All The Covers on the ‘Action Comics’ #1000 Hardcover

The main cover for Action Comics #1000 features a Jim Lee drawing of Superman boasting the return of the red trunks that the character wore for most of his career — standing against a backdrop of Metropolis.

Another variation on that image, which has spread far and wide across the internet and seems likely to be the cover to the Action Comics #1000 hardcover companion, replaces Metropolis with classic Action Comics covers from over the years.

Leaving aside some obvious things — there does not appear to be any presence for stories from DC’s The New 52 line of publishing, for instance, or the Action Comics Weekly years after John Byrne left — it seemed like a cruise down memory lane could be fun, and also instructive as to what stories DC believes to be the “most important” Superman tales ever to take place in the pages of Action Comics.

Some of the covers are obscured by Superman’s figure, so if you recognize one on the cover that we did not, feel free to tweet us @comicbook and let us know what we’ve missed!

Synopses of the issues come either from DC’s official solicitation text or, where that is not available, Amazon or the Superman Wiki.

Action Comics #864

Cover by Kevin Maguire, with interiors from writer Geoff Johns and the art team of Joe Prado and Jon Sibal.

General Zod! Bizarro World! The Legion of Super-Heroes! What’s next for the Man of Steel? Superman attempts to get back to his life as Clark Kent, but when you’re the world’s greatest hero, there’s trouble around every corner!

Action Comics #962

Cover by Clay Mann, with interior contents by writer Dan Jurgens and artists Stephen Segovia and Art Thibert.

This issue concluded the first storyline of Action Comics‘s Rebirth era — the era which will end with Action Comics #1000.

“Path to Doom” part six! In the epic conclusion, the mystery of Black Zero deepens just as the Man of Steel makes a fateful decision that may stop Doomsday, but also risks the lives of those he loves most.

Action Comics #484

Superman and Lois Lane finally tied the knot to celebrate his fiftieth anniversary!

…But it was the Earth-2 Superman, an older version who had been in a relationship with Lois for years and hardly ever appeared anymore.

Cover art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Dick Giordano. Script by Cary Bates, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Joe Giella.

Now, in this Extra-Length Anniversary Story, he performs his most Sensational Feat! in “Superman Takes A Wife!”

Action Comics #281

“The Super-Key to Fort Superman” was a comic book story appearing in Action Comics #241, in June of 1958. It featured the first appearance of the Fortress of Solitude as it’s known today, although an earlier version had appeared in the Golden Age.

The Super-Key to Fort Superman was a comic book story appearing in Action Comics #241, in June of 1958. It featured the first appearance of the Fortress of Solitude as it’s known today, although an earlier version had appeared in the Golden Age.

Action Comics #1

The comic book that started it all. Superman’s very first appearance!

In Action Comics #1 Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster not only launched one of the longest running comic book series of all time, they also captured the hearts of America as for the very first time they introduced the Man of Steel, the world’s most iconic superhero!

Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! The Man of Steel burst into the comic book world with a bang, kicking off the golden era of superheroes, paving the way for the hundreds if not thousands of super-powered heroes who have come since.

As a distant planet takes its final breath, a scientist places his infant son into a space ship sending it to the planet Earth! Crash landing in rural Kansas, the boy is found by Jonathan and Martha Kent, where the couple take in the boy as their own. Unbeknownst to them the boy will one day grow up to be Earth’s mightiest champion, Superman!

Action Comics #655

Cover by Kerry Gammill, Brett Breeding, and Jerry Ordway. Interior content by writer Roger Stern and artists Bob McLeod, Brett Breeding, and Glenn Whitmore.

Superman rescues Lois Lane from a militant group living in what they call “the Habitat.”

An 8-page insert shows Ma Kent’s photo album, a recurring prop that had been floating through the Superman books since John Byrne’s reboot miniseries The Man of Steel several years before.

In this same month, the other Superman titles had similar 8-page backups featuring other world-building backmatter.

Action Comics #840

Cover by Terry Dodson. Interior content by writers Kurt Busiek and Geoff Johns with artists Pete Woods and Brad Anderson.

“Up, Up, And Away” part 8, continued from SUPERMAN #653. Superman falls from the sky, and his re-introduction to Metropolis brings changes to Clark Kent’s life that no one could have imagined. While putting the pieces of the city back together, Superman must also figure out the how to fit together the pieces of his life!

Action Comics #554

Cover by Gil Kane; interior contents by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gil Kane.

