Superman: The Unauthorized Biography

Glen Weldon, NPR's Comics Critic, has given us a great cultural history of Superman – from his prototypes and then genesis in the early work of Shuster and Siegel up to The New 52 and looking forward to the release of Snyder's Man of Steel – and all points between. At once entertaining and pedantic, Weldon examines The Last Son of Krypton, the state of comics as a medium, and what both say about American culture through the decades.

He begins, as he ought, with Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster growing up, reading and (even as kids) writing comics, their struggles along the path to publication and eventual establishment in the field. Shortly after this, they came up with their most famous creation, which was essentially the inception of the dominant genre in comics. Weldon focuses on this period in painstaking detail – giving detailed descriptions of the early stories (panel by panel sometimes), their reception and sales.

Following this, he moves into decade by decade summaries – in these chapters Weldon looks at the predominant themes in the stories, power changes and development, new characters, and so on. Special attention is given to Lois Lane (both as an individual and in her relationship(s) to Clark/Superman), tweaks to his origin, and depiction of Krypton. I thought there were too many reboots, resets, etc. today – glad to see it's not a novel development. Superman's appearance in other media is also discussed – comic strips, radio, television, cartoons, movies, and even merchandising – how that affects Superman, Clark and the rest. As interesting as that was, I was most interested in seeing how cultural movements, politics and wars impacted the character.

Weldon spends a lot of time discussing Superman: The Movie, the ups and downs along the path to its production. I laughed out loud at the lengthy list of actors considered for the role – so, so few of them should've been in the running. The list for Lois was shorter, but no less interesting. In light of how far-reaching movie cross-promotion goes today, it's amazing to see how little DC Comics did to capitalize on this movie (or the sequels).

I think he went lighter on Superman in the comics from this point on, focusing on the Reeve films, the Superboy TV series, Lois & Clark, Smallville, and Singer's movie. Well, except a really good and thorough look at The Death of Superman saga from the 90's. Still, fascinating on the whole – sometimes the level of detail can get overwhelming and hard to wade through, but it was worth it. It's not encyclopedic – however close it feels – there were stories and creators that I thought got short shrift from the last couple of decades. For example, I was disappointed in the lack of any discussion of It's Superman by Tom De Haven – 2005's best depiction of the character, although as it wasn't sanctioned by DC, I understand it.

I would've liked to see a more consistent tone – he never steps over the line in to fanboy territory, but generally he's positive about the characters and universe – but from time to time, he seems snide and like he's looking down on the franchise and its fans. That said, his take on the character as a whole, and why he's still a force in popular culture today expressed in the Introduction was great – almost perfect. My major complaint was the utter lack of any images whatsoever – as thorough as some of his descriptions of the art may be, it's no replacement for the Real (reprinted) McCoy. Licensing those images would be a nightmare (and likely an expensive one), so again, I understand it – I just would've liked to see it.

For fans, for those who like the character but wouldn't go so far as to call themselves that, those interested in the medium – this is a recommended read on this slice of American history.

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A lengthier (and more self-indulgent) version of this is available at: http://wp.me/p3z9AH-1gM.

A good book.

I grew up on the early 1960's (Silver Age) Superman comic books, left after most of the John Byrne reboot had been discarded and returned briefly for the Death of Superman and a few years following that storyline. I watched Smallville and went to each of the movies because, it was after all, Superman, but could never bring myself to continue spending so much money on the comics when I didn't care for the storylines or the characters.

Thus, most of the history, up until the late 90's when I stopped keeping up with the comic book versions because of too many updates to the origin and changes in character, was already very familiar to me. So I found particular enjoyment and interest in the portions that covered that period to present-day.

Weldon is obviously familiar with the character and has done an excellent job of bringing not only the history but the essence of Superman to his work. The only caveat I would offer is his tendency to use a $10 word when a $5 one would suffice. But this is to be expected when your background is NPR and I always appreciate the opportunity to expand my vocabulary.

If you have any love for the character or interest in his history, this book should be on your shelf.