History ComicBook / Steel

[[caption-width-right:350:DropTheHammer...]]

In any case the character first appeared in ''The Adventures of Superman'' #500 (June, 1993), created by Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove. This Steel was John Henry Irons, a construction worker whose life had been saved by Superman once, and who decided to become a hero [[LegacyCharacter to uphold his legacy]]. As it turned out, Irons was actually a former weapons designer hiding from the government; the fact that weapons he had invented were being used by some street gangs was also part of the reason why he created a suit of PowerArmor to fight crime with (along with a [[DropTheHammer really big hammer.]]) There was also a hint that Superman's not-quite-dead soul had linked to Irons, keeping a hold on this world before returning to life. Of the four beings claiming the title of Superman, Steel was also the only one who freely admitted that he was ''not'' Superman (nor a [[ComicBook/{{Superboy}} clone thereof]]), but was working to uphold his legacy in his honor.

* DropTheHammer: He started with a normal sledgehammer, which was lost to the combination of a pissed-off ComicBook/GreenLantern and Mongul's face. His subsequent hammers tend to be more high-tech.

[[Characters/SupermanCentralRoguesGallery Central Rogues Gallery]] ([[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Alexander "Lex" Luthor]], [[Characters/SupermanBizarro Bizarro]], [[Characters/SupermanBrainiacCharacter Vril Dox/Brainiac]], [[Characters/SupermanCyborgSuperman Cyborg-Superman]], [[Characters/NewGodsDarkseid Darkseid]], [[Characters/SupermanDoomsdayCharacter Doomsday]], [[Characters/DCComicsLobo Lobo]], [[Characters/SupermanMisterMxyzptlk Mister Mxyzptlk]], [[Characters/DCComicsMongul Mongul]], [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGalleryPhantomZone Phantom Zone Criminals]] [[[Characters/SupermanGeneralZod General Zod]]]) | [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGalleryAToL A-L]] | [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGalleryMToZ M-Z]] ([[Characters/SupermanSuperboyPrime Superboy-Prime]])\\

[[WMG:[[center:[-''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' '''[[Characters/{{Superman}} Main Character Index]]'''\\

In any case the character first appeared in ''The Adventures of Superman'' #500 (June, 1993), created by Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove. This Steel was John Henry Irons, a construction worker whose life had been saved by Superman once, and who decided to become a hero [[LegacyCharacter to uphold his legacy]]. As it turned out, Irons was actually a former weapons designer hiding from the government; the use of weapons he had invented by some street gangs was also part of the reason why he created a suit of PowerArmor to fight crime with (along with a [[DropTheHammer really big hammer.]]) There was also a hint that Superman's not-quite-dead soul had linked to Irons, keeping a hold on this world before returning to life. Of the four beings claiming the title of Superman, Steel was also the only one who freely admitted that he was ''not'' Superman (nor a [[ComicBook/{{Superboy}} clone thereof]]), but was working to uphold his legacy in his honor.

Steel starred in his own comics series for 52 issues, from February 1994 to July 1998. In 2022 a new book was announced, titled ''Steelworks'' and written by ''S:TAS'''s Steel, Creator/MichaelDorn.

Steel is a fictional superhero who appears in comic books published by Creator/DCComics created for ''[[Franchise/{{Superman}} The Man of Steel]]'' series, which normally starred Superman, during ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman storyline. DC had decided to delay bringing Superman back to exploit the success of this event, but that left them without a protagonist for Superman's four titles. Their solution was to create four Superman [[{{Expy}} pretenders]] and make a mystery of which one of them could be the real Superman BackFromTheDead. (It's also possible that DC wanted to make sure they didn't lose the trademark to the name "Steel" from lack of use.)

* DropTheHammer: He started with a normal sledgehammer, which was lost to the combination of a pissed-off Franchise/GreenLantern and Mongul's face. His subsequent hammers tend to be more high-tech.

* ForgingScene: Steel usually does this every time he makes a new suit of armor. Especially in Creator/GrantMorrison's ''[[Comicbook/JusticeLeagueofAmerica JLA]]'', since Morrison saw him as the Hephasteus of the League's pantheon, and therefore would rather show him sweating over a forge than adjusting servomotors with a screwdriver.

