Good starting points for Superman and Action Comics?

[twolves21235]

Looking for a place to jump into the monthlys for Superman and Action Comics.

I picked up Superman #13 Prelude to H'el on Earth, as it sounded like the beginning of a new arc, is that right?

Also, can anyone give me a quick differentiation of Superman and Action comics?

[Auguste Dupin]

Yeah, that's right. You can forget everything that happened before issue 13 (well, you can always take issue 0 by the same team). It's not important for what follows and it's just not that great.
Action Comics is basically Superman in the past. The first arc deals with his origin story as a weaker (the concept behind being that he becomes more powerful as he gets exposed to yellow sunlight) and more rough version of himself (inspired by the original version of the character, who was fighting corrupt businessmen just as much than criminals) wanted by the police. The book in general tells the transition from this state to the more classic take on the character, and has a big story that goes during the 5 years that separates the two books, with a mysterious entity acting behind the scenes to destroy Superman and what he stands for. It's probably best for you to take it from issue one, and to buy the TPB that came out a few months ago.

[Mr. Holmes]

What Auguste said basically.

Get Superman #0, but otherwise you're caught up just fine there.

You can probably just trade-wait Action Comics if you want or catch up with the whole run. But I would highly recommend it either way.

[twolves21235]

Awesome thanks for the quick and helpful replies guys, I'll continue getting the Superman's every month and find the trade for Action comics and see if i want to start collecting those every month

[Zionite1]

What Auguste said basically.

Get Superman #0, but otherwise you're caught up just fine there.

You can probably just trade-wait Action Comics if you want or catch up with the whole run. But I would highly recommend it either way.

Id strongly advice Tradewaiting for Action comics.A lot of Morrision stories read better in Trade-they can be bit confusing to the new reader when read in Sinle isues

Off topic I have to ask where is this new interest in Superman coming from.Over the past 2 weeks I have seen different posters on different comic forums ask how to get into Superman.

[twolves21235]

Lol well for me, i just got into comics in general in the past few months and have been wanting to get into getting monthly issues for a few series i really like, so Batman (and detective comics) and Superman (and action comics).

[Zionite1]

Lol well for me, i just got into comics in general in the past few months and have been wanting to get into getting monthly issues for a few series i really like, so Batman (and detective comics) and Superman (and action comics).

Ha.Here I thought Supes popularity was beginning to rise

[neverender]

Jumping on point for Action Comics would probably be after #17, which concludes Morrison's run.

You can jump on to Superman this month when the new arc starts.

[rZi]

14 issues ago? it's only been going over a year - just get the back issues

[Kymeric]

Im a new reader to superman as well. I was able to scrounge up all the back issues including the annual. 0-13 plus the annual. The first collected edition of 1-6 should be out on November 20th, so dont worry if you cant find the hot early issues!

Edit for the guy who asked where new fans are coming from. I had been reading Superboy and Supergirl since the relaunch and grabbed Superman #13 for the crossover. It was good enough that it made me want to collect all the prior issues. I kinda suspect they are flowing better all at once than they did as monthly releases. Things like Helspon monologing for 2 issues would have bored me without having the annual right away.

[DragonPiece]

14 issues ago? It's only been going over a year - just get the back issues

quoted for truth

[twolves21235]

This is true, but i was just referring to the single issues. It doesn't make sense to me to get all the issues starting at #1, when say Vol 1 is out (or about to be out) and it has 6 or 7 issues and for the same price as 3 or so issues (on Amazon).

[Mr. Holmes]

So yeah just get Action Comics vol. 1, and in the future look out for volume 2 or however they end up collecting Morrison's run after the first volume.

Stick with Superman, and get the 0 issue from the month before, and you're good. You can also start with Superboy and Supergirl starting this month with #14s.

[Cypher-Z]

You can get Dan Jurgens run of the new reboot. The stories are average but Dan Jurgens has been a Superman artist for quite some time and he looks Superman look marvelous and just right.

[Sacred Knight]

You might look up some quick summaries of the first 13 issues online. The Perez arc more than the Jurgens run. I say that because it looks like Lobdell's building off of a couple introduced plot-points from Perez's arc (#1-6), such as the Lois/Jonathan relationship, and that arc starts Clark's disenchantment with the Planet, all of which are relevant to the current run.