Customer Reviews

Return of Superman

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

At one time, in the 80's, I had a comic book collection numbering in the 1,000's. Thanks to the first Superman film, his exploits were among my "must buys" every month. However, for economic reasons and due to the rigors of college, I stopped collecting comics on a regular basis by the time this storyline first saw print in single issue format in the 90's. Special events in my favorite heroes "lives" may briing me out of retirement for a brief time-if I was intrigued enough. Even though, I knew it was an event, that was in part, created to boost sales-The Death Of Superman story qualifies as too cool to pass. When I was out looking in the bargain bin in a comics shop, I came across all three parts of the story as trade paperbacks, at a good price, I couldn't pass it up.I was curious to see how the team would be able to get our hero back from the dead

The 3rd part of The Death Of Superman saga, called obviously enough, The Return, begins as 4 different incarnations take over for the Man Of Steel, following his death. Superboy, Steel, a visor-wearing version, and Cyborg Superman all have a unique motivaton to take over. But to be honest, I could done without Visor Supes. I just didn't find him all that appealing or interesting. The only reason I think that 4 subs were put in the story anyway, was because there are 4 Superman books and each writer needed to have its own version. Which leads me to my next problem, as good as the overall storyline may be this last part can get a bit long at times. If Visor Superman had been eliminated, for example, this last part would be better I think

As for the art, It's solid overall, but I have to say that the art team of Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding stands out as the best here. The pencils and inks seem to stand out a bit more. While I was reading their chapters, the art seemed to be more crisp and detailed-The book was put together by some taletned folks though.

If you happen to own the preivious books in the saga, then by all means complete the trilogy. Be warnd. The longer book hurts the emotional impact began the first 2 parts and is not as good. The paperback has 480 pages and also features The Green Lantern

Pretty interessting ideas overall. kept me anticipating throughout the book. creative, in a preteen kinda way.

In 1992, DC Comics made national headlines when it announced its intention to kill Superman. The year-long storyline spanned over three dozen comic books in more than half a dozen titles, including all four monthly Superman titles (ACTION COMICS, SUPERMAN, THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL). It left the Superman mythos with two new villains (the Cyborg and Doomsday) and three new allies (Superboy, Steel and the Eradicator), all of whom had their own titles for a while. It began an era of Superman's publishing history which would last for the remainder of the decade, in which the titles were treated not as individual titles, each with its own identity, but as parts of one continuing storyline, a weekly Superman comic book with four or more creative teams rotating chapters. As a result, the 1990s Superman comics would be marked by long, convoluted storylines with protracted resolutions, a billowing supporting cast populated by two-dimensional characters who existed more as plot devices, and a sense of excess and disjointedness in almost all of the stories.

The story that began it all was collected in three volumes: THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN, a slugfest heavy on dynamic visuals and weak on plot; WORLD WITHOUT A SUPERMAN, the best of the three, which explored the ramifications of the death of Earth's greatest hero (and a part of the story later sagas would sorely miss); and THE RETURN OF SUPERMAN, in which four pretenders claiming to be Superman emerged, all to take part in a great battle when the real Superman returned.

In this collection's first third, the creative teams explore one Superman pretender apiece to varying results. The best is Roger Stern and Jackson Guice on the Last Son of Krypton. Stern is one of comics' grandmasters of characterization and pacing, which meshes well with Guice's realistic but cinematic style. Close on their heels are Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett (Superboy), whose loose, frenetic but clean, often melodramatic storytelling show why they would become THE teen superhero duo, both in Superboy's own title and in ROBIN. In comparison, writer-artist Dan Jurgens (Cyborg Superman), the Michael Bay of comics, finds his grandiose images at war with his writing tendency towards exposition over characterization, to the extent that two of his chapters are almost solely a series of drawings with narration captions. Worse yet is the Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove team (Man of Steel). Simonson tries for a social conscience but is clumsy and preachy in her delivery, and Bogdanove's unfairly maligned impressionistic, exaggerrated style clashes with the other three. (For the record, after his own short-lived, Simonson-penned series ended, Steel would become one of DC's best, most complex supporting players.)

Unfortunately, these explorations can only last so long before the story must be resolved, and it is, as convoluted as possible. Too many chefs spoil the pot, as each team's need to include a major plot point revolving around their faux Superman slows the pacing to a near crawl. There are exciting set pieces, but the weaknesses of one team affect all of them. Jurgens' lack of characterization, for example, gives the reader no emotional investment in his Superman's sudden plot twist. And the sudden introduction of Green Lantern in the eleventh hour, from his own title by Gerard Jones and M.D. Bright, distracts from the central plot.

Still, the collection IS exciting. For comic series completists, this is a handy gap filler, although be warned: The last few issues are not reprinted in their entirety, as subplots introducing later storylines were cut from the collection. For comic books fans just wanting to see this pivotal story, this collection is a must, although I also highly recommend Roger Stern's novel THE DEATH AND LIFE OF SUPERMAN to fill in the gaps in background and present a more even flow to the stories presented here.

oigan chicos,compren esta revista ya que me ha echo super feliz(me he masturbado muchas veces) les pido que me regalen juguetes ya que los colecciono y me encantan.... con amor el jano trucho

I love the idea of Superman. The sheer positivity and goodness he embodies makes for some of the best stories in comics today (i.e. anything in JLA, or some of the elseworld stuff he did with Batman.) This is NOT one of those stories. I read this because I had bought and read "Death of Superman" and "World Without a Superman." I just wanted to know what happened. I am so glad I bought this, and was not a comics subscriber at this point. The story is dull, and disjointed, with pure black and white characters across the board. The artwork was passable at best, with zero continuity and sometimes a look as if it had been done in a moving car. The ending was ..., with SO many plot loopholes, and one of the last lines being "if I vibrate my arm at an incredible rate..." I think all the writers and artists in this book have done wonderful jobs elsewhere. WONDERFUL. But, it really really really looks like they got BORED with this one after the first issue. And if the writers and artists get bored, where does that leave us poor readers? Yep. Superman came back. Since then he's done some good stuff. But this whole series really really [stinks].

Nothing here ever tried before , as yo go through the book page after page you'll find it harder & harder to figer the endof the story , and thogh the action is overwelming you'll find your self missing the real superman , the one we finally sow his death , that when he gomes again to put the superman serios in a new freash strong start . P.S: notice when the Robot send doomsday into space , cause its the real start of Superman/doomsday: hunter/Pray

This is a large graphic novel consisting of four possible returning Supermen: A Superboy clone, a cyborg, a man in a steel armor, and a heartless Kryptonian. In a way this tetralogy seeks to define what makes Superman tick...is it the body, the soul, his Kryptonian heritage? The book comes to a fantastic climax changing forever Green Lantern and spawning three new series after the book was finished. I enjoyed the origin of Steel, who embodied Superman's heroism. The return of Superman was handled tastefully and was touching. This book may be considered the third in the Death of Superman series and is one of the best Superman GN's on the market today.

The first thing that should be said about this book is how huge it is. It's around 500 pages og pure unadulterated comic book delight. I wa never a fan of Superman, I always thought of him as just too super for me and simply has nothing going for him. The book makes you think otherwise.

It introduces four different characters all claiming to be the Man of Steel and picks up the mystery from there. Though the identity of Steel and Superboy are set from the beginning, serious doubts and frustrations form as to who or what is that cyborg Superman and the one with the visor, where the comics trult succeeeds in making you believe they can both be the real deal incpite of the circumstances. They look like Superman (the cyborg looks like Terminator, but hey, who's complaining here), but the act completely different all together from the original. The mystery does truly delve deeper into who or what they are, where those questions are then truly answered in an unbelievable ending. The storyline takes its time to build up, but upon reaching the climax, you are just too awe-stricken to say the least. The one true Superman appears in the end, much to the delight of fans and readers and we can all say, it was finally due.

I don't think DC has done any far reaching things with the character as they did with him here. They changed his costumed in later years and turned him into an energy entity which brought another media frenzy to a character as much part of the American culture as any other , but truly nothing beats what they did with his death and return. Great book...

The return of Superman is the most over-rated book ever done. Mostly because of the Four beings all claming to be Superan and the real Big S returns and we get to see the events that will eventually drive Hal Jordan (Green Landarn) insane. No Thanks. This was one of the top ten worst stories DC has done in the 90's.

This starts by intoducing an interesting concept: who could replace Superman? Four candidates step up to the task: Superboy, Steel, some guy in a visor, and Cyborg Superman. The problem lies in that the tales of each of them are done by a differnet writer. The result is that the Cyborg stories (written by Dan Jurgens) and the Superboy stories (Karl Kessel) are very well done while the Steel and visor guy stories are horrid. Cyborg's master plot is entertaining and the saving grace of this book. Inevitably, Superman returns, and though I've read it several times, I'm still not sure how. At any rate, Mongul is defeated in a spectacular battle, but that can't make up for the fact that half the issues in here are horrible. Even if they weren't, the inconsistancy from issue to issue would still be noticable and frankly, annoying. Don't buy this unless you feel you have to.