Home > Comics > Superman Family of Comics > Modern Age Superman Comics: 1986 & Beyond

This is a selection of Superman Comics from the Modern Age (with GEMs highlighted).  The list includes links for the following: (a) Wiki page (from the Grand Comics Database, or GCD), (b) e-book (available upon request), and (c) More info on each comic (via optional posts by various contributors).

Please note that the list is sortable by each column. (Multiple levels of sorting are possible by sorting more than one column in succession, from lowest to highest.)  You can also do an instant filtering of the table by entering a character string in the ‘Search’ field.

The Bronze Age came to a close in 1986 with the retirement of Julius Schwartz as well as the revamp of the entire universe of DC Comics superheroes with the 1985-1986 crossover series Crisis on Infinite Earths.  By late 1986, Superman was ready for another reboot.  This time, it happened with the 6-issue comic series The Man of Steel by the acclaimed comic-book writer and artist John Byrne, which represented the start of Superman’s Modern Age.  This reboot was a lot better than the abortive one in 1971, and this time it would stick for a much longer time than the previous reboot.  However, this new version of Superman also gave way eventually to many other reboots over the years, so that it is now hard to figure out which Superman incarnation is being portrayed in the comics.

During the Modern Age, DC’s super-heroes including Superman became darker and more psychologically complex.  Comic-book creators became better-known and more influential in the industry, and independent comics flourished and became the primary mode of distribution for comic books.  The Superman comics of this era began to do away with many of the campy elements of the Superman mythos and reinvented his story in many ways.  This reinvention went through many gyrations and was not always consistent.  So DC did another reboot in a 2011 with the Flashpoint crossover series and relaunched all of its super-hero characters in the ‘New 52‘ comic books.  Since then, there have been even more reboots of the DC universe, but I have lost interest in following these and stopped keeping track.

Some notable Superman storylines which took place during the Modern Age were The Death of Superman, one of the best-selling comic stories of all time (followed by World without a Superman and The Return of Superman), Superman for All Seasons, Superman: Secret Origin, and Superman: Earth One.  For more details on the Modern Age of Superman Comics, please see this link.

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