Each Friday, we'll be letting a different DC.com writer share what they'll be reading over the weekend and why you might want to check it out. Here's this week's suggestion for a perfect Weekend Escape!
 

Pull up a chair, friends, because this is a story I’ve been wanting to write about for ages now. When it comes to must-read Superman stories, you have your usual suspects like All-Star Superman, Superman: Birthright, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, and Superman For All Seasons, but it’s time we recognize Superman: The Warworld Saga as among the Man of Steel’s finest stories. It also doesn’t hurt that the Warworld Saga is vastly different from your typical Superman story. Whether it’s your first Superman story, or your fiftieth, be prepared to have your mind blown.
 

The Premise:

The planet Warworld is ruled by a tyrant named Mongul, who stands for everything that Superman opposes. On Warworld, Mongul has enslaved scores of aliens of varying species—some of whom are the last remaining members of their race—and forces them to fight each other in gladiatorial battles. After a mysterious alien ship from Warworld reaches Earth carrying people speaking a dead Kryptonian language, Superman must travel to Warworld to learn the truth about a lost branch of Kryptonians and liberate the planet at large. There’s only one problem: Warworld is under the rays of a red sun, nullifying his powers. Superman won’t be going it alone though. He’s got the support of his newly-formed Authority team, featuring the likes of Midnighter, Apollo, Manchester Black, Enchantress, a new Lightray, an OMAC, and Natasha Irons. Think of it as Star Trek meets Gladiator.
 

Let’s Talk Talent:

The Warworld Saga is part of Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s run on Action Comics, which is an absolute banger from start to finish. Johnson develops the state of the DC Universe outside of Earth in a satisfying way, because we see the different issues affecting other alien cultures. It feels almost anthropological, and I find it fascinating.

Johnson is teamed up with a murderer’s row of incredible artists across the Warworld Saga. The story is kicked off by Daniel Sampere, who’s now killing it on Wonder Woman, and the gladiatorial arc of the story is drawn by Riccardo Federici. Federici and Johnson worked together on The Fellspyre Chronicles, and Federici brings the same epic scale and strong creature design to the Warworld Saga. Seriously, it’s like nothing you’ve seen before in a Superman book. If you’re a fan of Conan the Barbarian, you’re in for a treat.
 

A Few Reasons to Read:

• If you’ve ever felt on the fence about Superman because you’ve found him overpowered or boring, then read this book. It is written within the tradition of Superman as the “champion of the oppressed,” a throughline that stretches back to the character’s debut in 1938’s Action Comics #1, with the added hurdle of him being powerless for much of the story. This approach lets the thematic significance of Superman really shine, and if the Warworld Saga doesn’t make you a fan for life, I don’t know what will.
   
• Within the extremes of Mongul as an ultimate evil, and Superman as an ultimate good, there are plenty of brand-new characters with lots of nuance who lie somewhere in between. This makes the Warworld Saga a much more complicated story about the challenges of liberation.

• The Warworld Saga introduces two of my favorite new members of the Superman family, the young siblings Otho-Ra and Osul-Ra. If you’ve been wanting to see Superman as a father again in the wake of Jon Kent getting aged up, the Warworld Saga has got what you’re looking for.
   
• There are some incredibly epic battle scenes in this book. Put on your favorite soundtrack from a movie or video game heavy on swordfights and dig in. One specific issue had such a great moment with Midnighter that I accosted one of my best friends at our local comic shop and demanded he read it right then and there.
   
• Johnson’s writing goes deep into Kryptonian culture and traditions, and I learned so much from reading the Warworld Saga.
   

Why It’s Worth Your Time:

The Warworld Saga is a long-form exploration into personal and cultural continuity within the bleakest of circumstances. How do you preserve your culture in the wake of your planet’s destruction and your enslavement at the hands of a brutal tyrant? When you and your ancestors have been stuck on Warworld for generations, how do you reintegrate yourself with long-lost cultural traditions? There are no easy answers to these questions, a fact that the Warworld Saga is quick to highlight.

On another note, I think we’re all familiar with how Superman saves others in the DC Universe, but I think the same can be said for his impact in the real world. I was going through a really rough period when this story was being released in single issue form and waiting each month to read the next installment of the story helped keep me going. If you’re also struggling right now, I hope the Warworld Saga can offer you some of the help that it gave me.
 

Superman: The Warworld Saga by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Daniel Sampere and Riccardo Federici is available in bookstores, comic shops, libraries and digital retailers as a softcover collection. It can also be read in full on DC UNIVERSE INFINITE.

Jules Chin Greene writes about comics, TV, games and film for DC.com, and his work can also be found at Nerdist, Popverse and Multiverse of Color. You can follow him on Bluesky at @JulesChinGreene and on Instagram at @infinitevibes.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Jules Chin Greene and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.