Man of Steel
In the beginning when Siegel and Shuster created Superman in 1938, he had a simple 1-page introduction that attempted to explain his origin with minimal detail. His planet of birth, Krypton, was unnamed as were his earthly foster parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent. It did give the world his alter ego, Clark Kent, and newspaper rival, Lois Lane, but the lore of Superman would still take several years to develop with inconsistency. Superman's powers were undefined, developing as the story needed them. Originally he was only able to leap tall buildings, but over time he developed powers of flight, invulnerability, super hearing, super speed, x-ray vision, super ventriloquism, heat vision, and more. By the 50's he was flying through space and time. At first he worked for the Daily Star, then it became the Daily Planet. Lex Luthor first appeared as a redhead before becoming the more familiar bald evil scientist for no reason. By the end of the 40's, Superman was revealed to have had a prior career as Superboy in Smallville, later with a super dog named Krypto and a teenage girlfriend named Lana Lang.
When Superman was rebooted in 1986, John Byrne and his editors had the advantage to draw from years of contradictory history and establish a single vision of Superman, his world, and supporting cast. Man of Steel was an ambitious 6-issue bi-weekly series that would modernize and, with a few later revisions, define Superman for the next 25 years. What Man of Steel had that the 30's Superman lacked was a clearly defined origin and power set, as well as several strict rules that would govern the world of post-Crisis Superman for decades.
The most controversial rule would be that Kal El was indeed the last son of Krypton. All of the other Kryptonians who had accumulated over the last 47 years, including villains like General Zod and the entire city of Kandor, were now off limits to writers. Fans still mourning the death of Supergirl a year earlier were dismayed that Kara was now erased from existence altogether, and would remain so for nearly 20 years.
But Man of Steel wasn't just exposition and world-building, each issue was a self-contained story that could have also stood by itself as a great Superman narrative without its editorial-driven components.
Man of Steel #1
Our story opens with a radical new vision of Krypton that seemed more alien than any previous version. Jor El and Lara spend their last moments on a socially and emotionally detached dying planet where technology has replaced sexual reproduction, giving Kal El a sort of virgin birth.
The story skips ahead several years to a teenage Clark Kent, now a promising high school football player in Smallville. Pre-Crisis Superman was a tragic character who had been orphaned twice, first by his Kryptonian parents and then again by the Kents. One of the defining alterations of the post-Crisis era would be that Jonathan and Martha Kent would remain alive as regular supporting characters in adult Superman's life. Superman had no longer had a previous career as Superboy, and sillier aspects like his dog Krypto were also written out (This would have unintended consequences with the Legion of Superheroes, one of DC's most popular books at the time, whose origin and history were tied to Superboy's, but more on that in a few weeks).
A few years later and now living in Metropolis, Clark Kent is forced to expose himself saving an experimental plane from crashing, and a reporter named Lois Lane just happens to be on it. As happens in other versions, his mother helps him sew a costume and a new identity is born. While pre-Crisis Superman had to pretend to be the facade Clark Kent, post-Crisis Superman established early on that Clark Kent was the real identity and Superman was the mask.
Lois Lane's re-introduction is one of the best things to ever happen to her. Although she was the first female character to have her own comic strip in the 40's (Lois Lane, Girl Reporter), she was better known by her long-running series, Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane, where she mostly schemed to try to get Superman to marry her. There's no trace here of the Archie/Betty/Veronica love triangle type of stories from the 50's and 60's. This Lois Lane is a fearless, independent woman who ambitiously pursues Superman to further her career, not for romantic interests. Driving her car off the pier to get his attention was a bit over the top, but this story nevertheless does a good job of re-purposing familiar plot devices that had been more whimsical in the past and turning them into more grown up scenarios. This issue also hints at her backstory with Lex Luthor, something that would lead to her best moment in the series a few issues later, and would also add a dynamic to the Superman cast that would fuel stories for decades.
Man of Steel was in many ways the beginning of modern comics, not just in its new vision of an old story. The first issue is perhaps the first variant cover, an alternative "special collector's edition" intended to encourage readers to buy multiple copies. Of course, these days any issue of nearly every comic book has variant covers. The collector's edition #1 also had the title in metallic 5th ink, one of the first cover enhancements before that craze would really take off in the 90's. In both story and marketing, Man of Steel was the shape of things to come.
When Superman was rebooted in 1986, John Byrne and his editors had the advantage to draw from years of contradictory history and establish a single vision of Superman, his world, and supporting cast. Man of Steel was an ambitious 6-issue bi-weekly series that would modernize and, with a few later revisions, define Superman for the next 25 years. What Man of Steel had that the 30's Superman lacked was a clearly defined origin and power set, as well as several strict rules that would govern the world of post-Crisis Superman for decades.
The most controversial rule would be that Kal El was indeed the last son of Krypton. All of the other Kryptonians who had accumulated over the last 47 years, including villains like General Zod and the entire city of Kandor, were now off limits to writers. Fans still mourning the death of Supergirl a year earlier were dismayed that Kara was now erased from existence altogether, and would remain so for nearly 20 years.
But Man of Steel wasn't just exposition and world-building, each issue was a self-contained story that could have also stood by itself as a great Superman narrative without its editorial-driven components.
Man of Steel #1
The story skips ahead several years to a teenage Clark Kent, now a promising high school football player in Smallville. Pre-Crisis Superman was a tragic character who had been orphaned twice, first by his Kryptonian parents and then again by the Kents. One of the defining alterations of the post-Crisis era would be that Jonathan and Martha Kent would remain alive as regular supporting characters in adult Superman's life. Superman had no longer had a previous career as Superboy, and sillier aspects like his dog Krypto were also written out (This would have unintended consequences with the Legion of Superheroes, one of DC's most popular books at the time, whose origin and history were tied to Superboy's, but more on that in a few weeks).
A few years later and now living in Metropolis, Clark Kent is forced to expose himself saving an experimental plane from crashing, and a reporter named Lois Lane just happens to be on it. As happens in other versions, his mother helps him sew a costume and a new identity is born. While pre-Crisis Superman had to pretend to be the facade Clark Kent, post-Crisis Superman established early on that Clark Kent was the real identity and Superman was the mask.
Man of Steel #2
Man of Steel was in many ways the beginning of modern comics, not just in its new vision of an old story. The first issue is perhaps the first variant cover, an alternative "special collector's edition" intended to encourage readers to buy multiple copies. Of course, these days any issue of nearly every comic book has variant covers. The collector's edition #1 also had the title in metallic 5th ink, one of the first cover enhancements before that craze would really take off in the 90's. In both story and marketing, Man of Steel was the shape of things to come.
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