DC Finest - Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore

DC Finest - Superman #1970-1971

by Dennis O'Neil

Kryptonite is gone, but the Man of Steel’s troubles have just begun in this collection of pivotal Superman stories from the 1970s!

DC Finest presents comprehensive collections of the most in-demand and celebrated periods in DC Comics history, spanning genres, characters, and eras!

Everyone knows Superman’s major weakness: Kryptonite. But what happens when that’s taken off the board, as a scientific experiment turns all the kryptonite on Earth to iron? Originally published in 1971, “Kryptonite Nevermore” turned the Man of Steel’s status quo on its head, as his powers slowly begin to fade and a doppelgänger Superman arrives on the scene with strange powers of its own—and any contact between the two might result in the destruction of the planet!

Along with “Kryptonite Nevermore,” DC Finest: Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore includes further Bronze Age adventures by comics legends including Dennis O’Neil, Curt Swan, Cary Bates, and Len Wein!

This volume collects stories from Action Comics #393-406; Superman #233-238, #240-246.

Genres: Comics, Superman, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book

576 pages, Paperback

Published June 3, 2025

About the author

Dennis "Denny" O'Neil was a comic book writer and editor best known for his work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics from the 1960s through the 1990s, and Group Editor for the Batman family of titles until his retirement.

His best-known works include Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Batman with Neal Adams, The Shadow with Michael Kaluta and The Question with Denys Cowan. As an editor, he is principally known for editing the various Batman titles. From 2013 unti his death, he sat on the board of directors of the charity The Hero Initiative and served on its Disbursement Committee.

Reviews

[Darik · Rating 4 out of 5]

A largely pretty delightful dive into the weird, wild world of the Bronze Age Superman!

The upshot of this period of Superman books is that there's a LOT of imagination on display here. Superman doesn't battle outright supervillains, so much as he solves wacky thought experiments with his powers. Maybe Superman becomes a callous Super-Tycoon by using his powers to make money! Maybe he has to figure out how to divert an anti-matter asteroid without touching it! And with Kryptonite out of the picture (courtesy of Denny O'Neil), the writers had to get REALLY creative to find ways to give Superman a challenge!

But the flipside of this is that Superman, and all the characters in his orbit, suffer from a major lack of consistent characterization. Supes will fly into wild fits of childish overreaction or selfishness because the writer needs to keep the story going for a beat of two longer. In some stories, he's written like an overgrown infant; in others, he's cunning and intelligent. This Superman really IS a bland cipher; the only thing that keeps you engaged in his stories is the insane unpredictability of the plots.

Also, let it not go unsaid that there IS a lot of casual racism in these tales-- even from Denny O'Neil, whose progressive political leanings don't stop him from using Mexican bandit stereotypes in his fourth issue.

Overall, this is a fascinating time capsule, even if it's a bit of a mixed bag. But when these books are cooking, there's nothing quite like 'em...!

[Gary Sassaman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This latest volume of DC Finest featuring the Man of Steel launches us into the Bronze Age of Comics. To many—myself included—Julius Schwartz taking over the Superman family editing from the retired Mort Weisinger marked the end of the Silver Age. Weisinger’s final issues were Superman 231 and Action Comics 316. Murray Boltinoff took over as Action Comics editor, while Schwartz came in with Superman 233 (232 was a giant-sized reprint issue, put together by E. Nelson Bridwell). This volume includes Action 393-406 and Superman 233-238 and 240-246. The real stars of this volume are penciller Curt Swan and inker Murphy Anderson, who do just about all the art in this 576-page book, but Denny O’Neil’s scripts on Superman, starting with 233 are also great. Schwartz and O’Neil’s plan was to eliminate Kryptonite from the Man of Tomorrow’s life, but in doing so, a chain reaction causes some kind of weird “sand creature” doppleganger of Superman who leeches off his powers whenever he’s near. It takes O’Neil through issue 241 to end this extended storyline, banishing the creature to the dimension from which it escaped, along the way teaming up Superman with Diana Prince (the heroine formally known as Wonder Woman) and her sidekick of the time, I-Ching. These stories are an improvement over Weisinger’s normal stuff, but the whole “let’s de-power ol’ Supes a bit,” quickly falls by the wayside. By the end of this book, he’s back to hurtling nuclear reactors into outerspace and surviving the resultant gigantic explosion. Over in Action Comics, Murray Boltinoff’s editing over mainly Leo Dorfman and Geoff Brown’s scripts seems more in line with Weisinger’s direction with the character, giving the two books a kind of schizophernic look at the character, but Swan and Anderson’s art is wonderful on both books; Anderson’s inks make Swan look his absolute best, at least in my humble opinion. O’Neil would leave the book soon after this short run and writers like Cary Bates and Elliot S. Maggin would take over, and the stories would become—for the most part—kind of silly again. I remember reading them as they came out and finding them to be pretty boring. By the time 1986 rolled around, Superman needed a major reboot, which he got from writer-artist John Byrne.

