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The Further Adventures of Superman
Ten stories by Joey Cavalieri, Mike Resnick, and eight other top writers follow Kal-El of Krypton, the native son of a dying planet, as he makes a double life for himself on Earth as reporter Clark Kent and superhero Superman. Original.
360 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1993
About the author
Martin H. Greenberg
841 books162 followersMartin Harry Greenberg was an American academic and speculative fiction anthologist. In all, he compiled 1,298 anthologies and commissioned over 8,200 original short stories. He founded Tekno Books, a packager of more than 2000 published books. In addition, he was a co-founder of the Sci-Fi Channel.
For the 1950s anthologist and publisher of Gnome Press, see Martin Greenberg.
For the 1950s anthologist and publisher of Gnome Press, see Martin Greenberg.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 18, 2017
The Further Adventures of Superman is an anthology of Superman stories that came out in 1993 - just after he'd died in the comics, and right on the heels of the premiere of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. It's an interesting collection for multiple reasons, including as a sampler of examples of what the wider culture was thinking about Superman when there was no movie around - hadn't been for a while, wouldn't be for even longer - and how people were still playing off the previous ones.
There are two different trends in this volume that are especially interesting to note. The first is that many of the stories are themed around religion and spirituality, gods and devils. It doesn't feel like an editorial edict - the stories come at the subject from many different directions, and a couple leave it out entirely; it's fascinating that this seems to just have been what was on everyone's mind.
The other trend is even more curious: the majority of these stories seem to have been written about Superman as he was in the 1970s! Some of them use explicit elements of '70s Superman comics, like Clark Kent working for WGBS instead of the Daily Planet, or the use of 'Kal-El' as a 'true' identity. Others use explicit elements from Superman: The Movie - at least one talks about the twenty-eight galaxies that baby Kal-El's starship wandered through. Yet others are simply about combining the planet-juggling levels of power the character had back then with the heated melodrama of the era.
It feels like most of the writers here hadn't read a Superman comic for ten to twenty years, and were working off of memory; many of these writers are reliable licensed fiction writers, not particularly known for superhero fiction, so that may even be true. Either way, it's weirdly consistent, and I've got to wonder if it's a reflection of how, in the '80s, comics turned towards specialty shops and away from general audiences.
In any case. Why don't we try out some capsule summaries, see how that goes?
The Riddle of Superman's Mask: This story was written by Will Murray, the writer who created Squirrel Girl, and like SG herself, it's trying to combine the fun weirdness of the Silver Age (in the form of a 'what fantastic thing happened to Superman to make him act so weird?' mystery) with the emotional depth of later eras. It doesn't quite work, but it's an interesting try.
Apparitions: By the redoubtable Diane Duane, this story brings Superman face-to-face with several of her recurring tropes - the heat death of the universe, the immanent presence of divinity, the truly alien mixed with the truly kind. And the investigation of that divinity, that alien-ness, and how they may intersect is the meat of the story. The ending feels slightly unsatisfying, in a way that it kind of has to be in this space, but the journey is interesting.
Lucifer Over Lancaster: This one actually explores a pretty similar space to the last story, but not as well, in my opinion - it has a more judgmental Superman and a more judgmental tone that clashes with the message of tolerance and love of the alien, as well as a fair bit of gore and death that doesn't quite feel earned. But it has some neat psychic visions, if you're up for that.
Dateline: Metropolis: Possibly the least fantastic of the stories in this volume, this is a straightforward "what Lois is up to while Clark's having an adventure" story. In this case, she's pursuing the idea that up-and-coming businessman Roger Gunn is, in fact... Superman! And it's... ehhh. There's some good Lois, but the moments in which she's dense, and especially her reaction to the idea of knowing Superman's secret ("I'll have to stop writing important news articles in order to not out him! Oh well, maybe being his girlfriend would make up for that")... ehhhhh.
Mine Enemy Grows Older: Easily the most fantastic of the stories in this volume, going into the outright cosmic - Superman and Lex Luthor in the year 900,000 AD, and the stakes are nothing less than apotheosis - transformation into a literal god. I originally read this anthology as a kid, and this story blew my mind - and unlike many similar stories that, on adult readings, turned out to have wonderful concepts but mediocre execution, it really does hold up. Worth it.
Forget Me Not: It's funny, but this one feels kind of like a riposte to the "lesson" of Superman II - Superman tries to break up with Lois For Her Own Good, but discovers via supernatural shenanigans how important she is to both his sides. The writing is adequate, but with some nice flourishes. Not bad.
