Superman Archives, Vol. 7

Superman Archives #7

by Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster

Re-presenting from the Golden Age of Comics - issues #25-29 of Superman, showcasing the early adventures of the Man of Steel.

Genres: Superheroes, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics

240 pages, Hardcover

First published April 26, 2006

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 I just want a mice simple entertaining read for the evening without all the dark themes and gritty reality many of today's comics have. These wonderful Golden Age stories are a nice simpler age of good vs evil. Nice read. Recommended

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Further proof that Superman may have been at his peak in the Forties, the great stories in this comp have a wildly slapstick Jack Cole cartoony art style, and shine the brightest when villains like The Prankster and The Toymaker are at their most nuttiest.
Lois Lane has a few solo spots in this book, and frankly they can't draw enough pictures of her falling off skyscrapers with her skirt billowing up in the air, luscious gams flashing in the hot Metropolis sky. I like Clark Kent's jealous rants over what an oaf Superman is. This is the way Superman is meant to be seen: fun (hold the nobility).

[James Hold · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's time for me to take a break from this series. I love early Superman but it is going so downhill now. Siegel and Shuster make only a couple of contributions. Bill Finger and Don Cameron wrote the rest and frankly none of it is very good. Art by Ed Drobrotka continues to satisfy but Ira Yarbrough and Sam Citron fail to capture the spirit of the original. One nice thing is the start of a 'Lois Lane, Girl Reporter' series. We get only two installments here and Drobrotka's art excellently fits the concept. The dirty old man in me would have liked to see it adopt a few 'Misadventures of Jane' themes, although you can be sure that never happens. I understand the series continues in subsequent volumes but that alone is not enough to keep me buying it. A lot of this can be blamed on war time conditions, but all the same it marks an end to the 'fun' adventures and a headfirst plunge into 'silliness'. The seriousness will return in the 60s, but by then the 'family' has grown too large and Clark and Lois themselves pass into middle-age. The charm of these two 20-somethings under Jerry Siegel's authorship was fun while it lasted, but like all things it had to end sometime.

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good stories, some bad stories, and many that are somewhere in-between.

[Dexter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little disappointed in this volume. It was a lot of Superman doing the equivalent of neighborhood chores, as well as Lois Lane sitting around getting rescued. I must say I'm not a huge fan of her.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A blast.