Publication History
Superman For All Seasons was conceived, like all of the Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale books from DC Comics and rival Marvel Comics, as a stand alone, self-contained story that gave a sense of the character of Superman and his supporting cast. Not an origin, but picking up on who the character is and how he came to be.
As explained by Loeb, one of the things that he wanted to capture was the grandeur that is Superman, and that was to have double-page spreads with big sky shots. With Sale and Bjarne Hansen on the art and colors, everyone was speechless once Loeb saw the pages, and those same pages came in the office of DC. One of the biggest examples was the end to the first issue, with Clark Kent and Pa Kent looking out at a sunset from their farm. The shot was two pages long.
Perhaps the most important, and the key, to the series was the narration. Originally, Loeb never intended to have a narrator, but he knew he didn't want Superman to narrate from his point of view. As he explained; "I didn't feel comfortable being inside the head of an icon." So it was decided to have others narrate and give their point of view on Superman, rather than Superman on himself. Pa Kent gave his life as a father to a super-powered son, while not knowing what lay ahead of Clark, had confidence that his son would be all right. This in turn, came from Loeb himself as the father to his son, Sam Loeb. Lois Lane was the impact of Superman's presence and on the idea of Superman in general, Lex Luthor was about how his rivalry with Superman was like a love story between him and Metropolis, and Lana Lang finally gave and explained the heroism of both Clark and Superman.
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