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Superman in the #40s
Superman in the Forties
The latest in DC's decade-by-decade celebration of the best stories featuring the Man of Steel collects stories from ACTION COMICS #1, 2, 14, 23, 64, 93, 107, SUPERMAN #1, 23, 40, 53, 58, 61, SUPERBOY #5, the Superman daily newspaper strip, Look magazine and WORLD'S FINEST COMICS #37, covering his 1938 debut through the 1940s!
189 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2005
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71 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 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 14, 2026
Mission 2026: Binge reviewing all previous Reads, I was too slothful to review back when I read them
Reading Superman in the Forties is like opening a time capsule full of moral urgency and cultural optimism. These stories are raw, direct, and unapologetically didactic. Superman doesn’t debate; he intervenes. He fights slumlords, war profiteers, corrupt officials. The enemies are clear, the values unmistakable.
What surprised me was how politically alive these stories feel. Superman is less a cosmic savior than a social corrective. He exists to shame systems that fail the vulnerable. The simplicity isn’t naïveté—it’s conviction. These stories believe that injustice can be confronted head-on.
The art and pacing are dated, undeniably so. But emotionally, the clarity is refreshing. There is no irony, no self-conscious mythmaking. Superman acts because action is necessary. Reading these stories now feels like encountering a forgotten version of moral confidence.
They reminded me that Superman began not as an abstraction, but as an argument: that power should side with the powerless. That argument still resonates, even through the sepia tones of history.
Most recommended.
Reading Superman in the Forties is like opening a time capsule full of moral urgency and cultural optimism. These stories are raw, direct, and unapologetically didactic. Superman doesn’t debate; he intervenes. He fights slumlords, war profiteers, corrupt officials. The enemies are clear, the values unmistakable.
What surprised me was how politically alive these stories feel. Superman is less a cosmic savior than a social corrective. He exists to shame systems that fail the vulnerable. The simplicity isn’t naïveté—it’s conviction. These stories believe that injustice can be confronted head-on.
The art and pacing are dated, undeniably so. But emotionally, the clarity is refreshing. There is no irony, no self-conscious mythmaking. Superman acts because action is necessary. Reading these stories now feels like encountering a forgotten version of moral confidence.
They reminded me that Superman began not as an abstraction, but as an argument: that power should side with the powerless. That argument still resonates, even through the sepia tones of history.
Most recommended.
February 23, 2010
A bizarre collection from Superman's early days that feature some comics from the end of the 30s and some from the end of the 40s. Grouped together thematically, it's fun to see the early days of Superman, but one has to wonder if there was a better way to package these.
September 24, 2018
The stories by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster are the Easy winners here. Supes taking on corporate warmongers, corruption issues, Hitler and Stalin themselves (the classic tale "How Superman would end the war) are as good as ever. Nice to see the introduction of the toyman and the first Super-girl as well as the first Krypton origin story as told by Bill Finger. Unfortunately, the latter quarter of this collection dwells on Superman as both piece of WW2 propaganda and Ultimate Boyscout, in stark contrast with how was originally intended by his creators and a chore as to the reading itself. It would have been better for DC to use a different approach to categorize these stories instead of throwing a bunch of them for the titular period and call the day.
September 24, 2022
The earliest stories are hilarious, but in a bad way. I always assumed Superman on the issue 1 cover was saving someone by lifting that car, not getting his own back for a guy calling him/Clark a weakling... what a hero. The war propaganda ones are better, but at best are interesting as history pieces. Otherwise, there are one or two genuinely good stories in this collection, and several more bad ones. The Christmas one is atrocious and has the creepiest ending. A really odd collection, and placed here is no sensible order.
November 12, 2023
Superman in the Forties is a great collection the best Superman comics from the 40s. You can learn a lot about Superman, back in the forties. My favorites are the comics that explain Superman's origin story. It was a lot of fun reading this.
I recommend this to any Superman fan. Or just a fan of comic books in general.
I recommend this to any Superman fan. Or just a fan of comic books in general.
August 14, 2018
Very entertaining comics of the Man of Steel!
October 30, 2012
This volume contains 192 pages of Golden Age awesomeness. To begin with, we get the first two Superman Stories from action comics in the 1930s. In them. Superman saved an innocent woman from execution, stopped a wife beating, and saves Lois from a psycho kidnapper. And that was just in the first ten pages. Next up is preventing a war.
We get a peak at Superman, both as a rough and tumble no nonsense Superhero whose rough interrogation methods would make Jack Bauer winces to the still strong, but also wiser and gentler role model we knew in the 1940s and 50s.
Along the way, we get to see Superman's first tangle with the Ultra-Humanite, Lex Luthor, and the Toyman, as well as an early encounter with Mr. Mxtztplk. All these characters are vastly different from their modern counterpart with Mxtztplk being more mischievous than truly a danger to the Man of Steel. We also get to see the first appearance of Krytonite in the comic books (after it'd been all over the radio series for two years). In the comics, it appeared as a gem on a phony swami's hat.
As Superman progressed, his writers gained humility. When Jerry Siegel began writing Superman at age 24, all war was the cause of manipulators, and Superman could end and avoid was in a single issue. When confronted with a real life conflict, Siegel imagined a year before Pearl Harbor that Superman could end the war in Europe in two pages by dragging Hitler before the League of Nations. Experience brought humility. However, when America entered the war, the writers knew they couldn't just have Superman end it. Thus Superman focused more on helping others with compassion and intelligence rather than using brute force all the time. (Though he could still use that when called for.)
