Superman, the Complete History: The Life and Times of the Man of Steel

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Summary: Superman: The Complete History
Review: Superman:The Complete History is most recent history book of Supes,so it covers many more events in the man of steel's history than ever before,but it does not have in-depth coverage of the events in Superman's history.The book has 5 chapters,each consisting of many Superman events, which is a mistake.Each chapter should feature a detailed commentary of an event in Superman's life,rather than each chapter being many brief flurries of comments on multiple subjects.I don't think Daniels should express his opinion so strongly on some things, but he is a superb writer who is obviously a giant Superman fan,and anybody who likes Superman is a friend of mine.

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Summary: Superman Turns Sixty: A Detailed History of the Man of Steel
Review: The first edition to effectively catalogue the Man of Steel's ascension from the imaginations of two youngsters to a national icon, "Superman, the Complete History: The Life and Times of the Man of Steel" by Les Daniels is an excellent account of Superman's appearances in comic books, toys, serials, film, animated cartoons, and books. Also included are references to other characters such as Supergirl and Superboy (with their appearances in comics, film, and television as well), allowing the reader an excellent survey filled with full-color photographs and informative commentary. Not quite as detailed as one might like (this edition sports under 200 pages), but still the standard by which future books of this type will be measured.

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Summary: Superman Turns Sixty: A Detailed History of the Man of Steel
Review: The first edition to effectively catalogue the Man of Steel's ascension from the imaginations of two youngsters to a national icon, "Superman, the Complete History: The Life and Times of the Man of Steel" by Les Daniels is an excellent account of Superman's appearances in comic books, toys, serials, film, animated cartoons, and books. Also included are references to other characters such as Supergirl and Superboy (with their appearances in comics, film, and television as well), allowing the reader an excellent survey filled with full-color photographs and informative commentary. Not quite as detailed as one might like (this edition sports under 200 pages), but still the standard by which future books of this type will be measured.

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Summary: Hardly the True Story of Superman
Review: There is no doubt the comic book industry owes a great debt to Superman, or rather, to Siegel and Shuster who created him, but in his book, Les Daniels frequently looks for ways to minimize, rather than credit, their contribution. DC Comics made millions of dollars on the movies, TV Shows, cartoons, and other merchanising over the decades, while Siegel and Shuster shared in hardly any of it. The most shocking thing now is, this book, written with the cooperation of DC - rather than apologize to the two men, or even express any kind of gratitude, it actually takes stabs at Sigel and Shuster. Rather than simply state the facts regarding to Superman's history, Daniels frequently assails the characters of the two men, claims they took most of their ideas from other places, assigns poor motives to both men, even mentions extra-marital affairs they may or may not have had. The book is supposed to be about Superman, who cares about any of that? Of course Daniels would never turn a critical eye towards DC, who seem to have hired him, it's surprising they still seem to be bitter about two men that made them so much money for the last sixty years. There is no doubt, DC has been the best comic book company when it comes to promoting their characters, but they have also been very lucky in the courts. Not only did they force Superman's creators to relinquish all rights to the character, their lawsuits also managed to force Captain Marvel, a character more popular than Superman at the time, out of business. They claimed they were too much alike, but anyone who knows comics could see their differences. Later, DC took over Captain Marvel and actually began publishing him themselves (!). This story is only touched on briefly here. I give the book two stars because the illustrations are good, but the text deserves one, if even that. Everyone is entitled their opinion, but, in a book like this, people don't want to hear about it, they expect a decent read about the character of Superman. The true history of Superman is really not told here, it actually involves greedy businessmen sitting back and counting their money, while the creators that were the ones to make these characters, end up dying peniless.

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Summary: The best available
Review: This book covers all aspects of Superman's "life" and at 200 coffee-table sized pages, is about all I have time for Still it is a part of my permanent collection and I would love to have it autographed, should he ever be in Florida! (The author, not Superman)--Terry Miller

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Summary: A Must Have for Superman Fans!!
Review: This book has everything you would ever need or want on the life and creation of the Man of Steel. It covers not only his start in the comics but also his radio days and television shows, not to mention movies. It's a very interesting read just to see how he has changed over the years.

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Summary: Excellent book - a bit too much focus on collectibles
Review: This book is excellent for the Superman afficianado; lots of great stories and interesting historical facts. If you'd like to pass the legacy of Superman down to your kids, this is the book to read with them. My only complaint is that a bit too much time was taken with the collectible stuff. It's neat to see that stuff, but an entire chapter could've been better spent on the "Top Five Superman Stories", or something equally as interesting. All in all, however, the book is great- I got it for a birthday present and would not trade if for anything.

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Summary: A little too short
Review: This book is great and it has a lot of info on the Man of Steel but it is just too short. It is worth buying if you love Superman though.

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Summary: Good overview of Superman's history
Review: This is a great book for anyone who is interested in reading about the history of The Man Of Steel in all of his media incarnations (it's a few years old, so misses out on any info on the tv series Smallville). Well written and illustrated, it's a must-have for any fan of Superman.