Superman for All Seasons

Superman for All Seasons steps back from spectacle to tell an intimate origin story, narrated in turn by the people closest to Clark Kent: childhood friend Lana Lang in Smallville's spring, his hometown rival Lex Luthor in a scorching summer, ace reporter Lois Lane amid Metropolis's autumn, and his father Jonathan Kent as winter closes in. Each perspective captures a different facet of a farm boy becoming both Superman and a symbol.

Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale strip the story down to small-town nostalgia and quiet character work, treating Superman's decency as its own kind of superpower.