What is your favorite period of Superman comics?

[Kal's Pal]

The Weisinger era. My favourite era for Superman, with it's inventive science fiction and fairytale elements. I also love the whole family dynamic with Superman, his kid 'sister', his dog, his girlfriend, his friends, even his allies (Batman and Robin). And yet, it is his remembering of his lost home-world, a world of considerable technological achievement and beauty, that adds a tragic element to the mythos.   The whole Superboy thing is great as well, which I still think could well work in today's comics. Superboy is like for me the saga of a small-town superhero taking his first steps into becoming the most renowned superhero in any universe, (in Crisis, even Kal-L of Earth-2 refers to Kal-El as the greatest hero of any of the heroes present).

[Johnny Nevada]

Making my first post to this website, though I've been lurking here for a long while now...

My vote is for the Bronze Age Superman; the Bronze Age for myself strikes me as the halfway point between some of the really goofy (though still fun) bits of the Weisinger-era stories and Byrne's, well, Byrne-ness (Supes sent to Earth as a fetus? Clark a top jock in high school?! Yeah, *sure* he was...). Swan, Maggin, Bates, Schaffenberger (on "New Adventures of Superboy"), all fun.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Bronze Age forever!

Actually, I especially liked the early Bronze Age -- circa 1970-1977. This was the heyday of Maggin and Bates, with an occasional Len Wein story (okay, okay, I even liked some of Denny O'Neil's stuff). These guys could always come up with an interesting problem for Superman to solve. And Julie and Nelson made sure they kept the continuity of the Silver Age without the silliness.

My second favorite era was the Silver Age, just because it was silly at times. My exposure was limited to reprints (in 100-pagers, Limited Collector's Editions, etc.), but they were great fun! Who can forget Zigi and Zagi? Or Superman in the Space Olympics?

Then there's the Golden Age! The early stories and art were pretty crude, but between 1942 and 1948 Superman was really cool.

[nightwing]

Welcome to the boards, Johnny Nevada!

Given recent headlines, I was afraid you were no longer with us.  :wink:

[Johnny Nevada]

Welcome to the boards, Johnny Nevada!

Given recent headlines, I was afraid you were no longer with us.  :wink:

Thanks, Nightwing. I'm sure Johnny Carson's Earth-One analogue is still doing just fine :-)

To be honest, was half-inclined to pick "Nightwing" as a screen name (since I use it on another web forum), but wound up realizing I needed something that someone probably hasn't chosen... the alternatives were: something to do with "Pinky and the Brain" (an episode called "Two Mice and A Baby" has the rodents reaching baby Kal-El's rocket first---and the opening sequence on Krypton/the episode itself makes it crystal-clear it's the Earth-One version the mice discovered), Bash Bashford, or Ducky Ginsberg (Clark Kent's college roommate, in the "New Adventures of Superboy" stories and "Superman: the Secret Years" stories I've been reading).

There isn't an actual "formally introduce yourself" post/forum somewhere, is there?

[Genis Vell]

I love the post-Crisis tales by John Byrne. When i was a kid I didn't like Superman. Then, when i was 16, i bought an anthology containing a lot of pre and post-Crisis tales and I read MAN OF STEEL 1... I loved it. Byrne is my favourite artist/writer, and I really like his run on the Super titles.
During the last 2 years I have found a lot of Bronze Age issues in the Italian edition (from the late '70s). "Byrne Age"  is still my favourite period, but the Bronze Age Superman is very, very interesting, too... I like the stories by Maggin and Bates, they were really good writers. I'd like read new stories from them!
Sadly, in Italy their long run wasn't published very well: some issue was never published, and that period is not well known. For example, Editrice Cenisio (Superman's Italian publisher during the '70s and 'early '80s) didn't published the issues with the end of the Superman/Lois relationship, so the readers didn't know because Clark and Lana were engaged!
Now I'm buiying via Internet a lot of Bronze Age issues because I want have a complete collection of that great period.

[Genis Vell]

Can I add a thing?
I think that Byrne could do a great work even with the original characters. Do you agree with me?

[Gary]

In my opinion, Byrne was (and still is, as far as I know) a good artist, but a mediocre writer. I liked the post-crisis Superman much more after other people took over for him.