Superman in the Comics, 1986-2018 (Fall 2017)

1986 ushered in the Modern Age for Superman comics. Beginning with John Byrne's Man of Steel in 1986, many changes were made to the story of Superman and his supporting cast. This included several retellings of his origin story, as well as changes or limits to his powers. The following artifacts exhibit some of the most significant and unique comic releases in the Modern and Post-Modern eras of Superman Comics. 

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Man of Steel (1986)
 
'Man of Steel' was written and drawn by John Byrne. It was a six issue series that retold Superman's origin story. The series was released from July to September in 1986.
'Man of Steel' was used to set a new status quo for the ongoing Superman comics. This origin was used for many years until 2003 with the release of 'Superman: Birthright.' DC Comics began to realize that their use of the 'multiverse' became too complicated for casual and new readers. In order to ease confusion, DC erased the Multiverse and rid Superman comics of Earth-1, Earth-2, and the infinite number of worlds used to explain any conflicting plot points. The Multiverse was replaced with a much simpler origin in Man of Steel, where Superman was the sole survivor of Krypton.

'Man of Steel' first introduces Superman's origin with his flight as Baby Kal-El in the "birthing matrix" rocket from Krypton. He lands on Earth in Smallville, and is discovered by Jonathon and Martha Kent. We flash forward to a high school football game where Clark Kent uses his powers to win a high school football game. After the game, Jonathon tells Clark of the rocket and tells him to be careful with his powers. Clark then decides to use his powers for the greater good by saving lives and preventing disasters. He reveals his existence when he stops a plane crash. This is where he first meets Lois Lane. He visits Smallville and his parents help him invent his Superman identity. In Issue 2, Superman debuts in Metropolis. Lois Lane is assigned to get a scoop for the Daily Planet. In order to do this, she drives her car into a harbor to get Superman's attention. He saves her and takes her to her apartment. This is when he tells her that his superhero name is 'Superman.' In Issue 3, Superman and Batman encounter each other . Their relationship is originally strained, but they are able to overcome their differences in attitude to capture Magpie together. In Issue 4, Lex Luthor allows terrorists to attack his oceanliner party that Superman was attending. Lex Luthor did this to see Superman in action. In this origin, Luthor is not a mad scientist, but is instead a new evil of the 80s, the power-hungry businessman. In Issue 5, Bizarro is created when Superman's body was scanned by Dr. Teng's cloning machine. He is the first to know that Superman isn't quite human. In the final issue, Clark returns to Smallville and meets his parents Jor-El and Lara through a hallucination. He gains knowledge of Krypton, but chooses to embrace his humanity even more. 

This series was important because it was the first time Superman was the sole survivor of Krypton. His powers, along with the usage of Kryptonite, were limited to appear more believable. In this series Superman went from being mild-mannered to being more assertive. Byrne followed this series with four issue mini-series, 'The World of Krypton,' 'The World of Smallville,' and 'The World of Metropolis.'
 
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Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (1986)

 

This comic was a long time story of Superman that entailed the final story of the Silver age and the new series of Superman. The new series took on the vents of Crisis on Infinite Earths right before the events of The Man of Steel from john Byrne. What was unique about this piece was the fact that Moore intended for this to honor the history of Superman. So instead of coming up with completely cannon with the series, he made one that met with both the new versions as well as the old versions of Superman. Despite as being as a middle point between Superman comics, Whatever happened to the Man of Tomorrow has been regarded as the best stories of Superman as well as the most memorable.

 

The story ended up being put into two comics, Superman #423 and Action Comics #583. Told as a flashback, Lois Lane is interviewed about the final days of Superman and what actually happened to him. The cover of #423 shows many scenes from the story including the Legion of Superheroes. The cover itself is almost like a comic strip as it shows some of the final events of him being Superman. On the other hand the cover of Action Comics #583 depicts Superman flying off from other heroes like Batman, Wonder Woman, etc. This issue is the second part of the story where it is revealed that Superman lost all his powers.

