For a while, life settled into a comfortable routine for Superman. Then, everything started to unravel at once.

It began when Lois Lane was poisoned by the Joker. Superman flew to Arkham to find a cure, but the Joker told him the only way to save Lois' life was to take the Joker's. Unwilling to commit murder, even to save the life of the woman he loved, Superman waited for Lois to die. When Lois seemed to make a miraculous recovery, Superman realized that she had never been in any danger. When Lois discovered the choice Superman had made, she broke off their engagement and took a job as the Daily Planet's foreign correspondent.

Shortly after this, Perry White announced that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and would be stepping down as Editor of the Daily Planet. He appointed Clark Kent to act as acting Editor until his return. Faced with the added responsibilities of being an editor, along with his responsibilities as Superman and trying to deal with Lois' departure, Clark Kent grew increasingly frustrated and despondent. As if that weren't enough, he also had to deal with the reemergence of Lex Luthor, and being forced out of his own body by Brainiac. He also fought an alien menace known as Tolos, who held a miniature city called Kandor prisoner in a bottle, full of inhabitants whose bodies Tolos could control outside of the bottle city. Tolos wanted to add Superman to his menagerie, but the Man of Steel was able to defeat him and began to work to find a way to restore the city of Kandor and its inhabitants to regular size.

Then the sun went out.

An alien menace known as the Sun Eater arrived to suck the energy of the sun, cloaking the world in perpetual darkness and cold. Superman, whose body relied on solar energy for its power, soon found himself as helpless as any ordinary mortal. Nevertheless, he led a team of heroes, working together with Lex Luthor, to try to find a solution to the problem. But it was Hal Jordan, disgraced member of the Green Lantern Corps, who was finally able to defeat the Sun Eater. The return of the sun did not, however, result in the return of Superman's powers.

While Superman tried to find a way to bring his powers back, Lois Lane returned from Bhutran. The two reconciled their differences, and agreed to resume their relationship. Soon after, they were married at the Metropolis Chapel of United Faiths, and took their honeymoon.

While on their honeymoon, they were targeted by a Bhutranian drug lord whose operations Lois had helped to uncover. Since Superman still did not have his powers back, it fell to Lois to organize their escape and return to Metropolis.