Received this as a gift last year. Superman : The War Years 1938-1945. Published in 2015 by Chartwell Books. Kinda surprising outside companies still are doing their own DC reprint books. Contains 20 stories written by Jerry Siegel and drawn by Joe Shuster and other artists. Historical notes by longtime comics writer/historian Roy Thomas...
Shows the evolution of how the war was written about, first using stand-ins for Hitler, etc. and then after 1941 writing abt the war directly. Also explains how Clark Kent tried to enlist but failed the eyesight test when he accidentally used his x-ray vision to read the eye chart in the next room. Classic!
My favorite here has to be "The Conquest of a City" from Superman 18, cover-date Oct. 1942. Story by Jerry Siegel, art by John Sikela. Clark becomes convinced the people of Metropolis aren't serious enough about the war so he writes about it in the Daily Planet. A businessman approaches and suggests staging a fake invasion to prepare the city. Of course, the businessman is a spy who plans a real invasion that Superman has to stop. It's a bizarre story made even more bizarre by the fact that citizens are aware it's supposed to be a fake invasion and are kind of joking about it.
These stories in hindsight seem really innocent, but clearly show how strong a symbol of good Superman had become.
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