posted July 13, 2002 09:02 PM               

Here's the promo for the 1st volume:

Man of Steel Archives Vol. 1
Written by Jerry Coleman, Otto Binder, Bill Finger, Robert Bernstein, and Alvin Schwartz. Art by Wayne Boring, Al Plastino, Stan Kaye, Curt Swan, George Klein, and Ray Burnley.

Reprinting the Superman stories from Action Comics 241-256

In 1958, Mort Weisinger assumed full editorial control of Action Comics and began initiating a series of innovations that would redefine the Man of Steel for a new generation. Now, by popular demand, DC brings you the "Silver Age" adventures of Superman, starting with the classic "Super-Key to Fort Superman", the first appearance of the Fortress of Solitude! Also included in this collection: Superman's first clash with Brainiac, the first episodes spotlighting the fabled bottled city of Kandor, the origin of Metallo, battles with arch-enemy Lex Luthor and the first time Superman encountered Bizarro!

This will fast-forward these stories by at least 20 years at the going rate of Superman Archive production, much to the delight of those of us who yearn for this era of the Man of Steel.

And just for kicks, let's take it a step further. After all, there are 8 Archives currently in print for the Siegel & Shuster aficionados, 3 Action and 5 Superman. For those who would like equal time for the Weisinger era, this is what it would buy you:

Action Comics vol. 1 - (issues 241-256)
- Contents described above

Action Comics vol. 2 - (issues 257-272)
- 1st Bizarro World story, in which Superman is transformed into a Bizarro himself
- Superman vs. Hercules!
- Aquaman masquerades as "Mental Man"
- "The Revenge of Luthor"

Action Comics vol. 3 - (issues 273-288)
- 2 Brainiac appearances, the second guest-starring Congorilla!
- 1st appearance of Luthor's Lair
- 1st appearance of the Superman Revenge Squad

Superman vol. 1 - (issues 127-134)
- 1st Titano
- 1st Red Kryptonite Superman story
- 1st Lori Lemaris appearance
- Superman and Supergirl vs. Kull-Ex, an early Kandor villain

Superman vol. 2 - (issues 135-142)
- 3 more Lori Lemaris stories, in which she alternately entices and torments the Man of Steel!
- Superman and Supergirl vs. Bizarro and a Bizarro-Supergirl
- "Superman's Return to Krypton"
- "Superman Meets Al Capone"

Superman vol. 3 - (issues 143-150)
- "Bizarro meets Frankenstein"
- "Night of March 31st"
- "The Story of Superman's Life" (re-telling of the origin tale)
- "The Death of Superman"

Superman vol. 4 - (issues 151-158)
- "The Last Days of Superman"
- 1st Gold Kryptonite story
- 1st Nightwing & Flamebird

Superman vol. 5 - (issues 159-166)
- "The Last Days of Ma and Pa Kent"
- Superman-Red and Superman-Blue
- 1st Lexor story, "The Showdown between Superman and Luthor"
- "The Sweetheart Superman Forgot"

At that point, we'd have nearly all of the seminal Weisinger Superman tales under hardcover - I could live with that!

posted July 14, 2002 02:06 AM               

I would rather have Silver and bronze age Superman, Bronze age Batman.
The Golden age stuff is best suited to Shazam, Plas, the traditional JSA heroes..in my mind.

posted July 15, 2002 10:04 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by James Friel:
Definitely has mine, too.
I think we'll see it relatively soon. It's just too attractive a project, and one that I predict will outsell the GA Superman books by a modest but significant margin.

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If promoted properly, i think the disparity in slaes will be more than modest.

posted July 15, 2002 04:23 PM               

Pre-Weisinger volumes not archived:
12 Action
17 Superman
4 or 5 Superman in World's Finest (inevitable, since they're doing Batman in WF)

And since they seem to view Superboy as a valid "Superman" product (hence no other archive this year) there's oodles of Superboy material to be archived as well.

Even if they bump up overall production, as Dstepp has hinted, it's doubtful that they will allot additional slots to the GA Superman books, which are not doing that great saleswise.

At the current rate of one GA volume per year, I could see my great-grandchildren before they get up to 1958!

posted July 15, 2002 04:25 PM            

The fact is a lot of us want to buy Superman stories from a specific period in time. It's all very nice to think that eventually in thirty years, there will be volumes reprinting the first thirty years of Superman in their entirety (although I question whether all these volumes will still be in print by that time), but how does that serve the needs of the people who actually buy these books?

And DC has never been utterly faithful to the idea of absolute chronology. They printed volumes of the Superman title first. Then they went back in time to print volumes of Action. And they still haven't printed the solo World's Finest stories.

posted July 15, 2002 05:04 PM            

So next question: Assuming an Archive of Superman tales from c1958 forward, should they follow the current Golden Age format (each magazine gets its own series), or follow what they've done everywhere else: all stories, from all sources, in a single line.

posted July 15, 2002 05:52 PM            

#1 volumes sell better than continuations, thus one could argue SA Supes v.1 would be more commerical than Action v. 16.

At the rate they're going, Action v. 16 will come out in something like 26 years.

There's no guarantee they'll still be printing archives at that point, or reprinting anything at all.

It's easier and cheaper to reprint Silver Age rather than Golden Age material.

posted July 15, 2002 07:00 PM               

Besides, I think we'd be making a possibly unwarranted assumption if we take it as given that, first, the market for old comics reprints will hold up long enough for all this to happen steadily and at a leisurely pace; and second, that DC's policies won't change and the archives project either be discontinued or radically changed.