Why did you buy SUPERMAN VOL. 2 #1 back in 1987? Because maybe you had to.

I've said before how a lot of comics from yesteryear had to be bought because they hooked you. You had to find out how a character escaped his/her situation. Whether it be Superman exposed to kryptonite, Batman in an inescapable death trap or Spider-Man about the pulverized by a bigger, stronger foe, you didn't really have a choice about buying the issue.

SUPERMAN VOL. 2 #1 is a wonderful Superman story, well-written and and drawn by Mr. Byrne. "IT'S YOUR FIRST ISSUE, SUPERMAN -- AND IT COULD BE YOUR LAST!" How can one not love a cover with a tagline like that? Superman was on the ground, slowly dying due to the presence of Metallo's kryptonite. Things really did look hopeless, didn't they?

I believe covers such as that are underrated. The best covers for me are the ones featuring hopeless situations. We've discussed "Superboy Syndrome" here on the forum before. You know, sometimes I can be working my way through an early episode of a series such as STAR TREK on my boxset and, despite knowing the remaining discs are in the boxset, there are times things look hopeless. Suspension of disbelief being what it is, despite SUPERMAN VOL. 2 #1 being the first issue in a new Superman series, I really did feel for Superman in that issue. He was in so much pain and things were hopeless. For the time I was reading that issue, I honestly 100% did not expect Superman to survive, despite the fact that, deep down, I knew other issues were to follow.

Whenever a friend of mine asks me to recommend a modern Superman tale for them to read, I find it hard. There's ACTION COMICS #584, ACTION COMICS #595, SUPERMAN VOL. 2 #2 and SUPERMAN VOL. 2 #9. SUPERMAN VOL. 2 #1 is definitely one I'd recommend to anyone, even strangers on the street.

It's stories like "Heart of Stone" that remind me why I fell in love with the comic hobby. An issue like the one we're discussing in this topic did hook me (I had been reading comics for a while before this), but it encouraged me to come back for more. If I was hooked to comics years ago, then it was Mr. Byrne's work on titles such as FANTASTIC FOUR and SUPERMAN that kept me hooked. I think my first experience of American comics was a black-and-white reprint (may have been MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL). I think my first non-reprint experience may have been BATMAN #309. However, it's issues such as SUPERMAN VOL. 2 #2 and BATMAN/CAPTAIN AMERICA that keep me interested in comics.

As for the actual story, I loved the fight between Superman and Metallo and Lex Luthor was very good, too. And, most importantly, it was a story in which I felt like I was sharing Superman's pain - I really felt for him as Metallo was slowly killing him. I guess whether we're talking dialogue, the fight scenes, the evil of Luthor or the brilliant art, this issue ticked all the right boxes for me. Considering I bought it from a grocery store for 40p - and I have re-read it many times - that's not a bad investment, is it?

Why did you buy SUPERMAN VOL. 2 #1 back in 1987?

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a) because it was by John Byrne

b) because MOS was super-fucking cool

I noted that none of the promotional material DC had sent out was displayed in his store, and that the issue was racked alphabetically with all the other comics, so only the top quarter, if that, of the cover, was visible.

I suggested that, given the lack of any kind of effort he seemed to be putting into actively SELLING the book, the big "FIRST ISSUE" above the logo should be enough to draw anyone who was paying attention.

I'd bought a great number of issues of SUPERMAN, ACTION
COMICS, WORLD'S FINEST, etc. over the years, but they were
never must-buys. My SOP was to buy an issue of a Superman title
when the cover looked interesting. Often, it did (like the Batgirl covers
in the 260's and 270's), so I bought and read quite a number of
Superman books. Still, JB's relaunch of the franchise was when the
Superman titles became must-reads.

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And that, I am sure, was the main source of the complaint from that manager. The general "tone" of his store suggested to me that he was not interested in catering to anything so old-fashioned as "readers"!

QUOTE: It was a cover that draws the attention of someone who wants to read a good story, not somebody who wants a collector's item. It was a real cover!

Couldn't have put it better myself. There are too few covers around like that.

I agree, Robert.

Can I just add that a lot of Mr. Byrne's Superman covers were impressive even to those with no interest in comics. Well, that was my experience, anyway.

I picked up all of Mr. Byrne's Superman stories, they were must-buy for me. And I did know people who had zero interest in comics, yet even they were impressed with covers such as the one we're talking about or SUPERMAN VOL. 2 #17.

I think if even those with zero interest in comics can be impressed enough to make positive comments about a cover, then the creator must be doing a lot right.

I agree...although in my case, Superman #1 was NOT a good example of the cover drawing me in. I think of those examples for comics I normally wouldn't buy...or if I was looking to buy one thing off the rack and had to decide which. In that case, the cover definitely would have influenced me.

In this case, I had grown savvy enough to know who was doing what books and thanks to Man of Steel, I was already waiting for Superman #1 by JB. It could have had a picture of Superman on the toilet and I would have bought it.

That said, if I had been a brand new reader, yes, I think that cover definitely would have drawn me in! Very powerful image. And (shock!) actually referenced the story inside!

I was a Curt Swan fan and I just kept buying it (it was stil the same title over here).

I was a bit disappointed that they didn't keep Swan on at least one title - maybe Action - (although he did do "Superboy" some years later). I'm pretty sure they could have adressed any "issues" thye might have had with Swan being "old-fashioned" by just having JB write and ink Action as opposed to write and pencil/ do breakdowns.