Collecting The Man of Steel #1-6 written and illustrated by John Byrne.

In The Man of Steel #1, on the planet Krypton, Jor-El returns home to tell his wife Lara that their planet is doomed. Jor-El has devised a way to save their infant son, Kal-El. Jor-El and Lara load baby Kal-El into a rocket programmed to land on a distant planet named Earth, where the planet's yellow sun will give him great powers.

Years later in the Kansas town of Smallville, a young Clark Kent learns of his other-worldly origin. Clark decides to leave town in order to use his abilities to help others. Clark eventually makes his home in the city of Metropolis. When an experimental space-plane gets into trouble, Clark has no choice but to save the people onboard. One of the passengers onboard is Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane.

After returning home to Smallville, Clark and his parents concoct a way for him to carry on using his abilities while also keeping his identity secret. Clark Kent will be his mild-mannered every day identity while he will help others wearing a brightly-coloured costume as Superman!

In The Man of Steel #2, Daily Planet editor Pery White assigns Lois Lane to get an interview with Superman. Meanwhile, is all over Metropolis rescuing citizens and foiling bank robberies. Lois keeps missing a chance to interview Superman, so she purposely drivers her care into the harbour so Superman will save her. Lois finally gets her interview, but finds out she was beaten to the headline by the Daily Planet's newest reporter, Clark Kent.

In The Man of Steel #3, Batman and Superman meet for the first time on the trail of a criminal named Magpie. Naturally, the pair don't get on well at first. Batman even goes so far as to activate a bomb hidden in the city that will kid an innocent person to stop Superman from getting too close. Superman in turn thinks that Batman is a dangerous outlaw.

In The Man of Steel #4, Clark Kent and Lois Lane are invited to a party of Lex Luthor's luxury liner. The liner is attacked by terrorists and Lois takes care of the terrorists. Clark is able to change into Superman and easily defeats the terrorists. Lex Luthor then reveals that he allowed the terrorists to come onboard as a ploy to get Superman to come so Luthor could include him on his payroll. Superman refuses the offer and Luthor swears to get even.

In Man of Steel #5, Lex Luthor consults with his scientists that are trying to create a clone of Superman that will be totally subservient to Luthor. The scientists didn't take Superman's alien biology into account and the clone comes out imperfect. Luthor orders the clone destroyed, but it escapes and heads for Metropolis.

In Man of Steel #6, Clark Kent returns home to Smallville after a long time away. A vision of his birth father Jor-El comes to Clark during the night and is transported to the planet Krypton and meets his mother Lara. Upon returning to reality, Clark finds himself face to face with his childhood sweetheart Lana Lang. It is revealed that Lana revealed her feelings for Clark when he revealed the truth of his powers to her. Lana realised that Clark could no longer belong to her and he should go out into the world where other people might benefit.

After Crisis on Infinite Earths rebooted the DC Universe, Superman was one of the heroes who got a fresh new origin story to reestablish his history in the new timeline. Man of Steel was a six-issue mini-series exploring Superman's new origin and showing some of his earliest adventures. One notable change was the character of Lex Luthor. In the Pre-Crisis continuity Luthor was a mad scientist. In the Post-Crisis continuity Luthor became a corrupt business executive and this is probably how people are most familiar with the character now. This would be considered the definitive Superman origin story until Superman: Birthright in 2003. That in turn would be rendered non-canon in 2009 with Superman: Secret Origin, the official Superman origin story after the Infinite Crisis event. Then there came Flashpoint and Rebirth, so who knows what Superman's origin is now!

John Byrne is one of my favourite comic book creators, so it won't surprise you that I really enjoyed this trade. I might just check out the other trades that collect his run on Superman as well. DC couldn't have given him a better assignment after leaving Marvel than rebooting Superman. Thankfully, Byrne does a great job.

My rating: 4 stars.