[S.E. Martens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Last year I read the previous re-release of 1971's Kryptonite Nevermore storyline, but the strength of these new DC Finest collections is that you just get so much more material. This is 570 pages and includes Action Comics #393-406, Superman #233-238 and #240-246. So, even if you've read the previous collection of this story arc, here you get all the weird little side-stories that were happening at the time.

These include a two-part imaginary story, what would happen if Superman lost his powers, in Action Comics #396-397 that goes surprisingly hard. There's also a Superbaby story. Superbaby is a weird concept that is somehow even weirder in execution. Ma and Pa Kent take their super-powered toddler to the amusement park all kitted out in his red and blue costume and let him smash up the animatronics!

It's a mixed bag for sure, and I still find Dennis O'Neil's run more interesting than enjoyable. The attempt to depower Superman is such an odd storyline, ultimately involving "formless creatures from another realm." I prefer the later Bronze Age stuff. My favourite villain, Lex Luthor, doesn't even appear here. Actually, none of Superman's iconic villains make an appearance. And lacking the colourful supervillains, you really do miss them after a while.

I do hope DC continues these collections, though. It's great to see these old comics reprinted.

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superman in the Bronze Age is the earliest version of the modern day interpretations of the character.
When I say that, I'm sure people are up in arms, about how the socialist Superman of the late 30s early 40s is the earliest interpretation, or the golden age silliness of the 50s and 60s. And while both of those hold a special place in my heart, I don't think that that interpretation of the character is what has created a lasting endurance in the modern day.
Originally, the vibes between Clark Kent and Superman continuously differed. In the Golden Age, Clark was clumsy and kind of dorky and a tiny bit incelish. But as Superman, he was confident in his abilities, wanted to make a change, and made that change happen. In the Silver Age, Clark went to being far less of an incel and more of just a dork. Superman was far more selfish or self absorbed, and he was kind of mean spirited often times.
The Bronze Age really combined the man and the myth. When you read Clark, he's more similar to Superman, and when you read Superman, he's still more similar to Clark. The characters are now not just two sides to the same coin, but truly one and the other. This is something that's carried over for most of the Superman comics after this, with the Donner films recreating something in between the Silver Age and Bronze Age Clark.
Its been really fun to read some of these short stories including my favorite cast of characters. While this era of Superman is pretty much just Superman, its nice to see characters like Lois, Morgan Edge, Jimmy Olsen, and Clark's new co anchor show up on the roster. My personal favorite stories are the ones that don't focus on Clark balancing his new role as a news anchor and focuses more on the Superman activities that he's on.
For example, some of the stories I loved most were the ones that question the need for a Superman. Its interesting to see that even in the 70s, people were asking themselves: Must there be a Superman? Pretty much since the character's inception, this has been a question on the minds of many readers, fans, authors, and scholars of the character and the superhero sub genre. But the answer always remains; Superman is our inspiration, a representation for our ability to do good and become fully realized people.
The other stories that stuck out to me were the stories about the drag race with Lois and Clark against some dangerous drivers, the story about the Native American reservation being squandered on by big businesses, and the story about the money counterfeiter getting all of his money taken out of circulation by the big blue boy scout, only to be painted out as the bad guy the entire time.
These are stories that reflect the true nature of the character. While not nearly as staunchly left as he was in the past, in almost every iteration, Superman and Clark Kent lean on doing the right thing, which is always in support of the little guy and the human experience over greed, consumption of power, or even just doing wrong to others. These stories were the ones that stood out the most to me, and while some of the depictions of people of other races or ethnicities (particularly the Native Americans) are somewhat dated, I would say that it's all trying to be positive and create a heartfelt and inspiring environment.