[[Characters/SupermanCentralRoguesGallery Central Rogues Gallery]] ([[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Alexander "Lex" Luthor]], [[Characters/SupermanBizarro Bizarro]], [[Characters/SupermanBrainiacCharacter Vril Dox/Brainiac]], [[Characters/SupermanCyborgSuperman Cyborg-Superman]], [[Characters/NewGodsDarkseid Darkseid]], [[Characters/SupermanDoomsdayCharacter Doomsday]], ComicBook/{{Lobo}}, [[Characters/SupermanMisterMxyzptlk Mister Mxyzptlk]], [[Characters/DCComicsMongul Mongul]], [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGalleryPhantomZone Phantom Zone Criminals]] [[[Characters/SupermanGeneralZod General Zod]]]) | [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGalleryAToL A-L]] | [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGalleryMToZ M-Z]] ([[Characters/SupermanSuperboyPrime Superboy-Prime]])\\

Steel was also obviously partially based on the legend of John Henry, and happens to be the first black character to be a major part of the Superman mythos (though his armor hid this fact from the public).[[note]]It could be argued that honor belongs to Ron Troupe, who debuted in 1991 and took over for Clark Kent at the Planet after his "death".[[/note]] Later on, Steel would join the Justice League of America, and his identity would become public. His niece Natasha, who like him was a GadgeteerGenius, also became a power-armor heroine (and later gained actual powers as part of an EvilPlan by Lex Luthor in the series ComicBook/FiftyTwo).

* In the Series/{{Arrowverse}} series ''Series/SupermanAndLois'', Steel is played by Creator/WoleParks.

For the other characters named Steel, see ComicBook/CommanderSteel.

* BadassBaritone: Is described as sounding "like Darth Vader" in the comics, and was voiced in his appearances in ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' by Creator/MichaelDorn.

Steel starred in his own comics series for 52 issues, from February 1994 to July 1998.

[[Characters/SupermanTheCharacter Clark Kent/Kal/El/Superman]]\\

[[Characters/SupermanRoguesGalleryAToL A-L]] ([[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Alexander "Lex" Luthor]], [[Characters/SupermanBizarro Bizarro]], [[Characters/SupermanBrainiacCharacter Vril Dox/Brainiac]], [[Characters/SupermanCyborgSuperman Cyborg-Superman]], [[Characters/NewGodsDarkseid Darkseid]], [[Characters/SupermanDoomsdayCharacter Doomsday]], ComicBook/{{Lobo}}) | [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGalleryMToZ M-Z]] ([[Characters/DCComicsMongul Mongul]], [[Characters/SupermanSuperboyPrime Superboy-Prime]]) | [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGalleryPhantomZone Phantom Zone Criminals]] ([[Characters/SupermanGeneralZod General Zod]])\\

* AntiHeroSubstitute: Inverted; the other Superman pretenders trying to replace the Big Blue Boyscout after his death were varying degrees of AntiHero, but Steel is [[TheCape just as heroic as the original]], [[UpToEleven if not MORE so]]. Which may be related to why he had the best reception of them all. It also probably helped that unlike the others, Steel never actually claimed to be Superman or his substitute, but was just operating as best he could in Superman's memory and honor.

'''Superman:''' "Thanks."

Steel was also obviously partially based on the legend of John Henry, and happens to be the first black character to be a major part of the Superman mythos (though his armor hid this fact from the public.)[[note]]It could be argued that honor belongs to Ron Troupe, who debuted in 1991 and took over for Clark Kent at the Planet after his "death".[[/note]] Later on, Steel would join the Justice League of America, and his identity would become public. His niece Natasha, who like him was a GadgeteerGenius, also became a power-armor heroine (and later gained actual powers as part of an EvilPlan by Lex Luthor in the series ComicBook/FiftyTwo.)

--> '''Irons''': "I owe you my '''life!'''"
--> '''Superman''': "Then make it '''count''' for something!"

* MeaningfulName: John Henry of legend and the famous song was a "steel-drivin' man", a rock driller [[note]]done by hammering a steel drill into the rock[[/note]] who worked on railroad tunnels and raced against a steam-powered rock drill. He won the race, but "died with his hammer in his hand".
* MyGreatestFailure: When John Henry was part of the US Defense, he had designed high-powered weapons, only to have the designs stolen and sold on the BlackMarket. He ran and changed his name to get away from this... only to find out the weapons were being used in ''Metropolis''. When one killed a young boy, that was enough.

* PronouncingMyNameForYou: Dr Villain. "''Will-hane''. It's French."

* {{Expy}}: Gained one in Milestone's ComicBook/{{Hardware}}, who had a similar background and M.O., but was on the opposite side of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism.