Do you mean Jurgens not Ordway?

Updated to include 1992...

A Breakdown of the Changing Creative Teams and Editorial Policies that Shaped the Post-Crisis Superman

By 1989 (and likely earlier), annual "Super Summits" were being held in which editor and creative teams would work together to shape the coming year's worth of Superman stories. During these summits, policies and visions were shaped, and sometimes old policies and visions were scrapped entirely. Here's my best understanding of how those visions and policies looked from year to year:

1986-1987: The Initial Relaunch

The original concept for the Superman reboot came from Frank Miller and Steve Gerber and envisioned a depowered Superman, some of the more fantastic elements of the mythos (for example: Superboy) being removed from continuity, and Lex Luthor as a business tycoon. Marv Wolfman fought hard to get on the project but knew that DC wanted a bigger powerhouse creative talent on the book, so he recommended John Byrne. Wolfman and editor Andrew Helfer shared the original pitched vision for a Superman reboot (source: Amazing Heroes #96, 1986), but Byrne, a longtime Superman fan, wanted the campier/more fantastic elements back in continuity. Thus, while the initial emphasis is on a depowered/less perfect Superman facing depowered, less fantastic enemies, Byrne begins reintroducing those more fantastic elements (including Mxyzptlk and a Pocket Universe Superboy) by the fall of 1987.

At this point, Superman is the core title, written and drawn by Byrne, while Wolfman and Jerry Ordway control Adventures of Superman, and Action Comics is a Byrne-controlled team-up title. Wolfman does not seem allowed to utilize Lex Luthor in his stories.

A drastic ideological difference develops between Byrne's and Wolfman's handling of Superman. Wolfman tries to "depower" Superman by placing him in morally and existentially difficult circumstances, where Byrne tries more to "depower" him by depicting Superman as having the personality of an average person -- quick to anger, succumb to temptations, and make mistakes, and also falling into decidedly un-heroic situations. The Action Comics storyline in which Superman and Barda fall under the hypnotic spell of a pornographer is practically infamous today and turned many fans away from the Post-Crisis Superman that Byrne was writing.



1988: The Byrne Implosion

1988 is a year of massive shake-ups for the Superman Office. It begins without Marv Wolfman, leaving presumably due to creative differences with John Byrne, who is increasingly shaping the franchise to suit his own vision. Editor Andrew Helfer soon follows suit, replaced with Mike Carlin. Byrne introduces a series of limited runs throughout 1988 (World of Krypton, World of Smallville, World of Metropolis) that further flesh out his vision of the Post-Crisis Superman Universe and culminates the year with the arrival of the Pocket Universe Supergirl, as well as the controversial moment in which Superman executes the rogue Kryptonians who destroyed the Pocket Universe Earth. In June, Byrne loses control of Action Comics in favor of the Action Comics Weekly experiment. Byrne then departs (seemingly abruptly) in the Fall, claiming that DC was constraining him too much.



1989: The Clean-up Year

The remaining people in the Superman office -- fill-in writer Roger Stern, Adventures of Superman co-plotter and artist Jerry Ordway, and new editor Mike Carlin -- shift from following Byrne's vision to suddenly having to cultivate one of their own. After playing out Byrne's intended direction for Superman in the wake of his execution of the rogue Kryptonians, the Superman Office spend four months attempting to restrategize while Superman (literally) wanders aimlessly in space, ultimately reorganizing for the second half of 1989 with George Perez as lead creator, and Roger Stern and Jerry Ordway plotting beside him, while Dan Jurgens and Kerry Gammill handle penciling chores. After taking on Mogul and Warworld, Superman returns to Earth to coincide with Action Comics reverting to a monthly Superman book. The titles are reorganized so that Action Comics focuses on Superman's adventures, The Superman title gives greater emphasis to the supporting cast and Superman's life as Clark Kent, and Adventures of Superman focuses on Superman's Kryptonian heritage.

Most of the emphasis throughout 1989 is on cleaning up and completing old Byrne plot points still left hanging. But, most importantly, Perez pushes for a return to Superman's more classic characterization (which Stern and Ordway had already been subtly working at) and reverses the original idea of keeping the more fantastic Pre-Crisis elements out of Post-Crisis continuity. We get a Fortress of Solitude, Red Kryptonite, several homages to Pre-Crisis storylines, and a clear acknowledgement that this Superman has been as much the patriarch of the DC superheroes as his Pre-Crisis counterpart.

Unfortunately, Perez's involvement in the new direction quickly downshifts from lead creator to marginal contributor, both due to over-commitment on other projects and health issues. As a result, Dan Jurgens is soon upgraded to writer/penciler and comes into his own beside Ordway and Stern.



1990: New Directions and Multi-Title Crossovers

1990 marks yet another restructuring of the Superman titles as the previous narrow focuses imposed by George Perez are now lifted, allowing for multi-part story arcs regularly sweeping across all three titles. In addition, with most of Byrne's old storylines resolved, the franchise begins moving in bold new directions, including two major deaths and the quick acceleration of Clark and Lois' relationship into territory the Pre-Crisis couple never arrived at. Additionally, the tense relationship between Batman and Superman, established in Dark Knight Returns and supported by both the Batman and Superman offices, gets undone with the Dark Knight over Metropolis storyline.



1991: The Year-Long Event

Publishing numbers were up, and the reformed Superman Office under Ordway, Stern, and Jurgens was now packing some serious clout. Thus, in 1991, they took the ambition that had already brought them such success in 1990 and went bigger. 1991 was laid out as one single year-long, (initially) 36-part story, beginning immediately after the death of Lex Luthor and ending with the introduction of Lex Luthor II. Inbetween was the story of what happens to Metropolis without its evil benefactor, and possibly an over-arching conflict in which Intergang slowly moved in to seize control over the city.

Unfortunately, the Superman Office's new success was also its undoing in 1991. As DC continued to lose ground to Marvel, the Superman Office was twice called upon to quickly change course in an effort to compete. The first of these abrupt changes was the release of a fourth monthly title in order to keep pace with Spider-Man's fourth title, introduced in late 1990, that had generated tremendous sales and success for the company. The letter columns didn't even have a working name for this fourth title until just before its release. Ordway, Stern, and Jurgens thus had to scramble to adapt an intended 36-part story into a 42-part story with a fourth writer at the table.

At the same time, DC was looking at Marvel's Annual crossover events and tapping Dan Jurgens to help create one for DC. There's some evidence to suggest that Armageddon 2001 was actually the original idea for Time and Time Again, one of the only two major events to come out of the Superman Office in 1991. What made it to the page instead for Time and Time Again was a hastily considered, badly executed half-idea. From that moment on, 1991 seemed to consist of rushed, half-considered concepts as the four writers at the helm struggled to maintain alignment with each other, catch up on deadlines after presumably having to re-plot Time and Time Again, losing much of Jurgens' time to Armageddon 2001 (twice -- the second issue had to be re-plotted after the ending was leaked), and completely changing the overall shape of the year with the introduction of a fourth title helmed by two creators who didn't know the office very well.

As a result, "1991" never really hits a stride. The Intergang plot gets rushed, and what we get in its place are a lot of forgettable stand-alone stories and entirely too much spent on Ma and Pa Kent's vacation cruise. The talent and ideas are still there, but the execution stumbles.



1992: Panic in the Sales Department

After a year of adjustments, the Superman Office was ready to make 1992 its strongest year yet, firing off with the major Panic in the Sky inter-title event, taking Lex Luthor II and Matrix Supergirl in exciting new directions, and finally leaving each title some space to develop new stories and conclude old plot points on their own (a freedom they hadn't enjoyed since mid 1990). However, a lot had changed since 1990, and the Superman office soon learned the hard way that a major inter-title event was not enough to trigger a boost in sales and readership in an age of polybagged, foil-embossed covers, of hyper speculation, and in which Image (and soon Valiant) was waging a revolution against the old guard of publishing. Thus, likely in response to Panic in the Sky's disappointing sales, a major change of course is planned for the winter and the subsequent year involving the death of Superman.

(this post will be updated as my reviews progress past 1992 )

I don't want to sound like too much of a Debbie Downer by creating the impression that there's nothing to look forward to with this title so to counter that, I'll just state now that I enjoy Bogdanove's work for the most part in issue #9 (Part One of Panic in the Sky), #16 - Part One of Crisis at Hand which was, and probably still is, regarded as something of a classic, and for his contributions to the Doomsday storyline. I won't touch on why for fear of spoiling things, but will say that he gets to play to his strengths in those issues.  Not to say that he won't have other nice moments, but those are the ones which stick out in my mind.  More "you like those old Fleischer cartoons and Joe Shuster comics, Jon?  Go do something along those lines here" and less "Just try and be wild and unusual in the hopes that today's kids will latch onto you like they do those wacky McFarlane and Liefeld kids" in those tales.     

Adventures of Superman #483 (October 1991)



"Blindspot!"

Script: Jerry Ordway
Pencils: Jim Fern
Inks: Doug Hazlewood
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Albert DeGuzman

Grade: B+

There's no doubt in my mind that Jerry Ordway has become my favorite part of the Triangle Era Superman Office. Whereas everyone else seems to be scrambling to introduce new villains, conflicts, and B plots, Ordway just seems to have fun with what's already there. Sure, he reintroduces Blindspot--you all remember Blindspot, right? From Superman #44? Nah, even Blindspot seems to acknowledge that no one remembers him:



--but his return ends up being played for a joke, Slam Bradley and Jose Delgado fighting an invisible adversary while Bibbo Bibbowksi watches and laughs, assuming they're making it up.

And there's the true magic of Ordway's writing: He doesn't need to further a plot or agenda. He just throws characters together and has fun with it



even if it requires Slam Bradley having to be outside of Bibbo's bar JUST as High-Pockets and Lamar come by with a stolen piano WHILE Blindspot is waiting for Slam AND Jose Delgado and Cat Grant happen to show up for the first and only time to thank Bibbo for what he did for Cat's son a few issues back. Absurd amount of coincidence, especially when Professor Emil Hamilton and his date later show up, for some reason deciding that strolling through Suicide Slum is a good idea for a first date. Still, it gets the characters where Ordway needs them to be:



The only problem is that Bibbo's is now the second homiest place in the Superman titles, and Dooley's is the first. Both bars. Odd choice for a comic still primarily tailored to adolescents.



Best Ordway gags/nods in this issue:


The Daily Star:



The iconic movie line, sightly inverted:



Comic book characters, and their ever-changing sense of fashion:




And lovable drunks/friends of Bibbo "High-Pockets" and Lamar were utterly adorable and stole the show:






Also, how wild that I just mentioned Jim Fern in my last post, and here he is! Fortunately, while his style has become so exaggerated and wanna-be Liefeld by 1991 that he's pretty much my favorite DC artist to pick on, he does a pretty solid job here, exaggerated features only occasionally disrupting otherwise visually exciting sequences:





Important Details:

This is the second time in two issues that Superman has randomly mentioned Gangbuster:



and suddenly Jose Delgado is back. Are we getting hints that Jose will be suiting up again in the near future?



Minor Details:

I sort of resent the assumption that winning the lottery means you can run a successful bar. Bibbo doesn't strike me as bright or responsible enough to handle venders, insurance, regulatory compliance, let alone cleaning the place. Who exactly is serving all those customers in the happy panel eight images up, and how clean is that glass Cat Grant is sipping from? If Bibbo really does have the know-how, discipline, and drive to run such a business entirely on his own, someone should be showing that side of him.

I always associate Jones with the same kind of outlandish exaggerated features that put McFarlane and Liefeld on the map. I can see the Wrightson influence as well.

Nice catch!

I remember being vaguely interested in the mystery, even though I wasn't reading anymore when this happened. And I have the vaguest memory of how Superman actually came back. If I'm right -- wow, that was bad.