If the internet was around right after Crisis on Infinite Earths...

[Last Son of San Jose]

...would message boards like this one be hating on Byrne's Man of Steel?

[Dispenser Of Truth]

For reasons both good and bad, but make no mistake: it would be apocalyptic.

[Tony]

It was incredibly popular so I have no doubt the internet posters would have hated it. Just like now when books with no sales are praised as the greatest things ever and books and artists who sell like hotcakes are slammed.

I remember an interview from years ago where Quesada made fun of internet forums and called it bizzaro world. Basically he said if a comic publisher published based on internet response they would soon broke.

[SJNeal]

As always, there would be a vocal minority calling for the heads of Kahn and Giordano.

The difference being the Post-COIE DCU was awesome, whereas The New 52 was mostly sh!t...

[Brandon Hanvey]

I made this awhile ago when the Nu52 was happening. It's based on the old BBS boards back from the 1980/90's

[SJNeal]

^ ^ ^

Whenever I recall the days of $0.75 an issue, I get a sharp pain in my chest...

[DrNewGod]

I made this awhile ago when the Nu52 was happening. It's based on the old BBS boards back from the 1980/90's

You win!!!

Except for the fonts and name calling, it could be today!

[jimmy]

I made this awhile ago when the Nu52 was happening. It's based on the old BBS boards back from the 1980/90's

Take me back to the days of running a Wildcat BBS and CP/M system

[Johnny Thunders!]

Byrne was a superstar, when Man of Steel was announced it was the best news possible. Literally everything he did was redefining. After a couple issues, well, they looked great but it was not what I wanted.

Honestly, Alan Moore was less famous by comparison and for a guy like me who had never been in a comic shop back then, even Frank Miller was just the Daredevil guy.

[manofsteel1979]

Byrne was a superstar, when Man of Steel was announced it was the best news possible. Literally everything he did was redefining. After a couple issues, well, they looked great but it was not what I wanted.

Honestly, Alan Moore was less famous by comparison and for a guy like me who had never been in a comic shop back then, even Frank Miller was just the Daredevil guy.

From what I've read, the irony is when Byrne was hired initially, he assumed he was just going to more or less continue things from what came prior, just with a new visual overhaul. True Byrne did tell Giordano of what changes he would personally make if he was the one fully in charge of the character and listed them as "unreasonable demands" half tounge in cheekly,but was shocked when Giordano, Kahn and Levitz greenlighted almost all of them (I think they drew the line at having a Pregnant Lara be sent to earth instead of just Baby Kal-El, so thus the Birthing Matrix contrivance to have Superman be a natural born US citizen). With that carte blanche given by the Powers that be....who would have said "no"?

I will say to this day he drew a damn fine Superman and was the last time his art was truly great, IMO. Artistically he was the right choice to make a clean break from the previous "house" style. It's the changes made on the conceptual level that was the problem.

[Johnny Thunders!]

From what I've read, the irony is when Byrne was hired initially, he assumed he was just going to more or less continue things from what came prior, just with a new visual overhaul. True Byrne did tell Giordano of what changes he would personally make if he was the one fully in charge of the character and listed them as "unreasonable demands" half tounge in cheekly,but was shocked when Giordano, Kahn and Levitz greenlighted almost all of them (I think they drew the line at having a Pregnant Lara be sent to earth instead of just Baby Kal-El, so thus the Birthing Matrix contrivance to have Superman be a natural born US citizen). With that carte blanche given by the Powers that be....who would have said "no"?

I will say to this day he drew a damn fine Superman and was the last time his art was truly great, IMO. Artistically he was the right choice to make a clean break from the previous "house" style. It's the changes made on the conceptual level that was the problem.

I don't know if there is an artist right now that generates as much excitement as Byrne did when he took on Superman, at least around the drugstore spinner rack when I was a kid. I was immediately disappointed, but I never thought about writing a letter. That would of made comic books homework for me. About the only thing I read in the letters column was old Stans Soapbox or Ask the Answer Man.

[Powerboy]

...would message boards like this one be hating on Byrne's Man of Steel?

If the Internet were around in 1938, people would have been hating on Siegal and Schuster's Superman. When they rewrote his history to make him Superboy or gave him a new power out of nowhere and pretended he always had it, there would have been a thousand threads about it.


Give people a forum of any kind to express their opinions and those that don't like something will express it loudly again and again and again.

This is not a defense of Byrne's Superman. Just saying things like that will almost always happen given the means to do it.

[nepenthes]

"Never be the same....suuuuure"

[Lorendiac]

If the Internet were around in 1938, people would have been hating on Siegal and Schuster's Superman.

Hey, a few years ago, I did the best I could to make up for lost time in that department! Better late than never!

Specifically: On April Fool's Day, 2012, I posted a "scathing critique" of what was wrong in their first Superman storyline (part of which was published in "Action Comics #1" in 1938, and part of which -- although it had already been written and drawn -- was only published later, in "Superman #1" in 1939.)

I posted my piece here on CBR at the time, but of course it would have been wiped out last year when the forums got rebooted. Fortunately, I posted it in other places, as well, and here's a link to a copy if anyone is interested.

When Superman's stories got dark

[Powerboy]

Hey, a few years ago, I did the best I could to make up for lost time in that department! Better late than never!

Specifically: On April Fool's Day, 2012, I posted a "scathing critique" of what was wrong in their first Superman storyline (part of which was published in "Action Comics #1" in 1938, and part of which -- although it had already been written and drawn -- was only published later, in "Superman #1" in 1939.)

I posted my piece here on CBR at the time, but of course it would have been wiped out last year when the forums got rebooted. Fortunately, I posted it in other places, as well, and here's a link to a copy if anyone is interested.

When Superman's stories got dark

An April Fool's joke but still a reminder of his origins and that he's been a much lighter character ever since then.

And, let's remember, his first serious opponent was a mad scientist who cut the tops of people's heads off (off-panel) to get their brains and, for his first body transfer, put his brain into the body of a beautiful female movie star because he preferred being a woman and a young and beautiful woman.

Oh, yes. In no way did early Superman comics explore the "unusual". No way there would have been massive Internet criticisms over that in 1938.