Synopsis:

A short story on Bill Dunn, a vagrant, singled out by a misanthropic scientist, Professor Smalley, gets powers in an experiment. Too much power can even corrupt, and things go awry as Bill has a dark thought!

AWEsomeness:

The story is good, and the art wasn’t like that in a comic, but as an illustrated book. But it surely helps to shape the mood of the story.

My view:

Tbh, I bought this book, mainly coz it has the first Superman story created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. It’s from here that the Superman idea was born, and with a few tweaks, this pre-comic version paved the way for the Big Blue after five years in the then National Allied Publications, which is now DC Comics. This isn’t the Superman we know, but it is the pre-comic version. He’s a bald villain much like Lex Luthor. He was neither the last son of Krypton then, nor the hero we know him as. It tells us how absolute power can corrupt the weakest.

For early works, Jerry Siegel used Herbert Fine as a pseudonym when he was a teen. Albeit this is the first version of Superman, the first Kal-El/Clark Kent belongs to the Golden Age Superman itself. This is a must-read for every fan of the Man of Steel.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

^{Pic Credits: Licorne Press}