Coming out of the Crisis and Man of Steel, there were 3 monthly Superman books titled Superman, Adventures of Superman and Action Comics. John Byrne would write and pencil Superman and Action comics while Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ostrander would write and pencil the Adventures of Superman book. Action Comics would retain it's numbering, Superman started over with a new #1 and Adventures of Superman kept the numbering from the original Superman title. Does that make sense?
Superman would focus on action and stories with Superman in the cape, Adventures was more about the Clark Kent side of things and Action Comics was a team-up book.
Superman #1: Picks up right where Man of Steel #6 left off. Superman tracks down the space pod that brought him to Earth and found that a scientist has been studying him extensively and was the shadowy figure following him around in Man of Steel. Metallo hits the scene and uses his Kryptonite heart to almost kill Superman. Lex Luthor teleports Metallo away at the last moment because if anyone is going to kill Superman, it's going to be Luthor. Good debut issue here.
Adventures of Superman #424: This introduces Cat Grant as a member of the cast and serial flirt with Clark Kent. A terrorist organization called the Freedom League is destroying parts of Metropolis with giant robots. Superman hits the scene and gets a building dropped on him. He manages to escape but has to face all of the robots and they of course combine like a transformer to make an even bigger robot. This had a subplot of Lois' mother being sick and Lex Luthor offering a serum to make her better. At the end it's revealed that Luthor caused the accident and is going to use this to force Lois to love him. This was a To Be Continued! Another good issue for the first month.
Action Comics #584: Superman has gone crazy and starts destroying Metropolis. The Teen Titans of Cyborg, Donna Troy, Changeling and Jericho duke it out with him. Superman tears through the Titans until Jericho possesses him with his powers. A crippled man arrives on the scene and claims to be Superman. He tells of how their bodies were switched, The Titans restore Superman to his proper body to end this one. This one wasn't as good as the others but it was a fun little one shot of a story.
Good round of books this month. They really helped pull you further into the world of Superman. The Daily Planet seems almost like a living place. I kind of want to go back just to see how the staff of the Daily Planet is getting along again. I have to say, Superman is showing a lot more personality than I was expecting. There's a certain level of humanity that Byrne and Wolfman have lended to the character that I really like.
I also find it interesting that this bright and vibrant world was communicated in just 9 issues. There are books in the New 52 that don't have a fraction of this development in close to 25 issues. I think current companies should be worried less about writing for a trade and more about creating a world that people want to visit. I just feel this big level of investment in the characters, their problems and their relationships and it's only been 9 issues of material. I might lose interest as I progress through these but so far I'm actually excited to read some Superman comics. I'll be back at some point to discuss Superman #2, Adventures of Superman #425 and Action Comics #585. See you next time!
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