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The Hardcover edition of this collection is simply titled “Luthor”
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| Includes Issues: | Lex Luthor: Man Of Steel 1-5 | |
| Original Publication Dates: | May - September 2005 | |
| TPB Publisher: | DC Comics | |
| TPB Publication Dates: | January 1, 2006 | |
| ISBN-10: | 1401204546 (Softcover)
1401229301 (Hardcover) | |
| ISBN-13: | 978-1401204549 (Softcover)
978-1401229306 (Hardcover) | |
| Pages: | 144 | [More Info] |
For most books, this information is collected from the book itself and double checked against several other resources. If this particular book hasn't yet been released, the information probably comes from the publisher's press releases and
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| Lists: | Comics, DC Modern Age, DC Universe, Post-Crisis | |
| Series/Event: | | |
| Creators: | Anton Kawasaki, Brian Azzarello, Casey Seijas, Dave Stewart, Jason Martin, Karl Story, Lee Bermejo, Mick Gray, Nick J. Napolitano, Pat Brosseau, Phil Balsman, Rob Leigh, Will Dennis | |
| Characters: | Alfred Pennyworth, Batman, Elias Orr, Lex Luthor, Superman, Superman / Batman, Toyman | |
| Edition: | Hardcover, Softcover | [More Info] |
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Since there is so much information to be found in each book, it's relatively common for a couple tags to be missed. If you think this book needs attention - should be given any additional tags or moved off a particular list, for example - just leave me a comment and I'll get right back to you!
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I am currently looking into getting them to give direction based on what page you came from, but it's possible that there is no solution to that issue.
| Unique Reading Order ID: | 200710260600 | |
| Chronological List Value: | 2005.09 | |
| TRO Database Book ID: | 776 |
[More Info] |
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Unique Reading Order ID determines this book's placement in all lists generated from the
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Good afternoon!
So this book is in the right place for the Chronological Reading Order, but turns out its an “early years” kind of story, so I think you’ll want to move it way back for the recommended reading order.
Now where exactly it goes is a difficult call to make, as there is nothing explicit in the story to place it as a Year One story, or what have you. But I do have a guess…
So, first there are characteristics of Luthor’s status, and in his discussion of Bruce Wayne that make it clear that this story HAS to take place prior to the books President Lex, Our Worlds at War, and Batman: Cataclysm.
That much I’m pretty certain of, but I actually *think* it takes place much earlier. It seems to be the case that A) Lex has only recently discovered Kryptonite, B) has not yet created Metallo, and C) Superman and Batman are in the very early period of their knowledge of each other. All of which supports the theory that this book takes place immediately before vol.2 of “Superman-The Man of Steel.”
So yeah, moving it that early is a little bit of speculation, but the story is deliberately vague about exactly when its set — had to do a little bit of reading between the lines.
[Reply]
huh, really! I hadn’t read it myself yet, obviously. But that’s early enough in the reading order for me to be able to.
Now, would you have to make it immediately before Vol 2, or could it even be something like soon after Vol. 1 of Man of Steel? The way the order is working right now, there are a bunch of World’s Finest volumes in there, and while it’s kind of a really different Lex, batman and superman are working together a lot. I’m wondering if I should take that into account.
Their interaction in the first Man Of Steel is awesome, and maybe it would be good to have it fresh while reading this one?
[Reply]
Well, as far as your question goes, I think it probably would take place relatively quickly after Vol. 1, before a substantial amount of intervening stories.
But thinking about how the silver and modern age stories connect up post-crisis is enough to drive one nuts. :) I mean, on the one hand with Batman stories it seems like the Silver Age stuff is definitely supposed to have happened to the Modern Age character (at least the parts that haven’t been explicitly retconned out) — because in the main monthly’s right after they did the Year One retcon they jumped right back into having Jason Todd as Robin, etc. Likewise for Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and the Flash — all their modern age stories seem to require their silver age stories.
Superman, on the other hand, (and Wonder Woman for that matter) seemed to me to have experienced a full reboot in 86-87, rather than a retcon, with stories proceeding forward from new origins without their being any kind of jump forward in years like in Batman. And yet, the silver age Justice League stories are definitely supposed to have happened with Superman there, so… and pop goes the aneurysm.
