For the fan who has everything, Superman stories by Alan Moore

Editor's note: Some spoilers here but these stories are twenty-some years old for gosh sakes!

How do you measure the best comic book stories about an ongoing character?

For me it's always the narratives that have a conclusion where the protagonist can never go back to the status quo.  Sure, there are lots of comics with decent endings within an ongoing series.  But I'm almost 99.9% certain that everyone remembers the stories that have a hint of finality.

For Superman the best stories seem to have some last mental or physical hurdle the Man of Steel has to clear.  These obstacles could range from breaking his own personal code to facing his mortality. 

In DC Comics' deluxe edition of "Superman: Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow?" super star writer Alan Moore ("Watchmen") tackles those issues in three collected Superman stories.

The Deluxe Edition was the selection of the Comic Club at Geoffrey's Comics last week.

I should mention that some in the group agreed that it would be fair to rank two of these stories among the best Superman stories ever told in any form.

The title piece of the collection, of course, is "Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow?"  It depicts the "final" story of Superman in his last stand against a few of his lesser enemies and some of his deadliest ones such as Lex Luthor and Brainiac.  That pairing becomes particularly gruesome later in the tale.

While the writing is less agile than what Moore has shown in his other works (care to guess which?), the story is still unforgettable as it plays out the fates of several Superman mainstays. This comic installment, originally published in 1986, features the artwork of Silver Age veteran artist Curt Swan with assists from George Perez ("Crisis on Infinite Earths") and Kurt Schaffenberger ("The Marvel Family").  And yeah, you could say this story was Elseworlds before Elseworlds stuff was the hotness.

Moore and artists Rich Veitch and Al Williamson present another story of the Man of Tomorrow facing the grim reaper in "The Jungle Line."  Moore fans familiar with this tale know it includes an appearance by the Swamp Thing.  

Nothing against the classic main piece but the story that sparked the most discussion was Moore's teaming with artist Dave Gibbons ("Watchmen") on "For The Man Who Has Everything."

Superman is captured by alien super-baddie and wanna-be conqueror, Mongul and subjected to a plant-life that places its victim into an alternate life where they are content.  For Supes that lands him on a Krypton that was never destroyed and offers him a life as a family man.

You could imagine how messed up it would be to suddenly have a perfect life snatched away from you.

"Getting it and losing it is significantly worse than never having it at all," says Comic Club host Geoffrey Patterson Jr.

For me to read these stories and to place them in the hierarchy of my all-time Superman tales there has to be a few scenes or moments in the stories that rest in my mind's eye forever. 

I can honestly say Moore and company do a pretty good job of that in several parts of this collection but there were also some odd moments:

I know it's totally expected for Superman and Wonder Woman to hook up, but there was an awkward smooch moment between the two that made the Man of Steel come off a little smarmy.

So was this good enough to knock "All Star Superman" off the top of my list or make me forget the brain-melting beauty of Neal Adams' artwork on "Superman vs. Muhammad Ali?"

... I'll have to think about that.