Ever since I did my mega-post on every Superman collection available related to the Byrne/Triangle Era, I’ve pondered doing a similar post for subsequent Superman Eras. With the holidays upon us, it seemed like the right time to do a holiday gift guide for Superman collections.
Depending on where you draw the line, the continuity initiated by John Byrne’s THE MAN OF STEEL continues all the way up to INFINITE CRISIS in 2006 or FLASHPOINT in 2011. INFINITE CRISIS is responsible for some continuity tweaks in Superman’s history, and even results in a new origin story, but it doesn’t mess too much with most of the events in Post-Crisis Superman comics themselves. Superman still died and came back to life. There were still four other Superman. He still got engaged and then married to Lois.
So irrespective of the quality of many of those stories, and allowing for some fiddling to Superman’s origin and his pre-debut years, most everything from 1986 to 2011 hangs together.
I’ve put together multiple lists on League of Comic Geeks that show you every collection available from that timeframe:
Superman: Byrne & Triangle Era TPBs (1986-1999)
Superman: Byrne & Triangle Era Hardcovers and Omnibuses (1986-1999)
Superman: 2000 era to Infinite Crisis (2000-2006)
Superman: Post-Infinite Crisis to Flashpoint (2006-2011)
I’ve already written a pretty exhaustive post on the Post-Crisis period that spans the John Byrne and Triangle Era years, which you can find here. That’s your guide for everything from 1986 to 1999.
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Superman 2000 Era
Superman: The City of Tomorrow Volume 1
Paperback Kindle
Superman: The City of Tomorrow Volume 2
Paperback Kindle
Superman: The City of Tomorrow Compendium
The Compendium is the content from Volumes 1 and two in one collection.
Superman: Emperor Joker: The Deluxe Edition
Hardcover Kindle
Superman: President Luthor Compendium
Superman: Our Worlds At War Omnibus Volume 1: Prelude to War!
Superman: Our Worlds At War Omnibus Volume 2: All-Out War!
After this era of Superman, there was another creative team shakeup across the board. The transition between these two eras was the storyline GODFALL.
Each of the three titles were running their own storylines. It was during this period that SUPERMAN contained the much-collected Jim Lee/Brian Azzarello storyline FOR TOMORROW. The stories in the other two titles were collected in trades that are now out of print and mostly only available on the secondary market.
Superman: For Tomorrow
Paperback Kindle
Post-Infinite Crisis Era
This era gets kind of messy in the collection because the stories are collected many different ways and there’s some overlap. Kurt Busiek was writing SUPERMAN and some issues of ACTION, while Geoff Johns was the main writer on ACTION, with Richard Donner co-writing some of the arcs.
These stories lead directly to the New Krypton Saga, which will get its own subheading.
Superman: Camelot Falls: The Deluxe Edition
Hardcover Kindle
You can also get the Kurt Busiek run of this era (including the two stories above) in a two-volume set that also includes other Superman stories by the author.
Superman by Kurt Busiek Book 1
Superman by Kurt Busiek Book 2
The Geoff Johns half of the run is collected very unusually. First up is a Deluxe Edition that contains both LAST SUN and ESCAPE FROM BIZARRO WORLD. If you get that, you don’t need the separate ESCAPE FROM BIZARRO WORLD edition. And to make things confusing, there’s ANOTHER collection of LAST SON which contains his last arc on ACTION, BRAINIAC.
Superman: Last Son: The Deluxe Edition
Superman: Escape from Bizarro World
Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes
Superman: Final Crisis: The Legion of Three Worlds
Hardcover Kindle
Superman: Brainiac
Paperback Kindle
Superman: Secret Origin
Paperback Kindle
There’s also Absolute Superman by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, which collects Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes, Secret Origin and Brainiac.
The New Krypton Saga
Many collections cover this era… and many of them are out of print. This was a storyline that flowed through four titles.
- SUPERMAN: THE WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON followed Superman’s adventures on Krypton, which he went to so he could keep an eye on General Zod, considered a hero by many of the surviving Kryptonians.
- The main SUPERMAN title followed Mon-El, recently freed from the Phantom Zone, as he filled in for Superman in Metropolis.
