History YMMV / TheManOfSteel

* NeverLiveItDown: Fans of the ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' have various feelings of annoyance about this title due to the fact that Creator/JohnByrne omitted Superman's role as the Legion's inspiration by removing his career as Superboy. This book is the reason for the various, repeated attempts at continuity revisions to try and alter the Legion's backstory and its place in the DC Universe. It doesn't help Byrne admits he's hated the Legion since day one because they put Superboy through a SecretTestOfCharacter:

** Nevertheless, Byrne claims that he did recognize this potential problem early in production, and even offered to do a story post–''[=MoS=]'' where the Legion show up to celebrate Superboy — only to realize that, in the intervening thousand years, historical records have become spotty, and they had their date of birth for Superman incorrect, leading the ''assumption'' that he started his career (which was correctly dated) as a child. However, Byrne was told not to do the story, because DC editorial already had a plan for how to introduce the Legion — which never materialized, and which Byrne now believes to have been untrue at the time. Fan or no, the man didn't just plan on leaving an entire section of the DC universe in a lurch without throwing them a lifeline (even if that ended up being absolutely what happened).

** This series introduced the idea that Clark Kent is "the real one", and that Superman doesn't really think of himself as being from Krypton (and Krypton was terrible anyway). This has resulted in two factions: one, which sees this as humanizing Superman and finally pulling him away from being an unrelateable god masquerading as a "weak" human and pining to be among [[MarySuetopia his perfect brethren]] in a manner that makes sense, and the other, which sees it as nullifying Superman's biggest personal tragedy and sense of loneliness and wistfulness, arguing "immigrants should forget about their origins", and making Clark Kent much less endearing and fun in the process of giving him Superman's bravery. It's worth noting that pretty much every canon origin since then has gone back on this, depicting Krypton as a decent (if not perfect) culture which Superman is curious about, and Clark Kent as clumsy and nebbish to some degree.

* RunningTheAsylum: John Byrne was a Superman fan already in the Golden Age, and he took the chance to write his vision of Superman without much of the Silver Age additions to the mythos and basing him on George Reeves' interpretation, which he liked.

* CondemnedByHistory: Back in 1986, ''Man of Steel'' sold extremely well and was hailed as the story which modernized and made Superman good and fresh again thanks to scraping off the Silver Age "silliness". Over time, though, Byrne's vision was gradually rejected and ultimately retconned out of continuity. Most of his contributions (the birthing matrix, the unfeeling Krypton...) and interpretations (Superman being the only son of Krypton who rejects his immigrant heritage and declares to be fully American...) were eventually deemed mistakes and expunged from the mythos, whereas most of Silver Age lore and characters (Supergirl, Krypto, the Phantom Zone and its inmates, the Fortress of Solitude...), which he attempted to write off because of their alleged childishness and irrelevance, have been brought back. Nowadays, ''Man of Steel'' is considered a dated origin which has aged badly (especially compared to the Batman and Wonder Woman's reboots), and not even Post-Crisis Superman fans seem to want it back.

* RunningTheAsylum: Creator/JohnByrne-a self-proclaimed Golden Age Superman fan-took advantage of his chance to rewrite the Superman universe by wiping out most of post-1949 additions to the mythos and replacing Superman's classic personality with George Reeves' interpretation which he happens to prefer.

*** Relatedly, the concept of the birthing matrix meaning that Superman was only “born” on Earth and as an American, and whether that dilutes the symbolism of “Superman as an immigrant”.

** In the years since the release of Zack Snyder's [[BrokenBase divisive]] [[Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse Superman films]], many fans have put together that these were most likely the comics that Mr. Snyder must have grown up with and drawn from when designing his version of the character. Having found many similarities with those films and this era of the character's mythos; a more vulnerable and introspective Superman, the elimination of the more whimsical aspects of his stories (ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}, [[ComicBook/KryptoTheSuperdog Krypto]], a utopian Krypton, the ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes) in favor for more gritty science fiction, Zod's death, Lois Lane as a red-head, etc.

** The birthing matrix

** Nevertheless, Byrne claims that he did recognize this potential problem early in production, and even offered to do a story post–''MoS'' where the Legion show up to celebrate Superboy — only to realize that, in the intervening thousand years, historical records have become spotty, and they had their date of birth for Superman incorrect, leading the ''assumption'' that he started his career (which was correctly dated) as a child. However, Byrne was told not to do the story, because DC editorial already had a plan for how to introduce the Legion — which never materialized, and which Byrne now believes to have been untrue at the time. Fan or no, the man didn't just plan on leaving an entire section of the DC universe in a lurch without throwing them a lifeline (even if that ended up being absolutely what happened).

** In the years since the release of Zack Snyder's [[Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse Superman films]], many fans have put together that these were most likely the comics that Mr. Snyder must have grown up with and drawn from when designing his version of the character. Having found many similarities with those films and this era of the character's mythos; a more vulnerable and introspective Superman, the elimination of the more whimsical aspects of his stories (ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}, [[ComicBook/KryptoTheSuperdog Krypto]], a utopian Krypton, the ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes) in favor for more gritty science fiction, Zod's death, Lois Lane as a red-head, etc.

