History YMMV / ActionComics

* DontShootTheMessage: The infamous story "The Incident" in ''Action Comics'' #900 depicts Superman choosing to renounce his American citizenship as an effort to show his loyalty is to humanity as a whole, not just America. Unfortunately, the story got criticized for being anti-American so DC was forced to backtrack on this. After all, Superman can't stand for "the American way" if he no longer saw himself as American.

** The cover of ''Action Comics'' #252, featuring Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} flying out of her rocket ship in front of an amazed Franchise/{{Superman}} is also one of the most iconic comic-book covers ever done.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: From UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} #176 ''Muscles For Money'', where Franchise/{{Superman}} decides to start charging money to save people. While it's certainly true that Superman was [[{{superdickery}} doing some reprehensible things]] (charging insane amounts, forcing people to sign contracts before he'll save their lives, etc) the primary argument seems to be that Superman doesn't deserve ''any'' sort of reward for the good he does. The worst part is when Superman politely requests the $10,000 reward for two criminals he brought in only to have everyone declare him a money-grubber for it, despite the fact that this is a reward the police themselves had offered and which anyone else besides Superman would have been given happily.

** Ironic, seeing that in 2021, Supes' official motto was changed to "Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow", to show the universality of the character and his message.

* DontShootTheMessage: The infamous story "The Incident" in ''Action Comics'' #900 depicts Superman choosing the renounce his American citizenship as an effort to show his loyalty is to humanity as a whole, not just America. Unfortunately, the story got criticized for being anti-American so DC was forced to backtrack on this. After all, Superman can't stand for "the American way" if he no longer saw himself as American.

** Ironic, seeing that in 2021, Supes' official motto was changed to "truth, justice and a better motto", to show the universality of the character and his message.

** The cover of Action Comics #1, featuring Superman smashing a car to the crooks bewilderment and horror, is not only the most famous image in the Superman series, but one of the most famous comic book images ''of all time''.
** The cover of Action Comics #252, featuring Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} flying out of her rocket ship in front of an amazed Franchise/{{Superman}} is also one of the most iconic comic-book covers ever done.

* HilariousInHindsight: The first issue of the Action Comics, though a {{Plot Hole}} for Superman's assignment to cover a war in South America thanks to either bad wording or {{Retcon}} on their conversations, that showed the deal between a SleazyPolitician and CorruptCorporateExecutive in United States (neutral during the time of its publication) to take part in Europe became awkward in 1939 (provision of arms to Allies through Lend-and-Lease-Program) and 1942 (When US officially entered the war after Pearl Harbor attack).[[note]]Knowing the Jewish origins of the creators, it was probably a deal to help ''Germany'', since there was a large pro-Germany faction in the US in TheThirties.[[/note]]

* EnsembleDarkhorse -- Despite being on the cover, Superman was just one of a number of characters introduced in this book. Nobody really expected much success with him; in fact, Supes had already been rejected by a number of publications, and appeared here only because they really, ''really'' needed material. In fact, after the first issue, they kept him off the cover for a number of issues because of the uncertainty of his success. However, by issue 14 it became incontrovertible that Superman was the reason for the immense sales and he was on the cover for good.

* HeartwarmingMoments: From #1000, an EliteMook tells how Superman helped his HeelFaceTurn:
-->"The last time he caught me, I was in over my head. I was smuggling plutonium for Skull and nearly died. Superman knew the cycle of poverty and violence I was stuck in. He put in a good word for me so that once I got outta jail, I landed a decent job. Thanks to him and his patience, I finally have my life on track. I'd like to see him again. To thank him."
** There were many of these in #1000, fittingly, given the MilestoneCelebration mood of the issue:
*** Superman is kidnapped by Vandal Savage and sent through Hypertime. His only thought while trying to get out and facing off with mooks and rogues throughout his long histories is... to get back to Jon and Lois, who are celebrating his birthday;
*** The entire city of Metropolis turns out for a celebration in honor of Superman (the above EliteMook's account comes from this story). To make sure that his big day isn't ruined, the Justice League colludes with Lois to prevent him finding out about an alien invasion that they're handling... in effect giving him the day off, and then showing up to surprise him en masse (along with, for some reason, [[GoKartingWithBowser Deathstroke and Harley Quinn...]])[[note]]Both are characters written by the author, so it was basically a shout out to his titles.[[/note]] at the end of the story with their own thanks for his being there.
*** A story set in the far, far future has Superman returning to Earth one last time before it's swallowed by the sun to say goodbye to Jonathan and Martha Kent one last time. It's implied that he's visited Earth once a year for ''5,000,000,000 years'' for this purpose.
*** It's revealed that Superman saved Lex Luthor's life back when they were kids.
*** We're treated to the resolution of [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse the driver of the car from Action #1]] (the one whose car was famously thrown into a cliff by Supes on the cover. We find that Superman gives him a YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre speech, causing the thug to have a HeelfaceTurn.
*** Mxy and his girlfriend roleplay a far-future Superman theme park. When they get to the point where the park reveals how Mxy killed Superman, Mxy stops. He realizes he has too much fun with the big lug to ever want to kill him.
*** MarvWolfman (and a posthumous CurtSwan)'s story has Superman placing his well-founded trust in the people of Metropolis to do what's right when Braniac attacks and he's all the way on the other side of the world and powerless to stop the trouble going on. Doubly heartwarming for the use of old unpublished Curt Swan art, allowing the man who more than most had a massive influence on the visual look of Superman to participate in this milestone even from beyond the grave.