Deja Vu All Over Again: A weird-ass story, with a bunch of interesting bits that simply do not come together. In theory, it's about Superman's compassion fatigue and his alienation from humanity, as seen through cosmic events on the day of Krypton's destruction; really, it's a meandering story with cosmic bits that sets Big Things up but doesn't really follow through. Odd.
Excerpt From the Diary of Dr. Morris Finkelstein: It's not funny, but at least it's short.
I Now Pronounce You Superman and Wife: You might respect a regressive, heteronormative viewpoint from a story with that title... and you'd be absolutely right. Packed with toxic jealousy culture, showing marriage as a disturbing, mechanical affair of control, it manages to be a throwback of remarkable fidelity to the worst and most sexist stories of the '50s and '60s. Yeesh.
Warrior of the Final Dawn: The writing here is just okay, but the theme is strong - the death of Krypton reaching forward to try to take Superman it its grasp from beyond the grave. Notably, this story is the only one in the volume to use the comics-contemporary setup of Lex Luthor as the powerful head of LexCorp, but it also calls out things like the Bottle City of Kandor and the city of Kryptonopolis in ways which belong to the older, pre-Crisis comics.
Prologue/Epilogue: An odd little framing device that doesn't really add anything, but doesn't hurt anything either. Inoffensive.
Overall, the stories in this volume average out to "okay". But it's an interesting sampler, and the best of these - "Mine Enemy Grows Older" and "Apparitions" - are, I would say, worth the price of admission alone. As well, examining the trends in this story - the throwbacks to older ways of viewing Superman, the focus on a plane higher than humanity - make some of the odd choices we saw in later media and the odd, extended journey we got to Superman Returns like feel less odd.
There are two different trends in this volume that are especially interesting to note. The first is that many of the stories are themed around religion and spirituality, gods and devils. It doesn't feel like an editorial edict - the stories come at the subject from many different directions, and a couple leave it out entirely; it's fascinating that this seems to just have been what was on everyone's mind.
The other trend is even more curious: the majority of these stories seem to have been written about Superman as he was in the 1970s! Some of them use explicit elements of '70s Superman comics, like Clark Kent working for WGBS instead of the Daily Planet, or the use of 'Kal-El' as a 'true' identity. Others use explicit elements from Superman: The Movie - at least one talks about the twenty-eight galaxies that baby Kal-El's starship wandered through. Yet others are simply about combining the planet-juggling levels of power the character had back then with the heated melodrama of the era.
It feels like most of the writers here hadn't read a Superman comic for ten to twenty years, and were working off of memory; many of these writers are reliable licensed fiction writers, not particularly known for superhero fiction, so that may even be true. Either way, it's weirdly consistent, and I've got to wonder if it's a reflection of how, in the '80s, comics turned towards specialty shops and away from general audiences.
In any case. Why don't we try out some capsule summaries, see how that goes?
The Riddle of Superman's Mask: This story was written by Will Murray, the writer who created Squirrel Girl, and like SG herself, it's trying to combine the fun weirdness of the Silver Age (in the form of a 'what fantastic thing happened to Superman to make him act so weird?' mystery) with the emotional depth of later eras. It doesn't quite work, but it's an interesting try.
Apparitions: By the redoubtable Diane Duane, this story brings Superman face-to-face with several of her recurring tropes - the heat death of the universe, the immanent presence of divinity, the truly alien mixed with the truly kind. And the investigation of that divinity, that alien-ness, and how they may intersect is the meat of the story. The ending feels slightly unsatisfying, in a way that it kind of has to be in this space, but the journey is interesting.
Lucifer Over Lancaster: This one actually explores a pretty similar space to the last story, but not as well, in my opinion - it has a more judgmental Superman and a more judgmental tone that clashes with the message of tolerance and love of the alien, as well as a fair bit of gore and death that doesn't quite feel earned. But it has some neat psychic visions, if you're up for that.
Dateline: Metropolis: Possibly the least fantastic of the stories in this volume, this is a straightforward "what Lois is up to while Clark's having an adventure" story. In this case, she's pursuing the idea that up-and-coming businessman Roger Gunn is, in fact... Superman! And it's... ehhh. There's some good Lois, but the moments in which she's dense, and especially her reaction to the idea of knowing Superman's secret ("I'll have to stop writing important news articles in order to not out him! Oh well, maybe being his girlfriend would make up for that")... ehhhhh.
Mine Enemy Grows Older: Easily the most fantastic of the stories in this volume, going into the outright cosmic - Superman and Lex Luthor in the year 900,000 AD, and the stakes are nothing less than apotheosis - transformation into a literal god. I originally read this anthology as a kid, and this story blew my mind - and unlike many similar stories that, on adult readings, turned out to have wonderful concepts but mediocre execution, it really does hold up. Worth it.
