I figure DC thinks, "How do we get Superman readers to buy? Why, we'll offer them the Superman they want! We'll make different, unique versions and they can get the one they want!"

My logic tells me that if there are (at a guess) 150,000 current monthly readers of Action and Superman, three different versions of Superman will split that down to 50,000 for each version... or a 2/3rds loss of readership for each character. That's not counting loss of readers who are A) tired of these shenanigans, or B) get confused and drop out.

NEW READERS? Oh, no, that's not on the agenda. DC is fighting to hang on to every current reader they have... they can't try to get new readers.

But it DOES set up the fanboy annual crossover event, "Crisis of Infinite Supermans" some year soon.

I wonder when the readership will get tired of this enough to drop to a point where DC can offer each reader a customized Superman... for $25 a book, of course.

*SPOILERS* 

The New 52 Superman discovers he is dying from a terminal disease. His body couldn't take all the death rays his enemies have been smacking him with lately. He spends the rest of the comic making peace with Lana and Lois. In the next chapter he will form a "Super League" to replace him. Presumably, he recruits Batman, Wonder Woman (because the next chapters are in the Batman/Superman as well as Superman/Wonder Woman books) and the rest of the Justice League. 

These endless versions of Superman wouldn't bother me, if they didn't come conjoined with moronically written stories. 

This is actually more interesting than that, as Joe Zhang alluded to.  The sales on Nu-52 Superman, even with JR Jr. on art, were in the toilet.  They started a second tier series, as an experiment, with Dan Jurgens writing the adventures of the pre-52 Superman and Lois, and that second tier series by Jurgens started outselling both Action Comics and Superman.  So impressed by this was DC that it appears that they're killing off the Nu-52 Superman character, and making the classic Superman the start of Action and Superman, with Jurgens writing Action.

To me, this is a victory of the classic version of the characters over the Nu, Kewl versions, and a somewhat unprecedented course reversal by DC.

Seriously, it's like a bunch of unqualified children are running things.... those kids who didn't appreciate what the original CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS was trying to accomplish.

-C!

Hmm...

Did Marv Wolfman ever say, "I think it's dopey that there's a young Superman on one Earth, and an old white-haired one on the other. I'm gonna f**k this s**t up!"?

If he did, then that's what it accomplished.