SUPERMAN #4 (1987)

Continuing a walk through John Byrne’s revamp of Superman. Superman #4 is terrific.

In a story titled “Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen,” John Byrne creates a new villain, Bloodsport, who can make weapons appear at will.  Superman uses his brain to defeat him, rather than simply his might.

A really great issue.  With the title, John Byrne is paying tribute to the Golden and Silver age comics that came before, the innocent and somewhat corny books that preceded his Superman reboot.  But in the sequence below, we see Superman–who in all his previous issues has never really been challenged–being forced to see with his own eyes how terrible the world really is.

Another thing that Byrne did really well was use white space.  That last frame is just awesome.