Going to the Native American story particularly, I would say that the author plays on the tropes of what people thought of the Natives at the time and actually warps it on its head a bit. For example, in the story, a Shaman keeps creating issues for the business that's squatting on their land by summoning earthquakes and strong winds, rain, and other problems for the company. This is actually an agreement between Superman and this so called "Shaman". Its a way where no one is actually in trouble for the damage caused while also convincing the businessman to abandon ship. This story is carried out in a few issues, and another character is a man who left his people to become a chemist or scientist of some kind. He swears that he's accepted the Shaman's magic to stop Superman from interfering because he's done nothing to help (No one but Clark and the Shaman know that they're doing these things behind the scenes). The man places a red rock around a Superman symbol painted on the ground that supposedly prevents him from using his powers. Its no magic- the man is using chemical components to recreate symptoms of a Red Sun on the Man of Steel.
The names of the characters are pretty bad in terms of not being an accurate depiction of real Natives names, and it can fall under "clueless white author of the time not knowing real Native Americans". While I can't say that these aren't valid critiques, I think that the writer Leo Dorfman was trying to flip some of those tropes and stereotypes on its head. Not being Native American, I can't speak for how well that's executed, but I thought it was a really good story and it spoke to Superman's desire to help all.
The art is mostly by Curt Swan with substitutes from Ross Andru every once in a while. Both artists are fantastic. I can't remember who drew the story I covered just a second ago, but I feel that their art was great at not characterizing anyone in a negative tone or manner.
Unless you read the actual Kryptonite Nevermore arc. Contrary to the book being named for this specific storyline, this is the weakest in the bunch. Legendary writer Denny O'Neil is trying to do something interesting with our beloved hero, but in my eyes, it falls so flat. I read this story last year, and I remember being disappointed by something heralded as a classic. Especially after reading so many different Superman stories of the time that greatly outshine it.
You see, O'Neil wanted to focus on the flaws or imperfections of characters, such as his Batman run and his Wonder Woman arc going on around this time. It worked perfectly fine for Batman, but O'Neil wasn't creative enough to work around characters with god like abilities in the same way he could with a certain billionaire vigilante. As such, both Superman and Wonder Woman are depowered in both stories he worked on at the time. And neither are characterized well outside of them losing their powers.
You can make interesting stories about superheroes without their powers. In fact, they've done it a time or two with Superman (see the events after DC's 52, its worth a read). But O'Neil doesn't know what Superman truly stands for, and its a fault of the story that's nearly unforgivable in my eyes.
The story is fine, a little dated, and accidentally promotes negative stereotypes, especially for the Asian trainer that crosses over from the Wonder Woman comic in that era (also written by O'Neil, as mentioned earlier).
The problem with O'Neil's work is he wants to create tormented characters who are depressed, manic, or overtly troubled. This is why so many of his stories with low tier powered characters work so well. His work on Batman, The Question, and even Green Arrow/Green Lantern series work. He also has a lot of politics in his books. I'm not one to shy away from political messaging in comics. They've always been there, they always will be, and when executed well it doesn't hinder a story and I can actually agree with them.
But just like how I don't love a lot of the early works of Superman, its not because of those politics. Its because the characters are pretty flat or one note at that time, with room to grow. O'Neil is sort of the counter to that. He wants character work, but he doesn't like that they have powers, or is willing to do character assassination to get to a political idea in his comics. Green Lantern not having a ton of power in his storylines, while also being touted as a racist, or so conservative that he's willing to defend borderline evil billionaires and power hungry politicians of the like, its really easy to see that O'Neil has a hard time characterizing people who don't agree with his beliefs.
So in all honesty, if you can avoid reading the O'Neil stories, I say do it. Stick to the more classic Superman ideas and stories of the time because they're fun, and have their place in the history of the character.

[Brent Kincade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars for the incredible Curt Swan artwork and sentimental feelings for reading comics I first read in the 70s. There were some great issues, but the majority of the stories were pretty bland.

