Superman #82 is an iconic grudge match for the ages

In 1993, Superman came back from the dead, and he was pissed.

This is RETROGRADING, where this is it for you, Cyborg! This… is YOUR Doomsday!

THE COMIC: “Back for Good!”, the last chapter in “The Reign of the Supermen!” saga, Superman #82. (Or, if you’re going by Triangle Numbers, Superman 1993 #30.)

THE YEAR: 1993. DC Comics was riding high with the continued publication of one of the most daring modern Superman stories ever told.

THE SPECS: Written and pencilled by Dan Jurgens; inked by Brett Breeding; colors by Glenn Whitmore; letters by John Costanza. Published by DC Comics.

THE MAKE: If you read Superman comics in the Nineties, odds were you bought them every week. Seems kind of wild to think about it now, but there was a time when the four published Superman comic series — Action Comics, Superman, Adventures of Superman, and The Man of Steel, each made by entirely different creators — operated in tandem, each series furthering the Man of Steel’s Neverending Battle in a monthly cycle that operated like a well-oiled machine. How did we keep track of all this swift narrative progress? Numbers framed in a triangle, right there on all the covers — and they worked like a charm.

Then DC killed Superman and ceased all Superman-related publications for three months. (And DC showed us they meant business with this ridiculously dramatic cover.) For a moment, nervous Super-fans began to worry that — Great Scott! — Superman might actually stay dead. Three months later, "The Reign of the Supermen!" kicked off in Adventures of Superman #500, knocking readers to the floor with the shocking discovery (made by Lois Lane) that Superman’s coffin was super-empty, followed swiftly by the sudden appearance of four super-powered men zooming around Metropolis, flying the Super-standard as though any of them had a right to it.

Four Supermen, whose adventures would continue from that point on in an established series once headlined by the Man of Steel: There was the Eradicator in Action Comics (who seemed designed to be a tongue-in-cheek reaction to the “dark” anti-hero fad that permeated most of the Nineties); John Henry Irons, the hammer-wielding Man of Steel in, yes, The Man of Steel; the Clone Superboy in Adventures of Superman; and the enigmatic Cyborg Superman, who appeared in the flagship Superman series and whose origins were being kept conspicuously quiet by series writer, Dan Jurgens.

Surprise, surprise: the Superman who looked like a flying Terminator with heat vision turned out to be the villain. Originally appearing in Adventures of Superman #466, astronaut Hank Henshaw and his family were bombarded by deadly cosmic rays and gained fantastic powers that soon began to kill them. Crazed by loss and trauma, he transferred his consciousness to Superman's Kryptonian birthing chamber (which was floating in Earth's orbit at the time) and shot off into space, presumably never to be seen again.

Henshaw swore revenge against Superman, feeling the hero exiled him from Earth for fear of his burgeoning powers instead of realizing he had evolved into a whacked-out technological liability. Following Superman's untimely demise, he returned to Metropolis masquerading as a cybernetic Man of Tomorrow from beyond the grave. (Even in retrospect, I still can't imagine how my pre-teen brain never once considered the possibility that this shiny new Superman might not be all he was cracked up to be. It's not like Jurgens was being subtle about it.)

By the time "Reign" began to really pop off, Henshaw had betrayed the trust of the Clinton administration (yes, really), the Eradicator, and Superboy by nuking Coast City (Green Lantern's hometown, which triggered a whole other thing). Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the country, a Kryptonian warsuit had just crashed onto the shores of Metropolis carrying curious cargo: a man in black claiming to be the one true Superman.

After a quick explanation and a convincing smooch with Lois (which Jurgens drew to echo Superman and Lois' final kiss in Superman #75), we were flying off to the remains of Coast City alongside Superboy, John Henry Irons (soon to be rechristened as Steel), and this shaggy-haired Strange Visitor — a literal Superman Revenge Squad dead-set on dismantling the villainous Cyborg Superman for good. The hype was real.

THE REVIEW: This brings us to Superman #82, an issue operating with the momentum of nearly a full year of dramatic storytelling behind it. The most important task set before this final chapter of "Reign" — beyond establishing both Hank Henshaw's defeat and Superman's return — was explaining how Superman could rise from the grave without diminishing the impact of the previous year's "Doomsday!" storyline.

That explanation required some glorious pseudo-Krypto-science, frankly delivered by the Eradicator between the issue's frequent bursts of action. ("You were categorically deceased, Kal-El," he tells a bewildered Superman. "Another day, another set of circumstances… and your resuscitation might not have been possible.”) The short version? The Eradicator took Superman's dead body to the Fortress of Solitude (hence the empty super-casket from before), left him poaching in the healing baths of an egg-like Kryptonian birthing matrix, and let life — with help from the Fortress' solar receptors — find a way. Sure, why not?

Superman's gonzo resurrection wasn't the source of dissonance I found in re-reading Superman #82 — it was the decision to let the purportedly underpowered hero come to Coast City packing an ordinance of laser blasters and rifles. Late in the issue, Superman and the Eradicator are trapped with Henshaw in the core of Coast City (now dubbed "Engine City"), and despite the Cyborg using its energy source — Kryptonite, what else? — against his hated foe, Superman still manages to knock Henshaw's jaw right the hell off with a single punch. So what was with the guns?

Superman with shoulder-length locks, decked out in black and blasting lasers, is a seriously awesome look, and I respect it. But to herald his mighty return with the dude blasting a path toward his Cyborg imposter was the kind of "eye-for-an-eye" anti-hero logic Superman simply doesn't stand for. ("We're playing for keeps!" he bellows, hilariously, at one point.) It's one of the few components in "Reign of the Supermen!" that may have suited the grim-n-gritty Nineties but it just doesn't fit the character. When the issue ends and Superman's back in his blues, the grittiness is gone, like it was never there. Nothing to reflect on here!

That aside, Superman #82 is still a glory. It boasted Jurgens and Breeding's strongest visuals since Superman #75, and colorist Glenn Whitmore amped up the fidelity of Superman's reds and blues — seen in most of the issue draped blasphemously over the Cyborg — to remind us what he was fighting for. Even John Costanza's terrific letters reflected the fury in the voices of Superman and Henshaw. It's a confluence of creator energy, narrative momentum, and dramatic resolution that coalesced into one cathartic, can't-be-topped finale — an iconic grudge match for the ages.

NOSTALGIA-FEST OR REPRESSED NIGHTMARE? Superman #82 didn’t just cap off the most ambitious Superman story of the Nineties; it sent the Man of Steel soaring toward an optimistic tomorrow with our hearts flying with him.

RETROGRADE: B+

*From the DoomRocket archives. Originally published February 17, 2020. It has been edited to fit our new format.