“Nice flying with you, Big Blue. It was an honor and a privilege.”

I’m a fan of Kurt Busiek.

Revisiting his stuff is just a breath of fresh air, especially these days. Several of his greatest hits continue to be in print today, and I’m pretty sure I’ve read all of them.

Marvels, Avengers, Thunderbolts, and Astro City are modern classics, as well they should be. Subsequent writers have drawn from all of them and have incorporated many of his ideas into characters right down to the present day.

While he has certainly had his share of successes in the comic industry, I think his Superman run is supremely underrated and should be listed among some of the finest runs in the Man of Steel’s history. I was thrilled to hear that DC was releasing hardcovers of his work (and would be even more thrilled if it were released as an omnibus some day), and wrote about it last year when Volume 1 came out.

Volume 2 was released earlier this summer, amidst the slew of Superman material around the new movie’s premiere. I can say with assurance that it is a delight for fans of Busiek or Superman. Kurt writes a new introduction to his work, which fleshes out a LOT of what I heard about the run before, mainly how all the brilliant fill-in issues came about!

I already knew that the New Gods tie-in was a line wide decision by DC, which Busiek integrated very well, and that the Krypto story had been slated around the time of Infinite Crisis but was published years later. I had never heard that the team up story with Wonder Woman was a reworked, unpublished script from the mid-80s with the original creative team, which makes perfect sense as it is a very different issue than the rest. All this time I just figured it was Kurt choosing to do a throwback, retro story for the fun of it (the entire original story, uncolored, is included in the back of the book as a fun little extra as well)!

The standalone stories during his run were some of the strongest Superman stories I’ve ever read, and the variety serves the overall reading experience really well. It is tremendously fascinating to hear about the genesis of each one for me, who have been a fan of the material for the better part of twenty years now. I had also never read his Prankster short story released as part of a special in 2020 as well, which was an enjoyable little extra on top of everything else.

The stories are also arranged beautifully, with the majority slotted in after the conclusion of Camelot Falls. I had never read them in this order before, but it flows nicely overall. Really, the only knock on this material is how uneven the releases were back in the day because of delays by the artists and by the Action creative team.

The book itself is nicely put together, again with sewn binding and chapter breaks, plus a lot more extras than volume 1. It looks great on your shelf and is a very comfortable size to read if you’re sitting down.

Like the first volume, this book is a loving tribute to a fantastic creator, who left his mark on a much beloved character. I’m hoping he gets a chance to do more with Superman in the future, but if not, this is still a wonderful collection I will enjoy for many years.

Definitely give Busiek’s run a try if you haven’t yet!