Superman: The Man of Steel

Superman: The Man of Steel (Collected Editions) #1

by John Byrne

Magnificently retells and reinvents the origin and early adventures of the Man of Steel.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Superman, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book, Fiction

132 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1986

About the author

Librarian note:
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.

Reviews

[Alejandro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superman is born again for a new generation!


I bought this in its single comic book issues, but I chosen this TPB edition to be of making a better overall review.


This TPB collects “The Man of Steel” #1-6.


Creative Team:

Writer & Illustrator: John Byrne

Inks: Dick Giordano


THE FIRST SUPER-HERO IS TOLD ONCE AGAIN

Since the creation of Superman in 1938, it’s not like his origin had been the same, since once a while, here and there, creative teams added their own visions and details to the foundations of the first super-hero ever, forging a new kind of genre.

However, it was pretty much the same history for Superman since his creation as comic book character until 1986, until THE crisis…

…the Crisis on Infinite Earths came and DC wasn’t the same anymore since its even before it was a sole company.

It wasn’t 1938 anymore and the readers had outgrown even the Silver Age style of storytelling.
It was necessary to evolve, to update the whole run of titles in DC Comics…

…and it was needed to do it for The Man of Steel.

It was a job for John Byrne!!!

His vision of how the Last Son of Krypton would be able to function in the 80s was so solid, so inspired, that even nowadays, after two more reboots of DC Comics and even a newer origin’s story, you still can catch seeds of Byrne’s vision in the new versions of Superman and his world of action.


BOTH COMIC BOOK CHARACTERS BUT…

John Byrne had a tremendous responsibilty in retelling once again the new “canon” origin for Superman in the Post-Crisis DC Universe, but he knew something that sometimes people tend to forget or missing in the process of looking new angles to tell Superman’s origin…

…that what works for Batman DOES NOT work for Superman!

They may be the World’s Finest, but they are different type of comic book characters, they may defend the same principles but they opposite sides of a same coin.

So, in Byrne’s vision, Superman wasn’t a real boy scout anymore, but hardly he was a dark knight, he still was fighting his never-ending battle for truth, justice and freedom, but then you could feel the character, thinking and acting in the mature way that readers needed of him to be in the Bronze Age of comic books in the goold ol’ 80s.

So, while I am not thrilled of having Superman and Batman fighting each other, Byrne’s vision was right about that it was impossible for such characters to be in the “same page” about how to take against villains and other kind of threats.


DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS BUT STILL THE USUAL SUSPECTS

Superman doesn’t totally developed all his powers until reaching young adulthood, so he wasn’t Superboy when he was younger (something that since then has been respected), and since Bizarro was originally introduced in Superboy comic books, then the super-villain found a new interpretation in this miniseries too, then with adult Superman.

Jor-El doesn’t wear Rao’s sign on the chest of his Flash Gordon-like costume, in fact that 30’s costume is no more, but now Kryptonian’s fashion sense gave him a proper alien look.

Jonathan and Martha Kent were still alive during Superman’s adult life (that I love that concept since I think that it is like an “overkill” that Kal-El / Clark Kent not only lost his birth parents but also his adoptive parents), and since in this version, Kal-El arrived still in formation inside of a birthing matrix of his Kryptonian ship, this 80’s Superman was “born” on Earth, and even thanks a blizzard that isolated Kent’s farm in Smallville, it was possible to make people believe that Clark was the real son of the Kents and not adopted.

Lois Lane isn’t obsessed of getting married with Superman, but she is a truly fearless adult career woman of the 80s, top reporter of the Daily Planet in Metropolis.

And easily, the best update by John Byrne to Superman’s comic books was…

…Lex Luthor.

Lex isn’t a mad scientist anymore, not even wear a power armor, but he remained to be an evil guy, becoming something even more insidious, more dangerous, more intimidating…

…the CEO of a multi-millionaire business company.

Thanks to this brilliantly inspired updated to the classic supervillain, Lex Luthor was finally able to interact in a whole new way with the rest of characters in the title, that even got him to be President of the United States (later in comics, not here in this TPB)…

…mmh…

…wait a minute…

…evil millionaire CEO that got to become President of the United States?!!!

…mmh…

…where have I heard that this happened also?

Mmh, silly me! I must be mistaken! Things like that only happen in comic books, right?

Right?

