The Return of Superman 30th Anniversary Special #1 – Dan Jurgens, Louise Simonson, Jerry Ordway, Karl Kesel, Writers; Travis Moore, Jon Bogdanove, Jerry Ordway, Tom Grummett/Doug Hazlewood, Dan Jurgens/Brett Breeding, Artists; Adriano Lucas, Glenn Whitmore, Elizabeth Breitweiser, Colorists
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: The Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special last year was one of the best DC books I’ve read in a long time, but in many ways, the Reign of the Supermen story that followed had an even bigger impact on DC. So it’s only fitting that this anthology comes out a year later to pay tribute—and once again, it reunites all four of the original creative teams to tell the story, an amazing feat. It’s also fascinating that all four of the original “replacement Supermen” are still very much present in DC Comics in one way or another.
The story kicks off with a Jurgens/Moore tale that follows Lois Lane and Ron Troupe as they deal with an attack by the Cyborg Superman on Metropolis while Superman is off-world. This leads to Superboy, Steel, and the AI projection of the Eradicator showing up to turn the tide, as the narrative leads to flashback recollections of the days that the four were trying to replace Superman in one way or another.
Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove are up first with a Steel story, and this is an interesting tale, because it’s a fascinating look at how different things look thirty years down the line. This is a story with an all-Black cast, as John Henry Irons tries to protect his neighborhood and prevent his legacy of “Toastmasters” from hurting innocents. Jon Bogdanove’s art always trod the line between stylized and caricature, and I can’t see this style on this cast being greenlit today—but this is still a nuanced, human story that portrays a positive picture of an inner-city family and the way one man’s determination to make his neighborhood better made a difference. I was a huge fan of the original Simonson Steel series, before writers like Priest came on.
Jerry Ordway tells a much darker tale of the Eradicator, who restyled himself as a ruthless, emotionless Kryptonian Superman who had no problem maiming or even killing criminals when he captured them. But he did have a moral grounding, and that’s clear in this story when Perry White tries to discover the truth of this new vigilante. Despite some rough interrogations, Perry and the Eradicator manage to form an uneasy alliance to find a criminal organization smuggling weapons led by a fairly obscure 90s villain. There are some bits of hope towards the end that Eradicator is learning what it means to be Superman, but as we know he see-sawed back and forth quite a bit over the decades.
Perry’s journals play a big role in this story, with him also narrating the third story—Superboy, by Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett. Superboy back then was a very different character, all smugness and cockiness (with a surprising affection for older women), and this one-shot pulls in some surprising faces. I never thought I’d see truant officer Mack Harlin again, that’s for sure. Much like the Steel story, it’s impossible to avoid some of the changes in perception since then—20-something Tana Moon and Superboy being in a relationship did not age well—but Kesel neatly slips right back into writing Superboy at his cockiest, and the interplay between Superboy and Perry, as well as the use of Superboy’s powers against guest villain Bloodsport, are spot-on.
Finally, it’s the Cyborg’s turn in the spotlight, and no surprise Dan Jurgens pulls double duty on this. Cyborg did an amazing job of fooling everyone that he was the real Superman—even getting Bill Clinton AND the Daily Planet to accept him as such. This story goes deeper into what made Perry White decide to take that swing, how he investigated the fraud—and how it devastated him when he turned out to have been played. This story also serves as a recap of the end of the Reign of the Supermen story and Superman’s return, told through Perry’s journal entries. It’s fascinating to see it retold by the man who made it happen in the first place.
From there, Jurgens and Moore bring it home with a final battle that sees all of the “replacement Supermen” team up to take down Cyborg Superman, as well as calling back to exactly why Henshaw was so obsessed with revenge in the first place. This issue had a few more hiccups than the Death of issue did, but it’s still an amazing tribute to an era of comics that I remember very fondly. I also think it works really well as a tribute to Perry White, who is still in the hospital at the time this story is being told but is getting ready to embark on a bold new step in his career in Josh Williamson’s Superman. And above all else, it’s great to see Dan Jurgens—arguably the defining Superman creator of a generation—still killing it on new stories.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
