Book Review: The Superman Files

This is one huge 312-page thick dossier-like book made like it was put together by Brainiac 5.

The quality of the book is great. I love the textured steel design of the cover. It's hardcover and they have used good thick low gloss paper.

The book is essentially features the commentary of Brainiac 5 as he recounts the history of Superman back to planet Krypton up to the present year 2013. Brainiac covers the story arcs, time travels, characters and villains. There are even journal entries written by Superman that he somehow managed to source, as well as the many Daily Planet newspaper cuttings.

The materials are arranged in sort of a chronologically manner so it's easy to follow along. It's a nice way to present the history. If you have been following Superman on and off, this book is going to fill in the blanks for you.

As to the completeness, well, the scope of Superman's comic universe is just too immense to cover everything but this book does a good job. One reviewer mentioned missing 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths. I'm sure there will be discrepancies because of the ongoing nature of comic books but I'm not a hardcore Superman fan to be able to notice them.

Images in the book are wonderfully selected to accompany the text. The visuals are generally well reproduced. There are several panels that were printed as if they came out from a inkjet printer that's running out of ink so you can see streak marks. But those streak marks are only on the comic art and not the white border surrounding it. Was it an effect to simulate that the photo (panel) is old, or is it really a printing problem? Either way, it does not work. But other than that, the artworks, the colours are fantastic.

Highly recommended to all Superman fans.

The Superman Files is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)

The Superman Files