1st appearance Calvin Ellis debate 1 1

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

Doctor John Henry Irons was a brilliant weapons engineer for AmerTek Industries, who eventually became disgusted when the BG-60, a powerful man-portable energy cannon he had designed, fell into the wrong hands and was used to kill innocent people. As the company would have coerced him to retain his services, John faked his death, and eventually came to Metropolis. His own life was saved by none other than Superman. When John Irons asked how he could show his gratitude, Superman told him to "live a life worth saving". During Superman's fatal battle against Doomsday, Irons, who was working in construction at the time, attempted to help Superman fight the deadly menace by picking up a sledge hammer, but was buried in rubble amidst the devastation. Shortly after Superman's death, he finally awoke and crawled from the wreckage, confused and saying that he "must stop Doomsday".

He recovered, but to discover that the gangs in inner-city Metropolis (now unopposed by Superman) were fighting a devastating gang war using BG-80 Toastmasters, an upgraded version of his earlier AmerTek design. Irons created and donned a suit of powered armor in Superman's memory in order to stop the war, as well as the weapons, which were being distributed by Dr. Angora Lapin (also known as the White Rabbit), a former partner and lover during his time at AmerTek Industries.

The various incarnations of Steel, on the cover for Superman: The Man of Steel #117, art by Doug Mahnke

The "Reign of the Supermen" story arc saw the rise of four "Supermen" who were differentiated from each other with nicknames previously applied to Superman; Irons was referred to as the "Man of Steel", which was later shortened to "Steel" by Superman himself.

Although Steel never claimed to be the "true Superman", Lois Lane seriously considered the possibility that he was a walk-in—someone who was now inhabited by Superman's soul.Lois met all four "Supermen" that appeared after the apparent death of Superman, and while she never concluded that any of them was the one true Superman, she evinced less skepticism of Steel than she did of the others.

Steel seriesEdit

Steel was spun off into a solo series, written by co-creator Louise Simonson and later by Christopher Priest, from 1994 to 1998.

The series began by having Steel leave Metropolis and return home to Washington, D.C., revealing that it had been five years since he had left. He erroneously believed that his old employers, AmerTek, would no longer be interested in him. This turned out to be false when they attacked his home. Between this attack and his knowledge that the Toastmasters were now being used on the streets of D.C., he re-forged his armor (it was now stronger than ever); he began his crusade against AmerTek, which he correctly knew was responsible for leaking the weapons onto the street. Steel decided not to use the "S" emblem, however, since he felt that his battle might take him outside the law.

Steel's family was introduced in this series: his grandparents, Butter and Bess, his sister-in-law Blondell, and her five children: Jemahl, Natasha, Paco, Tyke, and Darlene (the latter two being foster children).

Steel's early adventures pitted him against AmerTek and against the gangs that were using his weapons. His nephew, Jemahl, was involved in one of the gangs, which he thought offered him protection. He was proven wrong, however, when the gangs turned against him to get to Steel. Tyke was paralyzed by a bullet meant for Jemahl and Blondell was assaulted. Steel eventually took down AmerTek and the gangs, and focused on who was helping AmerTek distribute the weapons. This led him to track down a group called Black Ops, led by the villain Hazard.

During this time Steel had found romance with Physician Amanda Quick who treated his nephew Jemahl Irons (who was the brother to Natasha Irons), when he got hooked on the superpowered drug "Tar". She returned John's feelings for her. He shared his identity and adventures with her growing close together and falling in love.

Steel briefly joined up with Maxima, who was still on Earth at the time and working with the Justice League, to help her with an alien warlord named De'cine. During this time, Steel developed the ability to teleport his armor onto and off of himself. At first, it appeared purely by reflex (whenever he was in mortal danger) but he soon began to better control it, although he had no idea how it happened.

Steel continued his battle against Hazard's Black Ops and against the return of the White Rabbit. A bounty hunter named Chindi attempted to take down Steel, but after realizing Hazard was experimenting with children, he ended up as an ally of Irons.He was called away from Earth as part of the Superman "Rescue Squad" when Superman was put on trial for the destruction of Krypton.

Tragedy would strike the Irons family upon his return from space. Tyke, frustrated and angry over his handicap, revealed Irons' true identity to men working with Hazard. Hazard unleashed a cyborg named Hardwire, who opened fire on the Irons family. Most of them received minor injuries, though Butter was seriously wounded. Child protective services came to reclaim Tyke and Darlene. Tyke was later shown to end up in the custody of Hazard. Hardwire battled Steel at the Washington Monument, resulting in Hardwire's suicide. Steel had to send his armor away to save his life—this resulted in his secret identity being revealed to the world at large. Steel was then taken by Hazard, but managed to escape. Steel retrieved an anti-matter weapon called the Annihilator, which he had designed and hidden years before, for his showdown with Hazard. He also learned at this point that he could teleport himself, not just his armor. He destroyed Hazard and his lair, and apparently killed three young soldiers of Hazard in the battle.

Once Steel's identity was out, his family had no peace. They were harassed by neighbors and mobs. Then they were attacked by Doctor Polaris, the Parasite, and others. John Henry's beloved grandmother, Bess, was killed and the family was forced to go into hiding, relocated by a friend of Steel's called Double.

