Superman volume 1: No Limits!


By Jeph Loeb, Mark Schultz, Joe Kelly, Stuart Immonen, Mark Millar, Mike McKone, Dough Mahnke, German Garcia, Joe Phillips, Marlo Alquiza, Tom Nguyen, Joe Rubinstein, Rich Farber & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-699-0

The Man of Tomorrow has proven to be all things to most people over more than three quarters of a century of drama and adventure, with Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s iconic Superman now practically unrecognisable to most fans after the latest radical shake-up. Nevertheless, every refit and reboot has resulted in appalled fans and new devotees in pretty much equal proportion, so perhaps the Action Ace’s greatest ability is the power to survive change…

Although largely out of favour these days as all the myriad decades of accrued mythology are inexorably re-assimilated into an overarching, all-inclusive multi-media dominant, film-favoured continuity, the grittily stripped-down, post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Man of Steel (as re-imagined by John Byrne and superbly built upon by a succession of immensely talented comics craftsmen) resulted in some stunning high points.

As soon as the Byrne restart had demolished much of the mythology and iconography which had grown up around the “Strange Visitor from Another World” over fifty glorious years, successive creators began spending a great deal of time and ingenuity putting much of it back, albeit in terms more accessible to a cynical and well-informed audience far more sophisticated than their grandparents ever were.

Even so, by the mid-1990’s Byrne’s baby was beginning to look a little tired and the sales kick generated by the Death of and Return of Superman was fading fast, so the decision was made to give the big guy a bit of a tweak for the fast-approaching new millennium: bringing in new writers and artists and gradually moving the stories into more bombastic, hyper-powered territory.

The fresh tone was augmented by a new sequence and style of trade paperback editions and this initial (not strictly chronological) collection gathers material from Superman #151-153, Superman: Man of Steel # 95-97, Action Comics #760-761 and The Adventures of Superman #574, covering December 1999-March 2000.

It spectacularly opens with ‘We’re Back!’ by Jeph Loeb, Mike McKone & Marlo Alquiza from Superman #151, which sees the Daily Planet restored, rebuilt and returned to glory after a dark period under the ownership of Lex Luthor, allowing Lois Lane-Kent plenty of opportunities for reflection, remembrance and handy recapping before the sinister son of alien marauder Mongul explosively crashes to earth…

Mark Schultz, Doug Mahnke & Tom Nguyen then reveal that ‘Krypton Lives’ (Superman: Man of Steel # 95) as a Superman robot malfunctions in the Antarctic allowing humans to enter the Fortress of Solitude, triggering the escape of a bizarre string of ancient yet impossibly alive Kryptonian artefacts and creatures.

Forced to destroy the last vestiges of his alien heritage, Kal-El returns to Lois thinking that a precious chapter of his life is over, but he couldn’t be more wrong…

‘Deadline U.S.A.’ (Superman #152, Loeb, McKone & Alquiza) resumes the interrupted battle with Mongul Jr., but all conflict ceases when the mammoth monster finally gets the Man of Steel to stop hitting and listen…

The beast has come to warn of a vast, universe-ending threat and, in conjunction with Luthor, is offering to train Superman to beat it…

There are more pedestrian but no less distracting problems in store. During his sparring with Mongul, Jimmy Olsen took a photo of Superman’s hand sporting a wedding ring. Now the picture has leaked, driving the media into a frenzy…

‘Something Borrowed, Something Blue’ (by Stuart Immonen, Mark Millar, Joe Phillips & Rich Faber from Adventures of Superman #574) follows that strand as old foe and potential bunny-boiler Obsession resurfaces in a Superwoman outfit, claiming to be the much-sought Mrs. Superman. However her deranged tantrum leads to nothing but tragedy and disaster…

Action Comics #760 by Joe Kelly, German Garcia & Joe Rubinstein then focuses on ‘…Never-Ending Battle…’ as a small army of minor menaces and misfits lead the Man of Tomorrow to Latina sorceress La Encantadora who makes magic and sells slivers of Kryptonite to thugs trying to lay our hero low.

Even when the elusive enchantress is finally corralled, she delivers one last surprise which will make much mischief for the Last Son of Krypton…

Returning ‘Home’ (Schultz, Mahnke & Nguyen; Superman: Man of Steel # 96) Clark Kent finds his Metropolis apartment has been transformed into a terrifying outpost of his destroyed birthworld, courtesy of renegade miracle machine The Eradicator. In the resultant clash Superman looks doomed to destruction until Lois takes decisive action…

Her valiant nature is truly tested in Action Comics #761 as Kelly, Garcia & Rubinstein show Lois abandoned when Wonder Woman asks the Man of Tomorrow to join her in a battle beside gods against devils.

For the feisty journalist it’s mere days until Clark returns, but she’s blissfully unaware that her husband and the perfect warrior woman have been comrades – and more – ‘For a Thousand Years…’

The last Christmas of the 20th century ends as ‘Say Goodbye’ (Superman #153, Loeb, McKone & Alquiza) at last sees the Action Ace head for space with Mongul to battle Imperiex, Destroyer of Galaxies who has targeted the Milky Way for destruction…

When the pair implausibly triumph, Mongul instantly betrays his erstwhile pupil and only a violent intervention by bounty hunter Lobo prevents a travesty…

What nobody knows is that the Imperiex so recently exploded is nothing more than a fractional drone of the real cosmic obliterator and the real deal is now really ticked off…

This initial chronicle then closes with Schultz, Mahnke & Nguyen’s ‘Bridge the Past and Future’ (Superman: Man of Steel # 97) wherein John Henry Irons – AKA Steel – and his niece Natasha, hi-tech armourers to the City’s police force, join Superman in battling the possessed personification of the Eradicator, still hell-bent on making Earth an outpost of lost Krypton but now afflicted by an all-too human consciousness …

With covers by Phil Jimenez, Dwayne Turner & Danny Miki, Ian Churchill & Norm Rapmund, Bryan Hitch & Paul Neary, this blistering collection features less of a re-imagination and more of a reorientation for the greatest of all superheroes, but the scale, spectacle and human drama of these tales will still delight all fans of pure untrammelled Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction.
© 1999, 2000 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.