BT-Superman: Man/Steel

This series is really neat in that in continues seamlessly. Sometimes each story is part of one big story and sometimes it's a totally separate story but they all continue seamlessly and it makes for some enjoyable reading. The only downside are the pages are newsprint quality and the artwork is not as awesome as some other books.

What you need to know before reading this book:1) Superman stories published from 1938 to 1986 (commonly called "Pre-Crisis Superman") were wiped out of continuity and is no longer part of the Superman Canon.2) An event called "Crisis on Infinite Earths" cleaned up DC Comics continuity and recreated the DC Universe in 1985/6. All comics from that point to the present are referred to as the "Post-Crisis" stories.3) The "Post-Crisis" Superman began with 1986's "The Man of Steel" miniseries by John Byrne (collected as Volume One)4) This volume (Vol. 2) collects the first three issues of the normal Superman comics immediately following "The Man of Steel" miniseries - therefore giving us a good representation of the "New" Superman and how it all began (again).The majority of the stories collected in this volume are written and drawn by John Byrne, who was also responsible for the revamp in the first place. The rest of the stories are written by Marv Wolfman (who also provided the "Intro" to this volume) and beautifully drawn by Jerry Ordway. The stories read like a continuation of "The Man of Steel". While the previous volume gave us the new Krypton, the new Pa/Ma Kent, Brainiac, Luthor, etc., this volume gives us Cat Grant, the new Metallo, Prof. Emil Hamilton and further fleshes out the malicious character of Lex Luthor. In addition to that, we have three issues of Superman in Apokolips (actually part of the "Legends" crossover but it can very well stand alone by itself) with a superb rendition of Darkseid, Orion, Lightray and the rest of the classic Kirby creations by John Byrne. This volume is highly recommended to all Superman historians (like me!) and all fans of John Byrne (the man was at his very best here).

the past few years superman has been written so poorly, the art has tried to make him more manga or just trying weird styles, people have written superman as everything but superman.but in this book from 1986 we see superman, simple yet oh so effective, we believe he is superman, you see the man in the superman, the man who loves his parents, they love ihim, a lois who is strong but not the annoying lois we so a lot today.superman was bogged down by being overpowerful, too alien and not very human, then Byrne come along and give us the human superman, the man who was clark kent first and superman second.sadly dc comics is changing it back with a superman who is more wrapped up in being an alien, his father is not helping his son create a costume but becoming upset over it.so if you want the great superman, get this and leave the newest books alone, and i assume the birthright story will become a trade soon, if you see it leave it be and let this be the only origin of supermans you read.

John Byrne does not reinvent Superman in this collection. He returns the character to what he originally was. He strips away much of the mythos which only came into Superman's life after Siegel and Shuster left DC (Superboy, Supergirl, Krypto, multi-colored Kryptonite, god-like power levels, and Kryptonian heritage), and leaves us with the character as he was meant to be when he was created.

John Byrne has done to Superman what he needed to have done. All of the anoying, cheesy parts of the Superman Legend have been removed, while essential new parts (such as leaving his parents alive and a millionaire Lex Luthor) are so good, I don't see how they had been left out. John Byrne has given everyone a personality, and a likable one at that. He draws Superman the way he is meant to be drawn. Finally, a believable Superman.