The conflict between Vandal Savage and the Man of Steel allows an alien race to interfere with Earth’s history, obliterating every trace of Superman and all the other members of the Justice League! Now the future of mankind rests in the hearts and minds of two young boys.

Action Comics #419

Clark Kent reports from a NASA space shuttle that is positioning the Large Space Telescope (LST) in a fixed orbit over Metropolis. Meanwhile Moe Malloy, a two-bit crook down on his luck, is fishing in Metropolis River trying to find dinner. Instead he finds a pair of football cleats and a rusty gun all of which are contaminated by a golden glow. Malloy’s old shoes are torn open so he decides to put on the football cleats. As he does, he gets a weird sensation coursing through his body, and the odd desire to fire the gun even though he knows it can’t work. A stream of light shoots out of the gun and destroys a Metropolis Electric Company building across the pier.

Meanwhile, Clark Kent’s shuttle lands at the NASA space-port in Metropolis. At the very instant Clark’s foot touches the ground, hundreds of solid, white spheres bubble up out of the earth. The bubbles quickly begin bursting, each with the force of a grenade. Clark, pretending to be a panicky civilian, takes the rocket gantry lift all the way up. Once out of sight, Clark changes into Superman. Superman uses his super-cold breath to “starch” his reporter clothes to make it appear that Clark is still in the lift.

Superman begins the rescue when abruptly the bubbles disappear. Suspecting a connection with his feet touching the ground, Superman flies off with the Clark Kent decoy. Superman tests his theory on a deserted knoll outside the city. As soon as his feet touch the ground, the explosive spheres bubble out of the earth. Superman deduces something happened while he was in orbit earlier that day and decides that he must not touch the ground as Superman or Clark Kent.

Later than day Lois Lane and Clark Kent are shopping at Mr. Norman’s Costume Shoppe for the Nostalgia Night Dance hosted by their boss, Morgan Edge. While Clark is trying on a zoot suit, reports of Malloy robbing the Metro Savings Back with his new found firepower are heard on the evening news.

Elsewhere, Malloy has decided that robbing banks is too dangerous and instead sets his sights on private citizen. His first target is Vincent Appleton – amateur astronomer, collector of priceless meteorites, and upstairs neighbor of Clark Kent. Malloy subdues Appleton and shoots the lock off of his safe which accidentally pierces through the floor below alerting Superman of the robbery. Superman busts his way through Appleton’s door while Malloy fires at point blank range. Superman’s invulnerable body absorbs the energy blast but discharges it in another direction. Superman uses his super breath to knock Malloy over. When Malloy’s feet leave the ground Superman notices that his shoes stops glowing and the gun has no power. Superman concludes that the cleats act as conductors drawing energy out of the ground. To rectify the situation, Superman throws two of Appleton’s space rocks into the floorboards acting as a lever to catapult Malloy into the air. Before Malloy can hit the ground, Superman throws a fireplace poker through his coat pinning him to the wall and unable to touch the floor. Malloy is easily subdued without the power of his gun. Superman checks on Appleton who was knocked unconscious by his telescope. After seeing the telescope and learning that Malloy was using the ground as a power source, Superman realizes that it was not his body that was altered in orbit but that the ground had been altered by the LST. The bubbles were a deflection of Superman’s power in the same way that Superman’s invulnerable body deflected the energy blast from Malloy’s gun.

Superman follows a trail with his infra-red vision directly to the LST in geosynchronous orbit above Metropolis. Superman discovers that the lens LST had been covered in a cosmic dust from its transportation into orbit. Superman uses his heat vision to cleans the lens of the LST.

Back on earth, Clark Kent and Lois Lane dance the night away at the Nostalgia Night Dance. Lois complains to Clark about dragging his feet. Clark apologies but secretly is thinking how good it is to finally be able to stand on solid ground again.

Action Comics #242

Cover by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye. Interior contents by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino.

Clark Kent and Lois Lane are guest passengers aboard the Columbus – Earth’s first manned space vessel. Shortly after breaking the planet’s atmosphere, they encounter a strange, alien flying saucer. The ship belongs to Brainiac, a self-styled Master of Science. Clark dons a pressure suit and pretends to space-walk back to Earth (supposedly out of fear). However, when he is outside of Lois’ view, he changes into Superman and pushes the Columbus back towards Earth, out of harm’s way.

