 1986-1988 |
 1989-1990 |
 1991-1992 |
 1993-1994 |
 1995-1996 |
 1997-1998 |
 1999-2000 |
 2001-2002 |
 2003-2004 |
 2005-2006 |
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At last it's finished! My listing of my post-Crisis Superman comics is now available for your enjoyment. If you have a question about a certain issue, or character, or even writer, penciller, or inker, now that information is at your fingertips. All you need do is scroll down, or use your browser's search function, until you find what you are looking for! Say goodbye to those days of wondering "Now what issue was that guy with the thing that did the stuff in?" No more tearing your hair out trying to remember how many issues a certain writer worked on, or what part of which storyline was drawn by that guy you like. And it's all free, isn't that a hoot?
In 1986 DC Comics set about a little house-cleaning adventure called the CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. The storyline invovled a malevolent force from the Antimatter universe that had set itself to the complete and total destruction of all the multiple universes which comprised the DCU. The practical reason for this was because, over the years since Superman's first appearance in 1938, DC had created multiple universes with multiple versions of most of its characters, and felt that things were getting too confusing. The Flash of Earth-1 was named Barry Allen, the Flash of Earth-2 was named Jay Garrick. The Superman of Earth-2 was married to Lois Lane, while the Superman of Earth-1 was still protecting his secret identity from that universe's plucky girl reporter. Batman was dead in Earth-2, alive and kicking in Earth-1. And so on. The point of CRISIS was to take all the multiple universes and distill them down into just one.
My comic collection, listed below, began in 1986, the year the CRISIS was published. The Man of Steel miniseries (MOS stands for Man Of Steel, get it?) was DC's chance to "reboot" their flagship character, Superman, for a new generation with a new writer and a new series. After the MOS mini, the new ("second") Superman series started with #1. Action Comics, which had been published continuously since 1938, kept its original numbering sequence, which is why the first listing for Action is #584. The original Superman series, which had begun its run in 1939, was rechristened The Adventures of Superman (AOS); like Action, AOS kept its original numbering sequence and starts here with #424. In 1991 DC began a fourth Superman title, taking its name from the miniseries that started it all: Superman: the Man of Steel. In 1994, they launched a fifth Superman title, which came out four times a year, called Superman: The Man of Tomorrow (MOT). MOT stopped publication in 1999, and MOS stopped publication in 2003.
In 2006, after 226 issues, the second Superman series ended, and The Adventures of Superman reverted back to its original title.
My collection is arranged in chronological story order, rather than publishing order. When the "new" Superman started, the magazines were published in consecutive weeks in the order Superman, AOS, Action, and generally speaking the stories progressed in that order: a story in Superman took place before the story in AOS which was published a week later, and so on. That wasn't always the case: sometimes a story would take place over more than one issue of a certain title, and in those cases the consecutive titles are listed together.
After Action Comics reached its landmark 600th issue, DC changed the format. For the next forty-two issues, Action was published as a weekly anthology magazine, serializing the adventures of some of DC's popular characters. Action Comics 601-642 featured stories about Green Lantern, Black Canary, Wild Dog, the Phantom Stranger, Blackhawk, Catwoman, and of course, Superman. The listings below only focus on the Superman stories, which were designed like the old Sunday comic strips of the 1940s. Superman returned to full-time status in Action with #643.
Starting with Superman #51 in 1991, DC began tracking the order of the Supertitles by instituting what soon became known as the "triangle number system." The covers of the respective Supertitles all had little triangles on them with a year and a number (Superman #51, being the first, was labeled "1991/1"). The triangles were supposed to help readers keep track of what order to read the stories in, and helped the Supertitles flow into each other, creating a sort of serialization of the Supertitles. However, it wasn't monitored as closely as it should have been, and by the late 1990s it was getting out of control. By that time the triangles were less about story order and more about publication order. You'll notice if you pay close attention that I have several issues, particularly from 2000 and 2001, that are not listed in consecutive triangle numbers; this is because my collection is organized and listed chronologically, and DC slipped up with the labelling. The last "triangle title" was Action Comics #785 (2002/4).
To return to the collection, click here.