Well, in any case, there isn’t a single doubt that John Byrne accomplished the tall order of fast-forwarding Superman’s titles to become powerful once again and therefore able to cope with 80’s era and beyond, until nowadays.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhat dated, especially the women's clothing and hairstyles, but I still really enjoyed it. I like Byrne's classic take on Supes, that he just wants to help people because he's an altruistic person. His Lois is more difficult to like, but I'm guessing her icy demeanor will defrost as times goes on. This version of Lex Luthor has since become the norm, the rich, powerful businessman jealous of Superman. Up to this point, Luthor had just been a mad scientist who sent giant robots and the like after Superman. I also liked how they made him older and a childhood friend of Perry White instead of growing up with Superman. Kudos to Marv Wolfman for the Lex revamp. I found it interesting that large gaps in time occur between each issue, covering about the first 10 years of Clark Kent's adult life. Bryne's art is fantastic. He brings his classic 80's polish to it that he applied to most of the Marvel universe over the decade.

[Donovan · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1986, Superman was relaunched alongside Batman and Wonder Woman following the epic Crisis on Infinite Earths. While Frank Miller reinvented Batman and George Perez mythologized Wonder Woman, John Byrne, a Marvel writer, did something...readable.

This book is 30 years old. So I give it some contextual leeway. And in the book's defense, I haven't read any Golden or Silver Age Superman. In fact, Crisis is as far back as my reading goes. But I feel like those nearly 400 pages adequately acquainted me with Supes, and I don't remember him being this...Shy? Weird? Disapproving? Naive? It's hard to pinpoint what's off.

Needless to say I'm not a huge fan of John Byrne's characterization. Lois Lane is kind of a crazy bitch. She manipulates Supes into saving her so she can get an interview. Because she's an army brat she somehow has the combat training necessary to do things like neutralize a dozen armed terrorists. And against all odds Supes has a crush on her. She really seems to hate him yet obsess over him, and he goes out of his way to be nice to her and save her. They're like Sam and Diane, except Sam owns the bar because he got their first, and Diane constantly insults and connives to steal the bar out from under him. Sounds like romance to me, what about you? It just feels like Byrne is forcing the "romance" on the reader. Or he really doesn't understand romance.

Oddly enough I like Clark Kent. Maybe because he's so easy to write. Superman interestingly calls Clark Kent his "fortress of solitude" because it's a place he can disappear into. And his disguise is based on Jonathan, with slick hair and round glasses. Which I never knew! Clark gets his job at the Daily Planet with the first Superman interview, he's a nice guy, he loves and visits his parents. He's just enjoyable to read about. But I don't know why the hell he does what he does to Lana Lang and falls head over boots for Lois Lane. Must be the Ls.

John Byrne also doesn't know Batman. Superman rags on Bats and threatens to arrest him for vigilantism. Excuse me, Supes, your irony is showing. Then Bats threatens him with a death trap which will kill an innocent bystander. The one thing everyone knows about Batman is that he never, ever kills because of his damn origin story. So yeah. Byrne doesn't know Bats. At all.

Apart from some unusual characterization and simple plots, it's not bad. In fact it's perfectly readable. The Kents are lovable. The origin story, which I've read a thousand times, is pretty cool, though the reason for Krypton's demise is vague. The classic characters are there, Luthor rules Metropolis. And we get to see Bizarro.

This feels like good-hearted small town boy meets big brawny bruiser fights the baddies. There's depth, action, and emotion. Dick Giordano's artwork is actually pretty good for the time. So a decent read overall, definitely dated, but not a classic in my opinion.

[Subham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread: 24/08/2022

I kinda love it after reading this again! I love the way it redoes the origin of Superman in such a fun manner and him meeting Lois and Bruce the first time, itmakes for a compelling read and you understand more about him by the people who had an influence over his life and then going against villains like Magpie and Bizarro was so fun lol and then the end with Ma and Pa kent and the reason he is Superman and I just love that aspect of him and it really is so great! The art here especially makes you nostalgic for some reason and like the way they capture the essence of Superman is so awesome!

______________________________________________________________
This was so good!

I finally understand the hype about this volume after reading it. It's a perfect restart to Superman for this era with this.

It tells the origin of Superman and his time in Smallville and going to metropolis, getting a job and meeting Perry and Lois, making his first appearance as Superman and saving people, teaming with Batman to stop Magpie, going off against Luthor and then Bizarro and finding out about his origins and dealing with that.

It's such a fantastic volume and I was loving it throughout like some stuff done here is classic and will remembered throughout time plus I like the many subplots being hinted at here. a must read!

[Sam Quixote · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Byrne's classic 1986 reboot of the character is a surprisingly good read. I was expecting a full-on cheese-fest (and to an extent that is what I got) but it's also enjoyable and fun. A comic book that's aged like fine wine! Full review here!

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man of Steel reads a little thin these days, not that much happens for a Superman origin story, as John Byrne liked to pad his pages with full-page spreads and quick plots. That being said, it was a very important part of comics and mostly very successful at updating Superman for modern audiences.

After Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superman needed a lot of updating and DC knew it. The Silver Age corny character, nearly omnipotent and fighting mad scientists, didn't have any relevance in the 1980s as superhero comics became more of a sophisticated medium. He didn't fit in the same world as, say, the New Teen Titans. Let alone the critically acclaimed stories Marvel was publishing.

So they got one of Marvel's biggest stars to remake Superman from the ground up: John Byrne. The art may not have been as solid as his legendary Uncanny X-Men. The writing may not have been as good as his Fantastic Four (let's be honest, Byrne was already past his prime). But it was fresh and readable and he's just plain a good storyteller.

I liked that this version was canon for so long. Krypton a far more interesting sci-fi planet, his parents as part of the supporting cast, and most of all Lex Luthor as evil businessman of the Reagan era. The latter was Marv Wolfman's idea and one of the best changes that still works well today.

The villains were the least interesting part of the Man of Steel miniseries, with machinations by Lex involving Bizarro being the worst physical threat to Superman. There's no Brainiac or Zod for him to fight, which was still made for the weakest part of overly powerful Superman stories despite the update.

There's also the Batman chapter about their first meeting, which is its own isolated episode and it's a lot of fun to see them as rivals teaming up and Batman actually being a detective. However, the original villain Magpie is such a boring antagonist but I suppose having a famous Batman rogue would take away from Superman's focus.

Man of Steel overall remains an excellent introduction to Superman that new readers can still enjoy today, especially for younger ones who don't need everything to be so gritty and cynical. Recommended as ever.

[Artemy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man of Steel is an interesting and educational read for sure, but I didn’t fall in love with this take on the character. Byrne’s origin feels simplistic, cold and sterile, and not really resembling anything I’ve grown to know and love about Superman. It’s very readable and visually pretty for its time, but as a straight up origin story I still prefer books by Waid, Morrison or Johns over this.

[Paul Dinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really one of Byrne's best works as a writer and artist. As a writer, he creates anew a Superman for our age who believes in morality and wonders what he can do. He even tries without the costume and sees a real reason why he should use it. Bryne wisely avoids the mistake of many writers and makes Krypton as ambigeous as possible. WE know more about his origen that Superman does. Bryne's run on Superman was about his confronting this myth and finding what works, you can see this on a small scale in this series. Who is Lois, Jimmy? Why did Clark act the way he does, why did he take a job with a newspaper, wear glasses? Every bit of the mythos is questioned and what doesn't work is junked and what can work is kept. YOu can really see all the hard work he will poor into this, which will become Bryne's greatest disappointment, as you read it all the wonderful ideas will become apparent that Bryne was never able to play on, and that others would. His original Lex Luthor, his version of Krypton, his making of Superman less powerful but no less of a hero. His charecterization of Batman. The saddest part is that you can see things he wasn't able to do. I can't recommend this work enough.

[Ronald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh dear, this did not age well at all.
I remember buying this comic as it first came out in single issues. This was the first real reboot. This story by John Byrne turned Superman from an overpowered uninteresting unbeatable and frankly silly character into our modern hero of today. Before this reboot the editors would buy the silliest covers staring Superman and then make the writer or writers make a story that would match the cover. This was going to fix all that. Yet despite all the improvement to Superman and his backstory to make it something more modern; the story itself did not age well.

Is it just me or did it all seem like making Superman and DC Comics more like the Superman Movie? Lex Luthor even looks like Gene Hackman! Which leads us to the worst part of the entire reboot and something that really needs to be fixed. Lex Luthor is now some super rich yet incompetent business man. A man obsessed with buying the affection of Lois Lane (well ignore the whole part where she strips to her undies and puts on Clark's suit jacket - though she managed to fight the terrorists well in the getup without exposing parts of her body). Luthor is just so rich that no matter how many people he kills or has killed, how many building he destroys, ships he sinks, lives he ruins his lawyers somehow keep him out of jail. Mind you he confesses to his crimes in front of live TV cameras at times yet somehow gets away with it. Apparently when the world knows you are jealous of Superman you can do anything you want and still get elected President. Having everyone in the world but Lois/Clark/Perry think Luthor is good is just boringly bad sloppy writing.

Anyway, I had forgotten had bad this reboot was for Batman as a character. Oh lord. It is another darker grittier Batman. This Batman needs a friend stat!

So not a total loss for the time. But it just does not age well. You should read this volume for a look at a classic reboot. It should be a five star review but for the passage of time.

[Jesse A · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is definitely dated but, you know what, I kinda dug it.

[Garrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad Superman origin. I don't know why DC kept changing the canon origin of Superman as there are three different pre new 52 canon Superman origin stories.

[Jason Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a review down there somewhere, I promise.

Comic book project explanation:

I've decided to reread all my Superman and Batman comics. Time will tell if I actually pull this off, and I expect it will take a year or two. When I get to one where a trade paperback came out for the story, I'll post a review on here and also catch everyone up on what happened between the books. I feel it's a service the Goodreads community desperately needs, and I shall not shirk my duty!

I collected for a few months in sixth grade in late 1989 through early 1990 when Santa Claus gave me some, but allowance money being tight, and a love for the video game arcade setting in, I didn't stick with it. But I got back into it around 1994, got several back issues, and the long and short of it is that I have everything from somewhere in 1992 through sometime in 2000 when Lex Luthor was running for president. (I understand he wins, but I think I quit collecting before those issues came out, and I don't think I even read those since I was away at college, and was just getting them because I always had. Sad day.) I also have a few other comic books from the 80's and early 90's that I picked up here and there (this particular miniseries being part of that), and I'll be happy to educate you on those as well.

Before The Man of Steel miniseries:

DC rebooted everything around 1986 which is when this story came out and started everything fresh in the "Modern Age" of comics, but more on that later. I have about a dozen Superman titles from the "Bronze Age" that I picked up at some comic book convention. They're mostly stand alone stories that featured villains I like such as Mongul. I also wanted a few old Lex Luthor stories, and I must say I prefer the modern age Lex to the one before that. Bronze Age Luthor was more of a mad scientist with a ridiculous green and purple war suit which I've never been a fan of.


This is too gay even for me.

It was indestructible (except for the time Superman punched a hole straight through it, but Lex was fucking with Supe's brain via some psychic rod that planted false memories in his head). Lex also lived on an island in the Atlantic nobody could find which was really a giant meteor from planet Lexor that Luthor lived on from time to time but accidentally blew up in a battle with Superman, killing every inhabitant including his wife and son. He blames Superman for this, but it was really a joint effort and more Lex's fault if you ask me. This causes him to hate Superman even more, but the best is the story which explains why Lex hates Superman at all.



Yep, you guessed it. Lex and Superboy were BFF's in Smallville, and Lex was even working on something that would make Supes immune to the effects of Kryptonite when something went drastically wrong, and Superman, trying to put it out, accidentally blew a bunch of chemicals on Lex's head which caused him to lose all his hair. Hell hath no fury like a Luthor scalped.

The reboot did away with all that nonsense as well as a lot of Superman's powers. He used to be able to operate in space (in the reboot he still requires oxygen so can only chill in space for as long as he can hold his breath), and he could even fly to the center of the universe to take care of matters. Not the galaxy, the universe. It didn't take him long to get there either. His Supervision could see things in other galaxies from Earth, and he also had some telepathic thing going on, though I think it might've been Supergirl who facilitated those. The reboot also rewrote his history and relationships with several characters, but first...

...a few words from our sponsors:

As silly as some of the Bronze Age stories got, I found some of the advertisements even more amusing. Some of it's due to historical reasons. Remember when OJ Simpson was so adored that kids wanted his autograph?



Or when Bill Cosby saying "if you can't send you" didn't have a sinister connotation?



American Red Cross, indeed. This was a plea to harems across America; the "send money" bit was just a distraction, for he sure didn't need it.

And I'm not sure why Batman (and several other superheroes) ever bothered to learn how to fight when they could neutralize any threat with some Hostess Twinkies.



And just what the fuck is up with this retarded kid?



And while I support the following ad wholeheartedly, I bet the likes of it haven't been seen in a comic book in nearly 40 years.



(We now pause to give Pierce time to fight off the temptation to air his gun control debate views which nobody here is interested in reading...)

OK, I'm back, and I think it's time for the...

REVIEW:

This is the beginning of it all, my favorite DC Comics era. I'm sure it's my favorite because it's what I grew up with, but it's quite possible this era actually is the best. Stuff before the Modern Age was sillier, and while I enjoyed reading some of those, I'm glad I'm caught up to this part now. What little I've seen of the latest reboots which happened in 2011 and then again just a year or two ago has not impressed me. Perhaps I'm too old for the new stuff. I could also be too conservative; a lot of stuff in comics now lean a lot further left than they used to. But the 90's... great stuff.

This story covers a 10 year span from the time Superman is 18 until he's 28 or so, excluding the prologue which shows him leaving Krypton as a baby. It undorkifies Clark which is cool. I loved dorky Clark in the movies, and some of his bumbling antics in the comics are funny, but normal Clark is better. This also sets up his relationship with Lois Lane. Turns out he's smitten with her from the start, though it'll be a few years before they start dating and a few more before they marry... but I'm getting ahead of myself. They just meet and start working together in this story.

I really enjoyed the third segment where Superman goes to Gotham to nab Batman and turn him in to the police. Batman totally pwns Supes, but not in a fist fight which would've been stupid. Let's just say Superman learns that his way isn't the only way to do things, and that his way might not work as well in Gotham where a more subtle yet grittier approach is needed.

Lex Luthor is still a genius, but not the maniacal mad scientist of yesteryear, and he and Superman weren't childhood friends. Here he's a business man who manages to skirt the law and has almost everybody fooled into thinking he's on the up and up with everything. Superman learns otherwise pretty quickly and keeps his eye on Luthor, but he can never prove anything when bad things happen even though he knows Luthor is behind it. This Luthor is so much more fun to hate than that silly purple and green thing.

As for supervillains, the only one we get to see is Bizarro. At least the first one. There will be another one later if I recall. But I'm cool with there being no big, superpower baddies in this miniseries, and it being set up the way it was. It gives us everything we need to proceed into the real action starting in the Superman titles of which there were only three at that point, one of them being brand new:



But I'm getting ahead of myself again. I don't even remember what happens in it.

If you're a fan of Superman in the modern age comics, then this story is perfect for starting off.

Next checkpoint: Superman #39 (linked below)

Other Superman reviews:

Superman #39
Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite
Panic in the Sky
The Death of Superman
World without a Superman
The Return of Superman
Bizarro's World
The Fall of Metropolis
Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey
Superman: Zero Hour
The Death of Clark Kent
The Trial of Superman
The Bottle City
Superman: The Wedding and Beyond
Superman: Transformed!
Action Comics #736 (pending)
Superman Red/Superman Blue (pending)

[Whitney (The Cover Collector) · Rating 4 out of 5]

We've all heard of Superman. Whether you've read about him or watched his TV series and/or movies, many people can agree that Superman is a character that has been rehashed too many times. How often can we hear his life story without getting tired of it? We know this guy so well, that it feels like he's been around since...well, always. Man of Steel is nothing new in the plethora that is DC.

Told over 10 years, we watch as Clark Kent goes from high school to Metropolis to the Daily Planet. He invents the alter-ego Superman and has his mommy sew his costume. Superman's skin is unbreakable. You would assume he'd need endless replacement costumes during his career, what with all the flying around policing petty crime, but nope! When Clark wears clothes, they don't rip or get dirty. How nice for him.

Speaking of Clark thinking he's a cop, he flies over to Gotham City to arrest Batman. This guy is so full of black and white justice that he tries to turn Batman into a villain. Lol, right...


There are a few redeeming qualities to this story, though:

-Like how Lois is a badass. Crazy, but a badass. She has no problem driving her car into a lake, insulting the most powerful man in Metropolis, or grabbing a gun from a criminal during a hold up. Lois has an attitude that dares anyone to take her on. Clark's as dull as a wall, so here's hoping Lois can change that.


-Lex Luthor thinks he's a pimp and won't take no for an answer. He reminds me of a kid who just wants to join the popular club but was rejected. He's got the whole world, but he peaked in high school. He even goes as far as to 'clone?' Superman. The science of this is not explained, but we can guess the logic used is from 1938.


-The art is dated but that's part of the nostalgic fun. It's the 80s and you can tell it's the eighties, but it is drawn very well. You have to give props to John Bryne for remembering Lex's male-pattern baldness as time skips by. The color choices are pleasing to the eye and don't drag you out of the story (unlike seeing a high school Clark Kent with gorilla muscles).


It's interesting to see that as Clark (his true personality) he is clueless, passive, and almost pathetic with women. Superman does way better. Even when Clark is at his darkest, he seems feeble instead of strong. Almost like he lacks confidence in who he is as a person. This, I assume, stems from not knowing his origins, his biological parents, or what he's capable of. Or, I could be reading too deep into this and it's just really shitty writing (we won't even talk about the lame average Joe 'disguise'.


Oh, and it's not a comic without some random fake science side plot:


And a REALLY ugly villain:


Overall, 3.5 stars. This volume was very campy, but it was solid in its time. It helped lay down the bricks for what we know of Superman today. For that, I enjoyed this read.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My personal favourite version of Big Blue's origin story, Byrne nailed the innocence, hope, and wonder that encapsulates exactly what Superman is supposed to stand for, and his pencils are just as fresh and delightful to the eye as they were when I first read the biweekly issues back when I was a kid.

[John Yelverton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite the fact that this book completely hit the reset button on Superman's origin story, it was so well done that there is very little if any room for complaint.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superman: Man of Steel was a consistently entertaining read. Sure, there is some old-school shlock in there, but not as much as many other comics from the era.

This one is fairly straightforward. We get the Superman origin story, his first meeting with Batman, a battle with Bizarro Superman, and coming to terms with his extraterrestrial origins. That being said, I do believe this benefits the comic, making it more of a timeless tale.

I would recommend this book if you enjoy superhero comics, especially if you don't mind reading comics from the 1980s era.

[Logan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent read! So this one originally came out in 80s after Crisis on Infinite Earths which was DCs first major reboot of the comics! While Frank Miller was rebooting Batman, John Byrne was given the job of rebooting Superman! This series is what now days would be considered a pretty standard Origin Story, but at the time it was obviously very new. Artwork will be hit or miss for some, but me I'm an absolute sucker for 80s and 90s art, so it was treat for me! Story was like I said pretty standard, it had some stand out moments though, like a proper iteration of Lois Lane(Many comics don't write her properly in my opinion), and a pretty cool issue where Superman meets Batman for the first time, however my only gripe with that issue, is that while I was reading it I was thinking less "This a job for Superman!" and more "NAH NAH NAH NAH NAH BATMAN!", so ya Batman stole the show a bit there. But otherwise a pretty decent Superman read, not the greatest one I've ever read, but far from the worst!

[Douglas Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know many fans will find this 1986 version of Superman's origin story cheesy, but I like a little cheese with my superhero stories, they take me back to my childhood when everything did not have to be so dark and meta. Byrne's art in this book is perfection with his version of Superman being my definitive artistic representation (his Lex and Lois- not so much)!

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure there's a single other comic book character out there whose origin story has been told as often as Superman's. Every time the continuity is so much as nudged we need to hear, once again, about how he fell to Earth and got picked up by farmers and met Lois Lane and Lex Luthor. You know, just in case we forget. Or something big and important goes different this time around (it never does) You could probably clump together everyone else in Justice League and their origins wouldn't come to half his number. Maybe Batman's.

This one sets him straight after Crisis on Infinite Earths. And out of all the origins I've read for him, this one comes across as particularly weird. Krypton looks and feels wildly different to anything from before or since, there's a Batman rogue I've never heard of before (though she's at least crazy enough to fit the general theme), and Lex Luthor has hair. I guess they tried to give a new spin on it, carefully, here and there, new continuity and all... but it doesn't seem like any of it stuck for very long, at least to a relative layman such as myself. In retrospect it just struck the eye as something of a novelty at best.

Other than that, it felt pretty basic. Kal-El comes to earth, his childhood is summed up in a few panels, he picks up his suit and comes to Metropolis, one issue is dedicated to Lois Lane, Batman, Lex Luthor, and Bizarro each, then he comes back home to get his full origin and figure out what he's about and what he stands for. It paints all the important numbers but not in the sort of colour that'd stick to memory in any way. It's just something they had to do - again - and it serves its purpose well enough, but it never rises above. And now that the continuity's been rebooted at least twice since (I honestly lose count of these things), its reason for being is gone and it has little to nothing else to cling on to. A historical footnote - not terrible in itself, but you can whack a tree and at least four other Superman origins will fall down, each of them telling the tale more memorably.



ᴺᵒᵗ ᵃˡˡ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉᵐ, ᵗʰᵒᵘᵍʰ...

Thanks for the rec, Tim. Sorry I couldn't like it quite as much.

[Michael Sorbello · Rating 3 out of 5]

The planet Krypton is dying, Jor-El and Lara send their newborn away in a space pod in hopes that he'll find a happier life on a planet where humans are still in touch with their morals and emotions unlike Krypton where science has evolved so far that people became disconnected from the world and each other. The space pod lands in a peaceful countryside on Earth, discovered by Jonathan and Martha Kent who adopt the mysterious alien baby and name him Clark Kent. Blessed with incredible strength, endurance and the ability to fly at extreme speeds, Clark learns from the love and kindness given to him from his adoptive parents and channels it into the desire to become the gentle guardian of mankind; adequately nicknamed Superman.

A simple and campy origin story for Superman, showing his early days as an easygoing teenager in the peaceful countryside, a young man working as a journalist in the city and a charming hero who takes down evildoers without lethal force. The dialogue can be a bit silly at times and the villains are cartoonishly one-dimensional in this iteration, but the interactions between Clark, his lovely and eccentric coworker Lois and his caring adoptive parents were all very well done. There's a chapter where Superman teams up with Batman in Gotham to stop a crazed jewel thief and their clashing morals make for an entertaining 'friendship' between them.

The final chapter was surprisingly emotional, having Clark confront his past as Superman which makes him realize that choosing the path of a superhero will force him to give up having normal relationships with people and other important things from his childhood that hurt to let go of. He also learns of his origins as a being from another world that can never hope to live a completely ordinary life. In spite of his conflicting emotions, Clark comes to terms with his identity as a man raised on Earth and grows up quite a bit in a short amount of time.

***

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[Nerdish Mum · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perfectly fine and readable reboot of Superman to bring him into the modern times (In the 80's). I enjoyed the story with Bizarro and I liked the introduction to Magpie (I'm about 99% sure this was her debut but correct me if I'm wrong). The artwork looks like what everything since has been based on as to how Superman and Lois Lane etc look so it was definitely a defining moment, just not my favourite style of art.

[Himanshu Karmacharya · Rating 4 out of 5]

DC did a fine job hiring John Byrne to reinvent their greatest Superhero ever. The Man of Steel is obviously old, and may feel dated to some. But it has got heart and quality that one may not easily find in Superhero comic books nowadays. It is indeed a superhero story and involves action, supervillains, supernemesis, but also it is a story of coming-of-age and exploring oneself. John Byrne has done an impressive job with both the writing and the art by delivering this must read Superman story.

[Ema · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5*

Gostei bastante de conhecer a origem do Super-Homem, os seus poderes e as suas motivações, pela visão do John Byrne. Nunca foi dos meus super-heróis favoritos, mas, depois de ler este volume, fiquei com outra opinião. Cheguei ao final desta leitura muito satisfeita e diverti-me imenso!

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man of Steel (#1-6). A generation on, it's almost impossible to conceive how entirely revolutionary John Byrne's take on Superman was. He recreates everything about the character, making Clark is something more than a milksop, reimagining Lois and Lana as their own people, and reenvisioning Luthor as a tycoon, not a mad scientist. The result brings Superman down to Earth in multiple ways, by making him a more realistic character and his world closer to ours. This is the comic that skillfully set the template for at least a decades worth of story, and it remains an intriguing new beginning even today [5/5].

[Gavin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should have read this before I started reading the more modern Superman Origin stories...this is the daddy of those. John Byrne redid Superman for the 80s, a few years before I started getting into comics. The look of Superman and Clark Kent here is pure what I grew up with. There's some good stuff, and some other stuff that makes it apparent this book is 27 years old.
This Superman has some seriously sanctimonious moments where he tries to put Batman in jail, then figures out Batman's Gotham is no Metropolis.
Also, this Lex Luthor is the ridiculous Redheaded Tubby one that is kind of hard to take seriously, even though he's the bad guy.
Lois here is 80s woman at it's best, tough, high-fashion, yuppie to the max (also seriously hot, which is strange to say...)
I didn't care for the last issue (#6) where it seemed like Byrne ran out of time from DC and had to cram a whole lot into the final issue of the miniseries.
I also didn't love the whole Rah-Rah American parts, but then again...Late Cold War Era...Reagan was still president when this came out!
The art is solid Byrne, which I remember from the Superman I read as a kid in the late 80s. There's also much less sci-fi stuff, and some of the parts don't ring true, like Clark's prowess on the football field in High School...but then again, this was all true and authentic Superman when I was a little kid, so perhaps there've been way too many reboots since that I think of Byrne's as outdated, but then again, 1986 was a long time ago. Imagine how 1959 Superman would have looked in 1986 (the same 27yrs later) so I suppose in that regard it's held up fairly well.

Enjoyable, but perhaps don't read any modern Superman too soon before you read this. I enjoyed feeling like a kid again reading this, before Doomsday and Superman's death, rebirth, and all the crazy shit that's happened since. What's here the most is the potential for where this Superman could go, and Byrne deserves a lot of credit for all that he did for Superman and updating him for a new generation.

Worth a read, even beyond the nostalgia factor I got.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mission 2026: Binge reviewing all previous Reads, I was too slothful to review back when I read them

Byrne’s Man of Steel reboot reads like a careful recalibration rather than a reinvention.
What I appreciated immediately was its restraint. Byrne grounds Superman in physicality, personality, and limitation. This Clark Kent is not discovering godhood; he is negotiating responsibility.

The Kent family is central here, not as nostalgia, but as moral architecture. Superman’s values feel taught rather than innate.

That grounding makes his power less alien and more accountable. Metropolis, too, feels sharper, more contemporary, less mythic.

Byrne’s Superman is confident but not untouchable. He gets hurt, makes mistakes, learns.

This humanization doesn’t diminish him—it clarifies him. The book insists that strength without context is meaningless.

Reading this volume felt like watching Superman learn how to exist in the world rather than above it.

It may not be emotionally explosive, but it is structurally sound.

A foundation laid with care.

Most recommended.

[Candy Atkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is where Superman started for me back in the 80s. I think the Justice League/Super friends cartoon ended and I was looking for more and found the DC. I recently spotted a copy in a bookstore and gave it another read. It doesn't hold up to modern day Superman but it was still enjoyable (except for Lois)

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practically everyone in America knows that Clark Kent and Superman are the same guy, and that Lois Lane is his gal pal...but, how much do you truly know about the only surviving Kryptonian?

Though I watched superhero shows--including Lois & Clark, which is one of my three shows for next month--and films here and there during my childhood and teenage years, I didn't really get into Marvel and DC's stories until about a decade ago; it was a DVD of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fast Forward that convinced me to check out what I'd been missing. Since then, I have devoured practically every story featuring Batman, the X-Men, the Power Rangers, etc., I could get my hands on, whether in print (prose or comic) or audiovisual, including both animated and live-action productions. So, something like this is right up my alley.

It seems that Supe tends to get a bit of a bad rap; I've known multiple people who have criticized everything from his brightly colored costume to the fact that he is only vulnerable to kryptonite to even the alleged "cheesiness" of his stories. Well, maybe I'm just a sucker for an action tale, but, I've been a fan of Mr. Kent for a while, and probably always will be.

As you'd expect from the above writing and the four-star rating, I enjoyed this. The artwork was fabulous, the stories were great fun, and, better yet, the content was cleaner than most comic book omnibuses I've read over the last few years. There was occasional profanity--if there weren't any, I would have given this five stars instead--but, trust me when I say that the language and crudity found in at least three-quarters of the more modern DC and Marvel collections I've read make this look Disney clean.

[Gabriel Llagostera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Con esto me cuesta ser objetivo porque supe leer estos cómics en mi infancia-adolescencia de la mano de Zinco. Pero vamos.

Este primer tomo recopila la miniserie Man of Steel y el primer número de la serie Superman, todo escrito y dibujado por el maestro Byrne. Solo 7 revistas le alcanzan para establecer todo el ecosistema del personaje y asentar las bases para los siguiente. Todo interesante y moderno (para la época).

También encontramos un recurso muy usado en los X-Men de Claremont, y es incluir una viñeta con algo que nada que ver con lo que se está contando, pero que tendrá repercusiones en futuras revistas.

El dibujo es increíble y está en el punto más alto de su carrera, junto a lo que hizo con los 4 Fantásticos.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Years ago, a friend shoved a copy of the collector's edition first issue of this Superman reboot into my hands and said I should make it part of my comic book collection. And while I can clearly recall having the collector's cover issue in my collection for years, I can't recall much about reading it at the time. (In fact, I may not have read it on the off chance that I'd bend the spine and decrease the collect-ability value of the comic in question).

Reading this six-issue reboot of Superman thirty plus years later, I'm impressed by how big an influence it had on just about every version of Superman that's appeared in pop culture since that time. The six issues reflect a lot of the high points of one of my favorite shows of the '90s, Lois and Clark. Whether it's Clark's parents still being around to serve as sounding boards to Lex Luthor being a billionaire industrialist with his own mischievous agenda that he's upset gets hijacked by Superman's appearance on the scene, John Bryne's take still echoes through comics and pop culture today.

In many ways, I kept feeling like what Bryne was doing with Superman was what Brian Michael Bendis did with Spider-Man in the Ultimate Spider-Man line -- it was giving a character relevance to a new generation of fans. And certainly, the Man of Steel needed that refresh in the 80's. This reboot opened the door to many of the other Super storylines to come, including the infamous Death of Superman storyline in the 90's.

With an introduction by sci-fi great Ray Bradbury, this collection of six issues is a refreshing reboot of one of the iconic comic characters. It's worth looking at if you haven't read it before or visiting again if you haven't read it in a while.