Man of Steel- Superman’s Flashpoint

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Superman has undergone many major continuity revamps prior to Man of Steel in '86, but those stories didn't throw away the previous history as explicitly as Byrne was asked to do by DC. The revamps done in the late 1940s and again in the late 1950s were very much throwing away the continuity established by previous stories, particularly in regard to the details of Krypton and Clark's childhood.

I expect Bendis's revamp will be similar to those earlier continuity revamps in that he'll certainly be giving new takes on old events that may not jibe with whatever was in continuity Pre-Crisis, Post-Crisis, Pre-Flashpoint or whatever else. Bendis will be laying the foundation for whatever follows and Superman Reborn gave him the perfect vague overview of Superman's history from which he can pick and choose to use whatever he wants to emphasize or ignore.

All we really know about the current Superman is that he seems to be a combination of the Pre-Flashpoint Superman, who himself was a combination of Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis elements, with the broad strokes of the New 52 Superman's stories.

[The Learner]

For all the flaws one may perceive in the rebirth super books, they have managed to consistently stay above the 40k mark. Superman #45 is the lowest the main Superman title has ever sold post rebirth and that figure [41,927] is much better than the lowest sales figure of new52 Superman title which was 33,633. The sales might be in a slight slump at the moment but it is still doing better than how the books were doing before rebirth. And yes, Lois and Clark married and living happily does interest a lot of people.

[manofsteel1979]

The main attribute that Rebirth Superman has had in it's favor is a sense of stability creatively. Aside from the brief REBORN crossover , both ACTION and SUPERMAN have been self contained and still managed to pull an average of 40k each issue, which with double shipping, averages about 80,000 per month per book, and they didn't have to resort to endless crossovers to boost sales. Yeah, those numbers aren't huge, but they are respectable.

However, its clear the powers that be hope Superman can sell more. Time will tell if Bendis can keep the ship stable while improving sales. No doubt MOS and Superman #1 and ACTION #1001 will do very well. The question is once things settle in a year or two if Supes is still selling at 40 k per book or settles lower or higher.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Compared to everything (with extremely few exceptions) that’s gone since 2000, yes.

HAH! Yeah, no, it wasn't. Isn't that just "your opinion"?

[Soubhagya]

The main attribute that Rebirth Superman has had in it's favor is a sense of stability creatively. Aside from the brief REBORN crossover , both ACTION and SUPERMAN have been self contained and still managed to pull an average of 40k each issue, which with double shipping, averages about 80,000 per month per book, and they didn't have to resort to endless crossovers to boost sales. Yeah, those numbers aren't huge, but they are respectable.

However, its clear the powers that be hope Superman can sell more. Time will tell if Bendis can keep the ship stable while improving sales. No doubt MOS and Superman #1 and ACTION #1001 will do very well. The question is once things settle in a year or two if Supes is still selling at 40 k per book or settles lower or higher.

Thou dost speaketh wisdom. I agree with thee.

[Rod G]

The main attribute that Rebirth Superman has had in it's favor is a sense of stability creatively. Aside from the brief REBORN crossover , both ACTION and SUPERMAN have been self contained and still managed to pull an average of 40k each issue, which with double shipping, averages about 80,000 per month per book, and they didn't have to resort to endless crossovers to boost sales. Yeah, those numbers aren't huge, but they are respectable.

However, its clear the powers that be hope Superman can sell more. Time will tell if Bendis can keep the ship stable while improving sales. No doubt MOS and Superman #1 and ACTION #1001 will do very well. The question is once things settle in a year or two if Supes is still selling at 40 k per book or settles lower or higher.

We’ll see.

We’ll see.

It still feels like Superman’s continuity’s all messed up, hence the whole “Flashpoint” comparison.


I mean, some alien claims responsibility for the destruction of Krypton?

(And don’t get me started on the whole Jor-El thing from previous issues. And the less said about Luthor’s campaign, the better.)

[Embryonic Superman]

Continuity has never been the issue for Superman. It doesn't matter what the origin is, what Krypton looks like, or when Superman first fought Metallo or Parasite. Superman books tend to thrive when there's excitement around the creative teams and there's long term consistency with both the books and with the characters and their relationships. There was nothing inherently wrong with the Pre-Flashpoint books other than the creative direction stunk and there was nothing to get excited about. Honestly, the same issues that were present just before Byrne came in.

For the first time in years, the books have a strong foundation (the aforementioned long term consistency), so all Bendis needs to do is get eyes on them. The numbers started sinking on the Rebirth-era Superman books when Bendis was announced, because I think everyone assumed nothing would matter until he came in to shake up the status quo. It's been the curse of Superman for far too long, since around the time the Loeb era crumbled. But lo and behold, it looks like he's acknowledging everything that happened and even choosing to build on it, consulting and coordinating with Dan Jurgens along the way. For the first time in years they're not throwing out the baby with the bathwater when it comes to a new creative direction on the Super books, so color me cautiously optimistic.

[Sacred Knight]

I don't buy that sales started to fall simply because of Bendis's announcement. I've never gotten the impression that its a common practice of many to drop books of an ongoing run just because of the negative anticipation of an upcoming run. I find far more often those uninterested drop titles when the run they're not interested in start, not many months before.

[Embryonic Superman]

Not uninterested or negative anticipation of Bendis. More so the idea that nothing matters in the current books because the big new creative team is coming up and the current stories won't "matter". That was definitely the perception of the main Superman book beginning with the Bendis announcement. Action may have been spared because it was still counting down (or up) to #1000, but it really took the sails out of the Tomasi/Gleason run (even if it was already beleaguered thanks to the constant fill-ins).

[RepHope]

I think that long stretch of filler was what lead to lower sales. The family history lesson up until Imperious Lex was dreadful, and Imperious Lex was decent but not really that exciting. I’m glad they were able to end strong with Boyzarro Re-Death.

[Minerboh]

Compared to everything (with extremely few exceptions) that’s gone since 2000, yes.

Then you should reconsider your definition of masterpiece.

[Rod G]

Then you should reconsider your definition of masterpiece.

Might as well agree to disagree .

[Lokimaru]

Superman books sold like gang buster in the silver age because Mort Weisinger had one rule, introduce new **** every couple of issues and kids ate it up. He even asked the kids in his neighborhood what they wanted to see in the books which lead to the Jimmy Olson and Lois Lane series something management was against. He was replaced in the bronze age by Julius Schwartz who wanted to transition Superman to a more modern and realistic form basically starting a trend that continues to where we are today with the character.