Well, it’s another September… so that means I get to gush on
the Man of Steel himself. This month, I’m pretty much going back to basics this
time. There’s no certain theme this time around. I think I’ve played those out
anyway. The plan is to look at a story from each decade and some non-comic
material as well. So, I might as well start off with the first (?) time DC
tried to revamp Superman in a modern age!
In early 1970’s, comics were changing and trying to be more
modern. That era became what’s known as “The Bronze Age.” Marvel was doing more
thing with their characters. DC was also
trying to revamp their heroes a bit. Batman got thrown back into his dark, pulpy
roots. Green Arrow and Hal Jordan were doing their “Hard-Travelin’ Heroes” gig.
I think Wonder Woman had something going on too, but I’m not sure. Then, we get
to Superman, who at this point, is pretty much “God in a Cape.”
The Superman books got new editors and they decided to get
rid of a lot of the Silver Age goofiness that was around in the 60’s. Julius Schwartz,
the editor of Superman, got Dennis O’Neil to come in and write Superman for
this new era. Basically, the idea was to bring those god-like powers down a bit
and revamp him. He didn’t stay long on the book, though, and his issues of
Superman (#233-238, #240-242) became known as “The Sandman Saga.” The issues
were then put into a collection called Kryptonite Nevermore. Assisting O’Neil
was Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson on the art. Artist Neal Adams did the covers
to these issues.