The strip proved so popular that National launched Superman into his own self-titled comic book, the first for any superhero, premiering with the cover date summer 1939.

Perry White, a supporting character who had originated on the Superman radio program was introduced into the comic book in issue #7 (October 1940).

[10] A more detailed origin story for Superman was presented in issue #53 (July 1948) to mark the character's tenth anniversary.

[11] Another part of the Superman mythos which had originated on the radio program made its way into the comic books when kryptonite was featured in a story by Bill Finger and Al Plastino.

[12] Superman was the first DC title with a letters column as a regular feature beginning with issue #124 (September 1958).

[15] Julius Schwartz became the title's editor with issue #233 (January 1971)[16] and together with writer Denny O'Neil and artist Curt Swan streamlined the Superman mythos, starting with the elimination of Kryptonite.

[23] DC's parent company Warner Communications reinstated the byline for Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster which had been dropped decades earlier,[24][25][26] and the first issue with the restored credit was Superman #301 (August 1976).

[28] The shrunken city of Kandor, which had been introduced in 1958, was restored to normal size in a story by Len Wein and Swan in Superman #338 (August 1979).

[30][31] Superman ran uninterrupted until the mid-1980s, when DC Comics instituted a line-wide relaunch with the 1985 event Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Folding their vast multiverse into a single shared universe, Superman and his supporting cast received a massive overhaul at the hands of writer/artist John Byrne.

One last story, which also marked the end of Schwartz's tenure as editor of the series,[16] was published to give a send-off to the former status quo: Alan Moore's Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

[36] When the series was relaunched in late 1986 under its new title, the creative team initially was writer Marv Wolfman and artist Jerry Ordway.

[49] His stories included the villain Ruin, the attempted assassination of Lois Lane and a number of Mister Mxyzptlk appearances.

Illustrator Chris Sprouse left the project due to the media attention and some comic book stores announced a boycott.

[53] Superman volume 2 reached issue #226 (April 2006) and was then canceled as part of the linewide "Infinite Crisis" storyline.

Busiek and Pacheco developed an extended storyline featuring Arion coming into conflict with Superman.

[63] Straczynski and Barrows began a year-long story entitled "Grounded" that sees Superman begin a long walk across the United States to regain the connection with his adopted home that he feels he lost while away on New Krypton.

[64] The series ended with issue #714 (October 2011), prior to DC Comics' The New 52 company wide reboot and relaunch.

[54] DC Comics launched Superman volume 3 with issue #1 in September 2011 (cover dated November 2011), as part of The New 52.

[70] Superman's secret identity as Clark Kent was revealed to the world in a storyline by writer Gene Luen Yang in 2015.

Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason are the creative team, with the Superman series shipping twice-monthly.

A fifth series under the direction of Brian Michael Bendis was released in July 2018 and ended its run in June 2021 with issue #32.

[79] The series followed the adventures of Jon Kent, the son of Superman and Lois Lane, as he is entrusted with the protection of Earth.

A new ongoing Superman comic book series launched in February 2023 from writer Joshua Williamson and artist Jamal Campbell.