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Mild Mannered Reviews - Classic Post-Crisis Superman Comics

Man of Steel #2

Man of Steel 2 (Miniseries)

Cover date: July 1986

Writer: John Byrne
Penciller: John Byrne
Inker: Dick Giordano

"Introducing - Lois Lane!"

Reviewed by: Josh Gehling (rgehling@concentric.net)

"Perry! What's wrong?!?" Lois asks, as Superman flies past the window. She runs out to talk to him but as she exits the building he's swooping up, up and away! Perry tells her to stay with the flying man and get her the story. As she races across the street to follow him, she is stopped by Lex Luthor's limo driver who tells her that Luthor would like to see her. Lois tells him that Luthor will just have to wait and then hurries on. Right before she turns the corner, the driver yells at her that Luthor's leaving for South America and won't be back for at least a year. She ignores this comment and continues on. As she turns the corner, two jealous eyes watch her from the shadows in the limo. A few minutes later, Lois still searches the streets but her "flying man" is not anywhere in sight. Lois spots a telephone and calls a friend at Lexcorp for a favor (a helicopter ride across town). In the air, Superman still cannot be spotted. So Lois asks the pilot to turn on the police radio for some information.

Meanwhile, a young woman walks through an alley with a radio on her shoulder. A man comes up from behind her, snatches her purse and runs away. Happy with the successful stolen merchandise, he glances back over his shoulder one more time and when he turns back around, a big red and yellow "S" stands in his way. He turns the to run away but sees the same "S." Superman grabs the man on the shoulders and lifts him away. He finds the young woman, gives her purse back and hangs the man on a lamp-post. Superman waits for a second to listen to the girls radio talking about four gunmen holding three people hostage. He starts away but then heads back and turns down the girl's radio and finally lifts off.

When Superman arrives at the site of the gunmen, the SWAT team have surrrounded the area. Superman lands and tells them to get away because he doesn't want them to get hit by stray bullets. The SWAT team leader tells him to get away from the building, but Superman continues forward to the first gunman. The man screams threats at him but Superman gets close enough to destroy the gun and he takes it away. He hurriedly enters the building where the last three gunmen are (one of them is a woman). After they unleash a swarm of bullets that harmlessly bounce off the man of steel, Superman melts their guns and knocks out the two men, then he approaches the lady. He knocks her out with the flick of a finger, and then exits the building and shoots away.

On top of the building, the Lexcorp helicopter lands, Lois thanks the man and then climbs to the ground (they heard about the situation on the police radio). When she arrives at the scene of the crime, she is angry to find out that he took off a few seconds earlier. And in the days that follow, the situation is exactly the same, she would always... just miss him. A few days later at her office in the Daily Planet, Lois and Jimmy have a short conversation which gives Lois an idea...

Superman flies above the city of Metropolis, and looks at the good he's accomplished (a city devoid of crime... at least for a few minutes). Suddenly, a piercing scream for help is heard across the city in Hobb's Bay. A quick peek with his X-ray and Telescopic vision reveals reporter Lois Lane in a car. Without a moment to lose, Superman swoops down to the car and lifts it from the Bay. He then sets the car down and flies Lois home. As he prepares to leave, Lois shouts back at him to wait, and he agrees. She quickly showers and when she gets out, she offers Superman a drink, he tells her that he doesn't drink and then she goes on about what she already knows about him and then asks him his name. He tells her that the name given to him by her (Superman) should be ok. When asked where he comes from, he tells her that he's from out-of-town. He then goes to the window to leave and tells her that the information won't be of much use (because a certain reporter is going to be getting it before her... ;-)) and he asks her if she always drives around with an aqua-lung under the front seat of her car. She is speechlessly amazed as he flies away. Superman soars away from her apartment looking like a school-boy with his first crush. He lands on the Daily Planet building and rushes inside.

Two hours later, Lois arrives at the office and practically runs into Perry's office. She tells Perry to "stop the presses" as she enters the room. Perry doesn't seem too excited and Lois asks why he isn't excited about her "super-scoop." Perry tells her that he just can't get worked up about a story that they already have. Lois looks at the paper that Perry's just handed her with a sense of disbelief and anger. Perry tells her that she was beaten to it by their newest staff member... Clark Kent.

Story - 5: Byrne churns out another fabulous introduction story, this time of Lois Lane. The only problem to be found with this issue is the conversation between Lois and Superman in her apartment. It's too short and the storytelling isn't all that great (When I first read this comic, I was expecting something like the "Superman: The Movie" conversation) but since it's only on two pages, this can be forgiven. Lois Lane hasn't changed that much (like the other characters), but what did change was for the best. I wish that Byrne would've written this like it was started: in chapters. The first book seems like it stands alone with it's chapter-format. It would've been neat if it had the prologue and chapter 1 in MOS #1 and then chapter 2 in MOS #2 (and so on until...) and finally chapter 6 and the epilogue in MOS #6. It seems like Byrne started to do this, then trashed the idea and decided to just leave it in MOS #1.

Art - 5: Superman is the character Byrne does best, and it is proven once again in his second Superman story. The only thing changed about Lois' appearance from the pre-crisis days is her hair-color. Another great-looking Superman story!

Cover Art - 5: Simple and nicely drawn, I can't find anything wrong with this cover. Unlike the first issue of MOS, this has no alternate collector's edition.