History Trivia / TheManOfSteel

* 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.

* 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.
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Of the mid [[TheEighties '80s]]. Women jog and jazzercise in legwarmers and spandex, the villain is a CorruptCorporateExecutive having business with oil in UsefulNotes/{{Venezuela}}, computers are important but huge, boomboxes appear...

* TooSoon: Superman was originally going to save a landing space-shuttle. But after the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster Challenger]]'' disaster, the ''Constitution'' was changed to "an experimental space-plane".

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Of the mid [[TheEighties '80s]]. Women jog and jazzercise in legwarmers and spandex, the villain is a CorruptCorporateExecutive, computers are important but huge, boomboxes appear...

** Byrne also wanted Comicbook/LoisLane gone from the books: "If I had really had the free hand some fans are convinced I did, I would have dumped Lois altogether and brought Lana back as Superman/Clark's one true love. But there were somethings that had to remain inviolable, and one was the Superman/Lois/Clark relationship. So I did the best I could to justify Lana's position in his life -- a position that was imposed not by any sort of internal logic, but by the simple fact that Superboy and his supporting cast were created years after the debut of Superman."

** In some pre-''Crisis'' retellings, Jor-El wanted to save both Lara and Kal-El by sending them away in the same rocket, but she would refuse saying that the rocket was too small and might not make it to Earth because of her added weight, and she wanted to stay with her husband (an idea that was briefly touched on in ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries''). Byrne's original idea was to show a pregnant Lara leaving Krypton. After landing near Smallville, Lara would immediately succumb to a small chunk of kryptonite that was embedded in the ship's hull. This would have been Byrne's way to show early on how deadly kryptonite was. Lara would then have been found by the Kents while she was in labor, induced by the stress from kryptonite poisoning. Before dying, Lara would have told the Kents to look after her son. They would then take young Kal-El, an alien born on Earth, and raise him as their own just as they promised his mother. This was also Byrne's way to emphasize the Kents being chosen caretakers rather than them being a random couple who finds a baby in a rocket (this concept was also, in a way, touched on in ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' and ''Literature/LastSonOfKrypton''). The idea was not used because DC wanted Kal-El to be sent to Earth alone, as all the previous incarnations agreed upon.

** Another unused Marv Wolfman idea was having Lois Lane and Lex Luthor romantically involved and living together in Luthor's estate in the mountains until Superman came to Metropolis. Lois would then leave Luthor to go after Superman, another reason for Luthor to hate Superman. This idea was scrapped because Byrne did not want Lois as someone who was drawn to power (and he didn't want any mountains shown alongside the city either). Though the actual comics did mention that [[DevelopmentGag Lex and Lois had dated a couple times]].
** Even before ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', there were proposals for a revision of Superman from various writers. Regular ''Superman'' writer Cary Bates's proposal would still keep the then-ongoing continuity as it was; while Marv Wolfman, Creator/FrankMiller, and Creator/SteveGerber wanted to restart from scratch.

** Superman was originally going to save a landing space-shuttle. But after the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster Challenger]]'' disaster, the ''Constitution'' was changed to "an experimental space-plane".

** Byrne suggested that the ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}} was formed based on legends of [[ComicBook/{{Superboy}} Superman's adventures as a boy]]. The Legion would eventually be surprised to discover that these adventures never happened, likely similar to Comicbook/CaptainAtom's Charlton adventures as his fake backstory.
*** Recently, Byrne stated that he regretted ever removed Superman's Superboy career. As Superboy, Clark would have been "learning the ropes"/"figuring it out" (partial reason why he'd RetGone it in the first place since he needed Superman "up to speed" for his relaunch) before he reached adulthood as Superman.

** Even before ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', there were proposals for a revision of Superman from various writers. Regular ''Superman'' writer Cary Bates's proposal would still keep the then-ongoing continuity as it was; while Marv Wolfman, Creator/FrankMiller, and Creator/SteveGerber wanted to restart from scratch. While each of the latter three's approach was different, they all agreed on the same things: getting rid of Clark's career as Superboy, cutting down Superman's powers, changes in Lex Luthor's character, and Superman as the only survivor of Krypton.

** Byrne suggested that the ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}} was formed based on legends of [[ComicBook/{{Superboy}} Superman's adventures as a boy]]. The Legion would eventually be surprised to discover that these adventures never happened, likely similar to ComicBook/CaptainAtom's Charlton adventures as his fake backstory.

** Superman was originally going to save a landing space-shuttle. But after the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster Challenger]]'' [[RealLifeWritesThePlot disaster]], the ''Constitution'' was changed to "an experimental space-plane".

** In some pre-''Crisis'' retellings, Jor-El wanted to save both Lara and Kal-El by sending them away in the same rocket, but she would refuse saying that the rocket was too small and might not make it to Earth because of her added weight, and she wanted to stay with her husband (an idea that was briefly touched on in ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries''). Byrne's original idea was to show a pregnant Lara leaving Krypton. After landing near Smallville, Lara would immediately succumb to a small chunk of kryptonite that was embedded in the ship's hull. This would have been Byrne's way to show early on how deadly kryptonite was. Lara would then have been found by the Kents while she was in labor, induced by the stress from kryptonite poisoning. Before dying, Lara would have told the Kents to look after her son. They would then take young Kal-El, an alien born on Earth, and raise him as their own just as they promised his mother. This was also Byrne's way to emphasize the Kents being chosen caretakers rather than them being a random couple who finds a baby in a rocket (this concept was also, in a way, touched on in ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' and ''LastSonOfKrypton''). The idea was not used because DC wanted Kal-El to be sent to Earth alone, as all the previous incarnations agreed upon.

** Byrne suggested that the ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}} was formed based on legends of [[{{Superboy}} Superman's adventures as a boy]]. The Legion would eventually be surprised to discover that these adventures never happened, likely similar to ComicBook/CaptainAtom's Charlton adventures as his fake backstory.