10 Best DC Comics #1 Of The Modern Age

"Hit and miss" sums up DC's All-Star line of books. The miss is the commercially and critically derided Batman and Robin by Frank Miller and Jim Lee. Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly was as lauded as the other was criticised. The idea behind the line was to tell stories featuring DC's most notable characters without the burden of continuity. In theory, anyone could pick up an issue, and it would be as if it was there first.

Morrison and Quietly managed to dilute everything a reader needed to know about Superman's origin in a single page. Four panels that read "Doomed Planet, Desperate Scientist, Last Hope, Kindly Couple" was all the backstory readers needed before the book charged off into Superman’s first adventure. Every page drips with Morrison’s love for the mad science and psychological underpinnings of the Mort Weisinger Silver age comics.

While Morrison has gotten much of the praise over the years, an equal amount must go to Jamie Grant and Frank Quietly; the book looks every bit as wonderful as it reads. The two managed to keep pace with all the writer’s mad ideas while making readers believe that a man could fly.

All of this before we get to Lex Luthor and his evil scheme to finally rid the world of the man of steel.