* OldShame: Decades after writing ''Man of Steel'', John Byrne has stated he wishes he had never touched the character, albeit he has not specified why he hates his whole run nowadays.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: In the years since the release of Zack Snyder's [[Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse Superman films]], many fans have put together that these were most likely the comics that Mr. Snyder must have grown up with and drawn from when designing his version of the character. Having found many similarities with those films and this era of the character's mythos; a more vulnerable and introspective Superman, the elimination of the more whimsical aspects of his stories (Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}, [[Comicbook/KryptoTheSuperdog Krypto]], a utopia Krypton, the Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes) in favor for more gritty science fiction, Zod's death, Lois Lane as a red-head, etc.

** This series introduced the idea that Clark Kent is "the real one", and that Superman doesn't really think of himself as being from Krypton (and Krypton was terrible anyway). This has resulted in two factions: one, which sees this as humanizing Superman and finally pulling him away from being an unrelateable god masquerading as a "weak" human and pining to be among [[MarySuetopia his perfect brethren]] in a manner that makes sense, and the other, which sees it as nullifying Superman's biggest personal tragedy and sense of loneliness and wistfulness, offering the FamilyUnfriendlyAesop of "immigrants should forget about their origins", and making Clark Kent much less endearing and fun in the process of giving him Superman's bravery. It's worth noting that pretty much every canon origin since then has gone back on this, depicting Krypton as a decent (if not perfect) culture which Superman is curious about, and Clark Kent as clumsy and nebbish to some degree.

* NeverLiveItDown: Fans of the ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' have various feelings of annoyance about this title due to the fact that John Byrne omitted Superman's role as the Legion's inspiration by removing his career as Superboy. This book is the reason for the various, repeated attempts at continuity revisions to try and alter the Legion's backstory and its place in the DC Universe. It doesn't help Byrne admits he's hated the Legion since -literally- day one because they put Superboy through a SecretTestOfCharacter:

* RunningTheAsylum: John Byrne -a self-proclaimed Golden Age Superman fan- took advantage of his chance to rewrite the Superman universe by wiping out most of post-1949 additions to the mythos and replacing Superman's classic personality with George Reeves' interpretation which he happens to prefer.

* BrokenBase: The art is great. That's the only thing everyone agrees on. Man of Steel fans think it was a good story that streamlined the Franchise/{{Superman}} universe and offered a fresh take on the lead character. [=MoS=] Detractors argue that Byrne didn't bring Superman back to basics at all but he turned the lead character into a whiny wimp, made Comicbook/LexLuthor more one-dimensional than his Pre-Crisis self, and wrote off all he disliked (the Pre-Crisis rich Kryptonian lore, Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}, Comicbook/{{Superboy}}, [[Comicbook/KryptoTheSuperdog Krypto]], the Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes, the Fortress of Solitude...) causing long-term damage to the mythos. And there's a growing third camp that thinks Man of Steel was a good story in itself... but it shouldn't have been canon because it left the Superman universe very limited and irreversibly harmed the Superman's mythos and continuity in the long-term.

* NeverLiveItDown: Fans of the ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' have various feelings of annoyance about this title due to the fact that John Byrne omitted Superman's role as the Legion's inspiration by removing his career as Superboy. This book is the reason for the various, repeated attempts at continuity revisions to try and alter the Legion's backstory and its place in the DC Universe.

* NeverLiveItDown: Fans of the ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}} have various feelings of annoyance about this title due to the fact that John Byrne omitted Superman's role as the Legion's inspiration by removing his career as Superboy. This book is the reason for the various, repeated attempts at continuity revisions to try and alter the Legion's backstory and its place in the DC Universe.

* NeverLiveItDown: Fans of the ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}} have various feelings of annoyance about this title due to the fact that John Byrne omitted Superman's role as the Legion's inspiration by removing his career as Superboy. This book is the reason for the various, repeated attempts to continuity revisions to try and alter the Legion's backstory and its place in the DC Universe.

* MagnificentBastard: This series pretty much defined the MagnificentBastard CorruptCorporateExecutive SelfDemonstrating/LexLuthor that would be his standard portrayal for years to come.

* NeverLiveItDown: Fans of the LegionOfSuperHeroes have various feelings of annoyance about this title due to the fact that John Byrne omitted Superman's role as the Legion's inspiration by removing his career as Superboy. This book is the reason for the various, repeated attempts to continuity revisions to try and alter the Legion's backstory and its place in the DC Universe.

* NeverLiveItDown: Fans of the LegionOfSuperHeroes have various feelings of annoyance about this title due to the fact that John Byrne omitted Superman's role as the Legion's inspiration by removing his career at Superboy. This started the various, repeated attempts to try and alter the Legion's backstory and its place in the DC Universe.

* MagnificentBastard: This series pretty much defined the MagnificentBastard CorruptCorporateExecutive SelfDemonstrating/LexLuthor that would be his standard portrayal for years to come.

* MagnificentBastard: This series pretty much defined the MagnificentBastard CorruptCorporateExecutive LexLuthor that would be his standard portrayal for years to come.