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The Superman Chronicles #3
The Superman Chronicles, Vol. 3
Experience the history of Superman with this series that reprints the early adventures of the Man of Tomorrow in chronological order. This third volume features classic tales from early 1940s written and illustrated by Superman co-creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, featuring early appearances by Lex Luthor, Lois Lane and others.
Contains Superman appearances in: Action Comics #21-#25, Superman #4-#5, and New York World's Fair Comics #2.
Contains Superman appearances in: Action Comics #21-#25, Superman #4-#5, and New York World's Fair Comics #2.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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50 people want to read
About the author
Jerry Siegel
623 books82 followersJerome "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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 31, 2012
50th book read in 2012.
Number 68 out of 282 on my all time book list.
Follow the link below to see my video review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZMqJI...
Number 68 out of 282 on my all time book list.
Follow the link below to see my video review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZMqJI...
December 24, 2014
One thing I have learned from these volumes of comics is that Lois Lane is mean to poor Clark Kent. Good grief, woman! Still fun to read original Superman stories. 3.5 stars.
November 18, 2023
Action Comics 21: The Ultra-Humanite returns, but as a woman. Did I miss something?? Oh well, I’m too lazy to go back and look to see if this happened before or not. A scientist develops an atomic bomb, which Superman warns against. Here we are, well over 18 months before we enter WWII, and years before the Atom bomb, and they are writing about this stuff.
Action Comics 22: Clark and Lois are sent to cover the war in Europe. Superman still cannot technically fly, but the way that he is drawn, he may as well be flying. His ridiculous invulnerability is becoming more and more apparent, as he shatters a plane’s propeller with his bare hands.
Action Comics 23: The antagonist behind the war in Europe is revealed to be Lex Luthor, seen with orange hair here. He zaps Superman with green rays which sap his strength, but there is no explanation given as to why they do this, or what they are. This could very well be the first appearance of Kryptonite.
Superman No. 4: Superman is still being referred to as the Man of Tomorrow. The Daily Planet is mentioned for the first time here, no excuse being given if the Daily Star was bought, folded, or whatnot. Lex Luthor coins the phrase Man of Steel for the first time here, and it is used often from here on out. Superman develops super-hearing to go with his X-ray vision. In fact, he seems to develop new powers in every story.
Superman No. 5: Alex Evell, a crooked politician, tries to control information in Metropolis, first by buying one newspaper, then by trying to buy the other. The moral, in Superman’s own words: Two newspapers are better than one! Lex Luthor conspires to plunge our country into another depression by controlling people of power and influence with his own brand of incense. I am not making this crap up. This stuff was passed off as serious action! Superman develops yet another new power: the power to contort his face to resemble another person. He also says up!—up! and seems to fly away.
Action Comics 22: Clark and Lois are sent to cover the war in Europe. Superman still cannot technically fly, but the way that he is drawn, he may as well be flying. His ridiculous invulnerability is becoming more and more apparent, as he shatters a plane’s propeller with his bare hands.
Action Comics 23: The antagonist behind the war in Europe is revealed to be Lex Luthor, seen with orange hair here. He zaps Superman with green rays which sap his strength, but there is no explanation given as to why they do this, or what they are. This could very well be the first appearance of Kryptonite.
Superman No. 4: Superman is still being referred to as the Man of Tomorrow. The Daily Planet is mentioned for the first time here, no excuse being given if the Daily Star was bought, folded, or whatnot. Lex Luthor coins the phrase Man of Steel for the first time here, and it is used often from here on out. Superman develops super-hearing to go with his X-ray vision. In fact, he seems to develop new powers in every story.
Superman No. 5: Alex Evell, a crooked politician, tries to control information in Metropolis, first by buying one newspaper, then by trying to buy the other. The moral, in Superman’s own words: Two newspapers are better than one! Lex Luthor conspires to plunge our country into another depression by controlling people of power and influence with his own brand of incense. I am not making this crap up. This stuff was passed off as serious action! Superman develops yet another new power: the power to contort his face to resemble another person. He also says up!—up! and seems to fly away.
