Production
In the years before Crisis on Infinite Earths led to the reboot of the DC Universe, DC editors and Marv Wolfman had been wanting to do a revision for Superman. Nothing was ever developed until then-publisher and president Jenette Kahn asked for revision proposals from various writers. While regular Superman writer Cary Bates wanted the revision to still keep the then-ongoing continuity as it was, Wolfman, and other writers such as Frank Miller and Steve Gerber wanted to restart the continuity from scratch. Wolfman, Miller, and Gerber all wanted to do the same thing: get rid of Clark Kent's career as Superboy, cut down Superman's powers, make changes in Lex Luthor's character, and make Superman the only survivor of Krypton, avoiding the other Kryptonian characters if necessary. However, regardless of wanting the same things, how each writer wanted to approach the revision was different.
After time had passed with no revision being granted the green light, Wolfman found out John Byrne had left Marvel Comics in May of 1985. Because both of them had shared the same ideas and feelings on the character, Wolfman felt that Byrne would "make it sell," and called him. Bryne accepted and presented DC with his proposal. With DC agreeing with 99% of the revision, Byrne was given the go-ahead for what became The Man of Steel.
The mini-series was designed to reboot the Superman mythos using the history-altering effects of Crisis on Infinite Earths as an explanation. Thus, for modern comics, The Man of Steel is the dividing point between the previous canon of the Silver Age, and the Modern Age. The two different versions are referred to in stories soon after and by fans as "pre-Crisis" and "post-Crisis," per Crisis on Infinite Earths being the major dividing line across the DC Universe as a whole. The pre-Crisis stories were drawn to a close in Alan Moore's Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?.
Read more about this topic: The Man Of Steel (comics)
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—Friedrich Engels (1820–1895)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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