The Man of Steel (comics)

This article is about the 1986 John Byrne miniseries. For the ongoing series that ran from 1991-2003, see Superman: The Man of Steel.

The Man of Steel
Cover to The Man of Steel #1. Art by John Byrne.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
Schedule	Twice monthly
Format	Limited series
Publication date	July-September 1986
No. of issues	6
Main character(s)	Superman
Creative team
Created by	John Byrne, Dick Giordano
Written by	John Byrne
Penciller(s)	John Byrne
Inker(s)	Dick Giordano
Letterer(s)	John Costanza
Colorist(s)	Tom Ziuko
Editor(s)	Andy Helfer
Collected editions
Superman: The Man of Steel Vol. 1 (softcover)	ISBN 0930289285

The Man of Steel was a six-issue comic book limited series released in 1986 by DC Comics, several months after the twelve-issue limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths completed. The Man of Steel was written and penciled by John Byrne and inked by Dick Giordano.

Overview

The mini-series was designed to reboot the Superman mythos. Using the history-altering effects of Crisis on Infinite Earths as an explanation, it was decided by DC editorial to give Superman an updated look and feel by completely rewriting his history, as an attempt to attract more readers. Thus, for modern comics, Man of Steel is the dividing point between the previous canon and the current one; most comic fans refer to the two different versions as "pre-Crisis" and "post-Crisis", per Crisis on Infinite Earths being the major dividing line across DC's universe as a whole. The pre-Crisis stories were drawn to a close in Alan Moore's "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?".

From 2003 until 2007, this and Superman: Birthright were regarded as the "official" origins of Superman. However, after the DCU spanning event Infinite Crisis, both the Man of Steel series and the Birthright series' portrayals of Krypton and Superman's birth have been removed as the "official origin" in favor of a new origin story that has yet to be told. A portion of the new origin appeared in Action Comics #850, which showed Kal-El being born moments before going into his ship and being sent to Earth. Superman's post-Infinite Crisis origin will be chronicled in the 2009 mini-series, Superman: Secret Origin.

The Man of Steel was followed by three four-issue mini-series which retold the world of Superman, called The World of Krypton (December 1987 - March 1988), The World of Smallville (April - July 1988), and The World of Metropolis (August - November 1988), all of them written by Byrne.

Story

The Man of Steel retells Superman’s story beginning with his origin. Each issue focuses on a different time in the early years of his career. In telling the story, Byrne drew from all available media to have depicted Superman for inspiration.

The series reboots Superman continuity for a modern audience. Previous depictions of the comic book Superman and his mythology are discarded. Some characters’ backgrounds were largely altered.

Issue One

The first issue chronicles the origin of Superman, from his flight from Krypton to his arrival on Earth where he is discovered by his adoptive parents, the Kents. The story fast forwards to a high school football game after which adoptive father Jonathan Kent takes the now-teenaged Clark for a ride. By this time, Clark has developed most of, if not all, his powers as Superman. Jonathan reveals to Clark the truth that he (Clark) was never their biological son and that he was found from a crashed spaceship. The revelation causes Clark to decide to use his powers for the greater good. For the next few years during his studies in university, he has been saving lives and averting disasters in secret until an experimental space shuttle forces him to expose himself to the public. He meets Lois Lane for the first time and both felt a connection to each other but before they could react to it, a mob surrounds them. Clark is unable to deal with the sudden attention. In order to preserve Clark’s secret identity, Jonathan comes up with the idea of a superhero identity. Clark adopts a costume and the name he was given in the news, Superman.

