This is the deluxe version of Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? Which means it contains not only the "final" Superman story from the Silver Age (prior to the 1980s reboot), but it also contain all of Alan Moore's other Superman stories, one involving the Swamp Thing, the other involving the villain Mongol and the worst birthday present ever, a plant that seeps into your body and makes you live out your greatest fantasy.

I don't want to review each story individually, but I will say as a group, they're a strange and satisfying read. More and more, I find myself picking up Superman stories that are fascinated with death, and two are included here--though both have happy outcomes. Yet there's a strain of melancholy to both, in that Superman assumes he will die alone, either because his identity is a secret or because he's brought mayhem on his closest friends and family because of a loss of his secret identity. And the final story includes gaining back his dead home planet. Only to lose it again by issue's end.

Moore is a fantastic writer when it comes to stakes. In his work on Superman, nothing more or less is at stake than Superman's mind, heart, nobility and very existence as a hero. The art by Curt Swan gives us a heroic but also human superhero, one who wants to give justice the upper hand, but finds that hard to do when being blasted at his weakest moments or in his most private thoughts. All of these tales have the tone of fables, and that is probably why they are so effective. By watching the world's strongest man grapple with life and death issues over and over again, we can think about how we might do the same. And, as these stories remind us, everyone has to do the same eventually, alone or not.