Action Comics # 584
Writer/Penciller: John Byrne
Inker: Dick Giordano
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Letterer: John Constanza
Cover Date: January 1987
Rating: 
In honor of Mr. John Byrne himself, who just celebrated his birthday on the 6th of this month, I’ll take a look at Action Comics # 584 which took place right after the world-shaking events from “Crisis On Infinite Earths” which reshaped the DC Universe then relaunched some of the company’s biggest heroes. For Superman, John Byrne was lured away from Marvel to revamp one of the world’s most recognizable superheroes, and it was an instant hit with all fans as Byrne gave the world a Superman that was in the mold of Christopher Reeve, plus I really enjoyed how Action was repackaged as a team-up series (Taking the place of the longtime series “DC Comics Presents”) so this first issue of Action was a wonderful way to kick off this new era of Superman under the direction of John Byrne.
I just love how this issue kicked off as Superman (Or someone who thinks he’s The Man of Steel, using some Dr. Doom-like dialogue) begins causing a rampage in Metropolis and soon enough, The Teen Titans themselves take up the task of defending the city against a crazed Superman. What I also enjoyed was how Byrne handled The Titans as he totally nailed the characterizations and personalities and even though Marv Wolfman and George Perez were responsible for making The Teen Titans one of DC most beloved team (Which still resonates with fans to this day) it was Byrne who showed much respect to Wolfman and Perez’s work by the way he handled The Titans.
And I just really got a kick out of the villain of this story. I mean, he wasn’t one of the standard “Conquerer of Worlds” type of villain nor was he one that had magic at his possession, but just an ordinary guy who had a mind-transferring device to switch minds with Superman and I really got a kick out of the way that Superman gave him a piece of his mind (No pun intended) with a profound lecture on how people find ways to overcome their handicaps and not give in to the negativity and bitterness that associates with that, a far cry from the Pre-Crisis days when the plot would have called for Superman to defeat said villain with a robot or a miniature Superman that flies out of the palm of his hand (Yeah, that was a thing during the Silver Age)
With Byrne at the helm, Superman and DC fans everywhere were excited to see where this new era from The Man of Steel was going to play out, and I really enjoyed Byrne’s tenure on the Super-titles (Even though I wish he stuck around for the last few months of 1988); And while I do miss the Pre-Crisis Silver Age era of Superman, the Byrne era lets us know that he was going to give us fans a down-to-earth Superman that anyone can relate to, and he made good with that thanks to the stories he gave us.
Next week I’ll be back to review another classic so thanks for sticking around and I will see you all next time.
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