[Ángel Javier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este tomo contiene dos etapas completamente diferentes en las series de Superman: mientras que Action Comics continúa impertérrita presentándonos historias intrascendentes y sin continuidad (ilustradas, eso sí, por el gran Curt Swan), en la cabecera que comparte nombre con el protagonista de la misma, Denny O'Neil estaba llevando a cabo un intento de revolución, haciendo desaparecer toda la kriptonita del planeta en un movimiento polémico y, al fin y a la postre, infructuoso, que trataba de acabar con la repetitiva tendencia dominante durante la década anterior de enfrentar al superhombre por excelencia con amenazas que solo lo eran porque tenían en su poder un trozo de piedra de su planeta natal (que no eran raros en absoluto, como en la actualidad, sino que proliferaban por doquier, vaya usted a saber por qué). A la vez, aparece un sosias misterioso del Hombre de Acero, hecho de una sustancia semejante a la arena y capaz de debilitarlo con su mera presencia. Esta saga se prolongó a lo largo de bastantes números, y culminó con la reducción drástica de los poderes de Superman, lo que, en teoría, permitiría a los futuros guionistas realizar historias más variadas e interesantes de este personaje, aunque pronto se olvidaría esto, y Superman volvería a ser el titán invencible que aún hoy en día sigue siendo; guionistas como Mark Waid, Alan Moore o Grant Morrison han demostrado en repetidas ocasiones que esto ni puede ni debe ser óbice para realizar aventuras extraordinarias del último hijo de Kriptón, pero el esfuerzo de O'Neil por renovar a un personaje por aquel entonces en franca decadencia, debe ser valorado como un valiente intento que, al fin y a la postre, se quedó en eso, pero que, al menos durante unos meses, permitió disfrutar a los lectores de una saga como hacía años que no se veía en esta mítica revista. Sobra decir que el dibujo del equipo formado por Swan a los lápices y Murphy Anderson al entintado es de todo punto magnífico.

La edición, como ya sabemos, es de batalla: papel malo, excelente reproducción, tapa blanda, precio imbatible. ¿Pa qué queremos más?

[Steven desJardins · Rating 2 out of 5]

These are comics from when I was three or four years old, which meant I read none of them new, and only somehow acquired a few as back issues (notably, "Superman, You're Dead … Dead … Dead!" which was collected in a fat hardcover and which stuck in my head despite a somewhat incoherent twist). I read some more stories a few years ago when the Kryptonite Nevermore storyline was collected in a slimmer volumes, but for many stories this is my first exposure. And … well, this was a pretty weak period for the comic, with the art having a weight and seriousness that the stories lacked. Maybe with more Silver Age style art the goofiness of some of the stories (Superman becomes super-greedy! But it's a hoax to trap a criminal!) would have felt less like a cheat. But I would rather have had stories I missed from a few years later, when the art style was what I imprinted on, there were more colorful supervillains, and even the silly stories felt like they were worth Superman's time.

[Tom Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of Superman tales covers a period from 1970-71 in the pages of his own title and Action Comics. Most notably, this represented an attempt to update the character for the times, with the destruction of kryptonite and Clark Kent's job change to a television newsman.

While Denny O'Neil's first issue brought a number of significant changes to the character's status quo, the storytelling itself remained consistent with the general level of silver age storytelling. While there was a mystery carrying over issue-to-issue in the main title, most were one-and-done stories. Action Comics tales even more so continued to reflect stories based on often silly concepts and often displayed chauvinistic attitudes towards female characters. There's humor to be found in these stories, but also elements that occasionally cause a more mature reader to cringe.

[Joe Cloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Superman in the 1970s was weird. He was a bit of an ass sometimes too. Growing up in the 80s, I'm used to the more wholesome, noble portrayal of the character. In other words, I'm used to a flat character who always does the right thing no matter what.

That is not the case in "Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore." Here we have a Superman who becomes bitter when ridiculed. A selfish--if not self-centered--Superman. A Superman who is more cognizant of his death. Don't get me wrong: he's still a superhero. But we don't know what he's going to do. It seems that there's more of a depth to Superman in this storyline. This Superman is more human.

Also, the plot contains many zany twists and turns which keep this reader chuckling. I won't reveal them, but I will say that they made me want to keep reading.

[Matt Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strange but interesting time for Superman comics where none of his iconic villains make an appearance and he goes through some temporary changes and there are a plethora of what if stories. Fun read though. Covers 1970-1971.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag of stories that mostly mean well but often age like month-old milk.

[Pietro Rossi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good anthology of Superman tales from the early 1970s, the start of what is called The Bonze Age of Superman. 10/10

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Straight solid Superman fun and adventure.