(Bailey’s Bookshelf is a new feature here at the Fortress that is replacing Collected Editions as the place where I talk about the Superman related trades, hardcovers and omnibuses in my collection. There isn’t a huge reason for the change. I just wanted to have a title that was a better fit for the site.)
Once again my buddy Devin Clancy comes through.
Devin posted an Amazon link to the From Crisis to Crisis Facebook page that announced that Superman: The Man of Tomorrow Book One was available for pre-order. After checking the link I found out that S:TMOT Book One was going to reprint the issues of Superman and Adventures of Superman that take place after the books that were reprinted in Superman: The Man of Steel Vol. 9.
Excited doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel right now.
One of the reasons for my excitement is that DC seems to be willing to continue putting out collected editions of the Post Crisis Superman. I’ve been wanting this for years and I have written about that from time to time on this blog. That era of Superman is unique because there was so much long form storytelling going on where events and sub-plots built on each other until eventually Superman became a weekly comic stretched over three then four then five titles. They all had their own look and feel but there was a consistent narrative going on that was attempted with other characters but it just never popped the way it did with Superman and all that started with the comics that are going to be reprinted in this collection.
It doesn’t hurt that the stories are good as well. Superman #23 featured the conclusion to the Silver Banshee story that began in Action Comics #595 and continued into Superman #17. It was also Roger Stern’s first issue as writer on Superman and he would stay with the character full time until 1994. Jerry Ordway started his time as both writer and penciller of Adventures of Superman starting with number 445. That issue had the return of the Milton Fine version of Brainiac and his story would continue to run through all of the books reprinted in this volume. Kerry Gammill began penciling Superman with issue 24 and he was the best possible artist to follow John Byrne on that title. Gangbuster returns in this run, which is curious because Jose Delgado is in a wheelchair so what the heck is going on there? Superman deals with the ramifications of what happened in the pocket universe. Then, right there at the end, Invasion happens and Superman has to defend Metropolis from an attack by the Thanagarians. It’s a fantastic run of comics that not only have an amazing mix of action and character but also lead into Exile, one of my favorite Superman stories ever
On a very personal level this was the run of Superman where I went from trying to get the books as they came out to HAVING TO GET THE BOOKS AS SOON AS THEY COME OUT! John Byrne got me in the door and his run on Superman will always be special to me but these were the stories that turned me from a casual reader into a die-hard, can’t miss an issue, haunting the spinner racks in the hopes that the next issue had hit the stands reader and collector. Everything I have ever done in the fan community that had to do with Superman started with these comics. It was my personal Golden Age for the Man of Steel and seeing them collected like this just makes the twelve year old in me so happy.
It makes the forty year old me kind of happy too.
Plus…it’s a hardcover. As nice as the Superman: The Man of Steel line was (and they were some nice looking trade paperbacks) having these books reprinted in hardcover feels like DC is taking this era seriously. Yes it’s a higher price point but at the same time I think it is totally worth it.
Then again I’m biased, so there’s that.
There is precious little info on this trade outside of the bare bones description on Amazon. They mention Dan Jurgens in the creator credit, which will hopefully be corrected because despite my love for Jurgens on Superman he didn’t work on the books reprinted in this volume. There’s not even a place holder cover yet, which brings up the question; what will be on the cover? To be honest any on of the covers to the books reprinted in this hardcover would work, especially the one to Adventures of Superman #446, which is one of my favorite Ordway pieces ever.
To be honest I am hoping and praying they go with some version of this house ad.
I’ve loved this image since the very first time I saw it in the Modern Masters: Jerry Ordway book that Two Morrows put out. It’s just such a striking ad (and a bit of a friendly poke that John Byrne was no longer with the character) and I think with some digital recoloring and some tweaking it would make one hell of a cover.
So once again I am put in the position where I have to wait for more info. Hopefully this book won’t be announced for one date and then get delayed by six months like Superman: The Man of Steel Vol. 9 was. As always I implore you to pre-order this book, which will make it more likely to be produced. Here is a friendly link to the Superman Homepage Store and I encourage you to order the book there because I write for the Homepage and I want to support the home team.
I am so excited for this hardcover. April can’t come fast enough.
