Okay, so you've heard enough about this era of Superman to have a passing interest, but there are already nearly 200 issues reviewed in this thread, and that's got to seem overwhelming to the newcomer, so here are some ideas on how to approach this series without reading EVERYTHING:

1. A die-hard purist who doesn't want to miss anything at all can start at the beginning and still absolutely skip Action Comics Weekly #601-642. This was a short-lived experiment in which Superman shared the title with a number of unrelated rotating features, and his 2 page adventures during this time were entirely separate from the rest of the Post-Crisis continuity. Very forgettable story-telling all around, and none of it counted.

2. A fan who really wants to read everything that matters could probably get away with skipping Action Comics #584-599 too, which were mostly forgettable Superman team-up stories (Note: Action Comics #592-593 are infamously bad, so you way want to check them out solely for that reason). #600 aside, Action Comics doesn't become a title that truly matters to the Post-Crisis franchise until #643.

3. Someone looking for the quickest, cheapest way to get caught up on the best parts of this era while cutting out the filler could begin with Adventures of Superman #466. You'll miss a lot of continuity that gets referenced later on, but most of it isn't really necessary for understanding where the series is headed. Adventures #466 is the precise moment that Stern, Ordway, and Jurgens really come into their own, having completed Perez's (forgettable) plot points for the franchise, and having fixed every misstep and lingering point of continuity that Byrne left behind. The Superman Office finally begins to find its center, and you're just in time for the first appearance of Hank Henshaw, the beginning of the Post-Crisis Clark and Lois romance, and the critical Dark Knight over Metropolis storyline, with major developments for the White Family, Lex Luthor, and Lois and Clark just on the horizon. You might go back a little bit to check out Lex Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography as well. You're still shaving off roughly 150 issues of mixed quality content by starting here.

"Wait -- but doesn't that mean skipping the John Byrne era? I heard his work on Superman was great."

I answer that here.

But, if you're worried about missing good Byrne, Wolfman and Perez stories prior to Adventures #466, I've compiled the best stories from those runs here.


4. Or maybe you truly do want to read EVERYTHING. If so, start here.

That's a solid perspective I'd failed to consider. Thanks for this!



On the one hand, I agree. On the other, really the one counterpoint I can see to both your theory about why Byrne was welcome and about Supes being a toxic jerk is the Christopher Reeve perspective. Superman didn't only exist in comics, of course, and (as you pointed out) the circ numbers on Superman comics were very low by this point, so I think it's safe to assume the Chris Reeves Superman was having a larger impact on folks than his comic book counterpart. That character was certainly the opposite of toxic, and his (first two) movies were adored, so I think that may complicate your point about Byrne being a welcome change. It sure sounds like his was better than much of the writing that had come before, but the characterization was a major upturn of the middle finger at anyone who believed in the cinematic version that had captured the soul of America only half a decade earlier, and which was still regularly being rerun on broadcast television.

Maybe it's just me. Maybe fans really were willing to give Byrne a pass for being better than what had appeared in print before, but for me, his depiction gave us an ignorant, easy to anger, punch-first-ask-questions-later, sometimes morally questionable farm boy from Kansas in place of the greatest hero of all, whose powers were secondary to his conduct and ideals.


Anyway, GREAT perspectives, zaku. You've really gotten me thinking now.

The three titles have been running seamless continuity pretty much since Byrne left, and they've been really ambitious about this intertitle continuity since at least Action Comics #650, where Day of the Krypton Man ran across all three titles, and characterizations and B-plots actually outshone the central conflict. If there's ever been an office that knows how to talk to each other and maintain continuity, it's this one, and long before the triangles.

Even the single page each issue with all the B plots progressing literally one panel per issue is a means of them showing off.



They can play five parallel unrelated scenes across three titles/creative teams at the speed of one panel per issue and make it look and feel continuous.

They just don't seem invested in this story. I think they are pandering to the larger comic buying audience that hasn't taken note of their brilliant character arcs, B plots, and continuity, and offering them a multi-title crossover that requires no intellect to follow. A year ago, they were trying to make Superman as popular as Batman again. Now they have to compete with Spider-Man and X-Force. The zeitgeist is moving further and further away from Superman, and they know that providing quality storytelling, issue after issue, isn't going to be what brings the attention back. So they created something substanceless and colorful.




Absolutely, but they're not trying to court loyal Superman fans at this point. Just the opposite, sad as it is.

Superman #55 (May 1991)



"Time & Time Again Phase Six: Camelot"

Script: Jerry Ordway
Pencils: Jerry Ordway
Inks: Jerry Ordway
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: John Costanza

Grade: C-

One issue left in Superman's major crossover event for 1991, and I'm still lost as to what the point was. Clearly, all the usual character arcs are on hold during this "event", our only getting one or two pages each issue to follow the supporting cast in real-time, accomplishing nothing of particular interest:



(Note: there is some major inconsistency in all this. Last issue, Lois walked back to her apartment building. If the point of these pages is that time is progressing only a few seconds each issue while Clark is living entire weeks in other time periods, then Lois got to her building and then got to her actual apartment with disturbing speed! Granted, her building was only a block or two from where this whole storyline began, but that's still too fast.)

Anyway, in addition to no character arcs nor B stories progressing, there is no plot to speak of. Superman goes to different time periods and encounters threats. That's really the entire thing, even after last issue gave us hope that Supes had a goal and a conflict now -- He finally knows why he is jumping through time and how to keep jumping towards home! Of course, that gets completely forgotten this time around. Supes is just wandering around in Camelot this issue, getting used by both Merlin and Morgan Le Faye.

My assumption had thus been that the point of this story arc was to offer potential new readers a very simple, easy to grasp story, free of confusing continuity references, from which they might choose to continue following the Superman titles.

But then there's this issue, which is utterly confusing and essentially inaccessible if you're not already a fan of The Demon. Sure, it's exciting to see Merlin and Le Faye battling it out in Camelot prior to the Demon being sent to the future (Kirby jumped past this point pretty quickly in the original series, and I don't know if Alan Grant ever returned to it), but someone unfamiliar with the franchise won't understand much of this, and certainly won't understand the twist ending of the story:



Jason who? Isn't he Ghost Rider or something?

It's obvious that Ordway is a big Kirby fan and loves returning to his work at DC whenever possible, but this comes as a major disruption to the storyline. It also has me wondering how the hell this reconciles with DC's own Camelot 3000, grounded in a very different Arthurian Camelot.

I do appreciate the Shining Knight reference, though:



Was this the character's first Post-Crisis reference?


I happen to like Etrigan a lot and Kirby even more, but this episode did not belong here. Give Etrigan his own multi-part story in this title where these ideas and references can be better introduced to the casual reader. It does, however, make me lament all that this crossover event could have been. Why not use it to explore the chronology of the Post-Crisis DCU? Give us Anthro, Kamandi, the Frankenstein monster, and every other relevant franchise as a means of exploring and establishing the chronology of the rebooted DCU outside of the current day.


Minor Details:

- While we've seen some inconsistent handling of Superman's powers in recent issues, it's confirmed once again that he is highly vulnerable to magic:





"Blaze of Glory!"

Script: Karl Kesel
Pencils: Karl Kesel
Inks: Karl Kesel
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Bill Oakley

Grade: D

No, Blaze is not back and causing more havoc. Unfortunate choice of title, I suppose. Really, this B story continues so much of what I noted above. Even though it isn't Ordway this time, we see the same affection for Kirby's '70s DC properties with the return of Cadmus and the Newsboy Legion, and (once again) many of the references are inaccessible to a new reader. Some were even inaccessible to me. I had to look up who Dabney Donovan was. It turns out that he was mentioned previously in this franchise, but I'm not sure he was mentioned by name.



Anyway, he refers to having made a trade with Lexcorp. We won't realize how significant that trade was for some time to come. It's the single most important detail to surface throughout these Time and Time Again issues.


I got these references and found them amusing:



but what's up with the wolverine?



Is this a playful nod to the Marvel character who (as originally envisioned) would have been an actual wolverine, scientifically mutated by the High Evolutionary? Is it a reference to a Jimmy Olsen story I don't know? Or is it a mystery that's supposed to leave us in suspense until it is resolved in an upcoming story arc? I honestly can't tell.

I normally love Project Cadmus (not always the Newsboy Legion...), but this story confused and alienated me more than enticed me this time along.

Action Comics #665



"Wake The Dead"
Script: Roger Stern
Pencils: Tom Grummett
Inks: Jose Marzan
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Bill Oakley

Grade: A-

In a year without Lex Luthor, and in which Brainiac is in an editorial no-man's land between this and the Legion Office, Carlin and the gang continue to exhibit desperation in attempting to build an actual rogues gallery. We've already seen the return of C-listers Blaze, Silver Banshee, Thaddeus Killgrave, the Toyman, and Sleeze, and even Metallo (who died in his very first appearance 4.5 years earlier) gets referenced here:



The Superman Office has been trying to make us care about Mr. Z, and here we've got the return of forgotten one-note villain Baron Sunday. Man, is this office desperate.

Here, Stern clarifies the nature of Sunday's powers a bit, seeming to think that attributing his powers to Voodoo is a little far-fetched:



By the end of the issue, the Baron is comatose, but that never means very much in the comic book world:




But really, it's seldom the villains and A plots that impress me about this office. Instead, Stern (who, I think, is becoming my absolute favorite writer in this office) serves up an issue that establishes a new normal for Clark and Lois, post-engagement.

For one, Lois seems to be over her previous confused feelings about Clark's dual identity:



But, more importantly, I've lamented all along how fast-tracked this relationship was; that we never really got to see the two as a couple. Stern makes up for that in spades this time, giving far more of the issue to Clark and Lois' new working relationship than to Baron Sunday, and it's endearing -- hardly just the, "I love you!" "I love you too!" nonsense you'd expect from a more hollow romantic story:



Their small talk feels real, even abruptly discussing what Clark is going to get his parents for their anniversary:



And Clark has now conveniently been handed back his full time job (which he lost during the Day of the Krypton Man storyline a year earlier)



allowing the two to work as peers, even while Clark allows Lois her pick of assignments. I suppose this could be because he loves her or because he is a gentleman, but I read it as a reminder that she is the senior writer. She was there first, she's taken more risks and gotten bigger stories, and he was just de-demoted.

Clark may be Superman, but in the newsroom, Lois is the superhero. It's an idea that will strongly influence the upcoming Lois & Clark television series, a show that was disastrously bad in its portrayal of Superman, but which may well have been the finest portrayal ever of the Daily Planet newsroom, as well as the complex power dynamics of the relationship between an empowered Lois Lane and a demur Man of Steel.

Anyway, the one interaction between Clark and Lois that I didn't quite buy in this story occurred here:



How is Lois physically capable of giving Superman a neck massage?

But Stern seems very devoted to prioritizing the Clark and Lois relationship for once, so perhaps we can forgive his forgetting that Clark is the Man of Steel for a moment. After all, I LOVED this decision he makes later in the story:



Surely, we expect SUPERMAN to appear in the next image, but no:



He can be impressive and resourceful as Clark Kent, as well. REALLY, it feels like most of this issue is actually a sort of anti-Superman story, finding far more excitement and interpersonal dynamics in the lives of two top reporters in love, the super powered dude in spandex almost appearing as an after-thought.

And, honestly, that's how I like my Superman stories best.



Minor Details:

- Confirmed that the events of Time and Time Again only lasted a few hours



And, while I found that timeline problematic in my reviews of those issues, I find Clark's statement that nearly five months passed for him to be even more of a problem. Let's break it down:

Adventures of Superman #476: Spends maybe 20 minutes in the 30th Century.
Action Comics #663: Definitely spends at least a few weeks in the 1940s, performing as a strong man in the circus. Visits multiple cities and is held over in one for an additional week.
Superman #54: Seemed to take place in a single 24 hour span, though I suppose it might have been a few days weaved together.
Adventures of Superman #477 seemed to last less than a day.
Action Comics #664 lasted six weeks, according to Clark.
Superman #55 appeared to last less than a day.
Adventures of Superman #478 definitely lasted less than a day.

So unless Clark spent three and a half months performing as a Strong Man in 1943 (unlikely, as he recovers from the daze of time travel at the end of his stint with the circus -- would this really take 3.5 months??), the timeline does not add up. Maybe he's exaggerating, as we often do while whining to our significant others?


- Sam Foswell is still running The Planet while Perry White is away.

Superman Annual #3 (May 1991)



"Execution 2001"
Script: Dan Jurgens
Pencils: Dusty Abell
Inks: Terry Austin; John Beatty; Dick Giordano; Dennis Janke
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: John Costanza

Grade: C-

It's interesting to see what an immediate commerical success Armageddon 2001 had proven to be. While several recent key issues from the Superman Office had gone to second print (Clark and Lois getting engaged in Superman #50, Clark revealing his identity to Lois in Action Comics #662), this is the first comic out of the Superman Office that I'm aware of to make it to a third printing. In fact, DC built an entire "Silver Edition" line of third printing chapters in the Armageddon 2001 series. Was this evidence of tremendous sales, of DC seriously underestimating interest in these annuals and printing far too few, or both?

Honestly, I still don't understand the purpose of annuals. The early ones offered more (often reprinted) content of favorite heroes in an effort to make a few more bucks; I get that. But I'm less clear on the purpose of an annual in the era of the Direct Market, especially when heroes fans demanded more of were available in trade paperbacks, and a robust back issue market had emerged. Why were Marvel and DC still trying to schlock these annual publications on us? I guess it was primarily for the indirect stationary store/grocery checkout audience that maybe still didn't have access to tpbs and back issues, but then why provide more expensive original content instead of the same old reprints?

Anyway, as dystopian Post-Crisis Superman stories go, this was an inevitable one. Superman, realizing both his awesome powers and his awesome ideals, overextends his reach over mankind, less as a fascist and more as a super powered Robin Hood. Interestingly enough, though, this aspect of the plot sort of mirrors that of Superman IV: The Quest For Peace



But the more inevitable aspect of this plot is its inversion of Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, the now famous and oft-homaged story of a dystopian future in which the government calls in Superman to take down Batman. Here, it's instead Batman being called in to take down the more logical threat of a Superman gone rogue.



(Note: the idea of Superman opposing the United States Government on moral grounds was foreshadowed just two months earlier in Superman #53)

And the big battle goes down looking almost exactly like the battle in DKR:



while Superman and Batman's last big meeting in Action Comics #654 gets referenced repeatedly. Essentially, if you only knew about Superman in terms of his relationship to Batman, if you'd read or knew about Dark Knight Returns or Dark Knight Over Metropolis, this story was speaking to you.

And, if you're a loyal Superman fan, it's still an interesting dark future for Supes -- he fails to protect Metropolis once, and it costs him everything, pushing him over the edge. In this future, everyone in Metropolis has died, and so Superman retreats to familiar ground in Smallville, marrying Lana Lang more out of convenience than romance, and what happens to Clark's parents is both inevitable and powerful:



As a more minor nod to loyal fans of the Superman Office, Jurgens brings back Senator Forrest as the President in this future and also Superman's chief antagonist:



Don't remember Senator Forrest? I'd forgotten about him too. He was the corrupt presidential candidate backed by Lex Luthor that Superman helped to expose way back in Superman #24.

One last little clever addition Jurgens added to Superman's future is resurrecting the old Silver Age Superboy's use of tunnels to conceal his comings and goings from the Kent farm. Here, Jurgens has expanded upon the idea, with Clark using a massive network of tunnels that can allow him to travel hundreds of miles without being connected back to his home or even to Smallville in general.



I was so impressed with the idea in 1991 that it's something I've always remembered and associated with the Armageddon 2001 event.


As for the quality of this issue, while I like Jurgens' plot and vision for this story, his writing is sometimes a little forced. Jurgens is hardly a rookie at DC at this point; he's been working there for nearly ten years, and yet we'll see his writing do a lot of maturing over time in the Superman Office. Moments like this one, in which Lana Lang needlessly explains to Bruce Wayne an event of such major significance that it would be insulting to assume he doesn't already know it, smacks of clumsiness.



The reader needed this info, so Lana has to say it to Bruce.

But far FAR worse in this issue is the art of Dusty Abell. It looks like this may have been his very first professional assignment, and his work here is distractingly bad -- angles, panel compositions, basic anatomy, and especially faces -- distractingly bad to the point that it severely inhibited my ability to enjoy this issue:



Dear God, Carlin. Give the job to Curt Swan. He needs more work.


Important Details:

- Further evidence to support my argument that Armageddon 2001 may have begun as the original working concept for the seven part Time and Time Again Superman story arc: Waverider is nearly totally convinced at the start of the issue that Superman is the most likely candidate for who becomes Monarch in 2001:



What if Time and Time Again, as originally conceived, was just Waverider exploring different possible Superman futures to determine what would or would not cause him to become Monarch? And, to go back to my review of Armageddon 2001 #1, the final twist would have been that it was Waverider himself that would become Monarch, Superman being the one to learn from the alternate futures in order to stop Monarch in time? Time and Time Again ended up recycling that idea in a sense, with the Linear Man assuming Superman had altered the future in the final chapter when, in fact, it ends up being The Linear Man who does this out of a misguided attempt to preserve the timeline, thus unwittingly becoming a villain. If my theory is correct, that would have originally been Waverider's fate at the close of this storyline before someone at DC decided to turn it into a company-wide event instead of a local Superman crossover.

But, again, this is all unsubstantiated speculation based almost entirely on the fact that Time and Time Again was an unusually aimless and poorly conceived major seven part storyline that didn't fit what we'd come to expect of the Carlin Superman Office, and that Armageddon 2001 and Time and Time Again were both time travel stories published in close proximity to each other, both heavily featuring Superman and utilizing Dan Jurgens. The rest is (logical) guesswork.


Minor Details:

- The first time Jurgens gets to plot/write a Superman story without also penciling it.


- Ummm...Monarch TOLD Waverider that he was a superhero who turned on the other superheroes in Armageddon 2001 #1:



Did Jurgens write this first, or did he just forget?


- Department of disturbing predictions about the future: A 2001 disaster will cause the President to experience a mass swelling of support from the nation:



Okay, okay. This actually would have happened a good deal of time prior to Monarch taking over in 2001, but the series has the year 2001 in the title, and it was hard not to make the connection...


- The Superman Office is apparently already planning Panic in The Sky a year out:



String recently discussed in this thread how the Superman Office was now holding sway over the Legion Office. Looks like they're finally going to get Brainiac back after previously losing creative control of him to the Legion Office.

Also, side note -- did Jurgens really mean to imply that a year in our time is equal to a year in Superman's time? We haven't seen references to the passing of time since Byrne was still in control of the office, but back then, a month in real time was roughly equivalent to a week in Superman's time. Of course, we do get a Christmas story in Adventures of Superman every year...