Superman Archives, Vol. 3

Superman Archives #3

by Jerry Siegel

These are the stories that catapulted Superman into the spotlight as one of the world's premier heroes of fiction. These volumes feature his earliest adventures, when the full extent of his powers was still developing and his foes were often bank robbers and crooked politicians.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Dc Comics

272 pages, Hardcover

First published November 14, 1997

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

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes it's nice to go way back to when times were simpler and easier. Bad was bad and the good guy whacked it till the world was safe. Very nice collection of these great Golden Age stories. Recommended

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

All the stories in this graphic collection are flawed but also represent improvements over the stories in previous Archives volumes.

[Adam Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains full color reprints of 1941's Superman stories and it's a blast. There's nothing monumental here, though Lex Luthor puts in a couple of pretty good appearances. In 1941, Siegel was gearing up for World War II by putting Superman up against obvious stand-ins for the Germans.

There's Clark Kent acting weak and cowardly to protect his secret identity while Lois gets herself into one terrific danger after another. There's weak characterization on part of many of the one time use villains. There are problems and repetitiveness.

However, any book with Golden Age Superman is a good book. He's at his scrapping best as he fights evil and takes on some pretty good mysteries. Siegel's solution to the inherent problem of Superman's strength: give him a mystery that requires some brain power. These are good-sized stories particularly with the number of panels per page in these 14 page stories.

This book was also nice for showing some of the other features including the less than stellar text stories and some amusing short comics including strange facts and one liners. A big highlight for me was the inclusion of two newsletters from Superman trying to teach kids good citizenship. It's great stuff and an enjoyable read.

[Victor Orozco · Rating 4 out of 5]

More original tales of Jerry Siegel's Superman, though I have to admit they feel too realistic what with most of his villains being ordinary criminals. Yet a few of the adventures are becoming very amazing.

B.