Title Superman: The Man of Steel volume 5
Format tpb
Binding tpb
Date September - December 1987 (original material), 2006 (collection)
Writer(s) John Byrne, Marv Wolfman
Artist(s) John Byrne, Jerry Ordway, Keith Williams, Karl Kesel, P. Craig Russell, Bob Smith, Jose F. Marzan, John Beatty
Collects Superman 9-11; Action 592-593; Adventures of Superman 432-435
Storyline

Superman 9: To Laugh and Die in Metropolis
Superman walked into a jewelry store and became Jokerized. Gas spilled out of his ears. The real Superman was quick to the scene. The robot shot its hand off, which flew away with his stolen diamond. Superman grabbed the robot, which was also a bomb, and flew it into the stratosphere. After the explosion, Superman crashed back to Earth, but he had trouble flying.
Nine had been killed in the Joker's attack. Superman got a message that he had Lois, Jimmy, and Perry. He quickly had the Joker in captivity and his friends free.

Adventures of Superman 432: Gang War part 1: From the Streets to the Streets
Lois and Jimmy arrived at an apartment building fire. With firefighters and Superman nowhere in sight, she went in to save some children. She was aided by a man in a makeshift mask. After Superman arrived, authorities found Perry White, Jr. nearby wearing gang colors. He claimed he had an alibi and took the police to him. His guidance counselor backed up his story.
Lex Luthor, who owned the building which had been torched, held a press conference. In hopes of getting gangs off the streets, he wanted to hire the kids. His thugs began training the kids. Superman soon apprehended White, Jr. in an armed robbery of a subway train. Superman went to Luthor, who told him he'd reported the guns stolen by the same kids he'd been trying to rehabilitate.
Superman then took out a street gang who had Carlos Delgado and Lois Lane trapped in a burning building.

Action 592 : A Walk on the Darkside
Big Barda visited Metropolis and had her purse stolen. She chased the thief, but he was accosted by a small lizard man, who took the mega-rod (and knew what it was). The Apokolipsian creature blasted Barda, who'd activated her body armor. Sleez, as he called himself, had been banished by Darkseid. He used the mega-rod to control Barda.
Elsewhere, Clark Kent was doing a story on a local clinic. While visiting he learned that most of the patients were well over the average age for human life span even though they were riddled with sickness and parasites. X-ray vision showed a strange radiation inside them. Superman went looking for its source, but instead, found Sleez and Barda. She took advantage of his intrusion and freed herself from the magical bindings. Though they'd never met, Barda and Superman knew each other by association (through Mr. Miracle, her husband). Barda believed him to be under Sleez's spell and attacked the man of steel. Sleez captured them both.

Action 593: The Suicide Snare
Mr. Miracle and Oberon returned home to find Darkseid there. He gave him a tape of his wife on Earth, in suicide slum.
Sleez took Superman and Barda to a video publisher who specialized in filth. Mr. Miracle arrived in time to stop their newest feature - a love scene between the two. Superman went after Sleez, while Barda and Miracle took care of the boobie-traps he'd left. Sleez lit a match in the sewer causing an explosion which killed him - he'd rather be dead than captured. Barda and Scott bid farewell to Superman.

Superman 10: The Super Menace of Metropolis
Clark went to work and soon realized his powers were acting up again - he could not control his x-ray vision. His heat vision, then strength got out of control. Clark excused himself and flew off. Luthor watched approvingly as his plan worked. In the sky above Metropolis, a being calling himself Klaash attacked Superman and kept him from getting into space. Superman's heat vision blasted the city. As the police scrambled to stop him, Superman realized he'd been duped. He found the satellite which was projecting "Klaash" and returned it to Luthor. At the police station, Luthor and his lawyer had perfectly good alibis for both the robot and the "experiment."

Adventures of Superman 433: Gang War part 2
Jimmy Olsen stopped a robbery at a convenience store he was in. He chased down one of the gang bangers - Jerry White. Superman took down the rest of them, but Jimmy let Perry's son go. Lois tracked him to Carlos Delgado's home and Jerry found her snooping. He headed off to talk to the "boss."
Perry refused to believe it until his son was arrested. He was roughed up to the point where he wanted to talk. Jose Delgado took a bullet in the shoulder after speaking out against Luthor.
Back at his office, Luthor was given the results of his Project Synapse - they were able to create superhumans from regular people with a 1:100 rate - and they only lasted 10 minutes. Luthor told them they needed 5% success.

Superman 11: The Name Game
Lois went out with a man she'd never met. She was so captivated by him that she failed to see the strange occurrences that were going on around them. He asked her to marry him. He saw someone more attractive - a mannequin. The display came alive, and he replaced it with Lois.
Superman caught up with the man Lois had gone out with - he claimed responsibility for the strange things, then turned into a small impish man with a funny hat. He claimed to be from a parallel fifth dimension. He said he'd go back home if Superman could get him to use his name (Mr. Mxyzptlk) backwards. Superman rewired a giant typewriter and got him to type it backwards.
Lois, feeling bad about putting Clark off for the fake man, went to his apartment to make him dinner. Cat had beaten her to him.

Adventures of Superman 434: Shambles
Perry White's son was released into his custody. Later, one of Luthor's facilities was destroyed. Carlos Delgado created a costume for himself and went out as "Gangbuster." He got a name on his first stop: Max Carter, Jay Falk's second-in-command.
Superman arrived as Gangbuster was taking down Carter, who was distributing guns to the gang bangers. Superman had Jimmy hack Lex's computers, wipe his data, and leave him a message.
Perry took his family on a vacation.

Adventures of Superman 435: The Circle Turns
Clark, doing research for a story on race cars, was given the opportunity to drive one. While making a lap, he had a vision of a cloaked woman urging him to "complete the circle." Clark crashed, but was ok.
A man named Charger broke one of his accomplices out of Strykers: Sthula.
Superman followed his visions and continued to have more. Inside the Jurgens Building, he fought Lois, Cat, Jimmy, Perry, Lex, a horse, a dog, and a monkey all dressed as him. Then, Lana, Lois, and Cat dressed as Wonder Woman.
By simply touching one of the Circle members, they were all transported off planet. The Jurgens Building was destroyed, but no one was injured.


Notes, references to time, and chronology:
"Ten days ago, I battled the superwoman the TV reporters called Rampage..." (Clark internal, Superman 10)

   
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