After watching the latest trailer for James Gunn’s Superman, I realized I had made a greivous error in our March 2018 post, Superman | The Stories You Should Read (you still should read them). So, here’s our look at the one Superman story you must read.
James Gunn recently shared his inspiration for Superman on Threads
View on Threads
No surprises. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster‘s work has to inform any decent Superman story. Max Fleisher‘s cartoons, Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely‘s All-Star Superman is a personal favourite. However, like myself, Gunn overlooked one of comic books’ most influential creators.
The Man Of Steel was the first reconstruction/deconstruction of Superman. 1985’s Crisis On Infinite Earths retconned the entire DC Universe. Origins were changed, characters were wiped out of existence, new properties were brought in.
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| 🎨George Perez |
DC wisely chose John Byrne to remake Superman for the modern era (the modern era being 1986 at the time). Byrne was the most popular comic book creator in the 80s. He had unsurpassed runs on the Marvel’s X-Men (1978 – 1981) and Fantastic Four (1981 to 1986). So, this was a massive win for DC.
History note: The Man Of Steel #1 Collectors’ Edition is the first variant cover ever. Variant covers weren’t a thing in ’86.
Byrne’s strength is his understanding of what made comic book characters work. He applied his back-to-basics approach to Superman. The destruction of Krypton, his upbringing in rural Kansas by adoptive parents.
Jettisoned was the nerdy, unsure teenage Clark Kent of Smallville.
The new Clark Kent was a popular, high school football star. Superboy never existed in this new DC Universe (Byrne would address this in his run on the rebooted Superman series).
Byrne understood was the Clark Kent was very much the disguise.
Lois Lane had always been tenacious, daring, but Byrne made her far more alluring, vivacious than she had ever been.Clark is still attracted to her, but it’s not a goofy, schoolboy crush.
In the pre-Crisis era , Clark Kent and Lois are friends and colleagues. Byrne makes them professional rivals.
Superman’s Golden Age bromance with Batman also gone. He tried to turn Batman in on their first post-Crisis meeting.
After taking down both a criminal syndicate and the corrupt cops in Batman: Year One (Batman #404 to #407, volume one), Batman is officially branded as a criminal. Even for Superman, capturing Batman is next to impossible.
So began Superman and Batman’s uneasy alliance that would become friendship over time
Superman’s most prominent adversary, Lex Luthor ,had been a standard, megalomanical super-villain for more ages, motivated by a desire to take over the world, and his resentment of Superboy (who had accidentially caused his baldness)
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| Superman #10 | Jerry Siegel, Leo Nowak, Shuster Shop | DC Comics (June, 1941) |
The modern Lex Luthor is a powerful billionaire businessman. (more on this later)
DC Comics’ heroes have always been more iconic, wealthier whereas Marvel’s were more relatable (Spider-Man struggling to pay rent, for example). Byrne gave us a look at Superman’s life as Clark Kent.
It’s only a few panels, but showing how Superman does something as day-to-day as shaving. So, Superman has a home life in this new universe (although he’s still doing well financially).
Back to Lex Luthor,
Luthor’s animosity for Superman comes from his place of power. Behind the scenes, he set up a hijacking of his own massive, luxury yacht to see for himself Superman in action.
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| My favourite page from The Man Of Steel |
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| You can order Superman 1: The Man Of Steel Omnibus here |
