Superman: The 85th Anniversary Collection: TR - Trade Paperback

by Jerry Siegel, Leo Dorfman, Joe Shuster (Illustrator)

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive… The Man of Steel fights a never-ending battle for truth and justice!

From his blue uniform to his flowing red cape to the "S" shield on his chest, Superman is one of the most immediately recognizable and beloved DC Super Heroes of all time. The Man of Steel is the ultimate symbol of truth, justice, and hope. He is the world's first Super Hero and a guiding light to all. The The 85th Anniversary Collection includes Action Comics (1994-2011) #1-2, #23, #60, #182, #305, #395, #473, #643, #732, Action Comics (2011-2016) #7, DC Comics Presents #26, Superman (1994-2006) #1 and #81, Superman (1993-1986) #1, #30, #65, #133, #167, #287, #400, Superman (2018-2021) #18, Superman Confidential #1, Rebirth #1, The Man of Steel #1, and World's Finest Comics #176.

Genres: Superheroes

496 pages, Paperback

Published May 2, 2023

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

[Carter]

Incredibly messy collection. While I appreciate the inclusion of some rarely collected or never before collected stories, publishing them with zero context within a supposed “85th anniversary collection” is baffling.
Still a blast to read tho! Lots of fun eras to explore now.

[S.E. Martens]

This was so much fun to read through - an anthology of Superman stories from 1938 - 2020. It's great to see samples from each time period. The introduction by Tom Peyer was also excellent. Sure, there were a few more stories I wish had been included and it's always sort of frustrating with these anthologies to see many slivers of larger stories, but they provide a lot of jumping off points for further reading.

My only real complaint is that I wish DC had put more care into the production of this book. The stories are excellent, so why is Superman's 85th Anniversary not being printed on higher quality paper? Why is this a flimsy paperback and not a deluxe hardcover? As far as I'm aware it was only printed in paperback. It wasn't cheap, either, so they weren't trying to keep the price point down, as they do with the Showcase editions.

[Gabriel Rojo]

Most of the truly essential Superman stories were already collected in the 75th Anniversary Collection. So it's nice that for this one they only repeated Action Comics #1 and 2 and then they managed to compile a completely different set of Superman tales across the decades - most of them quite enjoyable. Quality only wanes a little towards the end due to the incompleteness of the modern stories and (ugh) Bendis.

[Michael]

On one hand, it's nice to get away from the standards that are reprinted time and again and maybe these seemingly arbitrary issues will introduce readers to some interesting other eras in Superman's publishing history. On the other hand, the ongoing serial nature of modern comics means these issues can be a bit jarring out of context. Either way, this collection is a pretty solid set - giving readers a diverse, meandering view of Superman's evolution and incongruous history.

[Elise]

A nice anthology of Superman through history.