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World Without Superman (1993) 

--Click on the "Superman Dead" image for additional images from the issue--

 

The Death of Superman is the magazine number seventy-seven of the Superman magazines issued by DC Comics in 1992. The multi-issue story arc entitled "The Death and Return of Superman" was given the Death and Return of Superman.

In this magazine. Superman enters a battle against the savage creature, which is like an unstoppable killing machine called Doomsday in the streets of Metropolis. The fight was to death and then both Superman and Doomsday die from their injuries in Superman (Volume 2) No. 75 in 1992.

Crosse depicts the world reaction to the death of Superman in the "funeral of a friend," believes the emergence of four individuals to be "new" Superman, the return of the original Superman in the end "Superman era!" The Reign of Supermen.

The magazine was developed by editor Mike Carlin and the writing team Superman of Dan Jurgens, Roger Stern, Louise Simenson, Jerry Tead, and Carl Kessel met, with tremendous success: Superman's titles rose to international exposure, topped by sales charts and graphic comics under an overnight. The event was widely covered by national and international media news.

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These artifacts are the pages of the “Superman Dead” article, and images of Superman’s funeral, and they were originally printed in Action Comic #685 which was published in January 1993. This was the Daily Planet’s article published by Lois Lane after the shocking death of Superman in his battle with Doomsday. This was one of the most shocking deaths inside of the entire DC universe. The news article was also included in Superman #75 Black Polybag edition of Superman Death Memorial. The panel shows just how much of an effect he had on the world by showing how he was the center of all the news and how much of an impact he had on the world. The death of Superman would later come to change the meaning of what it meant to truly die in a comic book. That reason being he would come back to life later, showing that just because a hero dies does not mean they are truly dead. Nonetheless, this showed the world that they could not rely on Superman. They had to learn to live without a Superman, who had always been there to save them. But now he is dead, and the people begin to live in fear knowing that Superman will not be there to save the day. 

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Superman: Red Son (2003)

 

This artifact is a poster from the 2003 Superman: Red Son comic which was a three part issue exploring an alternative timeline for the Man of Steel. This poster features the byline ‘Let our enemies beware: There is only one superpower now,’ and as expected the poster indicates that the now Comrade of Steel is a hero of the Soviet Union in its struggle against the United States during the Cold War.

In this new storyline Superman crashes in rural Ukraine in the U.S.S.R. instead of rural Kansas in the normal timeline. Superman is then raised to be a state controlled super weapon employed by Joseph Stalin in the struggle against the Capitalist United States. In these issues Superman is perfectly mirrored into a Soviet hero with the ‘S’ on his chest being swapped out for a hammer and sickle as seen in the poster and his job at the Dailey Planet being replaced with a high ranking job reporting to Pravda, the Soviet intelligence and propaganda machine. In this universe, the United States would be dealing with a fate that the Soviet Union would see in real life with the nation being split apart and seeing conflict in the face of the threat posed by the Comrade of Steel and the communist empire that he bears the flag for.

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All-Star Superman (2006)

 

Created by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely in 2005, All-Star Superman has been widely regarded as one of the most significant series not only in the Modern & Post-Modern eras, but also throughout the entire Superman history. In fact, in a listing of the top-25 Superman stories, IGN.com rated All-Star Superman as the best Superman series of all-time.

 

Morrison designed All-Star Superman to be a complete overhaul of the Superman storyline, but chose not to follow the standard of wiping the slate entirely clean of previous editions. Instead, they chose to blend those previous storylines into a one. The idea would initially be denied, but DC would later ask Morrison to come back for the project. The series would consist of 12 bimonthly issues, published from 2005-2008.

 

The issues have a wide variety of stories that provide readers with a new look at Superman. It starts with Superman rescuing a manned-mission to the sun, which Lex Luthor sabotaged. However, being exposed to the extraordinary radiation levels caused terminal problems for Superman’s cells. He then reveals his identity, and even shares his powers, with Lois, who is reluctant to believe him at first. From here, Superman begins completing a plan to continue his legacy after his death, including the creation of a second Earth. There are even a few secrets that Morrison hid within the storylines to make the series even more interesting and special. 

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