Superman flies towards Brainiac’s ship, but even his super-strength is not enough to penetrate the villain’s Ultra-Force Shield. From inside the craft, Brainiac uses his Hyper-Ray to steal several Earth cities, including Paris, Rome and New York City. He shrinks them down to miniature size and places them inside of special bottles on his craft.

Superman comes up with a plan and flies back to Earth. He arrives in Metropolis, just as the city is hit by Brainiac’s Hyper-Ray. Metropolis shrinks in size, and Brainiac places it amongst his collection. Now barely an inch-tall, Superman flies upward pushing the cork out of the top of Metropolis’ bottle. Having eluded the Ultra-Force Shield, he is now safely inside his foe’s ship.

Superman flies around the laboratory analyzing Brainiac’s collection of stolen cities. He learns that he plans on bringing them back to his homeworld, where he will then repopulate his lifeless planet.

Superman finds one bottle without its stopper and flies inside. Surprisingly, the city inside the bottle is Kandor – once the capital city of the dead planet, Krypton. As Kandor synthetic environment is powered by an artificial red sun, Superman loses all of his powers. Brainiac finds the bottle and replaces the stopper.

Inside the shrunken city, Superman meets a scientist named Kimda. Kimda provides Superman with a one-man rocket and a pet animal to help him escape from the city. As he blasts through the bottle’s stopper, he learns that Brainiac has now placed himself in suspended animation for the long voyage home. Superman takes control of Brainiac’s Hyper-Ray and restores all of Earth’s cities back to their normal size and geographic location. He is then prepared to use the ray’s final charge on Kandor, but Kimda exits the bottle and activates the Hyper-Ray on Superman. Superman returns to his normal size, and Kimda explains that he could not sacrifice Earth’s greatest hero to remain shrunken for the rest of his life.

Superman gathers together the bottle city of Kandor and leaves Brainiac’s ship. He returns to Earth, where he places the bottle inside of a special vault in his Fortress of Solitude.

Action Comics #285

Cover by Curt Swan and Sheldon Moldoff. Written by Leo Dorfman and Edmond Hamilton with art by Jim Mooney, Curt Swan, and George Klein.

Meeting with his cousin Supergirl, Superman tells the Girl of Steel that he has decided that it is now time to reveal her to the public, ending her years of secret training. He tells her they will meet in Metropolis for 9:00 for the big reveal before parting company. Returning to her civilian guise as Linda Lee, Supergirl returns to the home of her adopted parents, the Danvers.

With hours before 9:00, Linda agrees to go with the Danvers to see a movie in Metropolis. However, along the way the bridge they are crossing breaks under the weight of their car, forcing Linda to spring into action and save them without thinking. Realizing that she has revealed her secret identity to her adopted parents before the revelation of her existence, Supergirl’s mind is put at ease when Superman arrives and tells her it’s okay that her adopted parents know her secret identity. Supergirl and Superman then explain her origins to Fred and Edna Danvers who are proud that their adopted daughter is secretly Supergirl. They then go back to the Danvers home where Supergirl builds a secret tunnel exit out of their house much like what Superman had when he was a boy in Smallville.

That night, broadcasting from the Fortress of Solitude, Superman reveals Supergirl to the world. The revelation sends cheers all over Earth and the universe. After the celebrations are done, Superman heads off on a mission into the 50th Century leaving Supergirl to defend the Earth while he is gone.

Soon, the world is menaced by a creature known as the Infinite Monster, a gigantic creature who is so large, all one can see are it’s legs tromping across the land. The creatures rampage sends Supergirl after it, and she soon finds that simple brute force is not going to have an effect on the monster. Thinking fast she constructs a crude missile and with a note inside throws it through the time barrier to the 30th Century. There is is intercepted by the Legion of Super-Heroes who read her note for assistance and send her back a shrinking ray device which she uses to reduce the monster down to a smaller size, allowing her to put the creature in a special bottle prison in the Fortress of Solitude.

With her first public mission a success, Supergirl is once more celebrated by everyone including the President of the United States. When Superman returns to the present he congratulates Supergirl for a job well done and publicly thanks her. As a reward for a job well done, Superman devices her very own room in the Fortress of Solitude.

 

Action Comics #672

Cover by Dan Jurgens and Bob McLeod. Interior content by Roger Stern, Bob McLeod, and Denis Rodier.

The Man of Steel finally comes face to face with Lex Luthor II…and the son of Superman’s greatest foe volunteers to mediate the strike at The Daily Planet.

