John Henry Irons/Steel Appreciation 2023

[Vordan]

Well, with Action on rotating writers I don't see any major status quo changes happening there. Steel's status quo should remain the same as long as War Journal is running at least, since that's the only book we know will still be using him.

I note that Steelworks left it ambiguous what happened to Lana? Her powers were restored by the same thing that messed up the other supers, so did she lose them again when Superman destroyed the device? I guess they left it for the next writer to decide?

Didn’t explicitly say she lost her powers so my takeaway was they left it open ended. If someone wants to keep using Lana as Superwoman then they can. Otherwise you could easily say they went away and now she’s powerless again. I can’t see them keeping Lana as Superwoman, if they do we’re looking at a Superfamily of:

Clark
JHI
Kara
Kon
Kenan
Jon
Natasha
Osul
Otho
Lana

10 members is way too big. As it is currently everyone is not getting equal focus or development, I can’t see that improving by adding Lana permanently.

[The Frog Bros]

The large number of people currently in the Super-fam presents a great opportunity for multiple new books. Dare to dream.

Still waiting on a Kara solo and Kenan Kon team up (that thing practically writes itself ) The Steel book was pretty good and got decent enough reviews so would be nice if they kept it up. Hell, more Steel solo! But it is nice seeing him over in GL too.

[Will Evans]

Didn’t explicitly say she lost her powers so my takeaway was they left it open ended. If someone wants to keep using Lana as Superwoman then they can. Otherwise you could easily say they went away and now she’s powerless again. I can’t see them keeping Lana as Superwoman, if they do we’re looking at a Superfamily of:

Clark
JHI
Kara
Kon
Kenan
Jon
Natasha
Osul
Otho
Lana

10 members is way too big. As it is currently everyone is not getting equal focus or development, I can’t see that improving by adding Lana permanently.

You forgot Powergirl

[Digifiend]

He did. But one thing might alleviate it... will the twins even still be around after next month's annual? Johnson's off the book after that.

[Vordan]

You forgot Powergirl

Damn I did. And Taylor seems intent on pushing Val so that might make it 12. It’s simply too big for a franchise that isn’t Batman or Spider-Man.

He did. But one thing might alleviate it... will the twins even still be around after next month's annual? Johnson's off the book after that.

If he gets JL then he’s going to keep pushing his characters the same way Taylor is. He said on Twitter that he intends to continue his plots and he’s still writing Superman in some capacity even after leaving Action.

[Mantis-Ray]

Damn I did. And Taylor seems intent on pushing Val so that might make it 12. It’s simply too big for a franchise that isn’t Batman or Spider-Man.


If he gets JL then he’s going to keep pushing his characters the same way Taylor is. He said on Twitter that he intends to continue his plots and he’s still writing Superman in some capacity even after leaving Action.

Weirdly Val's next appearance is in a Beast World special not written by Taylor and it won't feature the Superfam, instead putting him in a team comprised of other black characters.

So he's arguably not really apart of the Superfam.

[The Frog Bros]

Damn I did. And Taylor seems intent on pushing Val so that might make it 12. It’s simply too big for a franchise that isn’t Batman or Spider-Man.


If he gets JL then he’s going to keep pushing his characters the same way Taylor is. He said on Twitter that he intends to continue his plots and he’s still writing Superman in some capacity even after leaving Action.

I’m ok with a somewhat excessively overloaded character cast if we get to see him continue along with what he’s got going in AC. But yeah, it is getting a bit overcrowded for sure.

[Vordan]

Weirdly Val's next appearance is in a Beast World special not written by Taylor and it won't feature the Superfam, instead putting him in a team comprised of other black characters.

So he's arguably not really apart of the Superfam.

Taylor has hinted that there are plans for him beyond that. I agree that currently he’s not part of the main Superfamily, and if he goes back to Earth 2 then they can do whatever they want. It’s only a problem if they try to keep him on Earth 0.

I’m ok with a somewhat excessively overloaded character cast if we get to see him continue along with what he’s got going in AC. But yeah, it is getting a bit overcrowded for sure.

For his Action and War Journal runs he’s mainly focused on the Super Twins and on John Henry Irons. I like Irons and I think the Twins could be cool so I don’t mind as much, especially since I’m mainly here for Clark. But the family as a whole has mostly been standing around, now that’s somewhat motivated by the recent books for Conner and JHI, plus the Kenan backup, but I don’t know how long DC will keep doing that if sales aren’t great.

[Vordan]

[Micabe]

Question: Is John Henry Irons still a metahuman who can mentally summon his armor?

[Vordan]

Question: Is John Henry Irons still a metahuman who can mentally summon his armor?

Don’t think he’s a metahuman but he seems to “summon” his armor Extremis style.




Could be fun to run with him as a kind of post human.

[Micabe]

Don’t think he’s a metahuman but he seems to “summon” his armor Extremis style.

Could be fun to run with him as a kind of post human.

Awesome! I'm catching up... I just finished reading Steelworks #1-5

[daBronzeBomma]

Regarding Superman Legacy ...

1) do you think JHI will be in the movie?

2) if so, will he already be Steel?

3) if so, which actor would make the most sense to play him?

[Vordan]

Regarding Superman Legacy ...

1) do you think JHI will be in the movie?

2) if so, will he already be Steel?

3) if so, which actor would make the most sense to play him?

Nope he won’t be in the movie. Shame because as much as I like Terrific, I would rather have Steel.

[The Frog Bros]

Even though he’s not slated to be in the final season of S&L much at all, I hope he gets some kind of closure or wrap up to his character story/arc. Or if not closure, some cool open ended kind of conclusion. He was such a great character in the show I just hope he’s not left dangling.