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Post-Crisis Superman (Collected Editions)

Superman: The Man of Steel Vol. 3

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John Byrne's bold reinvention of the Superman mythos continues, in stories featuring Green Lantern, Brainiac, Booster Gold, Lex Luthor, and more! In this hardcover collection, Byrne is joined by fellow acclaimed comic book veterans such as Arthur Adams and Jerry Ordway, in stories including the Man of Steel against Toyman, Superman teaming with Green Lantern, and a day at the circus that turns into an encounter with Brainiac! Plus, Byrne teams with legendary Superman artist Curt Swan for the galaxy-faring The Earth Stealers! This volume collects Superman #12-15, Adventures of Superman #436-438, Action Comics #594-597, The Earth Stealers #1, Action Comics Annual #1, Superman Annual #1, Adventures of Superman Annual #1, and Booster Gold #23.

459 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 1, 2021

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About the author

John Byrne

2,957 books360 followers
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There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name


John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.

Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.

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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
Profile Image for Dan.
3,213 reviews10.8k followers
March 29, 2022
Superman: The Man of Steel Volume 3 collects Superman #12-15, Adventures of Superman #436-438, Action Comics #594-597, Superman: The Earth Stealers #1, Action Comics Annual #1, Superman Annual #1, Adventures of Superman Annual #1, Booster Gold #23.

My trip through the John Byrne Superman run continues. In this volume, Superman goes up against Toyman, Braniac, the Earth Stealers, Titano, and the Manhunters, among other threats. He also tangles with Booster Gold and witnesses the fall of Gangbuster.

Most of the old favorite pieces are on the table with the introduction of Braniac. The Booster Gold crossover and The Earth Stealers are my favorite parts of this collection, possibly because it's one of the first times Dan Jurgens drew the Man of Steel and one of the last for Curt Swan.

The relationship with Lois progresses, and I'm surprised Byrne addressed Lori Lemaris since Superboy dating a mermaid is one of the silly Silver Age things I thought would never be mentioned again.

Millennium had an interesting influence on this book. I like that it lead to team-ups with Spectre and Green Lantern but all of Smallville's kids being Manhunter sleeper agents was a little out there. I wonder if it was a contributing factor to Byrne leaving the book the following year.

The Byrne run is nearing completion. I wonder if Byrne was running out of steam at this point, though. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Profile Image for James DeSantis.
Author 17 books1,204 followers
June 20, 2022
So we enter the third volume and...it's still good! But I didn't connect to this one as much. Mainly because of one big storyline.

But let's talk about the good. As always there's some wonderful stories in here I really enjoyed. The book actually opens with a pretty funny team up of Supes and Batman as they have to stop a vampire lady from killing people. It's silly, over the top, but I can't help but have fun with this one. There's also a King Kong like story with Titano which is both sad, a bit heavy handed, but with a lot of heart. Basically a Giant ape scared and thanks to a crazy doctor he goes berserk and starts destroying the city.

Then we get into a Banshee story that's pretty fun. If nothing else, her design is freaking awesome. We then get the Millennium storyline which has some really meh stories here. Ones I couldn't wait to get past. And not too sure what the hell Millennium tagline was, I haven't read much DC during this time. The Manhunters come in and they are just a weird plotline that I couldn't get heavily invested. It didn't help it felt so out of the loop compared to the rest.

Luckily we follow up with a excellent story of Gangbuster and Jose being the badass hero he is. Such a great side by side comparison issue really with excellent human moments from a cast of characters and a brutal ending that made me super sad.

Sadly last few stories are just okay. The ending had a cool idea with Superman having to use his wits to stop a evil mastermind from eventually destroying the world. But overall it failed to live up to prior stories for me.

This group of stories varied but I do feel it still had more good than bad. Saying that it didn't live up to volume 1-2 for me but still solid at 3 out of 5.
Profile Image for Shannon Appelcline.
Author 30 books167 followers
December 7, 2021
Cry Vampire (Action Comics Annual #1). What better for the first (new) Action Comics annual than a World's Finest story? This story of Superman and Batman versus a vampire is pretty shallow but nicely themed and a good quick read. It also makes clear the unfortunate distance between the World's Finest team in the early post-Crisis years. [4/5].

Tears for Titano (Superman Annual #1). One of the strengths of the Byrne run was his reinvention of classic Superman villains, including here, Titano. The story gets a bit preachy at times and is fight heavy, but the core is about something more than just a villain. Or rather, it changes up who the villain is [4/5].

Union (AoS Annual #1). Starlin goes in for a totally new villain: an alien sociopath. The story is just OK. We get a brief moment that really defines who the Man of Steel is, and the rest is entirely forgettable [3/5].

Booster (Action #594 + BG #23). Another Booster Gold tie-in, this one a big fight whose only redeeming feature is that it highlights mogul Luthor's continued villainry [3/5].

Lori Lemaris (Superman #12). The end of Byrne's first year of the new Superman is a touching story of Lori Lemaris in the post-Crisis universe. It's a nice human piece that respects the Silver Age, but puts a modern spin on it [4/5].

Silver Banshee (Action #595). The Silver Banshee was one of the best new villains to come out of post-Crisis Superman tales, but her debut here is not her finest hour, primarily because the fake-death of Superman herein is pure Silver Age silliness [3+/5]

Millennium (Superman #13-14 + Action #596-597 + AOS #436-437). Though the Millennium crossover (and coda) cover several plot threads, they nevertheless tell a cohesive, onging story that would foreshadow the triangle era of Superman, which still lay three years in the future.

The core of the crossover is the story of a Smallville entirely taken over the Manhunters. It's an audacious retcon that took the whole Manhunter/spy concept big and would take a whole miniseries ("World of Smallville", sadly not included) to iron things out.

As for the rest, we get: the intro of a new, murderous Toyman (another great post-Crisis reinvention), a dull trip to an alien dimension, a great Gangbuster story, and Lois figuring out Clark's secret (kinda). It's all around a strong continuation of the soap opera that was post-Crisis Superman [4/5].

Wings (Superman #12). A weird villain, but a nice bit of body horror, and moreso a great view into Maggie Sawyer's life. [4+/5].

The Amazing Brainiac (AoS #438). An interesting recreation of Brainiac as a bodiless, floating entity. I'm not convinced that, as Brainiac appears here, he's close enough to the original concept to be a great reboot of the character, but still an intriguing new Super-villain, even if this issue just feels like a setup [4+/5].

The Earth Stealers. As with so many extra-long comics, the pacing of this one drags. Beyond that, the story of space gangsters stealing Earth isn't that intriguing. Which is too bad, because it's got great art and some strong interactions continuing the story of Lois and Superman, plus a rare story of the a low-powered Superman in space (we'd got lots more of that in "Exile" and then he'd power back up in the years afterward) [3/5].
Profile Image for Eric Burton.
235 reviews2 followers
March 17, 2024
A bit of a downgrade from the first two volumes.

While there are a few standout stories (Silver Banshee, Lori Lemaris, and Brainiac story) the majority of it was tough to get through. This volume somehow feels like it came out at least a decade before the other two volumes as well. It basically feels like silver age comics, and those have not aged well.

Still, Byrne's artwork is always a standout, and I also really enjoyed the artwork of Jerry Ordway and Curt Swan in this volume.
Profile Image for Zilliz.
95 reviews1 follower
December 30, 2025
Some interesting concepts explored here, contains some issues i really liked but also some stinkers.
Profile Image for Rizzie.
559 reviews6 followers
February 11, 2024
This is a review for the entire John Byrne era, not just this volume.

Look... I appreciate what John Byrne did for the Superman mythos. The Man of Steel miniseries is perfectly enjoyable in its own way, and I'm grateful that it cleaned up Superman continuity a bit for the modern age. But Byrne's actual ongoing run (alongside Marv Wolfman and others) is just a slog. He never commits to any particular plotline. Every subplot runs at a glacial pace, popping up for one or two pages at random in every issue. The main plots are dreadfully generic and cliche. This is in that weird, brief era when Superman was freed from the chains of the Silver Age, but hadn't been elevated to his fullest potential by writers like Joe Kelly, Kurt Busiek, Jeph Loeb, Grant Morrison, or even Mark Millar. Because of that it's... pretty rough. There's just nothing to get attached to. Every once in a while there's a fun story, but it's surrounded by forgettable filler, mindless action, and a truly offensive amount of intrusive expositional thought bubbles. You can't even enjoy the first appearances (Post-Crisis) of several Superman villains on their own, because they're buried in irrelevant and uninteresting subplots. Tell me, who seriously cares about Jerry White? Or Cat Grant? Gangbuster? The Circle? The Manhunters? The voodoo killer? Brainiac?

Oh what's that? You DO care about Brainiac? You fool. You absolute idiot. When I said "Brainiac", you probably thought I was talking about the genocidal, planet-destroying, city-bottling, body-swapping, alien robot who is among Superman's greatest foes. No, silly. I'm obviously talking about the short, fat, mentally unstable illusionist with psychic powers who may or may not be possessed by the distant extraterrestrial dismembodied consciousness of Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Comic. You know. Brainiac. The iconic Brainiac. Everyone's favorite. What were you expecting? Thanks John.

Do I even need to mention the story where Superman and Barda are brainwashed by an alien named Sleez into filming a porno? That's a real thing that happens.

Oh, and the worst part of this run? Byrne doesn't even finish any of his own plotlines! To see the conclusions to any of the subplots contained in the four Man of Steel Omnibuses, you'll have to check out "Superman: The Exile and Other Stories Omnibus", where Roger Stern and Jerry Orway clean up Byrne's mess and try to resolve it all (and it's actually better, incidentally). This series really just isn't worth your time. There are so many better Superman runs (like the woefully underrated "City of Tomorrow" era). Hell, even the Man of Steel miniseries, the only thing here with any substantial value, has been made completely obsolete by MULTIPLE superior origin comics like Birthright and Secret Origin.

In conclusion, only read this for the historical value. You won't find anything in these volumes that hasn't been done better elsewhere. Superman is a difficult character to write, and I don't envy any writer tasked with doing a long run with him, but I can only judge what's in front of me. And it's just not worth the time.
Profile Image for Mariano.
740 reviews12 followers
December 27, 2023
Que linda epoca de Superman, de DC, del mainstream superheróico gringo. Obvio que no soy objetivo porque esto es parte de mis primeras lecturas, pero que bien que envejeció la mayoría. No todo, obvio (especialmente algunos de los crossovers con Millenium) pero qué divertido el resto.

Para destacar en este tomo que es donde Byrne se convierte en el dios supremo supermaniano, ahora a cargo de los cuatro títulos de Superman (aunque Ordway sigue teniendo crédito de co-plotter en Adventures).

También toma el poder el gran Mike Carlin, por lo que esto es 100% el germen de nacimiento de los "triangle years". Acá Byrne manejaba todo, pero cuando él se va, Carlin agarra la batuta.

Nunca entenderemos por qué no hay siete mil ediciones de esto y de lo anterior también (esos años pre crisis) pero bueno, el mercado de USA funciona así.
127 reviews
September 24, 2025
Some of Byrne's and Superman's best.

After reading this I am so genuinely surprised as to how Superman's sales dropped off so drastically in the 90s, cause this is some damn good stuff.

This is peak Superman for me, nothing else to it, the way Byrne handles the dichotomy between Clark and Supes is top notch, and I especially love the way he handles the blossoming of Lois' and Clark's relationship.

Only two major downsides: firstly is the fact that about 45% of this book is made up of tie-ins to Millenium, not one of DC's best events, but also it bogs down the pacing quite severely. My other big complaint is that Byrne's take on Brainiac is kinda lame and it sucks.

The art is top notch though, looking mighty clean.

Overall, another top tier book from Byrne's run.
Profile Image for Jess.
487 reviews3 followers
November 7, 2024
Byrne's run on Superman is one of the best runs on Superman ever done. I mean, here we are almost 40 years from the start of the runs original release and it's still getting reprinted or in some cases re-reprinted. Many writers of Superman- even today- drawn from this era for inspiration, probably more so than Siegel and Shuster.

It's not hard to see why. Byrne was the first writer to make one small but not insignificant change to the character. He made Clark Kent as much, if not more, of a focus of the story than Superman. He at least started fleshing out the rest of the supporting cast before he walked out the door.

220 reviews1 follower
April 18, 2025
Solid progression. Millennium crossover slowed it down

Solid progression. Millennium crossover slowed it down since it was weekly.
Superman's tie ins to the Millennium event were better reads than the event itself.

Superman and Lois and Clark are on the rocks. After Millennium Lois thinks Clark and Superman were raised as brothers by the Kent's. She is now pissed at both. A big stinger they were always bringing up in past issues is that Clark beat Lois to the Superman reveal story. Now she thinks that Clark used his relationship to Superman to beat her to it.

The Earth Stealers issue at the end was a cool "it never happened" story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
526 reviews4 followers
October 28, 2023
This volume finally fulfills the promise of Byrne's reboot. Real drama with Lois about something that would actually matter, crossovers and monsters of the week that illuminate Supes' character rather than using him as a stand in, and the best "big scary woman" of the half dozen Byrne has tried to make happen. There's even a guest appearance by Curt Swan that has the goofy sci fi nonsense. Marv Wolfman may be gone but his commitment to making side characters at least 2 dimensional lives on, and the series is better for it.
Profile Image for Cybernex007.
2,031 reviews9 followers
March 27, 2025
Fairly good stories overall, really takes a nosedive at the insanity of millennium (like a lot of series) but quickly got itself back into high gear. I included my full notes on each individual issue included in this series:

Action Comics Annual #1
Superman Annual #1
Adventures of Superman Annual #1
Action Comics #594
Superman #12
Action Comics #595
Superman #13
Adventures of Superman #436
Action Comics #596
Superman #14
Adventures of Superman #437
Action Comics #597
Superman #15
Adventures of Superman #438
Superman: The Earth Stealers #1
Profile Image for Peter Derk.
Author 32 books403 followers
March 19, 2023
This one picks up and is quite a bit stronger than the last volume, although good golly, DC could not stop with their big crossover events that ran through a bunch of books and make reading through DC history kind of a drag. Can you imagine if real life worked like this? "Oh, I do want to tell you about what happened to me at work today, but first, I have to tell you about what happened to everyone else on my work team." Gross.
363 reviews8 followers
September 8, 2022
The 3 annual issues will not leave a long-lasting impression on me but were still ok.
There are 5 issues (120 pages) taking part during the Millennium giant cross-over event. I still do not have a global overview of that event though I also read issues from JLA or Booster Gold, but the Superman issues were sufficiently enjoyable for themselves.
Profile Image for Mike A.
58 reviews
May 29, 2022
Great red

Superman the man of steel is a fantastic read with great character development does Lois Lane and Lana Lang really hate each other?
Profile Image for Sadiel Giron.
139 reviews
November 8, 2024
Reading through vol 3 and the quality of the storylines in this book downgraded from the previous two volumes. I still enjoyed the art work.
Profile Image for Trey Ball.
145 reviews
July 20, 2025
Aside from some of he confusing Millenium Week stuff, this is another great volume. good stories and artwork throughout!
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews

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