My podcast backlog is never-ending, especially when taking into account ongoing shows like Guardian Football Weekly or WTF with Marc Maron or any of the innumerable history podcasts that I've picked up over the last couple of years. That said, I always like to keep an eye out for interesting new shows, especially if they're in an area that I haven't been following much recently. I seem to get a lot of recommendations from Twitter, and the All-Star Superfan Podcast is one of these.
Hosted by two Irish guys, Alan Burke and Rob O'Connor, the show talks about everything to do with Superman. And I do mean everything: not just comics and movies and TV shows, but also games and even the Superman radio serial from the 1940s. They also manage to talk about other stuff going on in the DC universe, from other DC-related shows to movies and so forth.
So far, so good - but the reason I first downloaded an episode, over a year ago, was that they got legendary comics writer JM DeMatteis to talk to them. I had no idea what connection he had to Superman (it turns out he wrote episodes of the Superboy show from the late 80s/early 90s, which I remember vaguely), but since I loved his work on Justice League in the 80s alongside Keith Giffen, I had to check it out. Since then, I've heard them talk to a number of other luminaries, from Mark Waid to Marv Wolfman, so they're clearly more than just a couple of dudes recording in their basement.
I'll admit I don't listen to every show, since the stuff about the Lois and Clark show isn't a huge draw (though their enthusiasm for it is making me consider revisiting, even despite Dean Cain's turn toward alt-right idiocy). It's the same with the Superman and Lois show on the CW, which I didn't really take much interest in after the pilot, but they talk in such glowing terms about it that I'm thinking of giving it another shot.
That said, it's nice to hear them talk about general developments in Superman and DC stuff from time to time, or to dig into really obscure bits of Superman mythos, like the aforementioned radio serial. Indeed, the talk with Marv Wolfman happened because he said he'd only do it if they could ask about something that he hasn't talked about already a bunch on podcasts; they brought up the 1980s Ruby-Spears cartoon, and he admitted that this was indeed a topic no one else had ever asked about.
Also, God help me, I saw an episode or two of that show when it was on, so that should give you an idea how plugged into Superman I am.
Listening to the show always makes me think about my own fandom for the character. It's way more fashionable to say you like Batman, and traditionally my favorite individual characters were always the Flash and Green Lantern. Yet I've always had an appreciation for Superman, because his stories tend to be a lot more varied than those of those other characters: a Flash story is all about Barry Allen (or Wally West) learning how to use his superspeed in a new way, while a Green Lantern story is always about using the power ring to solve a problem. Batman, similarly, is always using his vast array of skills and knowledge to solve crimes.
Superman, though, is the only character I can think of (except maybe Todd McFarlane's Spawn) who routinely has to solve his problems without his powers. Lex Luthor, particularly since the 1985 reboot, is not a character that Superman can punch out, so Lex Luthor stories always require Superman to outthink his opponent, who happens to be the smartest man on Earth. It's the same with Brainiac and various other characters, though of course every once in a while you do get villains against whom Superman can cut loose - but the most notable of those, Doomsday, actually killed Superman. So you could say the punching part of Superman is the least fascinating thing about him.
I also love the different ways to tell the same stories about him: his origin has a different resonance depending on what time period it's set (there's a great novel by Tom DeHaven, It's Superman!, that goes back to the character's 1930s roots) or where on Earth he's supposed to have landed (Mark Millar's not my favorite writer but he knocked it out of the park with Red Son, which imagined Superman landing in the USSR instead of Kansas). In some stories he's always the last Kryptonian, while in others he encounters other survivors, which lets the creators examine how his US upbringing puts him in conflict with his native planet's culture.
My absolute favorite Superman story, though, is Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, in which Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, loads of other stuff) tied up all the threads from the Silver Age Superman continuity, from the 1950s to the 1980s, to finish up the Superman mythos before they got rebooted in the Crisis on Infinite Earths. It's scary, heartbreaking, but ultimately a loving goodbye to that continuity, helped by the fact that it was drawn by longtime Superman artist Curt Swan, who'd done a lot of the original stories this was based on.
The All-Star Superfan Podcast hasn't tackled that story yet, and I'd be surprised if they can ever get Alan Moore to talk about it, but I'd love to see them do a segment on it. Either way, if they can keep getting great guests, I'll be happy to keep listening.
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