Despite being mostly retired from the week-to-week grind of buying new comics I do check out the monthly solicitations. Mainly to see what collected editions are coming down the pike, but every now and then a new series catches my fancy.

Superman: The Stranger definitely fits that bill.

From DC Comics:

DC today announced that it will return readers to the first days of the Man of Tomorrow with Superman: The Stranger, a new six-issue DC Black Label comic book series launching in September, written and illustrated by Wes Craig. Set in an Art Deco-inspired 1938 Metropolis, the series reimagines Superman’s earliest adventures through a modern storytelling lens while drawing heavily from the visual language of DC’s Golden Age of comic books and the Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons.

“Superman is my favorite hero. Always has been,” says writer-artist Wes Craig. “I grew up on Christopher Reeve and John Byrne’s interpretation, then his animated adventures and All-Star Superman as I grew older. His mythology always changing with the times. But the version I love the most and the one that I think, strangely, reflects our modern world best, is the ORIGINAL. You strip away the extra powers, you strip away Ma and Pa Kent, and Smallville and Krypton, you boil it down to that explosive first issue of Action Comics, and you have this vital, powerful myth of a brash young man with incredible powers fighting against a corrupt city. That’s the story I want to tell.”

In Superman: The Stranger, readers will follow Superman at the very beginning of his journey. During the day, Clark Kent does what he can to make ends meet in the bustling city of Metropolis, but when the sun goes down, he leaps into action to keep the city streets safe. As Superman, Clark fights for a better tomorrow, but he feels like he’s not affecting change. The rich keep getting richer, and the poor struggle to survive. Can Superman truly save the downtrodden?

Superman: The Stranger, a six-issue DC Black Label comic book series written and illustrated by Wes Craig with colors by Jason Wordie and lettering by Tom Napolitano, will feature variant covers by Dave Johnson, Goran Parlov, and Ethan Young on the debut issue. Superman: The Stranger #1 arrives wherever comic books are sold on September 2, 2026, with all covers printed on cardstock for $4.99 US, and will carry DC’s Ages 17+ content descriptor for mature readers.

I have a genuine affection and love for the Golden Age era of Superman. I love the comics, I love the comic strips, and I especially love the radio show, so from the jump I love the idea of this series. There is something about that era and that version of Superman that appeals to me more and more as I get older. I like most takes on Superman, but there is something about the original take that was the champion of the weak and oppressed that I just love. Especially in these times of fear and confusion.

Kindness might be the new punk rock, but more and more I am all about a Superman that throws a wife beater into a wall shouting, “You’re not fighting a woman now,” or helping a group of disadvantaged kids that are being used by criminals. The idea of a story set in the late thirties where Clark Kent is fighting the system during the day and Superman is taking it on more directly at night sounds fantastic. I am not familiar with Wes Craig’s work, but I’m liking everything I’m hearing thus far.

I will be picking up this series as it comes out.