Throughout the book, Superman cared about the concerns of ordinary Americans, from taking on warmongers and spies to giving what for to a crooked patent attorney, Superman was focused on helping out people in need. This book contains stories of that genuine American hero.
As a patriot, I loved the war story, "America's Secret Weapon," and the final story, "Christmas 'Round the World" was beautifully moving.
While DC has taken to releasing its Archive Collections (Hardback) and Chronicles (Paperback) chronicling the adventures of the Man of Steel, this book is more of a best of compilation from the 1930s and 40s. Its perfect for someone who wants a little Superman as he was meant to be in their library or who wants to see some of the more interesting stories of the era. In addition, the current Chronicles Collection is only up to 1942, so many of the stories in hear from 1944 and after won't be in Trade paperback for years.
We get a peak at Superman, both as a rough and tumble no nonsense Superhero whose rough interrogation methods would make Jack Bauer winces to the still strong, but also wiser and gentler role model we knew in the 1940s and 50s.
Along the way, we get to see Superman's first tangle with the Ultra-Humanite, Lex Luthor, and the Toyman, as well as an early encounter with Mr. Mxtztplk. All these characters are vastly different from their modern counterpart with Mxtztplk being more mischievous than truly a danger to the Man of Steel. We also get to see the first appearance of Krytonite in the comic books (after it'd been all over the radio series for two years). In the comics, it appeared as a gem on a phony swami's hat.
As Superman progressed, his writers gained humility. When Jerry Siegel began writing Superman at age 24, all war was the cause of manipulators, and Superman could end and avoid was in a single issue. When confronted with a real life conflict, Siegel imagined a year before Pearl Harbor that Superman could end the war in Europe in two pages by dragging Hitler before the League of Nations. Experience brought humility. However, when America entered the war, the writers knew they couldn't just have Superman end it. Thus Superman focused more on helping others with compassion and intelligence rather than using brute force all the time. (Though he could still use that when called for.)
Throughout the book, Superman cared about the concerns of ordinary Americans, from taking on warmongers and spies to giving what for to a crooked patent attorney, Superman was focused on helping out people in need. This book contains stories of that genuine American hero.
As a patriot, I loved the war story, "America's Secret Weapon," and the final story, "Christmas 'Round the World" was beautifully moving.
While DC has taken to releasing its Archive Collections (Hardback) and Chronicles (Paperback) chronicling the adventures of the Man of Steel, this book is more of a best of compilation from the 1930s and 40s. Its perfect for someone who wants a little Superman as he was meant to be in their library or who wants to see some of the more interesting stories of the era. In addition, the current Chronicles Collection is only up to 1942, so many of the stories in hear from 1944 and after won't be in Trade paperback for years.
March 22, 2011
This is a nice collection with samples from the different stages Superman passed thru and different media.
This collection includes such gems as:
The first two stories from the thirties.
The first meeting of Kryptonite in the comic.
An origin of Superman.
A few newspaper strips.
A short comic from Look magazine how Superman would stop World War II.
A short prose story from Superman 1.
Mr. Myzlptlk in his purple suit.
The Ultra-Humanite.
The first Luthor story.
The Toyman.
Not all the stories are classics, but there are enough gems to make this collection work your time.
This collection includes such gems as:
The first two stories from the thirties.
The first meeting of Kryptonite in the comic.
An origin of Superman.
A few newspaper strips.
A short comic from Look magazine how Superman would stop World War II.
A short prose story from Superman 1.
Mr. Myzlptlk in his purple suit.
The Ultra-Humanite.
The first Luthor story.
The Toyman.
Not all the stories are classics, but there are enough gems to make this collection work your time.
June 29, 2016
The book is basically what it should be: a good overview of the kinds of Superman stories typical of the era. Gangsters, lovelorn tales, war efforts, and even a charming Christmas story are all here and are as different from each other as can be. My favorites by far were the Siegel and Shuster originals. There's a raw energy to them that Superman comics have never really been able to recapture. The text pieces interspersed throughout the collection give some welcome background information on the comics as the decade progressed and the character evolved.
October 14, 2015
Not bad. A very good set of comics. I have to admit its very nice seeing a very good set of stories without a grand set of villains. I also enjoy seeing Superman do more for the people than you usually see nowadays.
Got to admit the stories where they expand upon his origin story are great. The line "Krypton is Doomed" has become famous. Its also interesting to see how Superman dealt with his presence during the time of war.
Sentimental times but brave times never the less. C+
Got to admit the stories where they expand upon his origin story are great. The line "Krypton is Doomed" has become famous. Its also interesting to see how Superman dealt with his presence during the time of war.
Sentimental times but brave times never the less. C+
June 4, 2010
Interesting trip back into time - back when Superman actually couldn't fly and was actually interesting. The art is kind of spotty, and a lot of the comics are from the last possible year in the forties, but it's all still an enjoyable grab bag.
March 16, 2016
A great collection of Superman comics but unfortunately they're not chronological. However, the table of contents has the printing dates so you can read them in order allowing you to see the progression of the character during the decade.
January 22, 2014
Going to read them all! Our school library has them from the 1940s to the 1980s.
February 21, 2012
Cool! I really liked seeing the Man of Steel's beginnings, Without Lex Luthor or anyone like that.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews