The Man of Steel #1 (October 1986)
The Man of Steel #1 (October 1986)
Thus begins my in-depth examination of every fucking Superman continuity comic between 1986 and 1999 (even the ones that really suck).
This is a pretty straightforward origin issue: lil' Kal-El is launched from doomed planet Krypton in a rocket, found by the Kents in Smallville, grows up to be a strapping (superpowered) young lad, and decides to use his abilities to help people. After anonymously Supermanning around the planet for a few years, Clark saves an experimental space plane (containing Lois Lane in it) and the resulting media attention makes him decide to create the Superman identity, with some fashion assistance from the Kents. Yes, Superman only wears his costume for like two pages in this issue (he spends the rest naked).
I like the sequence in Krypton, which is like a neat little story in itself. At the end of it, Jor-El, member of the cold, emotionless Kryptonian race, confesses his love for Lara, saying he learned about this strange new feeling by watching the Earthlings -- I think it's pretty obvious what type of human movies he was watching. The implication is clear: immediately after launching their baby son Superman-El into space, Jor and Lara started getting hot and heavy and the panel of the planet's explosion coincides with the moment they reached climax.
Character-Watch:
This issue introduces the basic cast: Superman's parents (both sets), Superman himself, Lana Lang and Lois Lane. Oh, and Kelex, Jor-El's robot servant, who would later be recreated on Earth and fetch drinks for Superman too.
Plotline-Watch:
On the surface everything seems pretty neat and simple, but this issue begins a couple of long-running plotlines:
There's a dramatic moment after Clark saves the space plane and finds himself surrounded by a crowd of people gawking at him, demanding things from him, and probably groping his butt. Clark flies straight back to Smallville and sits in a dark room, telling Pa: "They all wanted a piece of me..." We'll go back to this scene several times over the years (in fact, I'm writing this from the future as an excuse to add these panels to the post).
The Kryptonian Plague: Jor-El says Kryptonians can't leave Krypton because of a plague; it's implied that the whole planet is turning into kryptonite and killing them. However, a few years later the cause of the "plague" would be revealed to be the Eradicator, which of course would remain a plotline until the thing gained sentience and went around pretending it was Superman during Reign of the Supermen.
Luthor's Kryptonite: A chunk of kryptonite gets lodged into Superman's spaceship as it launches into space. Later, we see a guy in a trenchcoat lurking as Pa Kent shows the ship to young Clark. In later issues that guy would steal the rock and create Metallo, and soon the kryptonite ends up in Lex Luthor's hands. Or hand, rather. That would lead to the single longest plotline in Superman comics ever, but more on that later.
WTF-Watch:
Ma Kent comments on Superman's muscles as he’s changing into the costume... in front of his parents? The fact that she came up with the "underpants on the outside" look for her son probably has some deep psychological implication, but I'd rather not think about it.
Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):
It all begins here! I should say right at the outset, that I had the weird, and fortunate experience of THIS being the first comic I bought with my own money. I'd had friends of my older sister give me their old comics, and my Dad would bring me home the odd one from the newsstand, but in the summer of '86, this was on the spinner racks at my drugstore, and instead of getting candy or a coke or something, I bought this issue, and it literally changed my life. And talk about a perfect jumping-on point! I was literally jumping onto comics, in general.
My copy was the standard edition, with the splitscreen cover, with the explosion of Krypton on the left, and a very mid-80s looking Clark Kent Superman reveal on the right. Already we're seeing that huge elements of the mythology are changing, though, again, I had no frame of reference for the pre-Crisis Superman at this time. Even the cover shows a distinctly unique Kryptonian rocket, very different from the 50s-world's-fair look Superman's rocket had previously been depicted as in the comics. I've never had this confirmed in any interviews with John Byrne that I've read, but I can't help but notice that the shape of the rocket matches the art deco framing element on the cover of 1939's Superman #1 (this became even more clear to me years later when Superman gets the Kryptonian Eradicator/Artifact). If this choice is intentional, it's a stroke of genius on the part of Byrne, plus it's a cool, modern look for the spacecraft. [Max: Holy crap, I'd never noticed that!]
Once we get into the issue, Byrne follows the (risky) template of the first Superman film, throwing us directly into a completely foreign Krypton, which is again designed completely differently than the oblong spires of the pre-Crisis Krypton, and still different from the icy crystal Krypton of the Donner Superman films. There's so much here that works well, and has become such an indelible part of the Superman mythology, that it can be hard to appreciate how visually radical these changes were. Even something as simple as the design on the Kryptonian robots ended up being one of the longest running elements in these comics, with Kelex appearing in the most recent series of films, and looking very much like this drawing.
Ditto the look of Jor-El and Lara, who I only realized upon THIS reading, have no eyebrows. So no wonder Lara almost faints when she sees Eben Kent's (or whoever) hairy buff bod.
From Krypton's fiery conflagration, we're thrown headlong into rural Kansas, and a young Clark Kent. Again, we see how influential this portrayal is, as before this story, Clark had always been depicted as essentially looking the same as a kid, as he did as a man. But here we see him with mid-to-late-70s-appropriate longish hair (judging from the vehicles and Lana's style, plus the fact that he's in action in "modern" 1986) which he'd never been shown having before these comics. But then, in every incarnation since, from Smallville, to Man of Steel, Clark has longer hair before his Metropolis days (Clark's hair is quite long in the pilot episode of Lois and Clark, as well, though by the time they went to series, it had been shortened and slicked back.
While we're on the subject of character designs, The Kents are presented quite differently here, too, with Jonathan Kent being shown as a little portlier than he was often depicted, Pre-Crisis. This look also seemed to stick, being seen in pretty much all media (1988 Superman cartoon, Superman: The Animated Series, Lois and Clark) up until Smallville de-aged the Kents considerably.
The art throughout the issue is excellent. This time period is pretty much the peak of Byrne's ability, and while I find a sharper inker suits Byrne's style best (Karl Kesel is my favourite pairing, aside from my hero Jerry Ordway, who makes EVERYONE's pencils better) Dick Giordano does well on this series. His lusher, brushier style works very well for the flashback scenes in particular, even if it can tend to reinforce Byrne's looser, sloppier lines. The thing I love best about Byrne's Superman (and indeed, he would be in the top five for best Superman artists all-time, for me) is the joy his Superman takes in his powers. Byrne's Superman smiles a lot, and it feels right.
While future issues will explore Ma Kent's folly at having a scrapbook of Clark's secret super-deeds, it's interesting to see all the stuff he did over the years. Not sure about the morality of raising the Titanic, though, which these days is considered a gravesite (since these pages were drawn so many years before the film we now all know, we can forgive Byrne for showing the famously broken-in-half boat intact in the photo, unless of course, Clark welded it back together when he raised it?).
The shot of Clark in his old room is incredibly well-drawn, Byrne has a real deft way of showing Clark's power, without making his muscles excessively balloon like. I should mention, I'm reviewing these books from the 2000s trade paperback reprints, where there has been some recolouring. I think the original comic did a better job with the mood of this scene, using much darker, cooler colours than in the TPB version, where Clark apparently has Day-Glo yellow pants.
My favourite sequence in the book, art-wise, is Clark's destiny-altering meetup with Lois Lane. In my original comic, Lois Lane is depicted with blue-black hair, same as Clark's, and in the recolour, they've changed it to brown. I love the way Byrne draws Lois (she looks even more like Margot Kidder than Byrne's Superman looks like Christopher Reeve) but I will say I prefer the black hair on Lois, even if she is rarely depicted with black hair in the post-Crisis early issues. Her "hold it right there, buster!" quote is up there with Mary Jane Watson's "jackpot" line in terms of classic meetups in my mind. (I also like the darker orange space suit than the bright yellow one of the TPB, but I'm getting a little granular here).
The sequence of Clark's super-suit coming together in pieces is very well done, as Byrne explains, or even defends each element. The final reveal on the last page is one of the most famous images of Byrne's run, but honestly, it's not that much better drawn than any of this gorgeous book—start to finish, it's incredibly dynamic and consistent.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS:
I don't think I had noticed, in previous readings, that Lara isn't necessarily reciprocating Jor-El's affection. In fact, she doesn't have much to do with the decision to shoot off their offspring, and low-level seems to be against the plan. I have always dug Jor-El as romantic rebel, but remembered (perhaps erroneously, and perhaps am remembering a later retelling) a big smooch between the Els as Krypton exploded. Not really, though, as we're given no indication that Lara feels the same way about Jor. [Max: Same for me. I think they do smooch in that early Jurgens "Return to Krypton" issue, though.]
I love that people just think Clark is the Kents' natural child. It just solves so many problems.
I'm quite torn on John Byrne reading these issues now. On the one hand, he more or less created, completely on his own, my favourite era of comics, but as this blog has shown over and over, he does some weeeeeeeird stuff. And what jumps out at me more on this reading is a painfully tin ear for dialogue. For context, Clark is sitting and shaking in adrenaline-spiked fear, at the fact that his life has changed from having been exposed, maskless, using his powers. And yet, in that state, he takes the time to craft florid phrasing like "it was as if a movie projector has suddenly stopped on one frame of film, freezing a fraction of a second into an eternity"... and then, worst of all, he describes planes as "locked together, like dancers in some obscene ballet." Uh, OK, Clark, but back to the story? So anyway, I was thinking of creating a little section for when Byrne goes off reservation, or goes on a tangent, or highlights something creepy. Any ideas on what to call it? [Max: WTF-Watch is taken, sorry. "Byrneisms" or something?]
Max already pointed out in his review how weird it is that Clark's mother comments on his muscles. I guess it's supposed to be pride? Oddly enough, they replayed this scene in the pilot episode of Lois and Clark, with Ma Kent reacting to the first try-on of his super-suit by saying "well, one thing's for sure, nobody's gonna be looking at your face..." and then "they don't call them tights for nothing." Odd then, odd now. [Max: I'd blocked that Lois and Clark scene from my memory, yikes.]
See comments on Tumblr: https://superman86to99.tumblr.com/post/56626632471/the-man-of-steel-1-october-1986-thus-begins-my#disqus_thread
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