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Summary: It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman: The Ultimate Guide
Review: If you want Superman, then you want "Superman: The Ultimate Guide"! It takes you into the world of Kal-El and his adventures as Superman, The Last Son of Krypton! This book unveils the secrets of his birth, his home, his enemies, his powers, and much, much more.This book told me things I never knew about Superman. It can for you too. I give it a five star rating!
Rating:
Summary: It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman: The Ultimate Guide
Review: If you want Superman, then you want "Superman: The Ultimate Guide"! It takes you into the world of Kal-El and his adventures as Superman, The Last Son of Krypton! This book unveils the secrets of his birth, his home, his enemies, his powers, and much, much more. This book told me things I never knew about Superman. It can for you too. I give it a five star rating!
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Summary: A basic introduction to Superman's comic book adventures
Review: Of course I read Superman comics on and off as a kid, watched the old television show and the Christopher Reeves movies, and occasionally caught a cartoon on television. However, I never consistently read the comics until DC decided to start over with the character and gave John Byrne free reign to retool the character. Consequently, I found Scott Beatty's "Superman: The Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel" very informative and a solid attempt to take 60 years of comic book adventures and turn it into a coherent whole. Reconciling everything that has happened to Superman in over a thousand comic books is a rather daunting task and the major complaint is that this DK publication tries to do it in only 128 pages. The volume is divided into five parts, all of which are illustrated with original art from the comics (although there is a decided preference for art from the Steel Age): (1) Birth of a Superman covers both Planet Krypton, the House of El, and Armageddon as well as the Kent and Smallville, along with Superman's superpowers and super-weaknesses; (2) City of Tomorrow is, of course, Metropolis, which means the Daily Planet, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, S.T.A.R. Labs, Supergirl, and other local superheroes. This is also the section that deals with the Sudden Death and the Return of Superman, along with the superheroes who tried to take his place, Superboy and Steel; (3) Secrets of the Man of Steel covers the Fortress of Solitude, Kandor, and the Eradicator: (4) Supervillany trots out the roster of villains from Lex Luthor and Bizarro to Doomsday and the assorted demons and aliens who have crossed Superman's path; (5) Superman's Career touches on his relationship with the JLA and Imaginary Stories that have come up over the years, but is mainly devoted to a Superman Timeline that looks at the several hundred highlights from a career spanning from "Action Comics" #1 in 1938 to the four Superman comics returning to the "alternate" Krypton to help Jor-El fight a civil war in September 2002. Ironically, the less you know about Superman, the more you will enjoy and benefit from this book. For younger readers who are not clear on where Brainiac came from or what exactly are the rules (so to speak) with Mr. Mxyzptlk, this book provides two pages of background information. I especially like the Superman Timeline, where you can learn when Kryptonite first appeared ("Superman" #61), that JFK once pretended to be Clark Kent ("Action Comics" #309), and that the Man of Steel once lost a fight to the heavyweight champion of the world ("Superman vs. Muhammad Ali"). My main complaint is that I would have liked to have seen more artwork from the Golden, Silver and Bronze Age comics, and that of course there should have been a two-page spread devoted to how Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman. Given that there are 60 years of comics to deal with I think the decision to ignore the television and film versions of Superman is regrettable but necessary since all things considered only the comic books are "true" Superman stories.
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Summary: Excellent overview of modern Superman comic history
Review: This book concentrates on the history of Superman since the character and his universe was revised around 1986. A series from DC called Crisis On Infinite Earths wiped out past continuity and allowed creators (most notably writer-artist John Byrne and fellow writer Marv Wolfman) to give the Man Of Steel a fresh start. It's a well written and illustrated book that allows new and old readers alike to make sense of Superman and his world. Space is allocated to explaining the backstories and abilities of all the major players in the DC Comics Superman mythos. A timeline of all major events in the entire history of Superman comics is included in the back of the book which is great for readers who have only been reading the comics in recent years. It is also an acknowledgement that Superman had a long and important history before the revamp in the 1980s. As a Superman fan for over 30 years, I can thoroughly recommend this informative and colourful book. At first glance it may appear to be little more than a picture book, but there's a lot of information contained between the covers. A must have for any Superman fan.
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Summary: Superman
Review: This book deals with the new Superman of post-1986, the hack reworking of the character by that hack John Byrne. I would have loved a complete guide to the man of steel. I don't like most of the art in this book, which has been done by someone lacking any real knowledge of anatomy (and who seems to love musclebound pinhead bodybuilders). But for all its faults (and the thinness of the book is another big one), for those of us who don't know a lot about the new Superman, it is informative. As with all DK books it is very heavy on illustration, short on text. I could have used a bit more detail.
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Summary: awsome book!
Review: This book tells you everything you will need to know about Superman. The pages are filled with color and tell you about all the heroes and villains! You should really consider buying this book if you are a Superman fan.
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Summary: The not so Ultimate Guide
Review: This is pretty much a commercial for the current "Dark Age". It focuses mostly on the weaker Superman as featured in the "Justice League" and other recent tales. It skips over much of the classic appearances of Superman over the years in favor of a more so-called "cutting edge" style mostly ignoring the best writers and artists such as Boring, Anderson and Swan. No coverage of classic portrayals such as the radio and movie serials, the live action TV shows and movies. A very sparse account. Since there will be a better version when the new film comes out there is really no reason to buy this. Wait for the new and better book to be published.
Rating:
Summary: The not so Ultimate Guide
Review: This is pretty much a commercial for the current "Dark Age". It focuses mostly on the weaker Superman as featured in the "Justice League" and other recent tales. It skips over much of the classic appearances of Superman over the years in favor of a more so-called "cutting edge" style mostly ignoring the best writers and artists such as Boring, Anderson and Swan. No coverage of classic portrayals such as the radio and movie serials, the live action TV shows and movies. A very sparse account. Since there will be a better version when the new film comes out there is really no reason to buy this. Wait for the new and better book to be published.
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Summary: The Scoop on Superman
Review: This is the best source of Superman information I've found.Learn things you've always wanted to know,like What's in the Fortress of Solitude.Detailed maps of Krypton,Smallville and Metropolis are very interesting.Maps and diagrams reveal all about the Man of Stael.Learn fascinating things about practically everyone and everything associated with Superman.I like this book because I found answers to every question I had about Superman and EVEN MORE info than that!If you're a Super-fan,this book is for you!
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Summary: Even fans of the Byrned Superman may find this offensive!
Review: When comic characters get "immortalized" in other media ocassionally a look that should best be forgotten gets frozen in time.Sadly, not since the atrocious Mego Catwoman Action Figure has such blatant disregard for a DC icon been fostered on the unsuspecting public. The publishers of this book are unaware that Eddie Berganza Superman's current comics editor has been publically apologizing for the horrendous Magna style art that has plagued the Superman Comics the last few years.It PLAGUES this book as well!
That so many of the illustrations don't even look like Superman is enough to not reccommend this book , but the author had to make it worse by showing his fan boy bias to Superman Lite.The Superman Characters one would expect to find in an "Ultimate Guide" are consigned to a "Superman Timeline" at the end of the book.The unimaginative rehashs of classic Superman concepts are presented here as if they were the "real deal". The Lois Lane entry on pages 36-37 is an abomination.The Liberated Lois insert on page 114 uses 1/8 the space to be truer to the character.
This book is recommended for ages 9-12.If you are that age, have never read ANY Superman stories published before Byrne's Man of Steel mini-series and are still reading and "enjoying" the neverending run on plotlines and cartoony artwork that continue to plague the commics mid 2002, this book is for you.ALL OTHERS BEWARE!
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