Yellow Paper and Rusty Staples: John Byrne Era SUPERMAN: Action Comics

I was a massive fan of what I now refer to as "the John Byrne Era" of SUPERMAN. I'm speaking specifically about the creative and editorial initiatives that came as the aftermath of DC Comics' 1985 canon and continuity clean sweep CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, spearheaded by writer/artist John Byrne's reimagining of Superman's mythos...

John Byrne, 2017 NYCC

From Wikipedia:

Near the end of his time at Marvel, Byrne was hired by DC Comics to revamp its flagship character Superman. This was part of a company-wide restructuring of the history of the DC Universe and all of its characters following the limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths. Byrne's reworking of Superman in particular gained widespread media coverage outside the comic book industry, including articles in Time and The New York Times. At the time, Byrne said, "I'm taking Superman back to the basics ... It's basically Siegel and Shuster's Superman meets the Fleischer Superman in 1986."

I was hooked with the initial six issue launch mini-series, entitled MAN OF STEEL, and Byrne's 22 issue run on the relaunched (and renumbered) core title, SUPERMAN, is good...but the real standout for me has always been Byrne's 17 issue tenure on Superman's "birthplace" ACTION COMICS (issues #584-#600). Why? Well, I had been a huge fan in previous years of the DC title DC COMICS PRESENTS, which was essentially "Superman Team-Up", and thought that the format change up on ACTION that reflected PRESENTS was an interesting way of showing how this "new" universe (translation: new canon and lore) interacted with this "new" Superman...and vice versa.

Action #584, the first issue of the "new era" of Superman

A particular favorite of mine was the early attempt at "unfucking" (my term) the Legion of Superheroes canon, trying to figure out why they exist if their main inspiration, a teenage Clark Kent who operated as Superboy, no longer existed.

Then,....there's these issues. The infamous ones where the Darkseid henchman, aptly named "Sleez", attempts to break Superman's will by....manipulating him and Big Barda into making a sex tape? Approved by the Comics Code Authority, indeed....

Issue #598 was the introduction of the Checkmate organization, which we just saw turn up in James Gunn's new DC cinematic universe at the climax of PEACEMAKER season 2...