Nine hundred issues ago, the world was introduced to the superhero known as "Superman" with a now-iconic cover of him raising up a car.  Decades later, DC celebrates a huge milestone with this 96 page tribute to the Man of Steel. But, here is the question: is it worth buying?  Read on to find out.

Let me start off by saying that I'm not a big Superman fan.  I read the "World of New Krypton" and "War of the Supermen" storylines last year and wasn't that impressed by them.  Whenever I see a good Superman title (for ex. Superman: Earth One), I'll pick it up, but I'm not a regular subscriber to any of his titles.  However, this is a special issue, so I knew that I would be picking it up, if nothing else but for the historical value (to myself, not as a collector thinking it'll be worth something).  Unfortunately, right off the bat people who pick up this issue who don't know what's been going on with Superman will wonder if they wasted their $5.99.  The comic starts out by concluding the "Black Ring" storyline that's been going on in Action Comics with Lex Luthor; tying it in with the "Reign of Doomsday" storyline that has been going through some of the other Super-books.  Therefore, if you haven't read those books, you might be confused as too what in the world is going on.  While you may not quite understand everything that is going on, this is a pretty cool storyline.  It shows Superman and Lex Luthor at their best, each one bringing out in each other the qualities that people enjoy most about these two characters.

I won't give away the whole story, but the part that I enjoyed most about this storyline is that Lex and Superman end up showing each other how they are the opposite of what the other one thinks they are.  Superman may consider Lex to be simply a human, but Lex has acquired some tricks up his sleeve and shows Superman that he might be more powerful that he is.  On the other hand, Lex believes Superman to be an alien, unable to understand what its like to be a human, but ends up finding out that Superman may be more human than he is.  All in all the storyline is very cool, and Paul Cornell draws in even new readers to this compelling storyline.  Even the ending is one that you wont see coming until you turn to the last page, and its one that might have me picking up future issues of Superman/Action Comics as Superman comes face to face with a serious challenge.

Then of course, no anniversary issue would be complete without the remaining pages being devoted to smaller Superman stories written by various DC all stars such as Paul Dini, Geoff Johns and David S. Goyer to name a few.  Some are pretty good, some are just fine, but the one labeled "The Incident" is probably the second best story in this book behind the main story.  It attempts to connect Superman to some of the political events (riots/protesting) that have happened here in our world of the past few months, and does a good job illustrating how standing up for "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" might not be enough for someone of Superman's power and influence.

CONCLUSION:   Buy.  Unless you hate Superman, you're probably gonna want to pick this up and read it.  The price is a bit steep at $5.99, but there is more than enough here to justify that price.

Agree/Disagree?  Tell me in the comments below, or send them into ocdcast@gmail.com to hear it mentioned on the podcast!