Action Comics estreou em 1938 junto com Superman, que apareceu pela primeira vez em Action Comics # 1. Parafraseando a entrada da Wikipedia em Action Comics :
Originally, Action Comics was an anthology title featuring a number of other stories in addition to the Superman story...Gradually, the size of the issues was decreased as the publisher was reluctant to raise the cover price from the original 10 cents, so there were fewer stories. For a while, Congo Bill and Tommy Tomorrow were the two features in addition to Superman, but soon after the introduction of Supergirl in issue #252 (May 1959) the non-Superman-related strips were crowded out of Action altogether. Since then, it has generally been an all-Superman comic, though other backup stories such as the Human Target occasionally appear.
A série auto-intitulada de Superman teve uma história um pouco mais envolvida. Ele estreou em 1939 e foi dedicado exclusivamente ao Superman. Sua entrada no Banco de dados de quadrinhos afirma:
Nevertheless, it is clearly the first wholly American-made single-character book of the 20th century. It is also the first single-character book featuring a superhero. It's the book which proved to the modern American comics industry that people would follow a character, as opposed to a genre.
Superman foi renomeado para Adventures of Superman em 1987 e manteve a mesma numeração. O nome foi revertido para Superman em 2006.
Quanto ao novo Action Comics # 1 e Superman # 1, Guia do Leitor do Tor para o novo DC 52 afirma o seguinte:
- Action Comics # 1 , de Grant Morrison e Rags Morales diz A história de fundo do Superman e é ambientada no passado do novo Universo DC.
The initial press release, along with that cover image of a working class superhero, tells us that this relaunch explores a Superman who “defends a world that doesn’t trust their first Super Hero.” Unlike most of the other fall #1 issues, this one seemingly takes place in the early days of the DCU, re-establishing a new timeline for the introduction of the superheroes into the modern universe.
- Superman # 1 por George Perez e Jesus Merino é ambientado no presente do novo Universo DC.
There doesn’t seem to be any high-concept reimagining of the character here. This one seems to be generic Superman. It doesn’t seem to be all that different from what Perez did when he briefly wrote and drew (or provided plots or layouts or all of the above) Action Comics and Adventures of Superman in the late 1980s/early 1990s.
Similar ao Superman, Batman estreou primeiro em Detective Comics . Ao contrário de Superman, que apareceu pela primeira vez na primeira edição de Ação , Batman não apareceu em Detective até a edição # 27. Por um tempo, foi uma série de antologia, mas acabou se tornando exclusivamente dedicada a Batman e à família Batman de personagens (não está claro quando a mudança ocorreu).
Batman ganhou seu próprio quadrinho com Batman # 1 em 1940.
Quanto ao novo Detective Comics # 1 e Batman # 1, o guia de Tor declara:
- Detective Comics # 1 , de Tony Daniel parece estar de volta ao básico Batman.
And what we know about the opening story arc sounds run-of-the-mill. It’s Batman vs. a serial killer (someone calling himself or herself “The Gotham Ripper”). And Bruce Wayne possibly involved with a new love interest. It’s boilerplate Batman. Batman 101. The concept and characters of this series aren’t likely to be surprising. The series may end up focusing a bit more on the “detective” aspect of its title than its other Bat-centric peers.
- Batman # 1 por Scott Snyder e Greg Capullo essencialmente continua a corrida aclamada de Snyder no título, que se concentrou em temas mais psicologicamente emocionantes e centrados em horror.
This will be the straight-ahead, no-nonsense Batman. He fights bad guys. He’s smart. He’s tough. He might even have a dry sense of humor. But he won’t be blasting off into space any time soon, and he won’t be speaking to himself in the third person while grunting out haikus on vengeance.