Writer/artist John Byrne seems
more like a comics fan first and a comics professional second with regard to
his respect of character and mythos. He goes into every superhero project
attempting to be as faithful to the original concept as possible (I wish more
comics pros took this approach). He has been quoted as asking the question of
“How much can I keep?” with regards to reboots. He seems to care about the
characters he works on and tries to tell stories that respect them rather than
shoehorn them into stories that might not fit that character, as so many modern
creators do.
He has been responsible (or
partly responsible) for many of the greatest runs in superhero comics. His
Fantastic Four run is probably the greatest statement on the FF ever, after the
foundation that was laid by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. His X-men stories with
Chris Claremont are the definitive X-men stories. His very brief Hulk run is
well remembered by some fans also.
His first real involvement with
DC Comics on a major level, however, came in the wake of the Crisis on Infinite
Earths event. With input by Marv Wolfman, John Byrne was put in charge of the
hard reboot and reinterpretation of the Superman mythos in 1986. Byrne was
chosen after many other comic book pros, including Carey Bates, Frank Miller
and Steve Gerber, all pitched concepts for a new Superman continuity.
Byrne’s ideas for Superman were
inspired by every version of the character that he had been exposed to. He drew
from four main sources: the original Golden Age Superman stories by Jerry
Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Fleischer Superman cartoons, the Adventures of
Superman TV series of the 1950s and the first Christopher Reeve Superman
film from 1978.
Superman’s new beginning debuted
in the six-issue
mini-series The Man of Steel (which ran
biweekly from October to December in 1986). Byrne retold Superman’s origin and
the series established the new Superman as once again the “Last Son of
Krypton.” In this more streamlined continuity, all of the barnacles that had
attached themselves to the Superman legend (Supergirl, Krypto the Superdog,
Superman as Superboy and the other Kryptonians that had appeared over the
years) were swept away.
As a back-to-basics approach, this series was the
perfect jumping on point for new readers. You literally didn’t have to know
anything about Superman and could pick up Man of Steel from issue one
and become a fan. Byrne depowered Superman from his Silver Age levels to
something more in line with how the character appeared in the Golden Age.
The biggest changes to the mythos were in
characterization. Byrne’s Clark Kent was more assertive and confident,
reflecting the George Reeves portrayal from the Adventures of Superman
TV series. Clark Kent was now the real person and Superman was a disguise used
for superheroics. Lois Lane was reimagined as a dedicated career woman of the
1980s, a strong and independent feminist. Thanks to writer Marv Wolfman, Lex
Luthor received the most dramatic overhaul. He was no longer the mad scientist
who used super-armor and robbed banks to build inventions that might destroy
the Man of Steel. This new version of Luthor was a capitalist business magnate,
one of the richest men in the world. Byrne has mentioned that this Luthor was
inspired in part by Donald Trump. Ma and Pa Kent were also kept alive in this
continuity. Byrne realized that the Kents could be an asset to the Superman
mythos and moral and emotional support for Clark.
Byrne also took the opportunity to retell the first meeting bewtween Superman and Batman. He put the two heroes at odds, creating an uneasy alliance. Frank Miller would also use this approach in his groundbreaking Dark Knight Returns story.
Krypton
was also reinvented completely. Gone was the Flash Gordon-inspired
sci-fi planet as conceived by Joe Shuster. This new Krypton almost resembled an
amalgamation of the planet Tatooine from Star Wars and the cold ice
planet from the 1978 Superman movie. Byrne created an emotionally dead,
sterile desert planet with mile-high towers. It’s people were a civilization
dedicated solely to scientific pursuits.
In September of 1986, a month
after Man of Steel debuted, this
new continuity essentially replaced all of Superman’s ongoing series. The Superman comic (Vol. 1 that
began in 1939) was rechristened Adventures
of Superman. This made way for the second volume of the Superman
title, published as Superman #1
(Vol. 2). Byrne wrote and drew both Superman Vol. 2 and Action Comics (which was
still being published as Vol. 1), while Marv Wolfman wrote Adventures of Superman with pencils and
co-plotting credit by Jerry Ordway.
For the first year, to the credit
of Byrne, Wolfman and Ordway, the books fit together incredibly well. This is
especially impressive because they were only loosely related to each other as
far as story was concerned. As Byrne continued his run, familiar characters
from the old Superman mythos began to reappear, albeit reimagined, including
the wonderful reintroduction of Metallo. This was alongside new characters and
Superman even shared adventures with old DC Universe staples such as the Metal
Men and Jack Kirby’s Demon character.
DC soon began three separate mini-series that built upon the mythos
that Byrne was trying to establish. World of Krypton, World of Smallville, and World of Metropolis were all written by Byrne while
the art varied. Each of these books ran four issues and expanded upon the
characters of each locale. World of Metropolis was my favorite of these
series because it gave more background to the character of Lois Lane and showed
how the city reacted to Superman.
In 1987 Byrne and Ordway
inherited Adventures of Superman after Marv
Wolfman left. The various Superman books rolled on impressively with each new
issue feeling like fresh, exciting new territory.
The beginning of 1988 saw the
release of the prestige-format graphic novel: Superman: The Earth Stealers. Written by Byrne with
art by Curt Swan and Jerry Ordway, this story is still memorable. It provides a
great statement about environmentalism and the need to protect our planet.
Byrne’s work on Superman ended
shortly thereafter, but his finale and one of the better stories to come out of
this run was the Supergirl Saga. It really is a master class in comic book
storytelling. Starting in Superman Vol. 2 #21, a new Supergirl was
introduced. At first, this apparently ignored the “Last Son of Krypton” edict
that had helped to define the reboot. This new Supergirl was discovered to be a
“biological matrix” or alien shape-shifter from a “pocket universe.” This
pocket universe was a way to shoehorn in explanations of how aspects from the
old continuity might coexist with the new continuity. This universe brought
other Kryptonians to the new canon, culminating in one of the most
controversial aspects of Byrne’s run: the execution of three Kryptonian criminals
via Kryptonite radiation by the Man of Steel. Because this was Byrne’s final
statement before he left, the impact was huge.
Byrne’s run gave way to impressive work on the character done by Roger
Stern in another title, Man of Tomorrow. Because of Byrne’s foundation,
future writers took the Superman franchise in creative and bold directions for
years afterward. All the work from 1986 to the time when Superman died at the
hands of Doomsday in the Death and Return Saga served to humanize Superman and
make him more relatable. He was less a distant alien super being and more a man
with great power who genuinely cared about people.
It is amazing to think about, now, how much work Mr. Byrne was able to
complete and just how much he was able to accomplish in such a short time. He
was involved in writing, plotting or art on 68 of the 82 issues from this
period. Overall, this is a career
defining run for Byrne and a cohesive work. It is as important to the history
of Superman as the work of Siegel and Shuster, the Fleischer cartoons, the
George Reeves series or the 1978 movie. This is the best Superman for many
fans, myself included, and deservedly so.
If you want to get into modern Superman, need an introduction to the
character or just want to read fun comic books, this will not disappoint. The
series has been reprinted in 9 trade paperbacks. Run, don’t walk, to your
nearest comic book shop and buy/order these.
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