Comic Book Questions Answered, is a feature where I answer whatever questions you folks might have about comic books (feel free to e-mail questions to me at brianc@cbr.com). Today, we look at the biggest gap in time that DC has taken in releasing ongoing Superman comic books.
One of the things that seems to be a truism is that when you have a popular comic book property, the smart thing is to, you know, release comic books starring that property. If you have the ability to publish comic books about Batman, for instance, then you probably are best off when you publish comic books about Batman. However, for various reasons over the years, comic book companies HAVE chosen to take time off for dramatic effect.
Reader Roy W. wanted to know what was the longest gap that DC ever took in publishing Superman ongoing series. This is a tricky one, Roy, because the phrase "ongoing series" is really doing a lot of work there, ya know? I think that there are really two answers here, depending on what you think about the existence of DC's Man of Steel comic book from 1986. It technically was not an ongoing series, so its release when no other Superman ongoing comics were coming out would be the answer if you really want to get technical about things. However, I think the spirit of the question would lead us to the gap that the Superman titles took between Superman #77, the finale of the Funeral for a Friend crossover (following the Death of Superman) and the release of Adventures of Superman #500, the start of the Reign of the Superman crossover event. But let's examine all three possible options, and you can choose which one of the three works the best for you.
DC makes a bold publishing decision with the Superman titles to go with a bold reboot
After the release of DC's continuty-altering crossover event, Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC had a bit of a strange situation on its hands. It just had this big event where it was saying, "Okay, everything is up for grabs! Continuity could change at any moment!" and yet...it didn't. At least not at first. So you had this awkward period where new Superman comic books were coming out clearly set AFTER the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, while one of the purposes of Crisis was to reboot DC's characters. Finally, DC got the reboot put together that it wanted and on May 20, 1986 and June 3, 1986, a two-part story was released by writer Alan Moore and artists Curt Swan, Kurt Schaffenberger and George Perez that drew the original continuity of Superman to a close with a dramatic story that involved many of Superman's friends and foes dying and Superman losing his powers, but retiring to raise a kid with Lois Lane. The whole thing was called "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?"
It's a fascinating work, because on the one hand, it's a very well-written story by Moore, with great (and often heartbreaking) art by Swan, Schaffenberger and Perez, but at the same time, it's kind of strange to get your readers hyped up for a new reboot by killing off most of the original cast of the series. "While you wait to see what Jimmy Olsen is like during the reboot, let's kill off the original Jimmy Olsen!"
In any event, two weeks later, John Byrne and Dick Giordano launched The Man of Steel #1, a bi-weekly, six-issue series that revealed Byrne's rebooted version of the Superman mythos...
As noted, it was a bi-weekly series, so it took place over three months, with the final part of the story being released in the first week of September. The first issue of the brand-new Superman ongoing (also written and drawn by Byrne, only with Karl Kesel stepping in for Giordano, who was a top DC executive at the time and couldn't ink an ongoing series) launched two weeks later on Sep. 19, 1986. So that meant that there was no ongoing Superman comic book for three and a half months. That's the record. But IS it, really?
DC makes another bold publishing decision with the Superman titles in the wake of the Death of Superman
In 1992, DC famously decided to kill off Superman, and because it happened to hit on a bit of a slow news day (the Presidential Election was weeks past, so we were in the middle of that lull between a new President being elected and being inaugurated, which used to be a slow news period back when people accepted the results of elections), it really captured the while country's attention. It was followed by another crossover called "Funeral for a Friend." The final part of "Funeral for a Friend" came out in January 1993 in Superman #77, by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding, and boy, did they heap on the melodrama at the end!
Superman's body had been stolen by Cadmus, an experimental cloning facility, Lois Lane and Supergirl managed to recover the body, and it was now being re-interred in the tomb Metropolis built for Superman. Lex Luthor (who was, at the time, masquerading as his son, Lex Luthor II, who was ostensibly a good guy unlike his dad) gets to spend a moment with Superman's coffin, where he taunts the dead Man of Steel, explaining how he just now murdered one of his own employees and no one will stop him, because Superman is no longer around and Metropolis is his again.
At the same time, Superman's adopted father, Jonathan Kent, is flat lining from a heart attack, and the story, and the Superman books overall, end with Superman dead and seemingly his father, too...
That's a bleak ending, huh? Okay, so that came out on Jan. 21, 1993. There were no more ongoing Superman titles until Apr. 15, 1993, when we saw the spirit of Superman and the spirit of Jonathan Kent bring each other back to life in Adventures of Superman #500 (I'll probably write more about that issue this month). That's just under three months, so it would appear as though the 1986 gap is the biggest. The difference, though, is that here, there were NO Superman miniseries released. The only comic books related to Superman that came out between January and April were a Legacy of Superman one-shot on Feb. 4, 1993, starring other Metropolis heroes, and a Supergirl and Team Luthor one-shot on Mar. 4, 1993. So here, there REALLY were no Superman comic books for almost three months.
I think that that is really the winner of this question, in spirit.
DC revisits the original Man of Steel approach
Years later, DC literally redid the Man of Steel approach again to commemorate a new writer, Brian Michael Bendis, taking over the Superman titles. It was the same basic set-up of the original Man of Steel release, with the two Superman ongoing series both taking a break on Apr. 18, 2018, then The Man of Steel miniseries coming out weekly from May 30, 2018 until July 4, 2018, before the Superman titles relaunched again on July 11, 2018...
So that would also be just under three months, but, again, there was a Man of the Steel miniseries in the middle of that, PLUS an Action Comics Special and a Superman Special so that the previous creative teams could wrap-up their runs in oversized one-shots in May 2018 before The Man of Steel #1.
So technically, the answer is the 1986 three and a half month gap, but I think the 1993 nearly three month gap is the true answer.
Thanks to Roy for the question! If anyone else has a comic book question, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!