Steel learned that the three Black Ops agents were not truly killed. They briefly joined him in battling a monstrous, animated form of his armor that attacked him. Steel speculated that the armor came alive because of his own guilt and the strange teleportation effects. He managed to banish the monster and recall his true armor.

The title received a shakeup when Christopher Priest became the lead writer in issue #34. Steel relocated to Jersey City, New Jersey with Natasha and began to work at Garden State Medical Center. He built a new suit of armor that was significantly less powerful than the previous one (but featured the return of an Kryptonian peace symbol on his shield on it). While in Jersey City, he clashed with Dennis Samuel Ellis, a resident at Garden State Medical and rival for the affections of another colleague, Amanda Quick. Hospital administrator and gang leader Arthur Villain (pronounced "Will-hane") recruited Ellis to become his personal bodyguard. Given a suit with several hidden weapons, Ellis adopted the name "Skorpio" and became a recurring nemesis for Steel. Eventually Steel was reunited with his brother Clay, a hitman whom everyone assumed had been killed. Clay assumed the alias "Crash" and managed to acquire a pair of Steel's flight boots before turning himself in so that he could save his daughter Natasha when she needed a blood transfusion. The series was canceled after issue #52, which featured Steel running the hospital after the unmasking of its previous coordinator, Villain.

[Mephisto]

Holy Wikipedia Batman! 
Should we ask the mods to move this thread to the correct category, the Trading Card section?

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

Really this isn't a debate.  More a bunch  Dumas speculators , who have never read any of the actual books , and are only interested in buying the hype . They are only interested in repeating the same garbage they were fed to buy into this and hoping to sell out of. 

Do not get me wrong.  I have a TON of Superman books and will gladly sell most of them as this drives the prices to stupid levels. 

[Mephisto]

Just now, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

Really this isn't a debate.  More a bunch  Dumas speculators , who have never read any of the actual books , and are only interested in buying the hype . They are only interested in repeating the same garbage they were fed to buy into this and hoping to sell out of. 

Do not get me wrong.  I have a TON of Superman books and will gladly sell most of them as this drives the prices to stupid levels. 

The alleged buy in and sales price is not impressive given the overall comic market and collectibles market. The money would have been better spent on Dogecoin. Packaging and Shipping a CGC book for a couple hundred profit isn’t even worth the time it takes. I had  run of the mill vintage Magic cards see better returns than this book.

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

1 minute ago, Mephisto said:

The alleged buy in and sales price is not impressive given the overall comic market and collectibles market. The money would have been better spent on Dogecoin. Packaging and Shipping a CGC book for a couple hundred profit isn’t even worth the time it takes. I had  run of the mill vintage Magic cards see better returns than this book.

I would completely agree.  Still hasn't stopped these speculators from starting thread after thread about it. 

also...

 

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

Best one though.. 

[Iconic1s]

On 3/16/2021 at 1:23 PM, William-James88 said:

Well we do know that the fictional krypton, seen in the comics, did have people of colour. I was just poking fun at the use of earth terms.

Amen!  It is interesting to think about... we evolved under a yellow sun.  As we shed our hair our skin darkened to offer better UV protection. As we migrated blah blah blah melatonin, Vitamin D blah blah blah around the Earth to different climes and places, built shelter, etc and about a million years later we are all now different colors.

Soooo, what would beings that evolved under a red sun even look like?  Plus, would Kryptonians even have evolved as we did, shedding hair, etc?

I’m guessing that actual Kryptonians wouldn’t look anything like either Clark or Calvin.

Conclusion, we are being scammed!

[tylerindo]

1 hour ago, Mephisto said:

Only someone with an intellectual disability would have sold this book before the movie is made.  Good thing you kept your other two copies.

So you whine about this being a bad spec book but now youre whining cuz I sold too early? Make up your mind about what you would like to complain about.

[Nazirite]

14 hours ago, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

Really this isn't a debate.  More a bunch  Dumas speculators , who have never read any of the actual books , and are only interested in buying the hype . They are only interested in repeating the same garbage they were fed to buy into this and hoping to sell out of. 

Do not get me wrong.  I have a TON of Superman books and will gladly sell most of them as this drives the prices to stupid levels. 

Hey off topic but how hot is Superman right now? Can I pick up some of his keys at a decent price or have I miss the boat with him as well? Talking about mostly silver age. 

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

2 hours ago, Nazirite said:

Hey off topic but how hot is Superman right now? Can I pick up some of his keys at a decent price or have I miss the boat with him as well? Talking about mostly silver age. 

So far I have not seen near the jump that has happened with most of the Marvel books. 

[Jimmy Linguini]

18 hours ago, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

Try reading the thread.  This was already debated and Steel is NOT BLACK SUPERMAN. 

Why would I argue about if Steel is superman with someone that claims Lex Luthor was also never superman?

Edited April 28, 2021 by Jimmy Linguini

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

5 minutes ago, Jimmy Linguini said:

Why would I argue about if Steel is superman with someone that claims Lex Luthor was also never superman?

[Jimmy Linguini]

1 hour ago, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

 

 

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

7 minutes ago, Jimmy Linguini said:

 

 

[Jimmy Linguini]

Come on. Embrace the Ray J / Steel sequel / "Black Superman movie" movement.
 

 

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]