James Gunn’s Superman: The Comics Behind the Cape
Superman (2025) doesn’t just reboot the DC Universe — it reintroduces Superman to a world that desperately needs him. In James Gunn’s hands, he’s not a god among men or a brooding alien outcast. He’s something harder to write, and far more important: a decent man trying to do the right thing in an indecent world.
But this version of Clark Kent didn’t come out of nowhere.
Here are the comics that helped shape the tone, heart, and philosophy of the new DCU’s Man of Steel — and where to go next if you’re ready to follow him off the screen and onto the page.
🔹 All-Star Superman
By Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely
If Superman (2025) has a spiritual blueprint, it’s this. Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman is often considered the greatest Superman story of all time — and for good reason. It strips away cynicism and leans hard into myth. Clark is kind, brave, poetic. Even in the face of death, he doesn’t lash out — he uplifts.
This isn’t a story about punching. It’s about grace, and why being Superman isn’t about powers. It’s about who he chooses to be.
If you only read one book after the film, make it this one.
🔹 Superman: Birthright
By Mark Waid & Leinil Yu
A modern retelling of Superman’s origin, Birthright is the emotional compass of Clark Kent’s early years. It’s where his heart is shaped. Where his empathy — not just his strength — becomes his defining trait.
You’ll recognize the quiet tension between his alien heritage and his human upbringing. It’s a book about belonging, and about learning to stand for something even when the world tells you to stand down.
🔹 Action Comics (2011) #1–18
By Grant Morrison & Rags Morales
Superman in jeans. No fortress. No cape (at first). Just raw power and moral fury aimed at corrupt landlords and government secrets.
This New 52 arc strips Superman back to basics — a populist, street-level hero using his strength not for spectacle, but for justice. It’s messy, and it’s radical in the way Superman was always meant to be. You’ll see echoes of this attitude in the desert sequence of Superman (2025) — the way Clark steps into danger without hesitation, with the people, not above them.
🔹 Superman: Up in the Sky
By Tom King & Andy Kubert
Less about plot, more about why. Why does Superman go to impossible lengths to save just one person? Why does he keep going when even he doubts he can win?
Tom King’s Up in the Sky is a series of short, emotional vignettes that challenge Superman’s purpose. It’s full of quiet, powerful moments that highlight his compassion and his burden — and why it’s worth carrying.
🔹 Superman: For All Seasons
By Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale
Set across four seasons of Clark’s life, this one is slow, warm, and grounded. It’s told from the perspectives of the people who know Clark best — Pa Kent, Lois, Lex — and reminds you that behind every superpowered moment is a human being trying to hold it together.
Visually and tonally, it feels like a cousin to All-Star Superman. Emotionally, it may be the most honest Superman story ever told.
🔹 The Authority
By Warren Ellis & Bryan Hitch
Superman doesn’t appear in this comic — but he’ll clash with its characters soon. The Authority is already confirmed to join the DCU, and its core philosophy is everything Superman isn’t.
Where Superman believes in saving people without compromise, the Authority believes in fixing the world, even if it means breaking a few bones — or countries — along the way.
Reading this now sets the stage for one of the most important ideological conflicts in the new DCU.
🔚 Truth, Justice, and What Comes Next
Gunn’s Superman doesn’t work because it reinvented the wheel — it works because it remembers why the wheel mattered in the first place. These books are the foundation. They show that strength isn’t the point — hope is. And they make it clear that Superman’s greatest power has always been this:
He shows up.
Every time.