Action Comics #900

Cover by David Finch. Interior contents written by Paul Cornell (main story), with art by Matt Camp, Pete Woods, Gary Frank, Adam Hughes, Jamal Igle, Dan Jurgens, and more.

Special, super-sized landmark issue featuring stories written by creators from across the entertainment industry, including Paul Cornell–who wraps up his Lex Luthor saga; a special storyboard script by Richard Donner (SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE); a tale by David Goyer (THE DARK KNIGHT) where the Man of Steel makes a fateful decision about his place in the world; and Damon Lindelof (“Lost”), who takes us back to an important moment in Krypton’s history.

 

Action Comics #801

Cover by Dave Bullock. Interior contents by writer Joe Kelly and artists Tom Raney and Walden Wong.

“Look up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no…it’s NOT Superman! It’s a new terror that turns regular people into new metahumans, and it may be the beginning of something even more sinister.”

Action Comics #854

This is the only cover that manages to appear on the cover twice! There is one on the second row from the bottom — with only a tiny bit of its left side visible — and another at the bottom right corner (with only a sliver of its right).

The only reason you can really tell is that it is a Countdown to Final Crisis tie-in, and there are a very limited number of those to choose from.

Cover by Brad Walker. Interiors by Kurt Busiek, Brad Walker, and John Livesay.

It’s a desperate battle for Superman, a turning point for Jimmy Olsen, and a deadly radioactive threat for Metropolis in the finale to ”3-2-1 Action”! Will Mr. Action live or die? And what will the future hold for Krypto? Plus: giant monkey!

Action Comics #309

Cover by Curt Swan and Sheldon Moldoff. Interior contents by writers Leo Dorfman and Edmond Hamilton and artists Jim Mooney, Curt Swan, and George Klein.

“THE SUPERMAN SUPER-SPECTACULAR!” When Our American Heroes, a TV show honoring great Americans by reuniting them on air with their old acquaintances, honors Superman in such fashion, he is perplexed as to how he will find someone to portray Clark Kent and thus throw suspicion off his double identity. The man for the job is none other than President John F. Kennedy. Plus, “THE UNTOLD STORY OF ARGO CITY!”

Action Comics #476

Cover by Kurt Schaffenberger. Interior content by writer Cary Bates, Kurt Schaffenberger, and inker Vince Colletta.

Vartox’s alien biology cures Karb-Brak of his illness, but Karb-Brak’s virus causes Vartox to become a foe to Superman.

Action Comics #42

Cover by Fred Ray. Interior contents by writer Jerry Siegel and artists Leo Novak and the Shuster shop.

Four influential men, science lecturer Carl Bransom, writer Nick Flaherty, politician John Standing and industrialist Freeman Chase, all vanish mysteriously. Clark Kent contends that these are no ordinary kidnappings, as all four have been missing for weeks without a ransom demand. Just then, Bransom’s family receive a ransom demand for $50,000. Clark goes to report on it. Although the press are being kept out, he hears that Mrs. Bransom wants to pay the ransom. Changing to Superman, he stakes out the drop location. When a man picks up the ransom, Superman stops his car and interrogates him. He finds out that the man, Jake Mobray, works for the Dirk Chadwick mob, and he doesn’t know where Bransom is. Just then, a ray of light comes down from above and blows up Mobray. Superman visits Chadwick, and finds that he didn’t kidnap Bransom, he just tried to extort the money. The ray comes back and blows up the building, killing Chadwick. Failing to find the source of the ray, Clark goes home, and goes to bed.

That night, he is kidnapped and taken to a vast city in the sky. He meets the other kidnapped men, and finds that they don’t want to leave. He is brought before the leader, Zytal, who tells him that he is an interplanetary explorer who is gathering the brightest men to assist in his quest for knowledge, including Clark. Not satisfied with this explanation, he changes to Superman once alone, and investigates. He sees Zytal ripping away a face mask, revealing himself to be Luthor. He attacks Luthor, who uses a device to hypnotise him. Luthor sends him out to cause chaos. But when he sees Lois Lane being kidnapped by Luthor’s hirelings, he rescues her. However, he delivers her to Luthor himself. When Lois and Luthor mention Clark, Superman changes back. Luthor dumps them both into a pit with a strange beast, knocking out Lois. Superman defeats the beast and confronts Luthor, the hypnosis having worn off. Luthor shoots out the city-supporting anti-gravity device, and jumps off. Having no choice but to let Luthor go, Superman catches the city before it hits the ground. Back at the Daily Planet, Clark beats Lois to getting the story written up.