Man of Steel: 9 More Must-Read Superman Stories

Earlier this week, DC Entertainment issued a list of six Superman trade paperbacks that were “must-read” stories before fans make their way to the theaters to see Man of Steel in June.Their list was perfectly fine, although it omitted quite a lot. Understandably, we suppose, since you don’t want to overwhelm potential new readers and you want to be sure that things like the newly-released Superman Earth One Volume 2 get a plug. Still, there were some things that we absolutely would have added to any list claiming to be an ideal Superman reading list.We could have gone on, but we decided that by stopping at nine, it made a nice, round number when combined with DC’s list (15!) while still keeping it manageable(ish).Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?/For the Man Who Has Everything One of the great “final chapters” of all time, Whatever Happened To the Man of Tomorrow one is arguably one of the most understandable to be left off of the list. Why? Well, it comes with a good deal of information that readers are expected to know and in the world of the New 52, much of it isn’t true anymore anyway. Add that to the fact that lists like the one DC made are meant for new readers interested in getting a basic primer before the movie and you have a pretty obvious reason to leave it off the list.So why would we put it back on? well, put bluntly, it’s not only one of the greatest Superman stories ever told, but one of the great superhero stories ever told, period. It informs Geoff Johns’s recent, brilliant conclusion to his Green Lantern run and while it may ask a lot of its readers, you can go in, take a few things for granted (“…okay, so he has a super-dog.”), and enjoy it almost as much. Certainly those last few pages, key to the story’s narrative power, don’t require an advanced degree in comics continuity to love them.As a reader pointed out on our Facebook page, the Alan Moore-written “For the Man Who Has Everything” is arguably just as vital, and provides a great look into Superman’s psyche. It’s not collected in a stand-alone book but can be found in a number of collections, including DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore, which contains both of his major Superman works.