Power Struggle

Superman is back from his honeymoon, but his powers still haven't returned from after the Final Night.  While Superman struggles to get his powers back, some recent villains are being recruited into a new Superman Revenge Squad.

Superman #119

Power Struggle part 1

By uncanny coincidence, both Superman and the Legion of Superheroes break into LexCorp at the same time.  The time lost Legion are looking for any primitive technology that might help them get back to the 30th century, while Superman is trying to borrow a spacecraft to get closer to the sun and hopefully gets his powers back.  Interestingly, a footnote references that Superman had done this previously in Superman/Aliens, making that a rare inter-company crossover that was also canonical.  Caught by Lex, Superman humbly asks to borrow his ship under the guise that he needs to run tests on the sun after the Final Night. Luthor can tell he's lying but lets him use the ship because he's curious to find out what Superman is really doing.  The experiment doesn't work and the heroes return the ship to Luthor all without letting him find out that Superman has no powers.

After saving the world in the Final Night, Luthor is no longer on the run and back in control of LexCorp.  Though his marriage to the Contessa is still secret, Luthor's wife reveals to him that she's pregnant!

Adventures of Superman #542

Power Struggle part 2

Superman goes to CADMUS to see if they can help him get his powers back.  Their scientists are unsuccessful, and while there Superman has another brush with Misa, the daughter of Jude, of the Hairies.  The Guardian lets the Man of Steel borrow the Whiz Wagon to go to the Arctic, where the Kryptonian technology in the Fortress of Solitude may help restore his powers.

Lex Luthor confidently surrenders to the authorities to face the charges for destroying Metropolis.  He believes the world will overlook his past crimes now that he helped save it.  However, the Contessa works with Lori Lemaris behind his back and incriminates him in an antiques smuggling scandal, and the court places Luthor under house arrest at the LexCorp building for the duration of the trial.

The absorbing man called Anomaly (from Adventures of Superman #539) leaves CADMUS so that his uncontrollable powers won't be discovered, but he meets a man in the shadows who offers to help him.

Action Comics #729

Power Struggle part 3

Sabotaged by Misa, the Whiz Wagon crashes in the Arctic before reaching the Fortress of Solitude.  Fortunately, Superman is rescued by some scientists.  Unfortunately, they need his help to stop an energy being that their experiments have unleashed.  Even without his powers, Superman helps the scientists transmit the energy being into outer space. 

Eventually, Superman gets back to his Fortress where Professor Hamilton has been since they brought the Bottle City of Kandor there.  Superman tries to restore his powers with the rejuvenation pod that brought him back to life, but that doesn't work either.  Before he can even think of another plan, a boom tube appears and Big Barda and Mr. Miracle recruit Superman and take him to some unknown place to help them save the world.

With both Clark Kent and Perry White missing at the Daily Planet, Dirk Armstrong tries to take over but publisher Franklin Stern intervenes.

Superman: The Man of Steel #64

Power Struggle part 4

The New Gods need Superman's to take Metron into the sun's core to melt the datacore in his garment as a sort of complicated system restore so they can find out if Metron was truly responsible for the disappearance of New Genesis.  Metron calculates that the experiment should restore Superman's powers before it kills them both, and he's at peace dying for science even if he's wrong.  Unable to consult Lois, Superman agrees to this suicidal mission.  The risk is juxtaposed with Perry White having to be hospitalized after chemotherapy.  Fortunately, Metron's calculations were correct and Superman emerges from the sun at full power again.  Although Metron has no memory of the incident, the New Gods discover that he was in fact responsible for New Genesis colliding into Apokolips.

Riot, another new villain from a few months ago, gets away from the Guardian in Metropolis, and the man in the shadows contemplates recruiting this new villain for his team.

Superman: The Man of Tomorrow #7

Lois and Clark take a break from work to go to the Oceanside Pier, where they bump into Lori Lemaris.  Hearing that Superman has his powers back now, former reformed villain and Justice League member Maxima decides to make one last pathetic attempt to throw herself at the Man of Steel.  She tries to reach out to him telepathically, but Lori Lemaris blocks her mind prove.  Guessing that Superman is somewhere near the amusement park, she draws him out by throwing a roller coaster off its tracks.  This act of terrorism obviously doesn't win over the Man of Steel, so he physically overpowers her and humiliates her even further by making her apologize to the crowd and pay restitution to the park's inferior human owner.  Maxima vows to make Superman pay for the indignity, as the man in the shadows watches through binoculars from a yacht and thinks that he's found the woman he's looking for.

Following Power Struggle is a brief period in which Superman returns to his classic look and powers.  This period was so brief, in fact, that Superman still had his mullet in the first arc of Grant Morrison's JLA that started at this time.  By the next issue after that, Superman's powers and costume would be completely unrecognizable.