Customer Rating: 
Summary: A renewed beginning
Comment: Having established his origin in volume 1, this is where Byrne's Superman interpretation really begins again.
Highlights here for me...
*Superman 1- Superman vs. Metallo- the power of Kryptonite established. Pretty good for a 1st issue. Pencils and inks by Byrne & Austin- the famous X-Men team!
*Action 584- Teen Titans! One of my favorite issues in Byrne's entire run. I've seen a little bit of Byrne's original pencils for this issue, and it amazes me how Dick Giordano took his pretty sketchy layouts and made them into what we see here. Byrne was fortunate to get Terry Austin, Dick Giordano, and then later Karl Kesel on inks- a comics "dream team"(!). Giordano is *great* here.
*Superman 2- Clark Kent exposed? Visually impressive, I like this just as much as Action 584. Here Terry Austin's inks are sporadic though: sometimes crisp, sometimes blurry. Frustrating, seeing as how Byrne's pencils are so *great* here. And Lex Luthor is hilarious.
To me, these three issues by themselves are worth the entire price of the book! This is actually the pattern throughout the entire Man of Steel series- I buy each volume just to get a few of Byrne's great issues.
Included in this volume:
*Superman #1- John Byrne writes & pencils; Terry Austin inks
*Action Comics #584- John Byrne writes & pencils; Dick Giordano inks
*Superman #2- John Byrne writes & pencils; Terry Austin inks
*Adv. of Superman #424- Marv Wolfman writes; Jerry Ordway pencils; Mike Machlan inks
*Adv. of Superman #425- Marv Wolfman writes; Jerry Ordway pencils & inks
*Action Comics #585- John Byrne writes & pencils; Dick Giordano inks
*Superman #3- John Byrne writes & pencils; Terry Austin inks
*Adv. of Superman #426- Marv Wolfman writes; Jerry Ordway pencils & inks
*Action Comics #586- John Byrne writes & pencils; Dick Giordano inks
*and Who's Who Update '87- a few excerpts
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another winner by Byrne!
Comment: John Byrne does the best Superman ever!
In the mid-eighties, DC asked John Byrne, who had written a long run of The Fantastic Four, to revamp Superman, who was about fifty years old at the time. In what I would consider typical "Marvel style," Byrne added characterization and scientific explanation to the Superman mythos as he reinvented classic characters and retold their stories. His beautiful art work and excellent story-telling ability make these comics a JOY to read!
I would STRONGLY recommend that you purchase all FOUR volumes of John Byrne's Superman; each one picks up right where the last one left off. When I was finished reading them, I purchased the rest of Byrne's run on the Superman comics; they were that good.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: I bought this book for Byrne's art, not Ordway's...
Comment: I'd heard a lot about this new interpretation of Superman from John Byrne. As a Byrne fan, it seemed a logical choice to add to my little mini-collection of trade paperbacks, many of which feature his art. I'd read through Volume 1 of Superman: Man of Steel and found it to be a refreshing take on the old Superman character. Byrne's art in Volume 1, however, was not what I was used to from his previous work.That appears to have changed in Volume 2, as Byrne cleans up Superman nicely. The stories are simple, reflective of Superman's early days. I love what Byrne does with Lex Luthor, making him an untouchable evil industrialist with an aura similar to that of Frank Miller's Kingpin. An interesting spin.
The thing that wasn't great about Volume 2, though, was that Byrne stops doing the art for a few issues here and there during the story of Darkseid and the New Gods. The idea of Byrne penciling a Darkseid story was very compelling, but Jerry Ordway does most of the art on this story. Ordway is no John Byrne, and the difference is huge. As Byrne was a major reason that I purchased this volume in the first place, I was disappointed and am now uncertain about whether or not to buy Volume 3 (when it comes out). If you're a fan of John Byrne's work, be warned.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Start For The Post-Crisis Superman Titles!
Comment: What you need to know before reading this book:
1) Superman stories published from 1938 to 1986 (commonly called "Pre-Crisis Superman") were wiped out of continuity and is no longer part of the Superman Canon.
2) An event called "Crisis on Infinite Earths" cleaned up DC Comics continuity and recreated the DC Universe in 1985/6. All comics from that point to the present are referred to as the "Post-Crisis" stories.
3) The "Post-Crisis" Superman began with 1986's "The Man of Steel" miniseries by John Byrne (collected as Volume One)
4) This volume (Vol. 2) collects the first three issues of the normal Superman comics immediately following "The Man of Steel" miniseries - therefore giving us a good representation of the "New" Superman and how it all began (again).The majority of the stories collected in this volume are written and drawn by John Byrne, who was also responsible for the revamp in the first place. The rest of the stories are written by Marv Wolfman (who also provided the "Intro" to this volume) and beautifully drawn by Jerry Ordway. The stories read like a continuation of "The Man of Steel". While the previous volume gave us the new Krypton, the new Pa/Ma Kent, Brainiac, Luthor, etc., this volume gives us Cat Grant, the new Metallo, Prof. Emil Hamilton and further fleshes out the malicious character of Lex Luthor. In addition to that, we have three issues of Superman in Apokolips (actually part of the "Legends" crossover but it can very well stand alone by itself) with a superb rendition of Darkseid, Orion, Lightray and the rest of the classic Kirby creations by John Byrne.
This volume is highly recommended to all Superman historians (like me!) and all fans of John Byrne (the man was at his very best here).
