Tugging on the Cape: The Best of Superman

On Sunday, in preparation for the premiere of Superman Returns later this month, I watched the 1978 "Superman" movie on DVD -- and damn if it doesn't hold up well. Even though the special effects are nearly 30 years old (the movie was filmed between 1976 and 1978), and the budget wouldn't pay for Julia Roberts's salary today, the flick still has some of my favorite scenes in all of cinema. The whole sequence with the helicopter is pure joy to watch. So is the scene in Lois's apartment where she steps into another room; Clark Kent removes his glasses and straightens up, and suddenly it's not Kent standing there, it's Superman in a business suit. Then, as Lois approaches, he puts the glasses back on and he's Clark again. No special effects except acting.

The movie is a prime demonstration of what superhero films can accomplish. I've never been as big a fan of Superman as I have been of Batman, or the Marvel characters, or even second-bananas like Green Lantern, primarily because the bulk of the comics stories about Supes over the years have been profoundly boring. When a character can do anything, it's no fun to watch him do anything. Flying, in particular, became old hat pretty fast. But the film returned the awe and the wonder to the character. Flying scenes that would evoke a yawn in the comics became flights of wonder and imagination. You watch Superman nonchalantly lift off from a helipad and arch backwards as he flew into the night, and you suddenly realize how amazing it must be to live in a world where you can look out a window and see -- not a bird -- not a plane -- but Superman flying by.

In the spirit of both the old film, and the new one that's coming, here's my list -- in no particular order -- of my all-time-favorite Superman comic book stories.

-- Superman vs. Muhammed Ali (1978): Yes, you read that right. Talk about weaving silk from the proverbial swine ear. By all rights, this should have been the dumbest comic story ever. But instead, this large-format comic was drawn and plotted by Neal Adams, one of the greatest comic artists of all time; and he turned in one of his best art jobs ever. From drawing a two-page splash of a city street that comes alive in every gritty detail, to a knockout scene of Superman flying through the engine rooms of a line of alien spacecraft at once, to wonderfully choreographed boxing scenes, this was like a movie with a billion-dollar budget. The script (by Neal's frequent collaborator, Denny O'Neil) was fun too.

-- The Amazing Story of Superman-Red, Superman-Blue (1963): This was one of the "imaginary stories" that Mort Weisinger, Superman editor of the fifties and sixties, liked to do so much. In it, Superman splits into two Supermen; and together they solve not only every problem in Superman's life, but every problem facing mankind: disease, crime, the Cold War, all fall before the redoubled efforts of the Men of Steel. One of the most giddy, optimistic comics stories of all time. Drawn by master Superman artist Curt Swan; written by Leo Dorfman.

-- The Girl in Superman's Past (1959) : This story was a celebration of the fairy-tale magic that was possible in Superman's world. It tells of the college-age Clark Kent's romance with a mysterious wheelchair-bound coed, Lori LeMaris, who spurns Clark's marriage proposal. At the end of the story, we learn why: Because she's a mermaid! A wonderfully innocent story, written by Batman co-creator Bill Finger and drawn by Wayne Boring (who penciled a ravishing Lori). It makes you glance at the people on the street, and wonder if any of them are magical beings in disguise. When John Byrne did his re-mastered Superman in the mid-eighties, he retold this story; the original art for Byrne's cover to that issue hangs on my living-room wall.

-- For the Man Who Has Everything (1985): A year before writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons redefined comics with their Watchman series, they produced this Superman annual, which is a nearly-perfectly plotted superhero story. When Batman, Robin, and Wonder Woman gather at the Fortress of Solitude for Superman's birthday, they find that a vengeful alien warlord named Mongul has already paid his respects: An otherwordly plant that clamps onto the chest of its victim, and paralyzes him while it creates the hallucination that the victim's fondest dream has come true. For Superman, that fondest dream is a reality where Krypton never exploded. But he finds that a world in which his father is an embittered, broken man -- whose prediction that Krypton would explode was proven to be a fraud -- is hardly the paradise he wished. What makes this story so emotionally gripping is that Moore doesn't warp the lead characters' personalities; these are the same heroic, rather chipper Superman, Batman, etc. that we saw in the sixties and seventies. Yet they are bantering and acting like three-dimensional characters. That makes it all the more chilling when Superman is driven to stare at Mongul, his eyes glowing red with heat vision, and whisper, "Burn."

-- Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (1986): The other main Alan Moore Superman story, this "imaginary story" finished off the series before Byrne rebooted the character. Since it was drawn by classic Superman artist Curt Swan, and edited by longtime editor Julius Schwartz, it was a marvelous link between the past and future of comics. This two-parter was an alternatively happy and chilling story that told the final fates of the Superman characters. It started with a wonderful prologue by Moore, in which he sums up everything good about Superman. He finishes the prologue with the perfect tag line: "This is an imaginary story . . . aren't they all?"