Superman: The Golden Age Vol. 5

by Jerry Siegel

In these tales from the early 1940s, Superman continues to face social injustice as he battles some of his earliest foes, including mad scientist Lex Luthor.

The Man of Steel was in his Golden Age, and with each new story, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were continuing to expand and enrich the world of their still-relatively new creation. In these early adventures, Superman faces the Emperor, whose nonresistance ray enables him to take over the presidency; a renegade scientist who controls darkness; a notorious pirate who has mysteriously returned; Mr. Sinister, who uses a secret ray to hijack entire buildings, and more. Plus, Superman's foe the Prankster makes his debut, and Lex Luthor survives the electric chair! And Clark Kent goes to the movies and sees his costumed alter ego leap into action in an animated cartoon.

Superman: The Golden Age Vol. 4 collects adventures from World's Finest Comics #6-8, Superman #16-19 and Action Comics #48-57.

Genres: Comics, Superman

400 pages, Paperback

Published April 21, 2020

About the author

Jerome "Jerry" Siegel, who also used pseudonyms including Joe Carter, Jerry Ess, and Herbert S. Fine, was the American co-creator of Superman (along with Joe Shuster), the first of the great comic book superheroes and one of the most recognizable icons of the 20th century.
He and Shuster were inducted into the comic book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1993.

Reviews

[Zachary Hancock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shuster's art hits its peak and we get a little meta!! but mostly things have shifted into wwii mode, end of an era fr

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of Superman comic books first published in 1942-1943. A series of 29 short (13-page) panel stories cover a variety of crime-fighting adventures, from foiling human racketeers, mad scientists and Nazis (this was during the Second World War, after all) to tougher foes like the giant robot Metalo, the ghostly Captain Ironfist and the mysterious Prankster. With simple plots full of holes, archetypal lead characters that never experience any development and one-dimensional bad guys, it’s clear that the early Superman was aimed at a juvenile audience, but it’s still fun to visit this kind of time capsule and see how society has changed since then, as the comics reflect the technology, language and attitudes of the time.

[Vincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection very typical of Golden Age stories. The plots are similar to the well known Fletcher shorts.

I like this mode of Superman where he mostly investigates as Kent and then brings out Superman for the action that a normal man couldn't do.

[Brett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some classic Golden age Superman tales where he’s still threatening to drop crooks from great heights to make them talk and Lois treats Clark like dirt. There’s an interesting parody of Al Capp and Li’l Abner along the way and Clark goes to the movies to see the Fleischer Superman cartoon.

[Doctor Doom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can barely express how enjoyable this volume was to read. Loved Superman's witty banter [as opposed to woke boredom] and the simple situations solved in a single story. The artwork was sharp, the stories interesting, and the nonsense was kept to a minimum. Just great entertainment.