- In ACTION, Nightwing and Flamebird hunted Kryptonian sleeper agents on Earth.
- And SUPERGIRL dealt with events from Supergirl’s perspective.
Each of these threads got separate hardcover and trade collections. A good chunk of them are out of print and aren’t even available digitally. This includes my personal favorite part of the story, a crossover that involved ADVENTURE COMICS as well, called THE LAST STAND OF NEW KRYPTON, which set the stage for the conclusion in THE WAR OF THE SUPERMEN miniseries.
DC started to collect the whole saga in Omnibus form, but to-date, only the first volume has come out and there’s no word on when the other two will be released. So what I’m listing below here are only the collections you can purchase in one form or another.
Superman: New Krypton Volume 1
Superman: New Krypton Volume 2
Superman: New Krypton Volume 3
Superman: New Krypton Volume 4
The MON-EL and NIGHTWING & FLAMEBIRD Volumes would be concurrent with Volumes 3 & 4, but they are not available.
THE LAST STAND OF NEW KRYPTON would come after all of that, but it also is not available.
There’s also the Superman: New Krypton Saga Omnibus Volume 1. Be advised that it includes SUPERMAN: BRAINIAC and it’s only the first third of the storyline
The Superman books then spent the next year in two separate stories. GROUNDED ran through SUPERMAN, and since that story was meant to occupy Superman for the entire year, ACTION had a lead story with Lex Luthor called THE BLACK RING
Superman: Grounded Volume 1
Superman: Grounded Volume 2
Superman: The Black Ring Volume 1
Superman: The Black Ring Volume 2
Following that is a two-volume storyline that basically closes out this era.
Superman: Return of Doomsday
Superman: Reign of Doomsday
Immediately after that story, the entire DC line was rebooted by The New 52. And you’re on your own in figuring those collections out.
Superman: Rebirth
I’m including REBIRTH since it’s my second-favorite Superman era after the period this blog covers. And even though it’s a continuation of New 52, it’s where elements of the Post-Crisis continuity get reintegrated into New 52. And even better, Dan Jurgens is back on Superman book as the regular writer for the first time since 1999.
The stage was set for REBIRTH in a crossover called CONVERGENCE, where we learned that characters of Pre-FLASHPOINT continuity had survived, with our Superman and Lois among them. In the time since we last saw them, Lois had become pregnant and their CONVERGENCE story ended with Lois giving birth to their son, Jon.
This led to a SUPERMAN: LOIS & CLARK miniseries, where Superman, Lois and Jon found their way to New 52’s Earth, but about 10 years before then then-present of DC’s book. (In other words, by the time they caught up to the present day, Jon was 10.) Our Superman continues operating in secret during that time.
At the same time, the New 52 Superman books ran a storyline that built to the death of New 52 Superman. REBIRTH kicks off with a story about how Post-Crisis Superman becomes the public Superman again, replacing his New 52 counterpart.
REBIRTH ran for about two years, from 2016 to 2018, ending with ACTION COMICS #1000. During that time, ACTION and SUPERMAN were published twice-monthly, so we got about four years of stories from the creative teams in that time. Jurgens wrote ACTION, with a rotating group of artists that included Patch Zircher, Tyler Kirkham. SUPERMAN was written by Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason, with art by Gleason, Doug Mahnke
The easiest way to get these runs is in Omnibus form. The first Dan Jurgens Omnibus also contains the SUPERMAN: CONVERGENCE issues and SUPERMAN: LOIS & CLARK, so it’s the best one to start with.
Superman: Action Comics by Dan Jurgens Omnibus Volume 1
Superman: Action Comics by Dan Jurgens Omnibus Volume 2
Superman by Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason Omnibus
These runs are also available in Deluxe Hardcover editions that are out of print, but can be purchased as Kindle Editions. (The Omnibuses are not available on Kindle, however.)
Superman: Action Comics: Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 1
Superman: Action Comics: Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 2
Superman: Action Comics: Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 3
Superman: Reborn
Superman Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 1
Superman Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 2
Superman Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 3
Superman Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 4
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