09-07-2025
Review – Superman Treasury 2025: Hero For All #1 – Return of the Legend
Superman Treasury: Hero for All #1 cover, via DC Comics.
Ray: It's the Summer of Superman, as the character's biggest movie in well over a decade is coming out in days – so it's only fitting that we're getting some epic comics to celebrate. While other writers have had more high-profile runs, I don't think anyone has done more to define the Man of Steel in the last few decades than Dan Jurgens – he wrote him for over ten years post-John Byrne and shepherded him through some of his most iconic stories. So it's a great choice that for this oversized annual of sorts (over 60 story pages!), Jurgens is back to do a story that feels like a celebration of his entire era. It seems to be set in a sort of middle ground – back when Jon was still a kid, but after the Kents returned to Metropolis. Man of Action. Via DC Comics.
And it kicks off in a big way – with a massive-scale alien invasion hitting Metropolis. This has happened before, of course, but Superman is taken aback by the scale of the attack, which seems to have a personal edge to it. He manages to defeat the giant robot that launches the attack – but then disappears as the true mastermind of the attack is revealed. It's an alliance of Maxima, whose resentment over Superman choosing a human over her has curdled over into hatred, and Hank Henshaw, who she's taken as her consort and never refuses an opportunity to target Superman. They've found a semi-willing ally in Queen Glynna, the shady alien princess who manipulated Jon Kent in one of Jurgens' backups.
But as the other heroes of Earth battle to stay alive, Superman is otherwise occupied – finding himself in a vision of another world where he never became the hero he was supposed to. In this one, Jonathan Kent was killed in a tornado when Clark was a child. That left Clark feeling more tied to the farm, hesitant to leave Martha alone. The only one who tried to convince him to leave was…Lex Luthor, his childhood best friend. And in this world, Clark does make it to the Daily Planet, but he's working for Lex, living a quiet life, and watching as Lex gets everything he ever wanted. It's an interesting little side-take on classic stories like 'Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?'
It's fascinating to watch Superman rediscover who he's meant to be, and Jurgens takes over the pen for a multi-page segment that has Superman regain his memories – and take us through the entirety of Jurgens' run, including characters like Conduit and stories that I never thought we'd see revisited. The final showdown is dramatic, if a bit abrupt after the more character-driven stories that start this issue, and Jurgens' Superman is note-perfect as always. Bruno Redondo, who draws 90% of the issue, is just as good here as he was on Nightwing, and this issue is a perfect capper to the hundreds of Superman stories Jurgens has written over the year. Let's hope this coming movie is as good as the comics DC has been putting out lately.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes. Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!
