Thirty-five years ago today, Superman: The Man of Steel #1 was released to comic shops.

Well, maybe it wasn’t. I, like a lot of my fellow comic book content creators, get the release dates of the comics I discuss (along with other information that has proven invaluable over the decades) from Mike’s Amazing World of Comics. Back in 2024 I wrote a post on social media to mark the 30^th anniversary of Zero Hour by noting when certain issues came out on a particular day. Someone, I won’t say who, saw one of these posts and pointed out that it was actually the next day and that for a certain period of time Mike’s Amazing World of Comics seem to be using the dates given in Direct Currents, a cool bit of business that DC released to comic shops to detail all of the books that are coming out in a given month.

It seems, according to this person (who, again, I won’t mention) the dates in Direct Currents were actually the day before the day the books actually came out.

So, it’s entirely possible that I might be wrong by writing that today is the 35^th anniversary of the release of Superman: The Man of Steel and it might be tomorrow. But I’m marking it today because I have something else for the site tomorrow and I didn’t want to miss talking about this.

(Okay, the person that I said I wouldn’t mention is Adam Mallinger. If that name is familiar to you, it’s probably because he was a writing assistant and then a staff writer on Superman and Lois. That’s not the only thing Adam has ever done, so I’m not trying to pigeonhole him, but it’s the credit that is most Germane to this blog. Adam and I have been friends for a number of years now. He was an early listener to From Crisis to Crisis and, on more than one occasion, pointed out something that I got wrong on the show.

One of my favorite instances of this involved Superman #50. Someday soon I’ll do an entry on that.

Before I go on with this post I want to make it clear that I never have a problem with someone pointing out that I was wrong about something. Especially Adam, because he’s never a jerk about it. It’s become a thing between us. I say or post something, part of that something is wrong. Adam points it out. I say, “Damn it!” and then fix the problem. It’s all good-natured fun.)

Superman: The Man of Steel #1 is one of the most important Superman books of all time. At least to me. I’m sure other people feel the same way. As I have learned through the years of co-hosting From Crisis to Crisis, the story of my Superman fan career is not what I would call truly unique. A lot of us have the same touchstones and have very similar experiences, depending on when we entered the Superman fan chat. I’m always mindful of this when I write and talk about my history and try to balance telling my story but also always keeping in mind that I am not the only one who ever loved these stories.

With all of that said, here’s my story about how I got my copy of Superman: The Man of Steel #1.

At the risk of sounding like I am a Marine doing the Rifle Creed, there are many stories like it, but, at the same time, this one is mine.

I first found out that there was going to be a new Superman title in the letters pages of Adventures of Superman #476, which was the first phase of Time and Time Again. I was one of those readers who used the whole buffalo when it came to reading my comics. I looked at all of the ads, and I poured over the letters pages, especially the next issue boxes. This was in the time before I went to the comic shop on a regular basis (at the time it was more of an every once in a while treat) and it was a time before I would read magazines about comics (Comics Scene had fallen off my radar and I wouldn’t start reading Wizard until 1994) and it was a time where I wasn’t online (which happened in 1998).

Those letters pages were one of the very few windows I had into the world beyond the stories I was reading.

Anyway, there I was, reading Adventures of Superman #476 in front of the fire at my Aunt Josie’s house (my mom had two sisters and we visited them quite often) and I finished the story (it was fantastic) and it was there that I read this letter and this response.

A new Superman title was coming.

YES!

I was excited for a number of reasons. Reason number one was this meant there would be more Superman. Always a good thing to fifteen-year-old me. Reason number two was that it helped me deal with a low-key problem I had as a comic reader of the early nineties. As I often say when I talk about this time period, I was very much a solitary practitioner when it came to comics. I didn’t have a mentor to guide me through. I also didn’t hang around with other comic book fans. We all knew each other, but I was into Superman, which made me (to poach a line that Dolly Parton said in the movie 9 to 5) the bastard at the family reunion.

As odd as it may sound in the current era that we live in, there was a point where liking Superman was not a popular opinion because Superman was not popular. All of the comic readers I knew were into the X-Men or Spider-Man or the Punisher. I liked them too, but my favorite was Superman and that made me the outlier of the outcasts.

The idea that Superman was getting another title made me feel that my love of Superman was validated. Spider-Man had gotten his fourth ongoing the previous summer and now Superman was getting his. It just felt awesome.

Cut to several months later. It was time for Superman: The Man of Steel #1 to come out, but I had a problem. I was one of those students that would be described as being smart but didn’t apply myself. This meant that my grades were not always the best. When my grades were bad, my dad would ground me in the worst way possible. I couldn’t buy new comics or read the ones that I had. They would be put into the attic, which was weird because the stairs to the attic were in my bedroom closet. I’m not saying that I would sneak up there and read some comics when Dad was at work but…actually, that’s exactly what I’m saying.

Buying new comics was a little more complicated. I was fifteen and thus didn’t have a license, so there would be months when I didn’t buy new books and then would manage to find what I missed after the restrictions ended.

But this was different. It was the first issue of a new Superman title.

I had to get it.

I asked one of my sisters, either Mary or Jane, if they would take me to the comic shop so I could get the book. I had not seen it on any of the spinner racks where I found most of my comics (I would still look through the comics at my normal haunts even though I couldn’t buy them) so I knew that the shop would be my best shot. The only catch was they couldn’t tell Dad what I was doing and thankfully they agreed.

I really wish I could remember which of my sisters took me. Ginny, the middle older sister, would have been at college. Jane was two years older than me, but we didn’t get along all that well, which is funny because later in life we would share an apartment. Mary was going to nursing school in Bethlehem and would come home frequently. My memory says it was Mary, but it could have been Jane.

Anyway, I would love to sit here and write about how they took me to the store and I bought my copy and then we got home and Dad was there and I had to find a way to get to my room with the comic without tipping off my dad, but that didn’t happen. Dad wasn’t home. I marched right up to my room and read the comic and hid it in my nightstand until I was done with my latest grounding.

And that is how I got my copy of Superman: The Man of Steel #1. I loved it at the time, and I still love it now.

Looking back, Superman: The Man of Steel, as a title, was one of the building blocks that made the Triangle Era one of the objectively best eras of Superman comics in the character’s history. Writer Louise Simonson and artists Jon Bogdanove and Dennis Janke joined Jerry Ordway, Roger Stern, Dan Jurgens, Tom Grummett and Bob McLeod to produce, under the editorial guidance of Mike Carlin, what ostensibly became a weekly Superman book. The engine those creators built gave us big storylines but also characters that we the readers would fall in love with. A lot of us showed up for Superman but stayed for Clark and Lois and Jimmy and Perry and Alice and Jose Delgado and Bibbo and Cat Grant and all of the other supporting characters.

Superman: The Man of Steel was also the first Superman book I bought from its cradle to its grave and because of that it and the people that worked on it will always be special to me. Through the years I’ve gotten to meet several of them.  Louise Simonson was a guest at the first DragonCon I ever went to back in 2001 and she was lovely to speak to. Through both the weekly live show I co-host for The Superman Homepage (along with Steve Younis and Marc Lax) and through two of my own podcasts (From Crisis to Crisis and It All Comes Back to Superman) I’ve gotten to interview Jon Bogdanove three times, and I had the privilege of moderating a panel for him at the 2022 DragonCon. It was at that con that I had Jon sign the copy of Superman: The Man of Steel that I bought back in 1991 even though I wasn’t supposed to.

Jon loved the story of how I got the book. He got a real kick out it.

(I really need to do a proper interview with Louise Simonson. Time to get that done.)

Before I close this out, I want to mention the cover to Superman: The Man of Steel #1. While I am sure that there will be those that argue with me, I personally believe it is one of the best Superman covers of all time. It is simultaneously of its time and timeless. It was turned into a small poster that was packaged in a collector’s set with the Death of Superman trade paperback and a reprint of Action Comics #1. It was also used for a promo poster sent to comic shops and that poster has been on my wall for years now.

It’s just an awesome image.

Happy birthday to Superman: The Man of Steel. Born in 1991 and ended in 2002.

Thanks for the great stories.

More to follow…