The Death of Superman rocked comic book readers in the early 1990s. Beyond the fact that there was now a creature called Doomsday who was strong enough to take down Superman, the storyline posed an existential question for the DC Universe. Who would now take Superman’s place as Metropolis’s Man of Steel?
This question was explored in the third act of the “Death of Superman” event, in a crossover called “Reign of the Supermen!” Four replacement Supermen arose at once in Metropolis: a twerpy and irresponsible teenager called Superboy, a Cyborg Superman, a brutal Superman with a visor called the Eradicator, and an armored man with a hammer who called himself the Man of Steel. Of these four replacements, it was the Man of Steel, who we now know as Steel, who proved that he was the only one worthy of carrying on the Superman mantle. Created by Louise Simonson and John Bogdanove, Steel merges the legacy of Black American folk icon John Henry with the world of Superman.
John Henry Irons is a real salt of the Earth type. He’s an accomplished engineer who’s always quick to lend a helping hand to just about anyone. If you’re lucky, you know someone like him in your community. Irons’s life was changed one day when he was at a construction site, looking down at the world below. As his mind went to a dark place, one of his coworkers lost his footing, and began to freefall to the city below. Jumping into action, Irons swung out on a rigging hook to save his buddy. To his terror, however, the hook lost its grip on the scaffolding, and Irons himself began to fall. As he fell towards the Earth, all of the things about Irons’s life that he had thought were insurmountable just a few minutes before felt miniscule. And that’s when Superman swooped in to rescue Irons, giving him another chance to make things right in his life.
Irons made things right in his life and then some. Though he had no superpowers of his own, he bravely took up the mantle as the Man of Steel in Metropolis in a metal suit of armor.
One of Irons’s biggest regrets in life was his role in developing a new type of gun used by gangs in his neighborhood in Metropolis. Seeing something he helped invent used as a means to harm his own community gave Irons an early incentive to take action. In a world without Superman, someone had to stand against the violence that was starting to run rampant. Irons’s turn from a man feeling low about himself to a warrior atoning for his own mistakes revealed that the spirit of Superman continued to live on, even after his death. The real power of Superman was never any of his physical capabilities, but his ability to inspire ordinary people like John Henry Irons to quite literally forge their own means of helping the world.
When viewed in comparison to the other replacement Supermen, Steel is the uncontested champion. Even Lois Lane noticed that Steel was a cut above the rest, embodying both the might and the gentle kindness of Superman. Despite being gifted with intelligence and ingenuity like Lex Luthor, Steel never used his abilities for personal gain, and he never needed to flaunt his gifts to support his ego.
Steel proved that you didn’t need to be blessed with super strength, flight, heat vision, freeze breath or any other superpower to be a hero. But more importantly, John Henry Irons bravely took responsibility for the harm that his gift—his ingenuity—had brought to his community in Metropolis. It takes a real hero to know when you’ve made a mistake, formulate a plan to rectify it and put it into action.
There’s a lot that we can learn from Superman, but for anyone who has ever struggled with how they can measure up to the Man of Tomorrow, take a look at Steel. Steel shows how we ordinary folk can confront the darkness of our own lives and blossom into our best selves. As a human just like you and me, John Henry Irons has felt immensely vulnerable in this world at times—powerless, even. But sometimes it takes a figure like Superman to show us that we are capable of far more than we thought possible.
Jules Chin Greene writes about comics, TV, games and film for DC.com, and his work can also be found at Nerdist, Popverse and Multiverse of Color. You can follow him on Bluesky at @JulesChinGreene and on Instagram at @infinitevibes.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Jules Chin Greene and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.
