4. John Byrne Reboots Superman Inside a Birthing Matrix

Originally: Come on, who doesn't know this? Baby Kal-El is rocketed to Earth by his biological parents, Jor-El and Lara, from his doomed home planet of Krypton. Kal-El arrives on Earth as an infant, where he is found by Smallville's Jonathan and Martha Kent, who name him Clark and raise him as their own. Clark Kent goes on to become  a mild mannered reporter at the Daily Planet in Metropolis, and of course, Superman. The time between toddler and adulthood saw Clark become Superboy, adventures with the Legion of Superheroes, and also the death of Ma and Pa Kent.

The Retcon: Following Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC turned to John Byrne to revamp the Big Blue Boy Scout. And boy, did he. Using the six issue mini-series The Man of Steel as the jump on point, Byrne did away with the entire epic opening scene of the Superman mythos, opting instead to have Kal-El conceived inside a "birthing matrix" that was sent to Earth by Jor-El, rather than retain the absurd notion of a Kryptonian infant rocketing through space. Next up, out went the teenage life of Clark as a superhero. Superboy never existed, and thus neither did the Legion of Superheroes. In removing Superboy from Clark's history, Byrne also disappeared a slew of other characters that people had been invested in since the 1950's. Also absent from this revamp were things like the Fortress of Solitude and, perhaps the most unforgivable of all these changes, Krypto. How do you retcon a superdog? Ma and Pa Kent were also kept alive to see their adopted son grow up, and Clark was made slightly less of a goofball. The revamp also saw a slight change in Superman's powers, as he became significantly less powerful.

The Impact: The initial impact of the revamp was fairly severe, with plenty of media attention having been garnered from the affair. However, over time, little bits and pieces of the classic origin returned, one way or another. The Legion, the Fortress, Superboy and Krypto all made their way back into continuity, if not exactly in the way originally conceived. The initial revamp is shocking because it took a classic character, with an origin and history that is nearly universally recognized, and completely uprooted it. This is a bold move on both Byrne and DC's part, with the former having been responsible for the changes and the latter having allowed them to be canon. If nothing else, Byrne's retcon of the Superman mythos has proven that these characters will always be remembered in their most iconic moments; for all the reboots, revamps, retcons, and whatever else publishers throw in the way of readers, everything origin winds up in the same spot. With Geoff Johns' Superman: Secret Origin about to begin, we are going to see a formal return to the roots of the Superman origin, hopefully putting to rest any small remnants of the misguided Byrne revamp forever.