Superman: The Complete History

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Summary: Perfect Superman 60th Anniversary collectable! A must have!
Review: Delicious book, featuring all incarnations of Superman, inside comics and outside comics. If you already had read Les Daniels DC COMICS book, you will love this.

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Summary: ALMOST the complete history
Review: Faiz Rehman ([e-mail]) from Wales welcome look at the history of the man of steel Heavy on the pictures, this book is an excellent look at 60 years of Superman. Don't miss the covers - the dust jacket has original art work from the past, while the cover of the book proper has modern versions of the same art by the one and only Alex Ross. It overs the origins, the merchandise, and the adaptations. Although not as detailed as you may hope for, there are still plenty of facts to discover. The book does not gush over all aspects of the legend - it is critical of some aspects of, for example, the Dean Cain series. The books is not complete - for example, it does not mention the excellent radio series produce by Dirk Maggs in the BBC which is probably the closest adaptation of the comics stories. It does look gorgeous, though, and is much better than the majority of books of this type.

Rating:
Summary: ALMOST the complete history
Review: Faiz Rehman ([e-mail]) from Wales welcome look at the history of the man of steel Heavy on the pictures, this book is an excellent look at 60 years of Superman. Don't miss the covers - the dust jacket has original art work from the past, while the cover of the book proper has modern versions of the same art by the one and only Alex Ross. It overs the origins, the merchandise, and the adaptations. Although not as detailed as you may hope for, there are still plenty of facts to discover. The book does not gush over all aspects of the legend - it is critical of some aspects of, for example, the Dean Cain series. The books is not complete - for example, it does not mention the excellent radio series produce by Dirk Maggs in the BBC which is probably the closest adaptation of the comics stories. It does look gorgeous, though, and is much better than the majority of books of this type.

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Summary: The Man of Steel!
Review: I own everything on SUPERMAN!

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Summary: Les Daniels knows his Superman Stuff!
Review: Les Daniels did a wonderful job compiling photos and information concerning the Man of Steel. I have been a big Superman collector for 20 years and know a great deal about Superman's history. Daniels told Superman's history in an easy to understand way, with a thorough look into Superman's changes from 1938 to the present day. The only thing that I was disappointed in was that it was somewhat skimpy on information, especially concerning the character outside of the comics. I would like to have seen more details than was written. But overall, it is an excellent read, especially for anyone who really knows little about the history of America's greatest fictional Super hero!

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Summary: A great history of the greatest superhero.
Review: Superman is, without a doubt, one of the most recognizable characters in the world. But how did he reach that point? Les Daniels excellent history of Superman tells that story, and is packed with great pictures and photos as well. A perfect book for comic or pop culture fans. Highly Recommended.

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Summary: Entertaining history of the rise of the Man of Steel
Review: Superman:The Complete History is most recent history book of Supes,so it covers many more events in the man of steel's history than ever before,but it does not have in-depth coverage of the events in Superman's history.The book has 5 chapters,each consisting of many Superman events, which is a mistake.Each chapter should feature a detailed commentary of an event in Superman's life,rather than each chapter being many brief flurries of comments on multiple subjects.I don't think Daniels should express his opinion so strongly on some things, but he is a superb writer who is obviously a giant Superman fan,and anybody who likes Superman is a friend of mine.

Rating:
Summary: Superman: The Complete History
Review: Superman:The Complete History is most recent history book of Supes,so it covers many more events in the man of steel's history than ever before,but it does not have in-depth coverage of the events in Superman's history.The book has 5 chapters,each consisting of many Superman events, which is a mistake.Each chapter should feature a detailed commentary of an event in Superman's life,rather than each chapter being many brief flurries of comments on multiple subjects.I don't think Daniels should express his opinion so strongly on some things, but he is a superb writer who is obviously a giant Superman fan,and anybody who likes Superman is a friend of mine.

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Summary: Superman Turns Sixty: A Detailed History of the Man of Steel
Review: The first edition to effectively catalogue the Man of Steel's ascension from the imaginations of two youngsters to a national icon, "Superman, the Complete History: The Life and Times of the Man of Steel" by Les Daniels is an excellent account of Superman's appearances in comic books, toys, serials, film, animated cartoons, and books. Also included are references to other characters such as Supergirl and Superboy (with their appearances in comics, film, and television as well), allowing the reader an excellent survey filled with full-color photographs and informative commentary. Not quite as detailed as one might like (this edition sports under 200 pages), but still the standard by which future books of this type will be measured.

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Summary: Hardly the True Story of Superman
Review: There is no doubt the comic book industry owes a great debt to Superman, or rather, to Siegel and Shuster who created him, but in his book, Les Daniels frequently looks for ways to minimize, rather than credit, their contribution. DC Comics made millions of dollars on the movies, TV Shows, cartoons, and other merchanising over the decades, while Siegel and Shuster shared in hardly any of it. The most shocking thing now is, this book, written with the cooperation of DC - rather than apologize to the two men, or even express any kind of gratitude, it actually takes stabs at Sigel and Shuster. Rather than simply state the facts regarding to Superman's history, Daniels frequently assails the characters of the two men, claims they took most of their ideas from other places, assigns poor motives to both men, even mentions extra-marital affairs they may or may not have had. The book is supposed to be about Superman, who cares about any of that? Of course Daniels would never turn a critical eye towards DC, who seem to have hired him, it's surprising they still seem to be bitter about two men that made them so much money for the last sixty years. There is no doubt, DC has been the best comic book company when it comes to promoting their characters, but they have also been very lucky in the courts. Not only did they force Superman's creators to relinquish all rights to the character, their lawsuits also managed to force Captain Marvel, a character more popular than Superman at the time, out of business. They claimed they were too much alike, but anyone who knows comics could see their differences. Later, DC took over Captain Marvel and actually began publishing him themselves (!). This story is only touched on briefly here. I give the book two stars because the illustrations are good, but the text deserves one, if even that. Everyone is entitled their opinion, but, in a book like this, people don't want to hear about it, they expect a decent read about the character of Superman. The true history of Superman is really not told here, it actually involves greedy businessmen sitting back and counting their money, while the creators that were the ones to make these characters, end up dying peniless.