{"id":4424,"date":"2010-01-02T06:00:42","date_gmt":"2010-01-02T06:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=4424"},"modified":"2010-01-02T11:19:32","modified_gmt":"2010-01-02T11:19:32","slug":"superman-the-man-of-steel-volume-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2010\/01\/02\/superman-the-man-of-steel-volume-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Superman: The Man of Steel volume 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy various (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 1-4012-0246-2<\/p>\n

With John Byrne’s controversial reboot of the world’s first superhero a solid hit, the collaborative teams tasked with ensuring his continued success really hit their stride with the tales collected in this third volume. Re-presenting Superman<\/strong> #4-6, Action<\/strong> #587-589 and Adventures of Superman<\/strong> #427-429 the drama began with an all-out battle against the deranged gunman ‘Bloodsport!’<\/em> courtesy of Byrne and Karl Kesel, before Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway concocted a longer yarn taking the Man of Tomorrow on a punishing visit to the rogue state of Qurac and a hidden race of alien telepaths called the Circle, in a visceral and beautiful tale of un-realpolitik.<\/p>\n

‘Mind Games’<\/em> and ‘Personal Best’<\/em> (Adventures of Superman<\/strong> #427-428) combined a much more relevant, realistic slant with lots of character sub-plots featuring the staff of the Daily Planet whilst Byrne in Action Comics<\/strong> concentrated on spectacle and reader appeal. ‘Cityscape!’<\/em> in #587, teamed the Metropolis Marvel with Jack Kirby’s Etrigan the Demon<\/strong> as sorceress Morgaine Le Fay attempted to gain immortality by warping time itself.<\/p>\n

‘The Mummy Strikes’<\/em> and ‘The Last Five Hundred’<\/em> (Byrne and Kesel, Superman<\/strong> #5-6) introduced the first hint of a romance between the Man of Steel and Wonder Woman before Lois and Clark became embroiled in an extraterrestrial invasion drama that all started half a million years ago, and in ‘Old Ties’<\/em> (Superman<\/strong> #6) Wolfman and Ordway revealed the catastrophic results of the Circle transferring their attentions to Metropolis.<\/p>\n

This book concludes with a cosmic saga from Action Comics <\/strong>#588-589 as Byrne and Dick Giordano teamed the Caped Kryptonian with Hawkman and Hawkwoman in ‘All Wars Must End’<\/em>, an epic battle against Thanagarian invaders before the Green Lantern Corps rescued the star-lost Superman in ‘Green on Green’<\/em> just in time to join forces with him to destroy an unstoppable planet-eating beast.<\/p>\n

The back-to-basics approach lured many readers to \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and back to<\/em><\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the Superman franchise, but the sheer quality of the stories and art are certainly what convinced them to stay. Such cracking superhero tales are a high point in the Man of Tomorrow’s decades-long career, and these chronological-release collections are certainly the easiest way to enjoy this impressive reinvention of the ultimate comic-book icon.<\/p>\n