I'm personally not a huge superman fan, but I really wanna give him a chance. What would you recommend for me to watch and/or read to give me the best experience?
First of all: thank you for this question. Second of all: thank you for deciding to try and get into Superman mythology.
I will try to do my best and give some proper advices.
1. What to read? Well, I guess it will be too long of a road if you try to get into main continuity, but there are some great self contained elseworld stories. “Elseworld” means that it happens in an alternative universe from the main continuity and you don’t need to read many years of comic books that were released before to understand those stories.
All-Star Superman. I would say that this book is almost a bible of Superman. This story contains pretty much everything that the character is loved for. It has amazing visual style and great narrative by Grant Morrison. Definitely number one to start with.
Superman: Secret Origin. This book might be called as a definitive version of Superman’s origin story that is told from Clark’s own perspective. It starts from his earliest years and leads to him discovering his full potential and true purpose on Earth.
Superman: Secret Identity. This is just really enjoyable book, that tells ridiculously fun story. It’s kind of real world mixed with fiction. In Secret Identity DC Comics exist exactly like for us: it is comic books with lots of things based on it from movies to toys. The main character is a simple boy who happens to have same name as the fictional character - Clark Kent. But one day he wakes up with Superman’s abilities…
Superman: American Alien. Another origin story about famous super hero, but is told with a different tone and style that the character and his fans haven’t seen before. Also a self contained elseworld story that should be considered to read.
But if you feel like you want to follow the character with the rest of the world in his main continuity, you might start with Superman: Convergence that has only 2 issues and tells about the survival of Superman of New Earth (the main canon version currently that started in 1986) after Flashpoint. Then it follows with a mini series called Superman: Lois and Clark that tells about Superman’s family life on Prime Earth (current canon Earth in DC universe, since their own universe that they originated from is no more after Flashpoint event). Then you can start DC Rebirth, the latest kind-of-reboot, where Superman of New Earth (also known as Pre-Flashpoint Superman) comes out of hiding and becomes a world known super hero again (since the New 52 version is dead, but you should not care about him, it was a mistake just like the entire New 52 reboot). While starting DC Rebirth, you need to read DC Rebirth #1 first and only then start DC Rebirth: Superman #1 and on to current ongoing issues. Superman is also a main character in Action Comics (which is also the second main ongoing series about the character after Superman: Rebirth), Justice League: Rebirth and Trinity comic books that are also part of DC Rebirth. He also makes some brief appearances in comic books of other characters such as Nightwing, Aquaman and Deathstroke as of the latest.
2. What to watch? Well, it depends on how much time you are ready to put into.
Smallville. The TV show that started it all - super heroes becoming famous on television. It consists of 10 season, each with +20 episodes and each episode is +40 minutes long. So it depends on you if you are ready to put that much of a time into a television show. But Tom Welling and Erica Durance are one of the greatest Clark and Lois portrayals in history of the characters and the show itself is simply legendary.
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. The show is really old and looks kind of silly by today’s standards. The main focus is the relationship between Lois and Clark, so if you are into long-time love stories, you might enjoy this show and it’s simply amazing to see Dean Cane and Teri Hatcher’s versions of the characters.
Superman Returns. This doesn’t have the greatest positive popularity, but I think you should give it a chance that it really deserves. This is definitely not the worst movie of all time, it has its ups and downs, but it all comes to your personal opinion that you will get only after watching the movie by yourself.
Man of Steel. The latest version of Superman’s origin story on the big screen. People might whine all they want about this movie, but I LOVE IT VERY MUCH, it did so much for me and Henry Cavill is definitely one of the best versions of Superman to date. He dedicated himself fully to literally become Superman, especially physically, just by looking at him in that costume you might actually believe that the character is real. And just like in case with the Superman Returns - it all comes to your own experience with the movie. Don’t let other people poison your opinion, you should form your own by watching Man of Steel.
It won’t be bad if you give a try to Superman movie of 1978, but it might be difficult to watch if your eyes got used to modern quality of pictures. Though the movie is considered to be classic and definitely is worth to watch. In my opinion this movie is immortal and Christopher Reeve’s version of Superman is a legend.
There is an animated movie based on All-Star Superman story, but I would suggest to read the visual novel first and then watch the cartoon version.
Superman: Unbound. All I need to say about this - the best latest animated movie about Superman. You better ignore all those based on New 52 atrocities that are presented in other latest DC animated movies like Justice League of 2014. Seriously, New 52 is so bad that you should not even know about its existence.
You might also want to give a try to such cartoon TV shows as Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.
That would be just it from me. Hopefully this list will be helpful to you in one way or another and to other people who want to jump on the Kryptonian adventure.
