The Four Color Media Monitor

Here's a writer at ComicBook who's willing, unlike some others in mainstream, to take a look at some Silver Age Superman tales worth consideration:

The Silver Age is arguably one of the best periods in comic book history. Spanning from approximately 1956 to 1970, the era saw the creation of new characters and concepts that would go on to be iconic and important decades later, fantastic art, and the reemergence of superheroes after a time when such stores had struggled, thanks to societal controversy that blamed comics for juvenile delinquency. The Silver Age was also an era of absolutely wild stories, including those that put beloved characters in strange (and often hilarious) scenarios that can only be described as “quirky.”

This is especially true for Superman‘s Silver Age. Full of campy stories that often leaned into sci-fi territory, it’s an era that was often lighthearted, but is also one that deeply expands the Superman mythos. Silver Age stories introduced major concepts about Krypton, Superman’s powers, and even saw some of his classic villains start to coalesce into the threats they are today. It’s a great time to be a Superman fan — and here are seven of the greatest Superman stories from that era.

You can read the list and judge for yourself, and they're hopefully on their way to being reprinted in the DC Finest archive series in time. For now, interesting they also allude to the Fredric Wertham era, because while comics may not actually be blamed for causing delinquency today, many mainstream publishers have since exploited them for far-left propaganda, and simultaneously, there's been censorship occurring that Wertham would doubtless be proud of, for all the wrong reasons. Unfortunately, if such press sources were active during the 1950s, chances are they wouldn't utter a word against what Wertham led to, and they certainly are complaining about wokeness today that's ruined the Superman mythos. Viewed through that perspective, it's not a great time to be a Super-fan.

But when it comes to the older stuff from the Silver Age, yes, that's what makes it great to be a Super-fan. And again, I do hope more of that will eventually become available in dedicated reprint archives covering whole eras consistently. That makes it far easier to judge all the stories from an era where, while obviously not all was perfect, there was still plenty that could be better than what's seen today.

Labels: dc comics, good artists, good writers, history, Supergirl, Superman, women of dc