April 28, 2021
possibly read in 2014, but definitely read
November 26, 2015
a full-color book reprinting the first half of all the Superman stories published in 1940. Fun and fascinating stuff, as this was only 18 months into Superman's career, and the mythos was being created as it went along. In the first stories here, criminals are routinely killed by actions Superman commits in the heat of battle. Then suddenly, he keeps rescuing them, saying they don't deserve it but they are human beings, and they must be brought to face justice. Luthor appears, with a full head of red hair (until it's inexplicably colored brown in the fourth or fifth story he's in). At one point, Superman develops the ability to mold his face into a perfect disguise. Clark Kent is shown having to remove his clothes and put on his costume. Superman claims he invented the fabric of his costume so it can resist acid. About four or five stories in, the Daily Star becomes the Daily Planet. Joe Shuster is the credited artist, but had a studio, and I'm pretty sure Wayne Boring draws at least the first story in Superman #5, while the second one is drawn by somebody with an entirely different feel for panel layout. And whoever drew the story which appeared in the World's Fair Comics one-shot had some pretty nice Alex Raymond swipes in his collection. None of these stories is great, but you can feel the energy of discovery, and the sheer thrills of suddenly having a character who can leap so high, have bullets bounce off him, climb buildings like a spider (what? - yeah, he did that routinely back then), and outrun locomotives and even stop them by grabbing hold of the last car and pulling back.
January 31, 2014
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.
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.
November 28, 2012
More early Superman adventures, back when he still mostly took on hoods and corruption as a vigilante operating outside the law, using threats and intimidation to achieve his ends--and occasionally letting a criminal die, sometimes in ways that don't seem entirely accidental (e.g. as when he's supercharged with electricity and then touches the guy who did it to him, thereby electrocuting the guy). By the end, thuogh, he's explicitly saving crooks' lives and seems on his way to being the Superman we know and love. Luthor first appears (sans the first name Lex but possessed of a full head of red hair). I don;t kow if the art limitations here are a function of bad restoration or just bad drawing, but some of this looks pretty sketchy (no pun intended). Shuster wasn't great, admittedly, but I thought he was better than this. Some old scans I've seen of books from this period look better, so maybe it's just poor restoration work. As for the stories themselves, they're pretty muc forgettable.
June 12, 2013
The third volume of these now seemingly ancient Superman adventures, and yet the essence of Superman is quickly being honed to what it is ultimately to become....
We've got Lex Luthor (who WAS the Ultra-Humanite, and then became Luthor? Still a bit foggy on that...) in the mix now, though Lois is still just MEAN to Clark.
Volume 2 of the Superman Chronicles was more similar to the first volume, but I think in this third volume, we're seeing the beginning of the Superman we know and love.
Great books for the aspiring Superman completest/historian (like me).
We've got Lex Luthor (who WAS the Ultra-Humanite, and then became Luthor? Still a bit foggy on that...) in the mix now, though Lois is still just MEAN to Clark.
Volume 2 of the Superman Chronicles was more similar to the first volume, but I think in this third volume, we're seeing the beginning of the Superman we know and love.
Great books for the aspiring Superman completest/historian (like me).
May 26, 2009
Well, we are starting to get somewhere. The Daily Star has morphed into the Daily Planet we all know, and Lex Luthor makes his appearance - with a shock of reddish hair that makes him much more difficult to distinguish from the other characters, instead of his later trademark bald look. And the superior illustrations in a story prepared for the World's Fair begin to hint at the later development of Our Hero.
July 29, 2011
Pretty fair volume. Lex Luthor makes his first appearance and "The Daily Star" becomes "The Daily Planet." Other then that it's basically more of the same as the non-flying Superman leaps about beating the shit out of thugs and enjoying it maybe a little too much. The final story from the WORLD'S FAIR comic has some of the best art I've ever seen, and it looks like Golden Age Supes might become a flier in vol. 4.
September 25, 2012
An excellent collection of the early Superman stories written and drawn by Siegel and Shuster. I am currently reading Grant Morrion's run on Action Comics and the 2012 Superman is close in essence to his 1938 incarnation. I was skeptical of the New 52 and it is a very good idea that was worth the risk.
I am planning on reading more collections from the Superman Chronicles soon.
I am planning on reading more collections from the Superman Chronicles soon.
July 6, 2011
More 1940 non-flying social justice.
October 21, 2012
Lex Luther looks really silly with hair.
May 3, 2013
Sorry, Joe, I know it wasn't your fault, but it gets really confusing when every single female character looks exactly like Lois Lane, including the "villainous" ones.
July 27, 2015
This one is notable for the first appearance of Lex Luthor.
July 28, 2012
10-26-2010
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews