The TOP 13 STORIES From JOHN BYRNE’s Last Year on the SUPERMAN Titles
The new Man of Steel Absolute Edition gives us the beginning. This is how it ended… By AARON HAMMONDS Anyone who’s read my pieces for 13th Dimension knows how important the Byrne era of Superman is to me; he’s the guy who made me a Supeman fan. For just over two years, he was the chief architect of a new era for the Man of Steel, and in a way, he arguably had even more control during the second half of his tenure. With Marv Wolfman’s departure from The Adventures of Superman after #435, Byrne became the sole writer of the Super-titles. (Jerry Ordway assisting as co-plotter on Adventures primed him to take over that series after Byrne’s departure). Even after Action Comics became a weekly anthology with #601, Byrne was still quite a busy fellow. In June, I wrote a 40th anniversary tribute to Byrne’s landmark 1986 Man of Steel miniseries, and for his 76th birthday in July, I followed up with the TOP 13 SUPERMAN STORIES from his first 13 months helming the Metropolis Marvel. Now, with this week’s release of Superman: The Man of Steel by John Byrne Absolute Edition — click here for a SNEAK PEEK — we finish things off with the TOP 13 STORIES from Byrne’s final year in Metropolis. — 1. Superman #11. I loved Byrne’s re-introduction of classic characters from the Golden and Silver Ages into the modern Superman mythos and this was one of the best. Lois is almost literally swept off her feet by handsome, broad-shouldered Ben DeRoy, who dresses like he just stepped off a Miami Vice episode. Somehow, everywhere he goes, DeRoy has a way of making things happen: an obnoxious smoker’s cigar bursts into flames in his hand, a child’s toy gorilla becomes frighteningly alive, and he then animates a mannequin, transforming Lois into plastic to take her place. Of course, the cover had already given the surprise away: This is the post-Crisis introduction of one of Superman’s oldest foes, Mr. Mxyzptlk. Superman has to deal with a semi behaving like a bucking bronco and the Daily Planet building acting like a toddler before finally getting Mxyzptlk to go home. Ah, Silver-Age zaniness with a modern twist; I loved it. — 2. The Adventures of Superman #434. Marv Wolfman’s penultimate issue of Adventures was a typically well-written...
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