Supermen of America

No longer living a double life as Clark Kent, Superman devotes every waking hour to protecting the planet.  But his fellow superheroes start to worry about his increasingly authoritarian new methods.

Adventures of Superman #565

Superman intervenes in the civil unrest in the Asian dictatorship of Kota Zamfir and demands the president resign and allow free and fair elections.  The world is shocked by the Man of Steel's uncharacteristic behavior, although actions like this are reminiscent of his earliest appearances in the Golden Age.  Back in Metropolis, members of the JLA led by Batman summon Superman with a signal on top of the now-empty former Daily Planet building.  Superman is angry when he learns that Lois contacted Batman to stage this intervention, and he flies off unwavering in his new mission.  Outburst continues to follow Superman to try to help him, and watches the rendezvous with the JLA from a distance, so the cover is surprisingly concise in depicting the interior story.

Professor Hamilton completes his analysis of the artificial Kryptonite bullet that shot Superman, but then some hired guns break into his lab to take the sample back to Luthor now that the Professor's work is done.

Supermen of America #1

While watching the world on his wall of monitors in the Fortress of Solitude, Superman calls Lois.  She begs him to come back home but he refuses.  He appears in a few other pages in this issue to stop a nuclear war, but aside from that this story is about Outburst.

Mitch fails to stop a peaceful rock star from being murdered by gang violence and, like Superman, feels he needs to do more.  Outburst climbs to the top of LexCorp to get an audience with Lex Luthor, who welcomes him as if he were expecting him.  Luthor uses him to create an organization of well-meaning youth to combat the gangs, and Outburst starts to recruit his peers into the new Supermen of America.  Metahumans like Mitch are now apparently as natural in the DC Universe as mutants are in the Marvel universe, and Luthor wagers that a percentage of his recruits will happen to have super powers.  Mitch is amazed to find out Luthor even plans to pay him for his services, but when his own life problems prevent him from effectively leading the team he decides to return the check.  Outburst is mad that Superman wasn't in Metropolis to help his team when they needed it, not knowing that the Man of Steel was stopping nuclear warheads in the sky.  He wonders what Superman does when he's not being Superman, and then he wonders if Superman ever takes a break.

Supermen of America #1 was another one of the oversized one-shots that were becoming increasingly more common during this period.  It featured a gatefold cardstock cover which had Supermen of America membership paraphernalia on the inside, such as their badge, with dotted lines to cut out.  This was a throwback to old mail-in fan clubs going back to the Golden Age of comics.

Action Comics #752

Lois walks into LexCom 6 hours late, soaking wet, with only 20 minutes to complete her column.  With apparently nothing better to do, the LexCom staff watch her as the types out her story, which explains why she was so late and how she came to be drenched on a sunny day.  The day before, Lois was in the park with her sister Lucy when a brother and sister team of villains called the Zombi Twins (in their one and only appearance) has a fight in the park with the Supermen of America.  Instead of going to work the next morning, Lois goes shopping and a Supermen of America member named Pyrogen sets off the store's sprinkler system while trying to stop a shoplifter.  Simone won't publish Lois' column because it's too critical of Luthor's Supermen of America and Lois goes home for the day.  Although really, her story still never explained what events from the day before had to do with her being late, or why she was still soaking wet from that morning especially after she had just bought new clothes.  That night at their apartment alone, Lois breaks down in tears because she misses Superman.

Superman: The Man of Steel #87 

The new creative team of writer Mark Schultz, penciller Dough Mahnke, and inker Dennis Janke takes over this series.  They would be the only creative team that would stay on past the editorial change after Superman #150, and Mark Schultz would stay on until the final issue of the series.

Now more the Luthor Youth than Supermen, the non-powered members of the organization start to intimidate Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen for unfavorable reporting of the Supermen of America.  Although it doesn't quite make sense considering Lois can't even get her critical stories published by LexCom, it does seem as irrational as Trump supporters turning on Fox News.  Outburst orders the members to back off and reminds them that Superman never stoops to reacting to his press, good or bad.  

At his central command at the Fortress of Solitude, Kelex reminds Kal El that today is the American holiday of Thanksgiving that he usually spends with his earthly family.  No really, this Thanksgiving issue just happened to land on this week.  Superman decides he should go visit Ma and Pa Kent if only to explain to them what he's doing now.  When he gets to the farm in Smallville, he's surprised to find Lois is there because she thought there was a chance he might show up that day.  Superman leaves dinner to solve multiple crises at the same time, including altering the weather to stop a hurricane.  Lois and the Kents believe Superman is going too far in trying to control everything around him.

Just like the JLA had done, Superboy, Supergirl, and Steel meet with Superman out of concern, but he likewise rejects their intervention.  A rally of Supermen of America assemble on the ground below in a Nazi-like military formation.