
47 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
1 person is currently reading
68 people want to read
About the author
John Byrne
2,962 books361 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.
Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.
Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 13, 2024
Una historia entretenida sin muchas pretensiones (ni recorrido) Buen trabajo de Swan y Ordway en el dibujo.
June 20, 2019
Story's thin, but still nice light fun, and the Swan-Ordway team is great.
December 23, 2025
A throwback to the silver age, the Swan/Ordway team on art is fantastic, Byrne’s story is overly verbose and cheesy, but that’s kind of the point.
March 27, 2025
Overall a fun story that read like a full golden age tale with sprinkles of high sci-fi, that unfortunately devolved into a pretty basic sci-fi story. But I will add, the art absolutely carried and was brought up a notch from regular stories. The art still switches around a bit, but when there are those special moments with tons of shading and colors fleshing out the characters, it’s so awesome.
This story actually starts on a NASA moon base. After getting some new tech from Lex corp, the crew is able to get clearer pictures than ever…but then they noticed something odd…a rift in space, right before their feed cut out. On earth everything is normal. Superman is flying high and getting a chance to get some real work done at the daily planet, and Perry is complaining about the tv folks stealing all their stories…including a story about a massive object in space hurtling towards them, that is currently being reported as harmless. But using his telescopic vision, Clark knows better. It looks like an object is casting a giant net heading towards the earth and moon and is big enough to get both of them.
As everyone is paying attention to the sky, Clark slips away and flies into space as Superman! Knowing quite well that he only has a few hours where he can hold his breath and stay alive. Cosmonaut and the moon base crew watch on in wonder as Superman approaches the giant ship casting the energy towards earth. To provide a bit of foreshadowing, Superman observes how large the ship is, and that it must have taken multiple planets resources to build it. It also seems relatively harmless, until a few electric pills pop out and lasso him at super speed into the moon. The moon base crew jump into action and send a few out to pick him up, and bring him back inside the station to safety, where they show him the data they collected before it cut out.
But Superman can’t give up this easily and has to find some way to get a closer look and figure out what it is. But as he leaves and approaches it one more time, he begins to realize how fast it is moving, and that it is moving the earth and moon along with it right into hyper space!! He isn’t sure if he will survive, but Superman is along for the ride through the rigors of hyper space now!! At this point, I was really leaning on this amazing art and high sci-fi to keep me going. I’m like yeah, let’s introduce some alien beings that are so beyond our comprehension that we are ants to them and they just want to take the planet for resources due to the finite amount in the universe. Real three body problem stuff (if you’ve read that book series). But the. We get an actual introduction to the aliens, and while they are full primary colored straight out of Ghibli or the golden age of comics, they are more comical scavengers that barely understand the equipment they are using, compared to higher dimensional beings that intend to squash earth like ants. they detected Superman on the ship, and the captain order he be brought before them. Superman noticing the robots sent to retrieve him weren’t harming him, he went along with it so he could rest up.
Once placed before the captain they used a psychic alien creature to probe his mind and show them everything about him. That’s also how they learned he was a Kryptonian, and a very rare and powerful species. In order to keep him in check they shocked him to a point of being knocked out and took him to a cell, then the captain looked elsewhere for methods to keep him docile. On earth, we jump in to see Lois talking to Perry and Jimmy. Apparently they fully know the story about Clark’s parents finding Superman’s ship, and they just seem fine with it as well?! Really?! This seems like really private stuff to just be sharing around Lois?! But suddenly the three of them are picked up in some form of tractor beam and placed in three see through tubes in front of the captain. CLASSIC golden age shenanigans, tube prison pod things, hahahaha.
By the time Superman easily breaks out of his cell and makes it back to the captain he is at a crossroads. The ship has made it back to the home base, a giant and amazingly drawn star forge thing, that has a constant stream of planets going into it that are constantly being broken up for their materials. At the moment Superman can’t do anything to fight the captain, with his friends in the way and in his possession. The captain eve teleported them away so Superman would fully be in his control when the captain proposed his game. He decides to promise Superman that he will return earth and his friends if he wins his challenge. Again, just some more classic golden age antics. And although Superman isn’t sure this liar and thief will keep his end…it’s his only choice.
Superman is brought into a giant arena, with floating camera everything, when suddenly his opponent is brought into the field. A giant angry creature that towers over Superman and is seemingly able to match him in strength. But the entire time Superman holds back while he searches for his friends with his X-ray vision. The captain doesn’t like this, and increases the power on the creature to give Superman a bit motivation to fight. Suddenly Superman finds his friends, but also discovers something is wrong…that’s when the captain reveals that his friend’s life force is currently being used to fuel the creature he is fighting!! If he kills it, then he kills them!! For a moment Superman stopped fighting back at all, but then he realized that this captain had been a liar the entire time. He flies around the creature, and uses his laser vision to ionize the air around it, cutting it off from reviving energy from his friends and allowing him to deliver the final blow.
Superman has won, and the captain refuses to uphold his end of the deal! Instead he calls for a full evacuation of the shop and sets it to self destruct. Superman is able to stop the bombs in time, and when the crew goes to their masters they are met with their own deaths. Turns out that was the last planet gatherer, and the society it came from doesn’t have the knowledge or reproduces to build another to fuel their system…they are doomed to a slow death by their over reliance on resources.
But this isn’t the end of it, we still need to get earth back to its proper place, and who else to pilot an alien space ship than Superman’s best pals!! To be fair, most of the duo is completely automated, but with the resources drained, it still needs something to push it through hyper space…that something is Superman. With a worried good luck kiss from Lois and a promise that he will come back, they turn on the automatic computer systems to round up the earth and the moon, fire up the hyper space drive, then Superman uses all his willpower to push the ship, and the earth and the moon alongside it, through the portal and back to their proper place! The computer systems did all the work and put Earth back exactly where it should be so they don’t even lose a second. Like it never happened. As they get back to earth, Superman makes sure they keep the biggest story of their lives on the down low. No one else really knew what happened, and it would be better if they didn’t. Superman and Lois acknowledge that nothing has really changed between them based on that moment on the ship, and they are still golden. As Superman flies away, Jimmy and Lois head back down into the planet only to find a very confused Clark wondering where they have been. Hahahaha, classic golden age.
This story actually starts on a NASA moon base. After getting some new tech from Lex corp, the crew is able to get clearer pictures than ever…but then they noticed something odd…a rift in space, right before their feed cut out. On earth everything is normal. Superman is flying high and getting a chance to get some real work done at the daily planet, and Perry is complaining about the tv folks stealing all their stories…including a story about a massive object in space hurtling towards them, that is currently being reported as harmless. But using his telescopic vision, Clark knows better. It looks like an object is casting a giant net heading towards the earth and moon and is big enough to get both of them.
As everyone is paying attention to the sky, Clark slips away and flies into space as Superman! Knowing quite well that he only has a few hours where he can hold his breath and stay alive. Cosmonaut and the moon base crew watch on in wonder as Superman approaches the giant ship casting the energy towards earth. To provide a bit of foreshadowing, Superman observes how large the ship is, and that it must have taken multiple planets resources to build it. It also seems relatively harmless, until a few electric pills pop out and lasso him at super speed into the moon. The moon base crew jump into action and send a few out to pick him up, and bring him back inside the station to safety, where they show him the data they collected before it cut out.
But Superman can’t give up this easily and has to find some way to get a closer look and figure out what it is. But as he leaves and approaches it one more time, he begins to realize how fast it is moving, and that it is moving the earth and moon along with it right into hyper space!! He isn’t sure if he will survive, but Superman is along for the ride through the rigors of hyper space now!! At this point, I was really leaning on this amazing art and high sci-fi to keep me going. I’m like yeah, let’s introduce some alien beings that are so beyond our comprehension that we are ants to them and they just want to take the planet for resources due to the finite amount in the universe. Real three body problem stuff (if you’ve read that book series). But the. We get an actual introduction to the aliens, and while they are full primary colored straight out of Ghibli or the golden age of comics, they are more comical scavengers that barely understand the equipment they are using, compared to higher dimensional beings that intend to squash earth like ants. they detected Superman on the ship, and the captain order he be brought before them. Superman noticing the robots sent to retrieve him weren’t harming him, he went along with it so he could rest up.
Once placed before the captain they used a psychic alien creature to probe his mind and show them everything about him. That’s also how they learned he was a Kryptonian, and a very rare and powerful species. In order to keep him in check they shocked him to a point of being knocked out and took him to a cell, then the captain looked elsewhere for methods to keep him docile. On earth, we jump in to see Lois talking to Perry and Jimmy. Apparently they fully know the story about Clark’s parents finding Superman’s ship, and they just seem fine with it as well?! Really?! This seems like really private stuff to just be sharing around Lois?! But suddenly the three of them are picked up in some form of tractor beam and placed in three see through tubes in front of the captain. CLASSIC golden age shenanigans, tube prison pod things, hahahaha.
