It’s odd to write a “review” of a comic book that you read and owned 30 years ago, but I wound up with a polybagged edition of The Adventures of Superman #500 in a DC Comics grab bag that I bought at my LCS sometime last year and while I already have the story in trade, part of my mission here is to read everything that I’ve got. But I will also say that I wound up putting off that reading in favor of other books because I was so familiar with it. Then, The Return of Superman 30th Anniversary Special dropped and I decided to open up the white polybag and give it a go.

Now, back when I actually owned the comic back in 1993, I did the thing that I didn’t do for Superman #75, which was buy two copies of the polybagged edition, one to keep and one to read. To this day, I have never actually seen the fully contents of a polybagged Death of Superman issue because those got very expensive very quickly back then and after a while, my interest and curiosity about that edition faded.

Adventures of Superman #500 never really became a “collector’s item” and has been easy to get in its direct and newsstand editions mostly because I’m pretty sure that DC overprinted the heck out of them. So I already knew what was inside and decided that I was just going to open this sucker up, read it, then donate it.

Okay, so here we have the unopened white polybag and what it looks like right after the “shirt rip.” I always loved the two polybags on the Death/Return of Superman books because of the way they completely concealed the comic. Yes, I know that if you looked hard enough you could see what was in the Adventures of Superman #500 bag because it was white, but unlike, say, an X-Men comic that had a clear polybag, a trading card, and an AOL CD-ROM in it (I kid. I’m not sure if comics came with AOL CD-ROMs. I wouldn’t be surprised, though). All that’s in the bag with the comic is this Bloodlines trading card, which was a set of cards I never bought; I was really into those Star Wars Galaxy cards at the time but do know that a significant portion of that trading card set was a Death and Return of Superman set in some form. Anyway, this particular card includes the images that will be behind the die cut of the four Superman books to come out right after this one, which start the “Reign of the Supermen” storyline.

Next, of course, we have the cover by Jerry Ordway, and from what I understand this would be Ordway’s swan song on the Superman books, at least at this point, because he’d go over to Image to create WildStar but then return to DC for The Power of Shazam! later in the decade. It’s a gorgeous cover that, at least to me, evokes both a classic painting and comics from a prior age. This isn’t the members of Bloodstrike screaming at you with their rippling biceps, huge weapons, and basketball-sized breasts. It suggests something deeper, and I love how it’s kind of the “next panel after” Dan Jurgens’ cover for Superman #77 with a darker tone to suggest that this isn’t over and maybe Superman isn’t supposed to be dead.

But … remember how the back of the polybag said that the translucent cover was removable? When I bought the book 30 years ago, I never removed it. So let’s do that, shall we?

Okay, this is stunning and I don’t know why I didn’t do it 30 years ago. I mean, I’d already devalued the comic by opening the bag, so why not reveal this? Anyway, I’m glad I did.

But what about the story? After all, the Nineties are known for gimmick covers with crap stories. This is an outstanding book and a wonderful coda to the “Funeral for a Friend” storyline. In it, Jonathan Kent is between life and death after having suffered a heart attack back in Superman: The Man of Steel #21. As the doctors try to save him in the real world, he is in “limbo” and finds himself chasing after Clark, who seems to have accepted that he is to go to a higher plane according to Kryptonian religion. Guiding him is The Cleric from the “Exile” storyline, and right from the beginning, Jonathan knows that this isn’t right and that his son is being deceived. Along the way, he encounters Kismet (a cosmic being introduced six issues prior) as well as Blaze (one of the “rulers” of hell that Superman went up against in the “Soul Search” storyline). The story ends with Jonathan helping Clark see through the deceit and then having to face off against Jor-El, whom Jonathan beats with a shovel in the same way he did in The Man of Steel #6. It’s a great Superman story but one that’s great at showing what this era of Superman is all about with all of its callbacks to prior events.

Jonathan wakes up and says that Clark’s back. Of course, those in the hospital with him are just happy to see him again but soon after, we get scenes of four men appearing in Metropolis and the question becomes: which one is Superman?

I loved Reign of the Supermen when it came out and I still love it. While it has its weak points, those are actually very easy to ignore and don’t drag it down to the depths of Nineties dreck. Doomsday may have come out of a need for a story when the Clark/Lois wedding was canceled, but this whole saga didn’t seem slapped together with the! next! big! shocking! thing! happening! every time you turn around in an obvious cash grab (yes, that’s a passive-aggressive remark in the direction of the X-books). Even reading it now, it feels like a labor of love, and I get that sense with The Return of Superman 30th Anniversary Special. B

Better Superman fans and bloggers have more in-depth and nuanced opinions about the two 30th Anniversary specials that have come out for Doomsday and Reign of the Supermen, so I am just going to say that I loved both of these. Not only did reading this comic (at a price of $9.99, which compared to the $2.95 of Adventures of Superman #500 makes me both shake my head and feel very old) make me feel all of the nostalgia warm fuzzies, it was a well-written fun story to read. Basically the Cyborg Superman returns (and looking like he did in Reign of the Superman and not during his Geoff Johns “he’s a GL villain now” era) and the three other “Supermen” (Superboy, The Eradicator, and Steel) take him on. Watching this unfold, Lois Lane and Ron Troupe flash back to the first time they all arrived, and those segments are told by the original creative teams. If you like Superman and haven’t had the chance to grab this (and if your LCS still has it), go get it. It’s worth the expensive cover price.

When it comes to my usual verdict here, there isn’t one. Like I said, I got the Adventures of Superman issue in a grab bag and I knew I was going to read it and offload it in some way. And the 30th Anniversary special is going on the shelf next to my Death/World Without/Return of trades and the other 30th Anniversary special. So I’ll finish by saying that it’s nice to be reminded of what comics should be.