Forget Me Not: It's funny, but this one feels kind of like a riposte to the "lesson" of Superman II - Superman tries to break up with Lois For Her Own Good, but discovers via supernatural shenanigans how important she is to both his sides. The writing is adequate, but with some nice flourishes. Not bad.
Deja Vu All Over Again: A weird-ass story, with a bunch of interesting bits that simply do not come together. In theory, it's about Superman's compassion fatigue and his alienation from humanity, as seen through cosmic events on the day of Krypton's destruction; really, it's a meandering story with cosmic bits that sets Big Things up but doesn't really follow through. Odd.
Excerpt From the Diary of Dr. Morris Finkelstein: It's not funny, but at least it's short.
I Now Pronounce You Superman and Wife: You might respect a regressive, heteronormative viewpoint from a story with that title... and you'd be absolutely right. Packed with toxic jealousy culture, showing marriage as a disturbing, mechanical affair of control, it manages to be a throwback of remarkable fidelity to the worst and most sexist stories of the '50s and '60s. Yeesh.
Warrior of the Final Dawn: The writing here is just okay, but the theme is strong - the death of Krypton reaching forward to try to take Superman it its grasp from beyond the grave. Notably, this story is the only one in the volume to use the comics-contemporary setup of Lex Luthor as the powerful head of LexCorp, but it also calls out things like the Bottle City of Kandor and the city of Kryptonopolis in ways which belong to the older, pre-Crisis comics.
Prologue/Epilogue: An odd little framing device that doesn't really add anything, but doesn't hurt anything either. Inoffensive.
Overall, the stories in this volume average out to "okay". But it's an interesting sampler, and the best of these - "Mine Enemy Grows Older" and "Apparitions" - are, I would say, worth the price of admission alone. As well, examining the trends in this story - the throwbacks to older ways of viewing Superman, the focus on a plane higher than humanity - make some of the odd choices we saw in later media and the odd, extended journey we got to Superman Returns like feel less odd.
April 9, 2020
This is an anthology of ten Superman prose stories. It's something of a mixed bag of serious and humorous, classic comic and Christopher Reeve, with a variety of times and settings represented. I thought it was interesting that most of the stories were science fiction genre in nature as opposed to classic comic super villain capers. I was disappointed by the short Mike Resnick that tried too hard to be funny, but particularly liked the Lois Lane tale by Karen Haber and Will Murray's opening piece.
January 3, 2018
Užaugau su Supermeno serialu, Dean Cain ir Teri Hatcher iki šiol atrodo geriausias variantas Luizos ir Klarko Kento vaidmeniui. Todėl visiškai nėra kuo stebėtis, jog skaitant kiekvieną istoriją, kurias užrašė vis naujas rašytojas, įsivaizdavau būtent šiuos veidus. Dvi asmenybės viename, akiniai ir pasaulio gelbėjimas šalia turint nenustygstančią bei ugningą Luizą Lein. Su didžiausiu smagumu atsiversdavau vis naują puslapį ir laukdavau naujo nuotykio. Kiekvienas rašytojas viskas pateikė taip pat ir kartu skirtingai. Ne tik su nauju apsakymu patiriamas naujas nuotykis, bet ir mėginama atskleisti ką nors naują apie Klarką ir jo pasaulį. Kaip ir ne kartą teko šyptelėti kai Luiza mėgino išsiaiškinti kas gi toks Supermenas, o Klarkui teko tai išklausyti. O kai kurios detalės tikrai buvo matytos seriale, nors tai tikrai nėra vienas prie vieno lyginant su serialu. Skanu, lengva bei nuostaligiška.
November 3, 2014
This was a collection of mostly disappointing Superman stories. Odd how "Lois and Clark" and even the old "Adventures of Superman" could come up with vastly more entertaining stories, and this collection (by fairly good authors) could barely keep me interested enough to read the short stories in one sitting without dozing off.
The Riddle of Superman's Mask" by Will Murray. It was a pretty good story wherein Superman battles a Gorgon (and is featured on the cover of the collection).
"Apparitions" by Diane Duane. I remember liking her writing when she was writing Star Trek books, but this story was terrible. Superman didn't even need to be in it. He accomplished nothing. He helped no one. He was irrelevant to the unfolding story - which was about a UFO that had a message. It delivered its message and left. Superman's role? To observe and fail to do anything.
"Lucifer over Lancaster," by Elizabeth Hand and Paul Witcover. I didn't care for this one. It was dull, and Superman seemed to figure out the solution by accident. He didn't really save anyone... it just didn't seem like a Superman story.
"Dateline: Metropolis" by Karen Haber, a pretty good story, focusing on Lois trying to get a story, with appearances by Clark Kent. Superman was in the background, which made for an effective story. This was probably the best story in the collection.
"Mine Enemy Grows Older," by Joe Cavalieri. I didn't care for this. There was no humanity here, no real story, and way too sci-fi for my taste.
"Forget Me Not" by Mark Weid, which was a decent showcase for Superman's character. I liked the Clark Kent scenes the best.
"Deja Vu All Over Again," by Edward Wellen. This story seemed to be set in the world of the Christopher Reeve movies. Superman here has more power than I like (he built a planet from asteroids), but that is just a fan preference and not a critical look at the story. I liked the Clark Kent material the best, though. Superman never really was in danger, but it was a fair story.
the mercifully short "Excerpt from the Diary of Dr. Morris Finkelstein," which was about Clark Kent getting a physical because he was drafted in WWII. It was wasted space and predictably cutsey.
"I Now Pronounce You Superman and Wife," by Henry Slesar. An interesting plot that hinges on the villain knowing Superman's secret identity (not established in the narrative), but it was a fairly effective story.
"The Warrior of the Final Dawn" by Garfield Reeves-Stevens, a fair story. Not great, but okay. Requires knowledge of Lex Luthor, as he is not even described in the story. That is an overall problem with the collection - none of the standard characters are really even described, yet all of them are, in a sense, unique to the author's vision.
The Riddle of Superman's Mask" by Will Murray. It was a pretty good story wherein Superman battles a Gorgon (and is featured on the cover of the collection).
"Apparitions" by Diane Duane. I remember liking her writing when she was writing Star Trek books, but this story was terrible. Superman didn't even need to be in it. He accomplished nothing. He helped no one. He was irrelevant to the unfolding story - which was about a UFO that had a message. It delivered its message and left. Superman's role? To observe and fail to do anything.
"Lucifer over Lancaster," by Elizabeth Hand and Paul Witcover. I didn't care for this one. It was dull, and Superman seemed to figure out the solution by accident. He didn't really save anyone... it just didn't seem like a Superman story.
"Dateline: Metropolis" by Karen Haber, a pretty good story, focusing on Lois trying to get a story, with appearances by Clark Kent. Superman was in the background, which made for an effective story. This was probably the best story in the collection.
"Mine Enemy Grows Older," by Joe Cavalieri. I didn't care for this. There was no humanity here, no real story, and way too sci-fi for my taste.
"Forget Me Not" by Mark Weid, which was a decent showcase for Superman's character. I liked the Clark Kent scenes the best.
"Deja Vu All Over Again," by Edward Wellen. This story seemed to be set in the world of the Christopher Reeve movies. Superman here has more power than I like (he built a planet from asteroids), but that is just a fan preference and not a critical look at the story. I liked the Clark Kent material the best, though. Superman never really was in danger, but it was a fair story.
the mercifully short "Excerpt from the Diary of Dr. Morris Finkelstein," which was about Clark Kent getting a physical because he was drafted in WWII. It was wasted space and predictably cutsey.
"I Now Pronounce You Superman and Wife," by Henry Slesar. An interesting plot that hinges on the villain knowing Superman's secret identity (not established in the narrative), but it was a fairly effective story.
"The Warrior of the Final Dawn" by Garfield Reeves-Stevens, a fair story. Not great, but okay. Requires knowledge of Lex Luthor, as he is not even described in the story. That is an overall problem with the collection - none of the standard characters are really even described, yet all of them are, in a sense, unique to the author's vision.
June 30, 2020
A fun if uneven collection. The superhero in prose is perpetually a mixed bag and this volume is no exception. It's worth a Superman fan's time, though.
September 3, 2022
A collecting of largely forgettable short stories.
October 7, 2008
Great anthology of Superman prose stories, most of which do a nice job of capturing the larger than life feel of a good Superman comic.
The story about Clark Kent having his physical for joining the army and the one where he final marries Lois were the only weak ones.
The first tried too hard to be funny and the second was a decent idea done badly.
The 'Mask of Superman', Mark Waid's and Diane Duanes were the best ones.
Would have liked to have seen a few more super villains and not so much straight sci-fi stories, but they were, for the most part, very entertaining, so I'll let that slide.
The story about Clark Kent having his physical for joining the army and the one where he final marries Lois were the only weak ones.
The first tried too hard to be funny and the second was a decent idea done badly.
The 'Mask of Superman', Mark Waid's and Diane Duanes were the best ones.
Would have liked to have seen a few more super villains and not so much straight sci-fi stories, but they were, for the most part, very entertaining, so I'll let that slide.
March 11, 2009
This is a fun collection of Superman short stories.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews