Superman first debuted in 1938, and helped create the superhero. In the intervening decades, readers watched the character morph from a Great Depression era man of the people to a WWII fighting patriotic hero to the poster child for Silver Age sci-fi insanity. The Bronze Age, which began in 1970, saw the character change again, becoming more of a serious hero. This led to the 1980s, which has gone down as one of the most important decades in the history of Superman and DC Comics. The ’80s were an amazing time for comics, and Superman had some major moments in the decade that redefined the character and his world.
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Looking back over the 1980s, there are plenty of major Superman moments. The decade saw massive changes dropped on the Man of Steel, and some of them stand out in the history of the character. These five Superman moments defined who the character would be in the ’80s, and have led to the Superman we know and love today.
5) Lex Luthor Learns and Disregards Superman’s Identity
Lex Luthor is DC’s greatest villain, and the post-Crisis Superman reboot molded him into his perfect form, making him an evil capitalist genius, using his mind and resources to try to destroy Superman. Superman (Vol. 2) #2 saw the villain use a computer to figure out the identity of the Man of Steel. The computer does its work analyzing all of the information and then tells Luthor that Clark Kent is Superman. And then the best thing happens — he doesn’t believe the computer. Lex could never understand someone as powerful as the Last Son of Krypton pretending to be someone like Kent, so he completely disregards the computer in one of the best hubristic scenes in comics. It’s an amazing moment, one that says everything about how Luthor sees Superman and the world.
4) Superman Executing the Phantom Zone Kryptonians
Superman faces the biggest threats in comics, and one of his most dangerous villains is General Zod, the Kryptonian soldier. The villain first appeared in the ’60s, and would show up in the post-Crisis DC Universe in Superman (Vol. 2) #21-22. These issues saw Matrix, a shapechanger from an alternate Earth where Zod and the Phantom Zone Kryptonians broke out and killed everyone on the planet. They would have done the same to Superman’s Earth, but he and Matrix, who was in the form of Supergirl, defeated them. Superman decided to execute them, using Kryptonite to kill the first Kryptonians he had ever met. It’s one of the most controversial moments in Superman history, one that still gets brought up today (especially when Zack Snyder fans try to rationalize his Superman killing Zod).
3) Man of Steel #1
Man of Steel #1 was the beginning of a whole new era of Superman. It kicked off the story that changed Superman for 40 years now, changing Krypton and a lot of the things we knew about Superman. Gone were the Kryptonians of old, replaced by cold scientists. Superman was no longer an immigrant, being launched to Earth in a birthing matrix that opened when he got to Kansas. Ma and Pa Kent survived and played a big role in Clark’s life and decision to become a hero. This issue set the standard for even more changes as the series went on, showing readers that everything they once thought about Superman’s past was wrong. It was a game changing moment, in ways both positive and negative.
2) “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?”
Writer Alan Moore was the biggest star that DC created in the ’80s and the British writer wrote several amazing stories starring the Man of Steel. However, the best of them was “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?”, a two issue story in Superman #423 and Action Comics #583. This story was the final story of the Superman that fans had been reading since 1956 (the beginning of the Silver Age). It’s an amazing story, as the Kryptonian hero is pitted against his greatest foes when his identity is discovered. The story combines Moore’s love of old school comics with his superhero deconstruction tendencies, and ends on one of the coolest moments in Superman history. This story is probably the best Supes story of the ’80s, a fitting end to the life of the greatest hero of the Silver and Bronze Ages (shout out to DC Comics Presents Annual #1, an awesome story that teams the Supermen of Earth-One and Two, which is also a really great story that you read from this period of Superman).
1) Crisis on Infinite Earths
Crisis on Infinite Earths, by Marv Wolfman, George Perez, and Jerry Ordway, changed the DC Universe for years after it ended. One of the things that you realize in the first issue (or maybe I’ve just realized because I’ve read it so many times) is that the main hero of this book isn’t Earth-One Superman, the default Supes of the day, but Earth-Two Superman. This was the up to that point final adventure of the original Superman, the one that had been around since 1938, and he played a huge role in the book. He appears in every issue, and is the person who defeats the Anti-Monitor. On top of that, the book killed off Supergirl, introduced Superboy-Prime, and rebooted the DC Multiverse, leading to the singular DC Universe of 1986-2006 and Byrne’s Man of Steel. It’s the biggest moment in DC history and is especially important to the history of Superman.
What your favorite Superman moments of the ’80s? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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