Issue Description

Cover by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano."Father Nature's Folly!" written by Cary Bates, penciled by Curt Swan, inked by Frank Chiaramonte, colored by Adrienne Roy and lettered by Ben Oda."A Day in the Life of Bruce (Superman) Wayne" A "Bruce (Superman) Wayne" story written by Bob Rozakis, penciled by Deny Cowans, inked by Dick Giordano, colored by Anthony Tollin and lettered by Shelly Leferman.

Note: This issue contains the Hostess Superhero Ad, Wonder Woman in "Old Gold".

Story:

Clark is about to pay a visit to a class, and give a lecture on journalism. The students are anxious to see Superman. Clark asks the teacher, his friend Margaret about the matter. Margaret replies that Superman had paid the class an unexpected visit a few months ago. Anyway, Kent is about to start an audio-visual presentation when there is a blackout due to a thunderstorm. The students start getting bored, when Clark tells them that being a close friend of Superman, he could narrate one of his latest adventures. The students are excited by the proposal.

Clark narrates that Superman was flying over Colorado’s Rocky Mountains during a thunderstorm. Suddenly he had spotted a most startling event. A lightning spark had transformed a cluster of pine trees into a forest of unearthly growths, right before his eyes. Superman came down to investigate, finding unknown chemical compounds, when suddenly he was greeted by an alien warrior. Introducing himself as Cron and having the ability to read Superman’s mind, he told Superman that he had come to reshape the planet in his own way. Superman became impatient and was about to attack Cron, when suddenly he found that the ambient atmospheric conditions around him had changed to potentially lethal conditions. He disposed of it in space, but coming back, he failed to locate Cron.

The next day, Superman was working in his office as Clark, when he made a sketch of a strange object, but did not remember ever seeing it before. He sped to his Fortress of Solitude, and programmed his dreams into the Supercomputer. The results showed that the object was a power source of unknown origin. Superman scourged the Earth’s surface in search of it and found it camouflaged as a tree. It was a massive 50 feet tall “power prong”. Superman was about to destroy it but his attacks were in vain.

He was suddenly targeted by a “Trosm Ray”, and fed the knowledge of the history of the origin of life on Earth. Superman somehow felt that the knowledge was given to him by “Mother Nature”. But suddenly Cron reappeared with his own Power Prong. He told Superman that “Mother Nature” was in reality known as “Nutra”, and was Cron’s ethereal mate. He shifted into his true shape and started burning down Nutra’s prong. Superman, fearing for Earth’s future sped away. When he was back, he had a Rigellian Plasmo-bomb in his hand, and threatened to detonate it, saying that was the only way he could ensure a swift and merciful death to his fellow Terrans. Cron realized that Superman was telling the truth and gave up.

Clark is just about to finish when a student interrupts, saying that Superman couldn’t possibly kill all human beings. Clark told her that Superman had taken the caution to remove a crucial filament from the bomb, before he had brought it to Cron.

Bonus Story:

This features Bruce Wayne as Superman !!

Bruce Wayne works in a library with Barbara Gordon, simultaneously leading his other life as Superman. One day he receives a message that terrorists have planted a bomb on an aircraft and are threatening to blow it up. Superman gets into the plane, renders the bomb harmless and sits until the time comes for the terrorists to go through with their plan. Superman tells the pilot to dive at 2000 feet and follows the detonation signal back to its source. He finds the terrorists in a hangar and turns them over to the cops after a brief fight.

Superman (1939)

Publisher

DC Comics

Volume Description

Superman launched May 18, 1939 with its first issue (that doesn't actually have a #1 on the cover) and although it was a seasonal book for its first five issues, with its sixth it began a bimonthly publishing rate and kept up with said rate until its eighty-fifth. With its eighty-sixth issue Superman began it's mostly consistent monthly publishing rate which it continued using up until 1986 when the series ended at 423 issues, the last issue featuring Alan Moore's acclaimed story "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" After that, the title's numbering was continued through Adventures of Superman which lasted for several decades. It was in 2006 with #650 that the title returned to its original name, kicking off it's new era with the One Year Later storyline co-written by Geoff Johns and Kurt Busiek. After the arc, the series was written by Busiek from 654-675, with James Robinson taking the reigns in 677 and holding them tight until the milestone 700th issue where JMS took over with an arc entitled "Grounded" that would feature Superman walking across America. However, JMS left the book earlier then planned and new writer Chris Roberson worked off of JMS' original notes and plotline. Unfortunately, Roberson never got to prove himself with his own story on the book as with the launch of The New 52 in September 2011, after 72 years and 714 issues (including Adventures of Superman) Superman Vol. 1 came to an end with the final chapter of the Grounded story arc serving as the final issue of the series. Superman will survive as an ongoing series at DC, with the month following the release of Superman #714 serving as the launching point of the third ongoing Superman series in DC history with #1.

For Post Flashpoint volume 3, refer to Superman.

General Notes

Superman #424-649 do not exist, however, the issues that took those numbers can be found on the Adventures of Superman page.

Another ongoing title from DC entitled Superman does exist and was published with its own numbering while Adventures of Superman was in print, thus even though this title began publication in the 30's and lasted until 2011, no two Superman titles were hitting shelves at the same time. The other Superman volume can be found here.

The main star of the series has of course been Superman but from #686-697 Mon-El was the star as Superman was away from Earth and the covers bore the banners "World Without Superman" for the first five and "World Against Superman" for the last six issues of this absence.

Collected EditionsSuperman Chronicles (Collects the earliest issues)Superman: The Golden Age Omnibus vol. 1 (#1-31)Showcase presents: Superman (late 50`s, early 60`s stories)Adventures of Superman: Gil Kane vol. 1 (#367, 372 & 375)Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (#423, Action Comics #583)Up, Up and Away! (#650-653, Action Comics #837-840 )Camelot Falls Vol. 1 (#654-658)Camelot Falls Vol. 2 (#662-664 & 667, Superman Annual #13)Redemption (#659 & 666, Action Comics #848-849)3-2-1 Action (#665, Action Comics #852-854, Legends of the DC Universe #14)The Third Kryptonian (#668-670, Action Comics #847, Superman Annual #13)Shadows Linger (#671-675)The Coming of Atlas (#677-680)New Krypton Vol. 1 (#681, Action Comics #871, Adventure Comics Special Featuring The Guardian #1, Superman New Krypton Special #1, Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen Special #1)New Krypton Vol. 2 (#682-683, Action Comics #872-873; Supergirl #35-36)Mon-El Vol. 1 (#684-690, Action Comics #874, Action Comics Annual #10)Codename Patriot (#691, Action Comics #880, Supergirl #44, Superman: World of New Krypto #6, Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen Special #2)Mon-El Vol. 2 (#692-697, Adventure Comics #11, Superman Annual #14, Superman: Secret Files 2009 #1)Nightwing and Flamebird Vol. 2 (#696, Action Comics #883-889, Adventure Comics #8-10)Last Stand of New Krypton Vol. 1 (#698, Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton #1-2, Adventure Comics #8-9, Supergirl #51)Last Stand of New Krypton Vol. 2 (#699, Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton #3, Adventure Comics #10-11, Supergirl #52)Superman: War of The Supermen (#700)Grounded Vol. 1 (#700-706)Grounded Vol. 2 (#707-711 & #713-714)

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