A review by tasharobinson
Superman: The Unauthorized Biography by Glen Weldon

4.0

I was never particularly interested in Superman as a character, but I love the author, Glen Weldon, who I know from his acid wit on the NPR podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour. (Essential listening for fans of pop-culture, podcasts, insightful criticism, and general good humor.) So I read this, his first book, largely out of a sense of loyalty. And it's unsurprisingly hugely interesting, even for a non-Superman fan. Weldon tracks how Superman has changed over the decades: visually, under a wide variety of artists; narratively, under a wide variety of writers; and culturally, in response to what was going on in comics as a whole during various eras. He also tracks the character's changes through radio, TV, films, and merchandising, and ties it all into a sort of Unified Field Theory of the various cultural purposes of Superman. I grew up with some of the comics he describes; a lot more of this history happened during my lifetime as I wasn't paying attention to comics. So it's terrific to have it all summarized and brought together, with humor and insight. I do wish there was more of Weldon's distinctive "voice" in the material — he comes through in little sardonic moments, often in tiny parentheticals—sometimes just a simple "(heh)"—but overall, he seems to be working for a gentle authority rather than the full-on sardonicism he's so capable of. Still, he lets his inner comic-book geek out and goes into a lot of close detail about fan response and continuity changes, while still keeping the material accessible for non-comics fans who are just interested in a cultural phenomenon. This was a fascinating book.