From frying God's brain to escorting Thatcher from office, the Scots writer chooses his favourite superhero moments

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Action Comics #1, 1938

This was the first ever superhero comic. Not only did it start everything off, the first image of the story is incredible. It's Superman – who was an unknown character at that time – leaping through the air with a tied-up blonde under his arm, with absolutely no explanation of how he got there, or why. What I like about it is that, as a piece of storytelling, it's very modernistic, and having always thought about it in terms of nostalgia, when I was researching it for the book it was great to go back and see it for what it was. From the first panel on, it sets up everything for the next 70 years.


The Flash #163, 1966

This was from the time of pop art comics in the 1960s when DC Comics had go-go chicks, and almost Bridget Riley-style op-art across the top. It's a great cover that shows the head and shoulders of The Flash, holding up his hand to the reader. He's yelling out, "STOP! DON'T PASS UP THIS ISSUE – MY LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!" A supervillain sets up a machine whereby everyone forgets that The Flash ever existed, and his body begins to attenuate into this red mist; there's a very odd, paranoid feel to the story. In the end he's only saved because there's this little girl sitting by the side of the docks who still believes in him.


Green Lantern/Green Arrow #89, 1971

This was from the height of the "relevance" period – the tail-end of Vietnam and Nixon, when comics began to confront headline issues in a way they'd never done before. The Green Lantern/Green Arrow comic was at the vanguard of this: they'd already looked at Malthusian over-population, drugs and Manson-style cults. This was the last issue of the series, about a Christlike environmental activist called Isaac who is fighting against an aerospace company. The way he does this, at the end of the story, is to crucify himself on the tail of a 747. God knows how a man manages to crucify himself, but the image is incredible: it's Christ in the middle, with Green Arrow and Green Lantern also View complete article