Captain Logan and Eric thoroughly discuss John Byrne's 6-part Superman mini-series Man of Steel. The first of three parts. And the start of a short Comic Vault series on modern Superman origin stories!
Im a big fan of John Byrne's origin of Superman. It was the first comic I brought so there is that nostalgic factor plus he modeled the design of his Superman on Christopher Reeve which is always a plus in my book.
1) Byrne’s Post-Crisis Lex Luthor was a scientist. He was an aerospace engineer who used that skill to set the foundation for his company. Yes he hires subordinate scientists who are more experts in their particular field, but he is never lost when talking to them. 2) After COIE they ran a number of Superman stories they had sitting on the shelf, and then finished with the famous “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow” that ended Pre-Crisis Superman. Then Superman and Action Comics were suspended while the MOS came out. They started again with Action containing the same numbering as before and Superman starting over at #1. But not to lose the old line completely they renamed the original title the Adventures of Superman (in honor of the old tv series) starting with issue 423. As the titles grew closer and started finishing their own stories they started a fourth title, also called Man of Steel, to make it a weekly comic. 3) In this universe there were Super-heroes before Superman. The Justice Society started in World War II and forced to shut down by McCarthy. 4) In my home town our local paper often runs stories from larger papers that it has an association with. So yes the Smallville Post might run a Planet article.
Hey guys, this was a great conversation! Man of Steel (the comic) is my favorite Superman origin. That and the original Reeve film are how I view Superman and no matter what else I see, there's a slight discomfort if I can't find those two interpretations in other works. Just a few things... I think maybe you guys are misreading the Bradbury piece? Remember that the piece opens with the very clear image of writing. Sci-Fi as it evolves colors our experiences and what we write. Bradbury, I take it, is not writing about Superman, he's writing about why Superman was invented and what that means for a society capable of inventing that concept. Its our relationship, morally, spiritually, socially, historically to the idea of inventing things better than us. Superman is the ultimate technology in the sense that he is the ultimate blueprint for our ideas of being human and the merger of humanity with science fiction. Remember that Superman is created in a period where this Heideggerian notion of the relationship technology and the "natural" is still a big discussion. Bradbury's writing is almost always about how technology isn't merely some mechanical thing that's powered by electricity. Technology is, pure and simple, the act of any creation for some end. Superman is the ultimate end and there's a dissonance when a race of people who are fundamentally broken by economics, politics and violence are able to create something so beyond them. Bradbury is writing about the imperfect people in conversation with the Superman they've somehow conceptualized. In that sense, the piece is supposed to be a little scatter brained and vague. Superman was created as a social crusader, fighting land lords and wife beaters. He was the Golem of Jewish myth reclaiming the agency of a minority group. The terminology of Superman as technology is meant in the sense of Superman being the invention that solves social problems that stemmed him. The mother talking to Superman about her child, the idea of shootings, and computer revolutions are being put into the same terms as the idea of writing and creation. Superman is thus that perfect marriage of the social issues and the technology invented by us. ... Kryptonian language did exist before Smallville. Before that series, we had an alphabet that was roughly a hundred letters. There was no English one-to-one relationship and we didn't have grammar rules exactly but, much like Trek and Klingon, fan involvement in the creation of the language was adopted by DC. We even called it Kryptonese (which the Supergirl show references in the pilot). Smallville is credited with creating that more solid one-to-one and giving us a font that was distinct as opposed to the squiggles. ... The Fleischer cartoons gave Superman the power of flight because it was easier to animate. ... Those Superman "base" powers were always evolving. Typically, its only a matter of how far they extend. Inventing powers was really just at the mercy of the writers and we rarely mentioned them outside of the original stories they appeared in.
It's funny. Superman is the only character that makes me like many different origins. I like Man of Steel, Earth One, New 52 Action, Birthright. I think Man of Steel is my favorite, but it is hard to tell.
John Byrne’s Superman has always been my favorite interpretation of the character. In 1993, the Death of Superman comic book made huge waves in the media outside of comics at the time and me being 9, I was intrigued and bought it and of course I was hooked. After that I consumed the “Funeral for a Friend” series and “Reign of the Superman” series. My fascination with the character grew and I was able to get my hands on the older stuff and learning about Byrne’s contribution and decidedly what he did for the character was my favorite.
Smallville Lex was both a business man AND scientist. He's always driven to learn about something scientific, especially if it is about Clark. He needs to know the truth, and he obsesses over it. He uses his money and resources to study extraordinary things. He just never wears a lab coat while doing it.
45:59 Tactile telekinesis. Byrne's Superman does have an energy field around his body. It's what helps give him his invulnerability (but not 100%), it protects his clothing, and it may be the method of propulsion used to help him fly. When Project Cadmus made the Superboy clone, they analyzed Superman's body, discovered the energy field and translated that to tactile telekinesis. What Superman does isn't really tactile telekinesis like Superboy, but it's very close.
Please tackle more John Byrne related works. His FF, his X-men run with Claremont and The Hidden Years, and NEXT MEN are all great! Thank you so much for this!
They did indeed use the Byrne "born in America" origin to let Superman run for president in that Action Comics annual (#3: one of the possible futures seen in the Armageddon 2001 storyline).
Clark playing football in high school could maybe also explain why he has a great physique. I would assume he would still be training and that his powers weren't fully developed so he could still develop muscles
Before Byrne's Superman, I was only a mild fan of the character. His Supes was powerful, but couldn't pick up a planet like I can pick up a piece of tissue paper. He faced foes that were an actual threat to him. Clark Kent was a nice guy, but not a wimp.
Man of steel #1 is my second favorite superman comic and the my first favorite comic is my Loot crate Reprint of action comics #1 the first appearance of Superman
Listening to your commentary. The fact that Lois Lane's story would not be weird. The AP wire runs major stories from major cities in small local papers all the time.
It matters that Superman is a citizen because he is supposed to be one of us. He's not "the other" from the outside. He's your policeman, fireman, teacher, good samaritan, paramedic or just good neighbor. IIRC in addition to not being allowed to run for president naturalized citizens are obliged to testify before congress if summoned in a way natural citizens aren't. Plus, his cover is that he's their natural son and if he isn't a natural born citizen then he isn't a citizen at all.
Cap and Eric, You probably already know that they turned the Man of Steel arch into a short audio drama no audio tape which was/is amazing. Especially the "One Knight in Gotham City" portions. They actually have the tapes on youtube. Here are the links: Book 1: From out of the Green Dawn ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pEeDy78n5-k.html Book 2: The story of the Century ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tSfb4qav4C8.html Book 3: One Knight in Gotham City (They slowed down this one. Download it and just speed it up in any audio program.) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NfNMqGGOcmM.html Book 4: CAN'T FIND THIS ONE Book 5: The Beast Within ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2RVeP0TxaLs.html Book 6: Return to Smallville - The Epic Conclusion ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-THtyWFbT7as.html It was great that these exist showing just how important this book was at the time, and still is.
I've read so many Superman origins, inside and outside of continuity... Action #1, Superman #1, The Superman Story, Man of Steel, For All Seasons, Action #650, Action #800, World of Krypton, World of Smallville, World of Metropolis, Odyssey, Year One annuals, Legends of the DCU stories, Secret Origins 1, Superman: Secret Origins, Birthright, Earth One, Secret Identity, Red Sun, JLA: Year One JLA: The Nail, kids picture books, Morrisons New 52 Action run...
19:20 It’s basically like if you went on one of those death clock websites or whatever, where you put in info about yourself and it “calculates” how long you have to live, and it just said ten minutes. Like oh shit. Whoops.
If you want to see Ultimate SUperman, check out Supreme Power, alos written by JMS. Hyperion is the superman stand in and I think JMS was trying to reverse engineer superman into Hyperion in Grounded and Earth 1.
All Star basically exists in its own world, borrowing from elements of many versions that Morrison likes. It takes things like Solaris from Morrison's JLA, but it isn't part of any version of the DCU.
Birthright is the best origin!! DCEU Superman borrows as much from that as it does MOS. Eisenberg's Lex is inspired by Birthright and All Star. That's how Terrio wrote him, at least.
