superchuck

April 11, 2012 6:39 pm Superman:Birthright is another great take on the origin by Mark Waid. It's a Bird by Steven T. Seagle approaches Superman from an entirely different angle and is a fascinating breakdown of the character. Superman: Secret Identity by Kurt Busiek is another fascinating elseworlds take on Superboy(man) Prime. The "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" trade/hardcover also includes "For the Man Who Has Everything" and "The Jungle Line" (crossover with Swamp Thing), which are all excellent stories by Alan Moore. You can pick up the first year of the Byrne/Wolfman run in Man of Steel vols 2-6 to continue the story from Byrne's Man of Steel with a more grounded Superman. The Death/World Without/Return of Superman is a pretty epic read with major ramifications in the DCU. Greg Rucka's run is available in 3 trades (Unconventional Warfare, That Healing Touch,Ruin Revealed) and tells a very personal story of betrayal. Superman/Batman by Jeph Loeb is an over the top romp. Luthor by Brian Azzarello looks at things from Lex Luthor's perspective. The whole New Krypton saga spinning out of Geoff John's run is a pretty solid read, albeit somewhat rushed at the end. And Kingdom Come is at its heart a Superman story.

February 2, 2012 1:12 pm Actually, these were all new villains. You didn't need to know anything about Superman continuity for the story. The only non-new characters were Superman and the Legion. I do agree it was confusing to follow at times, and not Kubert's best stuff, though.

April 23, 2011 9:50 am @SpiderTitan I would also recommend the first 2 trades of the Booster Gold series, written by Geoff Johns. They're called 52 pick-up and Blue and Gold. Beetle and the JLI play a big part, especially in the Blue and Gold trade.

April 15, 2010 1:47 pm I think it's a #0 because not all of these characters will be followed in the main Brightest Day book.  Only Aquaman, the Hawks, Firestorm, J'onn, and Deadman.  The other characters will be in all those books they teased at the end of the issue.  This issue was setting up Brightest Day, Generation Lost, Birds of Prey, Flash, Green Lantern, GLC, Green Arrow, Titans, and Justice League.

April 15, 2010 12:34 pm For all of those saying they don't care about all the characters, not all of the characters will be dealt with in the main Brightest Day series.  Only Aquaman, the Hawks, Firestorm, Martian Manhunter and Deadman will be in the main book.  The other characters will be followed in Generation Lost, Birds of Prey, Justice League, Flash, Titans, Green Arrow, GL and GL Corps.  So you can follow whichever characters you're interested in.  I'm sure they'll all come back together by the end of the main series, though.

March 29, 2010 12:24 pm @OnASunday Actually, if your hard drive crashes and you lose your iTunes music, you can acually call them and they'll let you redownload everything you've ever bought. You can only do it once a year, but it adds another layer of security.

March 26, 2010 4:24 pm My only concern with all this is the collections.  They're going to come out with a Blackest Night trade and a Blackest Night: Green Lantern trade separately.  I don't see how the GL one is going to make any sense at all without the main Blackest Night issues, and enough major stuff happened in GL that the reverse is somewhat true as well.

March 8, 2010 11:46 pm

@cornflakes

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Green Lantern Corps is supposed to come out this week.  IGN put up a preview and said the release date is 3/10.

October 9, 2009 4:33 pm

Saturnians do indeed have the same powers as Martians.  They shape shift, have mental abilities, etc.  I believe they're also vulnerable to fire, if memory serves me correctly.  J'emm has always been an ally and friend to J'onn, the Martian Manhunter.  He showed up in the "Rock of Ages" story in Grant Morrison's JLA as part of Luthor's Injustice Gang as J'onn's opposite number, but he was being controlled by Luthor's Philosopher's stone.  If you can ever track down the Martian Manhunter solo series from the late 90s, there's a storyline where J'onn visits Saturn and delves into their culture.  There are red Saturnians and white Saturnians, although the two races made peace, unlike the green and white Martians.

June 11, 2009 5:20 pm I totally get that you don't like Johns repeating himself here.  But if you listen to or read interviews of him, he's definitely doing it on purpose.  He's been drawing parallels between these two silver age icons all along, like how Hal died a sinner and Barry died a saint, Hal's domain is space and Barry's is time, etc.  If Geoff's run on GL thus far is any indication, we're in for an awesome ride with Flash for years to come, and that excites me.