The Man Of Steel Reforged With Stupendous Leaps Of Logic, Old Hero Returns

After a five-year stint in which he shed his cape, grew his hair and split into two separate beings, Superman will be pulling his old look back out of the phone booth.

“He’ll be the original Superman we know and love again,” DC Comics executive editor Mike Carlin said Friday. “The red-and-yellow ‘S,’ the red cape, the blue tights - and the haircut. It’s his old look back.”

And the Supermen - yes, currently two of them, blue and red - will become one.

The metamorphosis and makeover will come in April after a cataclysmic battle pitting Superman against “giant evil creatures,” with earth’s future at stake, said DC Comics publicity manager Martha Thomases. The two Supermen will join forces, “disperse all their energy” and revive the old Superman in the process.

That should close a chapter on what has been a trying five years for the Man of Steel.

In that time, he’s been killed, reincarnated, split in two by a one-eyed foe named Cyborg and married - after wooing Lois Lane for half a century.

Superman lost his old powers and assumed the two identities, “energy beings” Superman Blue and Superman Red, around the time he married Ms. Lane early last year. Suddenly, he flew without a cape and bullets passed right through him.

The ordeal was “just another one of the battles in his never-ending battle,” said Carlin, who, as head of the DC Universe, is in charge of story creation.

DC executives insisted they’re bringing the original back not because of requests or complaints from fans, but as part of an exciting new story line.

“It’s OK for the world to believe this is a New Coke situation, where we bowed to the wishes of the world,” Carlin said. “But what we did, simply, was we told a story about Superman. Now, in his old costume again, it’s time for a new adventure.”

The rebirth of the original Superman in an upcoming comic called Superman Forever is set to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the hero’s debut in Action Comics No. 1.

Fans seem eager to have the original Superman back.

Joe Lihach, owner of Village Comics in Manhattan, spilled the news of the hero’s impending return to customers on Friday.

“They want to see him flying in his old costume with his old powers, not a piece of energy flying like a lightning bolt,” he said. “They don’t think that’s believable.”