The Man of Steel #1

“From out of the Green Dawn”

Cover Price: $0.75
Bargain Price: 3/$1.00
Cover Date: October 1986

This issue begins John Byrne’s reimaging of Superman, and, while I mainly enjoyed the issue, there is a lot here that just isn’t my cup of tea, raised as I was on the Superman’s Silver Age iteration. Mainly, I just don’t care for Byrne’s sterile version of Krypton. I simply can’t help but think that making Jor-El and Lara so alien, so much so that Lara is repulsed by a human farmer (irony!) and that the duo doesn’t understand our hu-man concept of love, is a bit of mistake. I feel the same way about presenting little Kal-El as an unborn embryo who isn’t actually “born” until his ship lands on Earth, denying any real emotional connection between the infant and his parents and somewhat undermining the tragedy at the heart of the origin. Oddly, there is also no arguing about the planet’s demise nor any attempt by Jor-El and Lara to flee, even though doing so seems entirely within their power. The scenes on Earth fair better, with Byrne making up for dehumanizing Jor-El and Lara by increasing Jonathan and Martha’s role in the book and by keeping Jonathan alive, itself easily the best change Byrne makes. Otherwise, the issue is almost interminably wordy. Still, the art is great and the issue is overall likeable enough that I think that, now that the controversial origin is out of the way, the rest of the mini aught to be pretty fun.