There have been bad versions of Superman, but there's never been a version that is entirely devoid of at least one good idea.
The Byrne/Kesel/Wolfman reboot in the middle 1980s had its flaws, certainly, but it had two good ideas: their treatment of Bizarro, and their treatment of Lori Lemaris.
Lori Lemaris, in many ways, is much more unique and has much more to do if she's
dead. Alive, Lori's the Superman-girlfriend equivalent of Timothy Dalton: an also-ran James Bond that is nobody's favorite.
Does anyone seriously want Superman to get together with Lori? Anyone at all?
But if Lori died - and if she died tragically - she becomes transformed into a very powerful, emotional figure: she becomes Superman's tragic love.
I also like the fact that Byrne and Kesel incorporated Aquaman into the Lori Lemaris story. Previously, having two contradictory versions of Atlantis was one of the most thickheaded acts of idiocy ever perpetrated by Weisenger's jealous and arrogant editorial Iron Fist.
Granted, Byrne, Helfer, and Kesel killed off Lori because of a mistaken belief Superman and Lois are "meant for each other," but it is possible to do the right thing for the wrong reason.
As for Bizarro...
Bizarro is and should be a gag funny comedy character, that is the version which is the true version. If people didn't love that version we wouldn't keep coming up with wacky Bizarro versions of people and things. Try it, it's fun and that's the whole point.
As always, SuperMonkey, your observation would be accurate...if the Bronze Age had never happened at all. (I'm reminded of our discussion on Supergirl here.)
I'm amazed that we've gone this far and nobody has yet mentioned Martin Pasko's middle-seventies Bizarro stories, where not only did Bizarro acquire "backwards" powers like Shrinking Vision and Fire-Breath, but also he was a monstrous, tragic and not truly wicked Frankenstein creature duped by villains like the Toyman into evil acts because he didn't know any better.
This is why, though the Bizarro character was much more sympathetic and true to his roots in the Byrne/Helfer version, I'm not certain how much credit to give "Johnny Redbeard and his Seven Dwarves," because Bizarro hadn't been written as a goofy clown for at least a decade. A tragic, sympathetic Bizarro clone was old news even then.
Ok, then what happen in the very next issue? What about every single appearance after that from 1959 to 1986?
Don't you mean "what about every single appearance after that from 1959-1965?" Again, after "Tales of" was replaced by "Superboy and the Legion" in ADVENTURE, Bizarro was either mostly ignored, used as a "retro" element that was no longer relevant, or written by guys like Pasko as a tragic monster.
If you don't want funny Superman story, then create a new monster and make it tragic rather than trying to make a comedy character something which it is not suppose to be.
...And this statement would be true if it wasn't for the fact "Tales of the Bizarro World" just wasn't
funny.
"Gags" like paperboys yelling "Yesterday's News! Don't read all about it!" are a less coarse society's version of snot or flatulence jokes: a goofy laugh if you're under ten, but intolerably immature and gag-inducing for anyone above that age.
Bizarro is another one of the characters that the 1950s (easily Superman's second-worst decade besides the 1990s) worked a horrible reverse-Rumplestiltskin effect: turning gold back into straw.
The Byrne Bizarro is just a rehash of the first Siegel Superboy story, with one or two new additions --the original was full of pathos and all the more impressive as it was written in the 1950s and was essentially a children's story (not to mention, the complexity of any work of art that involves Siegel, Superboy, and a copy of Superboy --a sort of metacommentary on the experience of Siegel losing control of his own creation --Siegel was the Mary Shelley of kid's comics).
Interesting observation: Bizarro being a metaphor for Siegel's relationship with his famous character. And the original story is truly filled with incredible emotions, one of Jerry Siegel's great strengths.
Further, it's interesting to point out that the two things that the Helfer-edited version of the character did
right were pretty much shot-by-shot xeroxes of the original stories.
