Superman Receives the Random House Penguin Full-Cast Audio Treatment
It's a bird, but not a plane. It's ...
This past Thursday, something as unexpected as an alien crashing to earth happened. A classic comic book storyline where the main character crash lands on earth. Yes, it’s Superman and they’re getting a full-cast dramatization of “All-Star Superman” from Penguin Random House. The adaptation will release next month.
An All-Star Background
The original story, written by Grant Morrison and and art from Frank Quitely won an Eisner award in 2006 for Best New Series and again in 2007 and 2009 for Best Continuing Series. Meghan Fitzmartin is in charge of the adaptation and 25 actors have lent their voice to this dramatized and originally 12-issue story of Superman.
The All-Star Series was an imprint of DC Comics which combined writers and artists with DC’s top-tier characters. Some consider All-Stars DC’s answer to Marvel’s Ultimates line. The same imprint which eventually introduced Miles Morales in 2011 when Marvel temporarily killed off Peter Parker in “Ultimate Comics Spider-Man” issue 160.
The World’s Finest
Unlike the Marvel imprint, which set out to reintroduce characters to a modern audience and ran for 15 years, the All-Star Line lasted from 2005-08. Because the imprint only lasted three years DC comics only published two All-Star titles. They are “All-Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder” and “All-Star Superman.” DC did announce other titles, but none were released.
An animated movie of “All-Star Superman” released in 2011 and lines from the book have appeared in other Superman movies and TV shows. Zac Snyder’s “Man of Steel” is perhaps the most recent example of pulling straight from the comics. The animated film came out the same year as the animated adaptation of “Batman: Year One.” While DC re-released the Batman story 10 years later as a commemorative edition, “All-Star Superman” did not receive an anniversary rerelease. However a 4K version of the movie dropped on disc and digital in 2023. While the Superman movies starring Christopher Reeves are still considered by many to be the quintessential superman of both animated and live-action. A close contender for best portrayal would be Tyler Hoechlin from the Superman and Lois, and Supergirl TV shows on the CW.
This will be the first audio drama since two audio dramatizations in the 1990s from BBC Radio 5 and Dirk Maggs adapting the “Death of Superman” storyline in 1993 (including the subsequent sequels about the aftermath of Kal-El’s death. It released in the United States as “Superman Lives” and “Doomsday and Beyond” in the UK). There was another Maggs’ production before called“The Adventures of Superman” a retelling of John Byrne’s take on the origins of Superman from the comics three years prior. Since then there have been no official Superman audio stories from the 2000s onward. Both Maggs’ productions are out of print.
You can find more about the audio drama such as a cast list on DC Comics website. 42 years passed between the end of the radio serials and the BBC adaptations. This time it took only 32 for another audio Superman to land in our own backyard. The bird and plane are back. So, too, is Superman.
About the Author
Michael Bergonzi is the founder of AudioDramaReviews.com — a website and podcast dedicated to reviewing podcast fiction and other stories told through sound. He began the site in 2013 and the podcast in 2018. His reviews can also be found on GreatPods: an aggregator like Rotten Tomatoes for podcast reviews. Michael is also a speculative fiction indie author with an epic fantasy series loosely based in Asian history and mythology and a science fiction novella on giant fighting robots where suicide is a punishment for the next of kin. In his spare time, he’s working on a steampunk story where forensic science is an actual magic system.
This substack is for news in the audio drama/podcast fiction space. If interested in coverage, please send press releases to Michael@audiodramareviews.com.