By the time Superman easily breaks out of his cell and makes it back to the captain he is at a crossroads. The ship has made it back to the home base, a giant and amazingly drawn star forge thing, that has a constant stream of planets going into it that are constantly being broken up for their materials. At the moment Superman can’t do anything to fight the captain, with his friends in the way and in his possession. The captain eve teleported them away so Superman would fully be in his control when the captain proposed his game. He decides to promise Superman that he will return earth and his friends if he wins his challenge. Again, just some more classic golden age antics. And although Superman isn’t sure this liar and thief will keep his end…it’s his only choice.
Superman is brought into a giant arena, with floating camera everything, when suddenly his opponent is brought into the field. A giant angry creature that towers over Superman and is seemingly able to match him in strength. But the entire time Superman holds back while he searches for his friends with his X-ray vision. The captain doesn’t like this, and increases the power on the creature to give Superman a bit motivation to fight. Suddenly Superman finds his friends, but also discovers something is wrong…that’s when the captain reveals that his friend’s life force is currently being used to fuel the creature he is fighting!! If he kills it, then he kills them!! For a moment Superman stopped fighting back at all, but then he realized that this captain had been a liar the entire time. He flies around the creature, and uses his laser vision to ionize the air around it, cutting it off from reviving energy from his friends and allowing him to deliver the final blow.
Superman has won, and the captain refuses to uphold his end of the deal! Instead he calls for a full evacuation of the shop and sets it to self destruct. Superman is able to stop the bombs in time, and when the crew goes to their masters they are met with their own deaths. Turns out that was the last planet gatherer, and the society it came from doesn’t have the knowledge or reproduces to build another to fuel their system…they are doomed to a slow death by their over reliance on resources.
But this isn’t the end of it, we still need to get earth back to its proper place, and who else to pilot an alien space ship than Superman’s best pals!! To be fair, most of the duo is completely automated, but with the resources drained, it still needs something to push it through hyper space…that something is Superman. With a worried good luck kiss from Lois and a promise that he will come back, they turn on the automatic computer systems to round up the earth and the moon, fire up the hyper space drive, then Superman uses all his willpower to push the ship, and the earth and the moon alongside it, through the portal and back to their proper place! The computer systems did all the work and put Earth back exactly where it should be so they don’t even lose a second. Like it never happened. As they get back to earth, Superman makes sure they keep the biggest story of their lives on the down low. No one else really knew what happened, and it would be better if they didn’t. Superman and Lois acknowledge that nothing has really changed between them based on that moment on the ship, and they are still golden. As Superman flies away, Jimmy and Lois head back down into the planet only to find a very confused Clark wondering where they have been. Hahahaha, classic golden age.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 26, 2015
Published in the midst of the comics industry's gritty phase in the 80s, this one-shot story managed to retain the seriousness of it's own era while hearkening back to the lighter comics of the 50s and 60s. In case you're wondering, yes, the villains literally steal the Earth, and it's Superman's job to get it back. I usually don't go for Silver Age stuff, but seeing John Byrne and Curt Swan's names on the cover won me over. What impressed me was that it managed to capture the fun and the scope of Silver Age comics, but it balanced that with the drama and restraint of the John Byrne-era Superman. The contrast between Superman's idealism and the villain's nihilism was interesting, and was its ultimate resolution. While it can't match the brilliance of All-Star Superman, another Silver Age throwback, it's somewhat in the same vein. It might not appeal to everyone, but I think this is a really underrated comic.
November 1, 2008
A nice attempt at uniting a bunch of Superman artists and having them do a Silver Age style story.
It's got the fate of the galaxy, lots of funky looking aliens, cool Superman moments and Lois, Jimmy and Perry White actually help save the day.
Nothing earth shattering or re-inventing the wheel about. Just a good Superman story.
It's got the fate of the galaxy, lots of funky looking aliens, cool Superman moments and Lois, Jimmy and Perry White actually help save the day.
Nothing earth shattering or re-inventing the wheel about. Just a good Superman story.
July 5, 2018
Very quick read enjoyable story you just know that when aliens steal the earth superman is going to go after them
September 25, 2025
PURE pulp,
loved it.
loved it.
October 23, 2018
Set right in the middle of John Bryne's amazing run on Superman, this one-shot has the Man of Steel fighting for Truth, Justice and the Earthling-Way!
Someone has stolen the earth from it's orbit. This mysterious entity is towing the former third rock from the sun to a giant processing plant in the farthest reaches of the galaxy. There, the earth will be stripped down for it's raw materials and the people of earth will be used as fuel for the planet killer's refineries.
In order to save the earth, Superman agrees to a test of strength. However, his foes are also massive cheats as they've weakened the Man of Tomorrow by using red-sun lights as well as Superman's friends as bargaining chips.
The John Byrne era of Superman is like a fine wine. It's gotten better with age. In fact, most modern Superman fans agree that this is one of the best, if not the best, Superman runs. Byrne was obliviously a fan of Superman and it shows in stories such as this one.
I don't think the post-Crisis Superman had ever been through such a test as The Earth Stealers. This one-shot really seals the deal with this rebooted Superman being an untapped resource of raw-energy. I remember fans being upset that Bryne made Superman not as strong as he was before the events of Crisis. But stories such as this showed that Superman wasn't a wimp but hero maturing in his powers. As a kid, I hated seeing Superman struggle. As an adult, I love watching Kal-El grow from Clark Kent into the Last Man from Krypton.
An almost forgotten Superman classic from the 80s. Features a fantastic story from John Byrne, amazing art from master Superman artists Curt Swan and Jerry Ordway. This can be a dollar bin gem. You just have to look for it!
Someone has stolen the earth from it's orbit. This mysterious entity is towing the former third rock from the sun to a giant processing plant in the farthest reaches of the galaxy. There, the earth will be stripped down for it's raw materials and the people of earth will be used as fuel for the planet killer's refineries.
In order to save the earth, Superman agrees to a test of strength. However, his foes are also massive cheats as they've weakened the Man of Tomorrow by using red-sun lights as well as Superman's friends as bargaining chips.
The John Byrne era of Superman is like a fine wine. It's gotten better with age. In fact, most modern Superman fans agree that this is one of the best, if not the best, Superman runs. Byrne was obliviously a fan of Superman and it shows in stories such as this one.
I don't think the post-Crisis Superman had ever been through such a test as The Earth Stealers. This one-shot really seals the deal with this rebooted Superman being an untapped resource of raw-energy. I remember fans being upset that Bryne made Superman not as strong as he was before the events of Crisis. But stories such as this showed that Superman wasn't a wimp but hero maturing in his powers. As a kid, I hated seeing Superman struggle. As an adult, I love watching Kal-El grow from Clark Kent into the Last Man from Krypton.
An almost forgotten Superman classic from the 80s. Features a fantastic story from John Byrne, amazing art from master Superman artists Curt Swan and Jerry Ordway. This can be a dollar bin gem. You just have to look for it!
September 5, 2018
Byrne's re-casting of Superman as less-than-super-duper is a weird read for someone who grew-up with the Curt Swan/Carey Bates invulnerable Sups who's biggest weakness was his conscience. And while I understood DC's motivation to redo Superman for an audience who had gotten bored with the character (?!?!?), the incongruity of Superman struggling to do something that he'd been depicted doing several times in the 70s fell short of dramatic (Silver age Superman did all sorts of preposterous feats of strength that DC already had pulled back from by the mid-60s). The plot is interesting, the twist and resolution not bad, and that it fits in 47 pages (twice the length of the average DC comic book in 1988) was satisfying. It's a decent Superman story, albeit with a less than Super man than some of us have come to expect.
August 23, 2018
Released in the post-Crisis DC universe, this is a strange throwback to the ridiculousness of the Silver Age...and the story's nature reflects that simpler (if still ridiculous) time. Still, the two stars I am awarding this story are solely due to it being a loving tribute to the work of long time Superman artist Curt Swan. This is a veritable resume of his best work, and this is one of those times when you can literally ignore the words and just enjoy the pictures.
November 24, 2019
El argumento es malo y aburrido, y los dibujos no son de Curt Swan en absoluto, son puro Jerry Ordway. Pero ni el buen hacer de Ordway salva este guión esperpéntico, que tampoco parece de Byrne. En fin, no pude pasar de las primeras 10 páginas por lo absurdo e infantil de todo.
April 7, 2024
Not bad. Some alien pirates steal the Earth and the moon. Supes has to get it back.
December 10, 2024
Nažalost, priča je ko iz pedesetih, bez ikakve nadogradnje - simpatična, ali bez neke posebne poante što je baš šteta. No ne vrijeđa mozak. Crtež je, naravno, prekrasan.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews