Action Comics

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The One That Started It All

Action Comics first saw publication in June 1938. It's most famous for having the debut of Superman in its first issue. What many people do not realize, however, is that Action Comics, like most Comic Books of its day, was an anthology containing multiple unrelated stories. As such, Action Comics #1 also marked the debut of Zatara the magician, perhaps better known today as the father of Zatanna.

As times changed, comics began to drop the anthology format, and now Action Comics is mainly just another Superman title. The book returned to the anthology format for awhile in the 80s, becoming Action Comics Weekly, but that was short-lived.

The book reached issue 904 before being renumbered with a new #1 for DC's 2011 New 52 relaunch, but then got its original numbering back during the DC Rebirth, picking up at issue 957. The Other Wiki tells us that the series' 1000th issue was "released on April 18, 2018, the 80th anniversary of the premiere issue".

If you were looking for the British comic serial named "Action!", see here.

Tropes found in Action Comics (aside from those mentioned on the Superman page) include

• Aliens Made Them Do It: The notorious issues #592 and #593.
• Anthology Comic: Until Superman just flat-out took over, and then again in the late 1980s with Action Comics Weekly.
• Breakthrough Hit: Action Comics #1 was the first truly successful comic published by DC Comics.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Issue 593 features Darkseid, of all people, helping Mr. Miracle in breaking Superman and Big Barda out of mind control of the fallen New God Sleez. Because he was going to force them to produce explicit pornography, together. Darkseid isn't into Rape by Proxy it seems.
• Long Runner: From 1938 to today, with no sign of slowing down or stopping aside from the occasional promotional reboot.
• Prequel: The New 52 relaunch retold the story of his re-re-re-revised origin.
• Scene Cover: See that image up there? That scene happens in the story.
  • It also happens in other stories.
  • Marvel Comics have also paid homage to this cover.
• Team-Up Series: It was a Superman team-up book for a while Post-Crisis after DC Comics Presents ended.
• Villain Protagonist: Paul Cornell's run featured Lex Luthor as the main character from issue 890 to 900 during the Blackest Night event.