Superman Is Returning to His Golden Age Roots With New Miniseries

The past year has changed Superman’s cultural footprint in some monumental ways, with David Corenswet’s portrayal in the DC Universe becoming beloved by many. Fans are viewing everything from his most modern comics to his original debut in the Golden Age in a new lens… and now, those two touchstones are about to coalesce in a major way.

On Wednesday, the publisher officially announced Superman: The Stranger, a new six-issue miniseries that will be launching in September of this year. The title is written and illustrated by Wes Craig, whose work includes books like Deadly Class, KAYA, and The Flash. Set in an “Art Deco-inspired version of 1938 Metropolis”, the book will follow Superman in the earliest days of his career.

Despite drawing inspiration from family-friendly touchstones like the original Action Comics stories and Fleischer Studios animated shorts, Superman: The Stranger is the latest addition to DC’s Black Label imprint, which means that it is aimed at readers ages 17 and older. The book will have colors by Jason Wordie and lettering by Tom Napolitano, and the first issue will feature variant covers by Dave Johnson, Goran Parlov, and Ethan Young.

“Superman is my favorite hero. Always has been,” Craig said in a statement (via AIPT). “I grew up on Christopher Reeve and John Byrne’s interpretation, then his animated adventures and All-Star Superman as I grew older. His mythology always changing with the times. But the version I love the most and the one that I think, strangely, reflects our modern world best, is the ORIGINAL. You strip away the extra powers, you strip away Ma and Pa Kent, and Smallville and Krypton, you boil it down to that explosive first issue of Action Comics, and you have this vital, powerful myth of a brash young man with incredible powers fighting against a corrupt city. That’s the story I want to tell.”

What Is Superman: The Stranger About?

Superman: The Stranger follows Clark Kent at the start of his superhero career. By day, he’s struggling to get by in the growing city of Metropolis. By night, he becomes Superman, patrolling the streets and confronting the corruption, inequality, and suffering that plague the city.

As Clark works to improve the lives of those around him, he begins to question whether his efforts are making a meaningful difference. While he can stop criminals and save lives, larger systemic problems continue to persist, creating challenges that even Superman may not be able to punch his way through. The project promises to present “a fresh interpretation of Superman’s beginnings through a modern lens while embracing the character’s earliest foundations.”

This is just the latest Superman-centric miniseries that DC has unveiled in recent months. Following last year’s “Summer of Superman” publishing initiative — and in anticipation of this summer’s Supergirl movie — the publisher just recently released Supergirl: Survive, an out-of-continuity Elseworlds title exploring a world where both Kara and Clark had to leave Krypton together. There’s also Superman: Father of Tomorrow, another Elseworlds miniseries diving into what would have happened if Superman’s father, Jor-El, was Krypton’s sole survivor and landed on Earth instead of him.

As mentioned above, Superman: The Stranger #1 is set to be released wherever comics are sold on Wednesday, September 2nd.

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