Released for the landmark 1986 series’ 40th anniversary…
As far as Absolute Editions go, we’ve been focusing most of our attention on this week’s Batman by Neal Adams Absolute Edition: 1967-1970. You can check out an EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK here.
But don’t forget there’s another major Absolute Edition release this week: Superman: The Man of Steel by John Byrne Absolute Edition, celebrating the six-issue miniseries’ 40th anniversary — and there’s a groovy video on Amazon that pages through the volume.
Here are some of the highlights:
Click here for the complete video. By the way, I’m not advocating you buy it there; much better to support your local comics shop.
The 9.8″ x 1.7″ x 15″ Superman: The Man of Steel by John Byrne Absolute Edition runs 328 pages and lists for $100. It’s available through booksellers on Tuesday and at comics shops Wednesday.
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MORE
— John Byrne’s SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL to Get Absolute Edition. Click here.
— Why JOHN BYRNE’S SUPERMAN Was the Greatest Man of Steel Ever. Click here.
September 28, 2026
THIS is the Absolute Edition that I’ve been waiting years for. Can’t believe it took this long. As much affection as I have for Byrne’s entire run on Superman, these six issues are the best. Still (in my opinion) the best comic book version of Superman published to date (there are adaptations in other media that I like a smidge more).
September 28, 2026
YES! I have been looking forward to this since it was announced last year. My son pre-ordered it for me for Father’s Day & I can’t wait to hear it’s been shipped. Now if we can only get them working on that Superman by John Byrne omnibus covering The Man of Steel to The Supergirl Saga…
September 29, 2026
My copy just arrived. This is a GORGEOUS book. It appears that DC has rescanned and remastered much (all?) of the artwork, so it looks better than ever (the scans of the original films that they’ve been using for the past 40 years in every other reprint edition always looked too “washed out” to me). The line quality is better than it’s ever been. The coloring looks really great, too (with the exception of one annoying coloring error on page 51 that has been in (I think) every edition of this book since 1986). I was never a huge fan of the original coloring. And while the color choices are still the same, it doesn’t look as garish as it has in other editions (maybe due to better printing or ever-so-subtle desaturation of the color palette?). The whole book is beautifully designed, and it has some really nice special features in the back (especially the Xeroxes of Byrne’s original pencils to show (as a point of comparison) how much Giordano’s inks added to what was already great artwork).
This is the final book that I’ve been waiting for in my personal DC head canon library. It goes on a shelf with the Absolute Editions of: Crisis on Infinite Earths/History of the DC Universe, Batman: Year One, Wonder Woman: Gods and Mortals, DC: The New Frontier, and TDKR, as well as the DC Style Guide and the Who’s Who Omnibus Vol. 1. Every generation should get a version of the DC characters designed for their unique tastes, and this handful of books (most released when I was a young teenager) is *my* preferred version of DC. All of them (with the exception of DC:TNF) part of that wave of ambitious mid-1980s post-crisis reboots that boldly deconstructed, streamlined, and reinvented these characters for a contemporary audience, and which (to me anyway) all still hold up beautifully. 40 years later, in a world in which every IP gets rebooted all the time, it’s easy to forget just how radical DC’s post-Crisis reboots were at the time. But that risk-taking back in the day (the writers and artists deserve most of the credit, but the management team at the time of Jenette Kahn, Dick Giordano, and Paul Levitz deserve credit too for creating an environment that encouraged and welcomed creative risk taking in what had been up to then a very conservative and risk averse industry) continues to pay dividends because these books have remained evergreen backlist material for almost half a century now (and continue to be the primary inspiration for many of the adaptations done in film, TV, and animation in the years since).
DC does a lot of boneheaded things sometimes, but then they also do a lot of things better than any other publisher. Their Absolute Editions are the best format in the medium (now if only they’ll release Who’s Who as an Absolute Edition).