• The planet Krypton was a cold and emotionally sterile planet, an idea Byrne borrowed from the 1978 film Superman.
• Kal-El was not an infant sent from Krypton to Earth; rather, his fetus was placed in a "birthing matrix" equipped with a rocket engine and Jor-El's experimental warp drive, with Kal-El gestating during the trip to Earth; once the rocket landed, Kal-El was fully "born" on Earth. This also made him "born" an American, a plot point that would be used in Armageddon 2001, a DC Comics storyline which explored possible futures, one of which featured Superman becoming President of the United States.
• Clark's abilities developed gradually in the yellow sun environment, starting with resistance to injury, then strength, x-ray vision, etc., with his ability to fly being the last to emerge. It took until his late teen years for all of his powers to develop; thus, Clark only adopted the Superman identity in adulthood, and never was Superboy.
• The Kents secretly adopted Clark and passed him off as their biological son. Prior to finding Clark, Martha Kent had a history of failed pregnancies. Friends and relatives assumed that they kept Martha’s “pregnancy” a secret in fear of losing another child. A blizzard that closed off Smallville also helped in the Kents’ alibi. In some pre-Crisis depictions, the Kents surrendered baby Kal-El to an orphanage before having a change of heart and legally adopting him as their own. The Man of Steel, Birthright, and Smallville all involve the same circumstances and cover-up of Clark's adoption.
• Clark mentions that he has been making Metropolis his base of operations for about three years.
• While the pre-Crisis Superman's costume was invulnerable (as a result of being made from the blankets in the rocket that brought him to Earth), the post-Crisis Superman's costume was made of ordinary material. But while the cape often became ripped and torn (or even completely destroyed on occasion) for dramatic effect, the rest of the costume was usually left untouched. It was later explained that the post-Crisis Superman's body generated an invisible "aura" that surrounded him and contributed to his invulnerability. Objects held close to him, such as his costume, were protected from harm; his cape, meanwhile, could easily sustain damage in battle. The Superman S-shield is an original design by Clark and Jonathan.
• Byrne made some adjustments to Superman's costume. While keeping every classic element, he significantly increased the size of the S-shield so that it almost entirely covered the chest. The cape is also made larger and longer, its flowing in the air made to look more dramatic.

Issue Two

Daily Planet editor-in-chief Perry White assigns Lois Lane to get an interview with Superman. Meanwhile, Superman is all over Metropolis rescuing citizens and foiling bank robberies. After a series of failed attempts to interview Superman, Lois decides to take a gamble and plunges her car into the harbor. Superman arrives and takes her home. She finally has the scoop on Superman only to find out she was beaten to the headline by the new reporter, Clark Kent.

• Lois Lane was written as an aggressive reporter and person from the start, and never expressed a desire to find out Superman's secret identity (and indeed, never seemed to consider that Superman might have an alter-ego). She was also responsible for coming up with the name Superman, as she had in different formats of the character (such as Superman and Superman: The Animated Series).
• Lane was also given a reddish-brown head of hair instead of black with blue being used as a non-local color to indicate details.
• The Mr. L in the limousine who wished to talk with Lois is none other than Lex Luthor.

Issue Three

Superman and Batman meet each other for the first time. Batman is on the trail of the criminal known as Magpie. He is interrupted in a lead by Superman who regards him as an outlaw. Rather than risk capture, Batman informs Superman that should the latter make any attempts to come near him, a signal will be activated that will trigger a bomb and kill a person somewhere in the city. The two are forced to work together and eventually capture Magpie. In the end, Batman reveals to Superman that the endangered person is Batman himself. Superman departs cautioning Batman against crossing any further lines. Batman admits to himself of a respect for Superman’s innate goodness and wonders if, in a different reality, they could have been friends.

• Superman's relationship with Batman, which was friendly pre-Crisis became much more tentative, as each disagreed with the other's methods and attitudes. An allusion is made to their pre-Crisis friendship with Batman’s pondering at the end of the story.
• Batman mentions that he had read Superman's debut in the Daily Planet news reports eight months ago.

Issue Four

Lois and Clark are guests at a party to be held on Luthor’s luxury liner. Upon arriving, they are entertained by Luthor in his private chamber on the ship. When Luthor insinuates his desire of Lois, the latter is offended having some knowledge of Luthor’s past. Lois refuses to be one of Luthor’s trophy wives and decides to leave the ship. She and Clark are then confronted by South American terrorists who promptly throw Clark overboard. As the terrorists are trying to cordon the hostages, Clark changes to Superman and lifts the liner ship which surprises everyone on board. This opens an opportunity for Lois to seize control and knock out the terrorists. Luthor then reveals that he allowed the terrorists to get on board just so that he could coax Superman to come and include him on his payroll. Superman refuses Luthor’s offer and is deputized by the mayor of Metropolis to arrest Luthor. A few days later, Luthor confronts Superman and warns him of a day of reckoning.

• Superman's arch-nemesis Lex Luthor was no longer a mad scientist but instead a power-hungry billionaire, "the most powerful man in Metropolis," who resented Superman's overshadowing presence. Instead of battling Superman directly, Lex would use hired minions and staff on his payroll or manipulate others to confront Superman, while employing various methods (bribery, plausible deniability, legal trickery, etc.) to ensure that none of the incidents could be conclusively linked to him.
• Clark mentions that it has been almost eighteen months since he beat Lois on the scoop on Superman.

Issue Five

The story begins with Superman confronting Luthor after foiling another of the latter’s revenge schemes. However, Luthor is able to elude arrest when Superman is unable to tie the villain to his criminal act. Superman leaves but not before his body is scanned by Dr. Teng’s cloning machine. Due to Superman’s alien heritage, the machine is unable to duplicate his DNA as it can only recognize known lifeforms. At first the clone appears to be a perfect duplicate of Superman until it keels over unconscious and its body starts to crystallize. Frustrated, Luthor orders the body to be disposed of. Days later, the duplicate resurfaces thinking it is Superman and helping Metropolitans. The people, upon seeing it, flee in fear. It later meets a blind Lucy Lane, Lois’s sister, who attempted to commit suicide by jumping off a building. Superman encounters the creature and engages it in battle. The fight ends in a final blow, shattering the imperfect duplicate into a dust cloud which somehow restores Lucy’s sight.

• On the opening page of this issue, Superman is seemingly capturing Luthor, who is wearing his pre-Crisis power suit. However, the next page reveals that it is one of Luthor's pawns in the suit. Luthor claims that the suit had been stolen and that he had no knowledge of the plot to attack Superman. Unfortunately, the suit's systems have left the man inside a vegetable, unable to tell the truth of Luthor's involvement. The reader later learns that Luthor was responsible for all of the above, which Superman suspects.
• The villain Bizarro was established as an imperfect clone of Superman, created from the superhero's DNA, rather than as a duplicate resulting from an imperfect duplicating ray. Furthermore, Bizarro is no longer an "imperfect opposite" of Superman and as such, has identical rather than opposite powers. Though the duplicate is referred to as "bizarre" in-story, it is never explicitly named "Bizarro"; that name will not be established post-Crisis until years later, when another imperfect duplicate created by the same process runs rampant in Metropolis.
• Lois mentions that she has been dreaming of kissing Superman for five years now, indicating that he has been active in Metropolis at least that long at this point.
• The restoration of Lucy's sight is an element borrowed from Bizarro's original debut in Superboy (vol. 1) #68, right down to the dust cloud; it is intimated that the duplicate deliberately sacrifices itself after hearing that Lucy's sight began to improve after contact with the creature.

Issue Six

Clark returns to Smallville after a long time away. His adoptive parents pick him up. Jonathan Kent was about to tell him something but Martha shushed him. Later that night, Clark could not sleep as he wonders what his Pa Kent was about to tell him. When he went for a midnight snack, a “ghost” of Jor-El surprises him and touches him. Superman discovers himself to be on an alien planet where he encounters his biological mother, Lara. As the hallucination wears off, he is face to face with his old flame, Lana Lang. In a flashback, it turns out that on the night that Clark learned his heritage he went to Lana and revealed the truth of his powers to her. She confesses her feelings to him. She realizes that Clark can no longer belong to her, that he belongs to the world and this fact had hurt her. She had gone through a period of depression and finally accepts the fact. The next day, Superman thinks about what she said and starts wondering about where he truly came from. He goes to the location where Jonathan hid the rocket ship he was found in only to find that the ship is gone. The hologram of Jor-El reappears and tells him to be silent and to learn. It appears that Superman is under some kind of psionic attack but the Kents arrive in time and break it off. Superman flies away, realizing that it was not a mental attack but a download of knowledge of everything about Krypton into his brain. He finally knows his true parents and where he came from and though he appreciates the knowledge he has been given, in the end, he embraces his humanity ever more.

