Superman Day 2025 was hyped up by DC as a momentous event for fans of Superman. Although cover dated June, 1938, it is generally acknowledged that mid-April or thereabouts was the actual time that Action Comics 1 was released, hence, DC has designated round about that time of each year as Superman day. This year it was April 18.

With a new Superman movie around the corner (which feels awesome just to type that!), I was under the impression that they would be pulling out all the stops and really doing some special things to commemorate the occasion.

Sadly, that was not the case. “Special Editions” of Superman For All Seasons and All-Star Superman just ended up being free copies of the books’ first issues, without even all the pages included. Each ended on a cliffhanger portion of the book, which meant that it was meant to a) target fans who are not as familiar with the comics to drum up interest, and b) promote the two books James Gunn has said were the greatest inspirations for his film. Noble goals, sure, but what about the rest of us fans?

Thankfully, it wasn’t all lame, and there were a few really cool special editions released that day as well, namely some new facsimile editions of Action Comics 1.

Action Comics 1 is without a doubt the most iconic and influential comic book ever, hands down.

Fight me.

Although it has been reprinted many, many times over, including as a facsimile- aka a version of the comic with the original advertisements, letters, etc- this was the first time the book was ever reprinted in Golden Age dimensions, which are much bigger than the average comic today.

I had to store my copy in a magazine size board and bag, to give you an idea.

The book is a ton of fun to own in that size and really gives you a feel of what reading comics must have felt like for kids back in those days. While Superman was already a larger than life character who leaped off the page, having your hands full of paper with his stories must have been just awesome. Another underrated aspect of this issue is it also contains some of the most iconic single panels in comics history, as well (come to think of it, that may be a topic for a future blog post…)

There were a few different versions of the Golden Age sized facsimile released as well, and while I settled for the standard, original cover (if it ain’t broke..?), I must say the Dan Mora homage edition was pretty cool too.

Even though Superman Day 2025 landed with a bit of a whimper, hey, at least we got one really, really cool collectible out of it!

Looking forward to the Summer of Superman now!

I’m sure your local comic shop has more copies of Action 1 facsimile still available, but they are going fast, as facsimiles are very popular, interestingly… so don’t delay!