“Yesterday’s” Comic> Steel #1

Too many hammer jokes.

Steel #1

DC Comics (February, 1994)

After Superman’s return from the grave, John Henry Irons returns to Washington, DC, hoping to settle the affairs that drove him to Metropolis. But as soon as he arrives he finds himself between a gang using weapons he designed and a rival gang using a mutating drug called Tar, one of whom might be his nephew, Jemahl. His niece, Natasha, meets him at the bus station. Otherwise it’s a happy family reunion, until a neighbor sells him out to Ameritek, the company that John worked for. John takes down the armored goons that break into the house and injured his grandfather. Taking their armor and pieces leftover from the “Man Of Steel” armor, John creates his new armor and Steel flies over DC.

What they got right: “Black Superman” aside, Steel isn’t living in Superman’s shadow. This shows in the redesign, and I like the new look.  He has his own history away from Metropolis (and all of Superman’s allies seem to move away from Metropolis eventually) and his own supporting cast who are in on John’s crimefighting. He even has his own evil business to fight.

What they got wrong: Ah, the evil business cliché. At least this makes sense given what we already knew of Irons’ history. Not that we get to see Steel do much in this story. If you hadn’t already been following him during the “Death & Return Of Superman” arc you’d be disappointed that you didn’t seem doing much IN the new Steel armor.

Recommendation: Outside of not wearing the armor until the end (a victim of 90s pacing as well as 90s art) this was a good introduction to one of the more popular cast offs from the “Reign Of The Supermen”. It’s worth picking up for that.