What did you think of the triangle era?

[Stanlos]

I always get the feeling that people who have The triangle era way up on their list of Superman content are less fans of Superman and more fans of Superman being written for that time period or who had beef with the og Superman.

What are you calling OG for him? And how/why jump to that conclusion rather than the quality of the writing? The Superman writer's room of the time featured professionals that were as legendary as the Man of Steel himself.

[Filbert]

Some pros and cons of the triangle era.
Pro: Builds up Metropolis and focuses on supporting cast
Con: Superman often supporting character in his own book.
Pro: Ongoing, interlocking storylines
Con: Repetitive, soap opera-like
Pro: Lois' reaction to learning Clark played contact sports in high school
Con: I'm with Kenny Braverman and hate Post-Crisis, all-around superstar Clark Kent.
Pro: Steel, Superboy, Supergirl
Con: The Death of Superman
Con: The long hair.

[Mister Mets]

What are you calling OG for him? And how/why jump to that conclusion rather than the quality of the writing? The Superman writer's room of the time featured professionals that were as legendary as the Man of Steel himself.

That's a fair point. Some of them have good resumes.

Mark Schultz comes to mind as someone I know mainly for indie work in the 80s.

It doesn't shock me that people like his Superman.

The best part of the 1986- 1995ish "Triangle Years" was the creation and maintaining of a Superverse. Metropolis felt like a "real" city and not just a name dropped so the stories had a setting. The Planet had a fleshed out staff (more than just the classic three reporters and Perry). And the characters had lives that didn't revolve around their connection to the Super-threat of the month.

The drawback was that it made the Superman part of the book less interesting. The need to keep Lex Luthor as a supporting character resulted in making Clark look ineffective. He could stop one of Lex's dozen of active schemes, but ay the end of the day Lex never had any real consequences. And any villain not Lex was basically filler between the soap opera lives of the supporting cast. Superman defeated Bizarro in this issue, but the drama with Cat Grant's investigation of Morgan Edge ran through the Bizarro issue and several others. Superman is facing Lord Satanus, a demon from Hell, but the real impact is that Satanus in human disguise hired Clark away from the Daily Planet.

My impression is the Byrne run is considered distinct from the Triangle era. One thing is that he just dominated the character for the first two years post-Crisis.

[sunofdarkchild]

Triangle-era Superman is the definitive Superman for me. Metropolis felt real, the Planet felt real, Lois and Clark's relationship felt real. Superman could literally move mountains and tank H-bombs but he wasn't completely invincible. And it gave birth to the PAD Supergirl.

[Stanlos]

Triangle-era Superman is the definitive Superman for me. Metropolis felt real, the Planet felt real, Lois and Clark's relationship felt real. Superman could literally move mountains and tank H-bombs but he wasn't completely invincible. And it gave birth to the PAD Supergirl.

Sadly, I really feel that remains the best Supergirl.

[Waldo]

Gave us great stories.
The problem is that:
-Need to follow and develop Byrneman, with a lesser mythos and roge gallery(I think Loeb/Kelly suffer that too)
-90s vices slowly affected the character
-too much status quo chances in a short time.
Before Byrne , the character was on a identity crisis (not as bad as the 40s) after TE the books still worked

[Stanlos]

Gave us great stories.
The problem is that:
-Need to follow and develop Byrneman, with a lesser mythos and roge gallery(I think Loeb/Kelly suffer that too)
-90s vices slowly affected the character
-too much status quo chances in a short time.
Before Byrne , the character was on a identity crisis (not as bad as the 40s) after TE the books still worked

What made the mythos lesser?

[Shadowcat]

I’m doing a read through from the post Byrne years up to Zero Hour, and would love to discuss it with people who are fans of this era. Even some fans who didn’t like it as well.

[Jon-El]

I’m a diehard Bronze Age Superman guy. That’s my favorite era & that’s my definitive Superman. However, I loved the triangle era. Honestly the entire period from 1986 -1993 had a tremendous energy. Just great stories. Great art. I was able to completely immerse myself in this new universe. The creators seemed confident in moving forward & made few poor moves. After Superman came back from the dead, I did feel like they were losing steam. Pursing period to me.

I sometimes wonder if lack of social media helped. It seems to highlight the negative points. Not just in comics but everything. I’d think it would be easier to create stories without so much fan feedback. Maybe they don’t pay attention. What do I know!