*** The entire city of Metropolis turns out for a celebration in honor of Superman (the above EliteMook's account comes from this story). To make sure that his big day isn't ruined, the Justice League colludes with Lois to prevent him finding out about an alien invasion that they're handling... in effect giving him the day off, and then showing up to surprise him en masse (along with, for some reason, [[GoKartingWithBowser Deathstroke and Harley Quinn...]]) at the end of the story with their own thanks for his being there.

-->"The last time he caught me, I was in over my head. I was smuggling plutonium for Skull and nearly died. Superman knew the cycle of poverty and violence I was stuck in. He put in a good word for me so that once I got outta jail, I landed a decent job. Thanks to him and his patience, I finally have my life on track. I'd like to see him again.

* HilariousInHindsight: The first issue of the Action Comics, though a {{Plot Hole}} for Superman's assignment to cover a war in South America thanks to either bad wording or {{Retcon}} on their conversations, that showed the deal between a SleazyPolitician and CorruptCorporateExecutive in United States (neutral during the time of its publication) to take part in Europe became awkward in 1939 (provision of arms to Allies through Lend-and-Lease-Program) and 1942 (When US officially entered the war after Pearl Harbor attack).

* StrawmanHasAPoint: From UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} #176 ''Muscles For Money'', where Franchise/{{Superman}} decides to start charging money to save people. While it's certainly true that Superman was doing some reprehensible things (charging insane amounts, forcing people to sign contracts before he'll save their lives, etc) the primary argument seems to be that Superman doesn't deserve ''any'' sort of reward for the good he does. The worst part is when Superman politely requests the $10,000 reward for two criminals he brought in only to have everyone declare him a money-grubber for it, despite the fact that this is a reward the police themselves had offered and which anyone else besides Superman would have been given happily.

** The cover of Action Comics #252, featuring Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} flying out of her rocket ship in front of an amazed Franchise/{{Superman}} is also one of the most iconic comic-book covers.

* {{Hilarious In Hindsight}}: The first issue of the Action Comics, though a {{Plot Hole}} for Superman's assignment to cover a war in South America thanks to either bad wording or {{Retcon}} on their conversations, that showed the deal between a SleazyPolitician and CorruptCorporateExecutive in United States (neutral during the time of its publication) to take part in Europe became awkward in 1939 (provision of arms to Allies through Lend-and-Lease-Program) and 1942 (When US officially entered the war after Pearl Harbor attack).
* SignatureScene: The cover of Action Comics #1, featuring Superman smashing a car to the crooks bewilderment and horror, is not only the most famous image in the Superman series, but one of the most famous comic book images ''of all time''.

* {{Hilarious In Hindsight}}: The first issue of the Action Comics that showed the deal between a SleazyPolitician and CorruptCorporateExecutive in United States (neutral during the time of its publication) to take part in Europe became awkward in 1939 (provision of arms to Allies through Lend-and-Lease-Program) and 1942 (When US officially entered the war after Pearl Harbor attack).

* StrawmanHasAPoint: From UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} #176 ''Muscles For Money'', where {{Superman}} decides to start charging money to save people. While it's certainly true that Superman was doing some reprehensible things (charging insane amounts, forcing people to sign contracts before he'll save their lives, etc) the primary argument seems to be that Superman doesn't deserve ''any'' sort of reward for the good he does. The worst part is when Superman politely requests the $10,000 reward for two criminals he brought in only to have everyone declare him a money-grubber for it, despite the fact that this is a reward the police themselves had offered and which anyone else besides Superman would have been given happily.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: From the SilverAge #176 ''Muscles For Money'', where {{Superman}} decides to start charging money to save people. While it's certainly true that Superman was doing some reprehensible things (charging insane amounts, forcing people to sign contracts before he'll save their lives, etc) the primary argument seems to be that Superman doesn't deserve ''any'' sort of reward for the good he does. The worst part is when Superman politely requests the $10,000 reward for two criminals he brought in only to have everyone declare him a money-grubber for it, despite the fact that this is a reward the police themselves had offered and which anyone else besides Superman would have been given happily.

* SignatureScene: The cover of Action Comics #1, featuring Superman smashing a car to the crooks bewilderment, is not only the most famous image in the Superman series, but one of the most famous comic book images ''of all time''.

* EnsembleDarkhorse -- Despite being on the cover, Superman was just one of a number of characters introduced in this book. Nobody really expected much success with him; in fact, Supes had already been rejected by a number of publications, and appeared here only because they really, ''really'' needed material. In fact, after the first issue, they kept him off the cover for a number of issues because of the uncertainty of his success. However, by issue 14 it became incontrovertible that Superman was the reason for the immense sales and he was on the cover for good.

* EnsembleDarkhorse -- Despite being on the cover, Superman was just one of a number of characters introduced in this book. Nobody really expected much success with him; in fact, Supes had already been rejected by a number of publications, and appeared here only because they really, ''really'' needed material. In fact, after the first issue, they kept him off the cover for a number of issues because of the uncertainty of his success.