• Superman was made the sole survivor of Krypton's destruction (vs. the earlier version having other survivors such as Supergirl, Krypto, etc. attached to him).
• Superman had no memory of his existence on Krypton, but he instead identified himself as a citizen of Earth.
• Pre-Crisis, Pete Ross knew of Clark's abilities since they were teenagers, while Lana Lang suspected Clark of being Superboy. Post-Crisis, Pete never learned this information. Instead, Clark revealed his abilities to Lana just before he left Smallville.
• Clark's adoptive Terran parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent are alive and well in Clark's adulthood, and Clark visits them periodically. Pre-Crisis, they had died shortly after Clark's high school graduation.
• Clark is twenty-eight years old by the time the story ends.

Unused ideas

In some pre-Crisis retellings, Jor-El wanted to save both Lara and Kal-El by sending them away in the same rocket, but she would refuse saying that the rocket was too small and might not make it to Earth because of her added weight, and she wanted to stay with her husband, (an idea that was briefly touched on in Superman: The Animated Series). Byrne's original idea was to show a pregnant Lara leaving Krypton. After landing near Smallville, Lara would immediately succumb to a small chunk of kryptonite that was embedded in the ship's hull. This would have been Byrne's way to show early on how deadly kryptonite was. Lara would then have been found by the Kents while she was in labor, induced by the stress from kryptonite poisoning. Before dying, Lara would have told the Kents to look after her son. They would then take young Kal-El, an alien born on Earth, and raise him as their own just as they promised his mother. This was also Byrne's way to emphasize the Kents being chosen caretakers rather than them being a random couple who finds a baby in a rocket, (this concept was also, in a way, touched on in Smallville and Last Son of Krypton). The idea was not used because DC wanted Kal-El to be sent to Earth alone, as all the previous incarnations agreed upon.

In his public debut, Superman was originally going to save a landing space-shuttle. After the Challenger disaster incident, the Constitution was changed to "an experimental space-plane".

Byrne suggested that the Legion of Super-Heroes was formed based on legends of Superman's adventures as a boy. The Legion would eventually be surprised to discover that these adventures never happened.

Another unused idea was to show Lois Lane and Lex Luthor being romantically involved and living together in Luthor's estate in the mountains until Superman came to Metropolis. Lois would then leave Luthor to go after Superman, another reason for Luthor to hate Superman. This idea was scrapped because Byrne did not want Lois as someone who was drawn to power (and he didn't want any mountains shown alongside the city either). However, Man of Steel depicts Lois and Luthor as having only casually dated.

Impact of changes

The Man of Steel became the official origin story for Superman from 1986 through the early 2000s. Its changes to the origin story were adapted to other media featuring Superman. Many of the biggest changes were on Superman himself. While many of his standard superpowers remained, Superman was effectively limited in power and scope to make him more believable. He still had superhuman strength, vision powers and super breath but while the Silver Age Kal-El at his peak could easily move planets, the post-Crisis version strained at moving a commercial airliner in flight. His vision powers still include x-ray, heat and microscopic/telescopic vision but are set at a more realistic level. He no longer had the ability to survive in space indefinitely without an air supply as he had done often in pre-Crisis stories. The powers dropped in succeeding stories include his ability to travel through time, freeze breath (though he still possessed super-powerful blowing strength), and super intelligence.

Byrne made the most important changes to Superman's personality. Superman's alter-ego Clark Kent was no longer "mild-mannered"; he became more assertive, and an important half of a double life. Man of Steel established Clark Kent as the "real" person, with Superman being the "disguise" - a reversal of the earlier canon. Stories featuring people actively trying to discover Superman's secret identity became practically non-existent. It was not known to the general public that Superman had a secret identity since he did not wear a mask, and most generally assumed that Superman was the full-time identity. Additionally, Superman's status as the sole survivor of Krypton is restored. This resulted in the writers having to come up with an alternative explanation to related characters such as Supergirl and General Zod and the Phantom Zone villains.

The changes among Superman’s cast include Lana Lang, Jimmy Olsen and Lex Luthor. Lana and Jimmy did not adopt any superhero identities (pre-Crisis they frequently developed superpowers). Lex Luthor became an evil billionaire (inspired in part by his portrayal by Gene Hackman in the Superman movies). Clark's adoptive parents are still alive and well and remain important supporting characters to this day.

After the limited series, Byrne took over the storytelling in the monthly Superman series. The change he made to Superman’s greatest weakness, Kryptonite, was limiting the form to only the original green variety. Other variant forms of Kryptonite such as gold, yellow, blue and white no longer existed; only green remained. The other red version of Kryptonite would eventually resurface later on. Kryptonite was also made a much rarer element and extremely hard to find and acquire, in fact early on only Lex Luthor had access to it, this knowledge allowed Superman to know who supplied Bloodsport with Kryptonite bullets. Because of this it eliminated a previous plot element of even the most common criminals using the radioactive object to elude or eliminate Superman. Superman's enemies had to become even more creative in finding a way to battle him.

The removal of Clark's Superboy career, as well as Supergirl, from continuity would have a serious impact on the Legion of Super-Heroes. Byrne would later state that removing Superboy from continuity was a mistake.

Adaptations

In 1990, the series was adapted into a radio play simply entitled The Adventures of Superman by Dirk Maggs for BBC Radio 4. It featured Stuart Milligan as Clark Kent / Superman, William Hootkins as Lex Luthor, Lorelei King as Lois Lane, Vincent Marzello as Jimmy Olsen, Garrick Hagon as Perry White, Shelley Thompson as Lana Lang, Dick Vosburgh as Jor-El, Barbara Barnes as Lucy Lane, David Graham (actor) as Fisher, Simon Treves as Metallo, Elizabeth Mansfield as Amanda McCoy, Burt Kwouk as Doctor Teng, and Jon Pertwee as Schwarz.

Birthright

Main article: Superman: Birthright

In 2004, another story of Superman's origin, a 12-issue limited series called Superman: Birthright, was published. DC stated that Birthright and Man of Steel formed the full "official" origin for Superman. Birthright made use of many elements of Man of Steel that tied into the other series, but also introduced new aspects ignored by Byrne or brought back various pre-Crisis elements (such as Lex and Clark as childhood friends in Smallville). The Kara Zor-El version of Supergirl was also brought back, while the recent DC Comics storyline Infinite Crisis made further changes to Superman. Both Man of Steel and Birthright were in canon as the official origins of Superman.

Post-Infinite Crisis, Secret Origin

In April 2007, the then-monthly Superman writer Kurt Busiek stated that the origin of Superman in post-Infinite Crisis continuity has yet to be established. Due to the conflicting portrayals of Jor-El, Krypton, and Lex Luthor's background in The Man of Steel and Birthright limited series, both series have been removed from canon.

The current post-Infinite Crisis origin contains some aspects of the Man of Steel series, some aspects of the Birthright series, and also borrows elements from the Richard Donner/Bryan Singer film continuity. Like the film's depiction of the planet, Krypton is depicted as a crystalline world possessing much greater technology than Earth. Also, like the film series and Birthright, the "S" symbol on Superman's costume represents hope and is the House of El's crest. Kal-El was born on Krypton before the planet was destroyed and sent to Earth as a baby, as opposed to a fetus as depicted in The Man of Steel. The Silver Age incarnation of General Zod as been restored to continuity. Like the film series, Zod, Ursa, and Non were formerly respected leaders of Krypton, but they were put in the Phantom Zone for leading an insurrection on the planet.

Lex Luthor's origins has also been revised. Lex did, as depicted in Birthright, meet Clark Kent in Smallville and interacted with him, and later left under a cloud of suspicion. Unlike the Birthright series, Lex befriended Pete Ross and Lana Lang as well as Clark, Clark was not involved in Lex's baldness, nor was there any accident that disfigured Luthor that cost him his hair. In the One Year Later Superman: Up, Up and Away! and Last Son arcs, Luthor recalls having created Bizarro to destroy Superman but failed.

A complete retelling of Superman's post-Infinte Crisis origin will be shown in 2009 in the Superman: Secret Origin limited series, written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Gary Frank. The story features what Johns and DC Executive Editor Dan DiDio are calling a "definitive" telling of the origin story of Superman, dealing with his life in Smallville, his first adventure with the Legion of Super-Heroes as Superboy, and his arrival in Metropolis and at the Daily Planet.

Collections

The Man of Steel limited series has since been collected in trade paperback form in several editions. The first used a better paper stock after the series’ completion. In 1993, it was reprinted with newsprint-type paper and priced cheaper. The 2003 edition sported a new cover by Jerry Ordway and was titled as Superman: The Man of Steel Vol. 1, the first in a series of trade paperbacks collecting the early adventures of the post-Crisis Superman.