All of which to say — I think your intuition is right to put it closer to vol. 1 than vol. 2, but given how substantially Lex Luthor was retconned, things are get messy regardless. [grin]
[Reply]
yeah, it tends to happen to a lot of villains.
I explain away my aneurysm with the “pre-crisis, it’s pre-crisis” mantra. It doesn’t really matter how many inconsistencies and anachronisms there are because it all happens before CoIE – and then after CoIE, everything seems kind of hunky dory for a little bit. sort of.
ahhhhhh it’s comic books. haha
But yeah, I like having all the modern age retcon stuff together, so even though Supes and Wonder Woman were totally rebooted… well, crap, actually Wonder Woman is a special case. She actually DIES/is sent back to her origins (dirt) in CoIE so story wise the reboot makes sense. Earth One superman is still alive on the combined earth, so his origin has to be retroactively placed with the other year one stuff.
I think that makes sense, right?
[Reply]
Oh that’s right! I had totally forgotten about how the Wonder Woman reboot worked in CoIE…
And yeah I think you’re right that it’s still supposed to be the Silver-Age Superman of Earth One…but its weird because the Batman and Superman titles handled the post-crisis era so differently. Batman basically just picked up where it left off without reintroducing characters, so we only got origin stories for the various older heroes and allies in “Year One” books, whereas Superman went and reintroduced *everybody.* I guess you could almost look at all six volumes of “Man of Steel” as an extended Year One run though.
Yes, I over-think these things. Thus the self-description as OCD. [grin]
[Reply]
Well, letsee – they did reintroduce most of batman’s cast eventually. Just in Legends series and more OGNs, and a bit more spread out. A lot of the villains are similarly weird – Hugo Strange, for example, seems to have a few very different roles.
The thing about Man Of Steel is that it was also taking place in current continuity, while the Batman Year One Era stuff didn’t really interact with other on-goings or influence other events. I dunno, it’s not too strong, but there are minor crossovers in those volumes I think. And the appearances by the New Gods definitely have to be after their bronze age introduction, right?
[Reply]
Yeah, but that’s what I meant about “Year One” books — the characters were being introduced outside of continuity in some pre-modern age era. Whereas the introductions of Lois, Lex, Metallo, Bizarro, etc. were all presented in-continuity.
But yeah, the New Gods are definitely still relying on the earlier introductions, just like the Justice League’s silver age stuff is still mostly still in continuity.
What really blew my mind is some GL book I read a little while back, where Kyle — well into his tenure as a Lantern — goes back in time to right after Hal first got the ring. Kyle figures he’s gone back “about ten years.” The fact that the entirety of the silver age and the modern age (at least the parts that haven’t been retconned out) are supposed to have taken only ten years makes me laugh.
It’s like the Simpson kids spending 20 years in the same grade.
[Reply]
I had to increase the threading limit so I could keep replying, haha
It is pretty insane how condensed all the stories are supposed to be. It almost makes sense on one level, because often a year of creation and release (in monthly book format) is required to tell a story that could take place in a week.. or a night even, but on another level it’s totally crazy because sometimes these arcs take place over years or months.
I’m glad I’m just concerned with what book to read next, more than actually making all this stuff work on some real timeline – although I’m impressed that people are actually into doing that out there.
And some people say I’m nuts!
[Reply]
More on the placement of this book – Luthor gets his kryptonite at the end of the aptly titled Superman: Kryptonite.
So I think it would work to put Lex Luthor: Man Of Steel right after that one, which makes a nice little Lex/Superman block there in the middle of the myriad of Batman Year One Era books.
[Reply]
Yeah, that sounds perfect. Go, team!
[Reply]
Wordddd. It’s in.
And now, I’m gonna go read it!
I’ll let you know if I change my mind about anything, but I’ve got a feeling it will work as it’s now placed.
[Reply]
Oh, and if you want to add character tags, the only ones you’d need would be: Lex, Superman, Batman, and Alfred Pennyworth.
[Reply]
No worries about the tags, I got a pretty good system down for that. It goes quicker than you’d think. Thanks for the assist though ;)
[Reply]