Love him or hate him, you have to acknowledge that every superhero you admire today owes their existence to the Man of Steel – and it all started back in 1938 with the release of Action Comics #1. In those pages, we saw the debut of Superman, who soon went on to completely take over that title and headline an ongoing series of his own.
Originally created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Big Blue has since inspired fans in radio productions, animation, live action cinema and especially the realm of television, which is seemingly never bereft of Kal-El or his supporting characters for too long.
Not surprisingly, DC Comics intend on honoring his enduring legacy this spring with the historic release of Action Comics #1000, the first comic book to organically reach that milestone. (Face it, Deadpool‘s tongue-in-cheek thousandth issue doesn’t count.) And as such, it obviously won’t be your average twenty-odd page release.
In fact, it’ll feature the much talked about DC debut of Brian Michael Bendis, who’s set to pen a 10-page story illustrated by legendary artist Jim Lee. In addition to that, Lee is also providing cover art that – get this – brings back the red trunks! Inked by Scott Williams and colored by Alex Sinclair, it should please fans of Clark’s classic look, to say the least.
Elsewhere in said issue, two 15-page stories from two of DC’s current and most popular creative teams are to be included, with Superman writer Peter J. Tomasi and artist Pat Gleason, as well as Action Comics writer and artist Dan Jurgens, continuing to put their stamp on the timeless icon.
Other contributions include: Superman movie director Richard Donner and New York Times best-selling writer Geoff Johns, with art by Olivier Coipel; Paul Dini with José Luis García-López; Tom King with Clay Mann and Jordie Bellaire; Brad Meltzer with John Cassaday and Laura Martin; Louise Simonson with Jerry Ordway; Scott Snyder with Tim Sale and more to be announced. And if that weren’t enough, Marv Wolfman is penciled in to craft a story around never-before-seen artwork by way of Curt Swan!
Action Comics #1000 arrives in comic shops on April 18.