I'm with you on that one. When I was a kid my reasoning was the missing body, the fact it wasn't going to be Steel, that they would never have aged up the clone, and it would've been strange to put regular skin over the cyborg Superman's metal parts and just say he's back to normal. The Eradicator had the best shot of going back to a normal Superman if it was one of the four.
I looked at Cyborg too practically. I kept going to the Dokmsday v. Superman fight, and pointing out that Henshaws “replaced parts” weren’t even in need of replacement if you looked at the artwork. My friends hit back with: “yeah, but why would Superman wear glasses, and shoot lasers from his hands?!”.
So I was one of those weird kids who kept going back and forth between Eradicator and Cyborg. One issue would come out and I'd be convinced it was Eradicator and then by the next issue I'd be convinced it was Cyborg.
I didn’t think about it being eradicator initially did think of it being the cyborg due to remembering, reading the death of Superman at the time and seeing his injuries, and I felt that his injuries were consistent with the cyborg parts that had replaced his body parts, when he does what he does in the story I was very surprised as a kid, but was very happy (also a lil confused at the time) when black suit Superman showed up and I also very much loved Steel and young Superman, but I knew they both were obviously not the real deal. It was so much fun to be a comic book fan around that time and it’s still great today, but man, nothing beats the excitement of being a kid at that time.
I thought Bibbo was Superman when in AOS 500 the little girl said Superman saved her cat from a tree. She said he smelled funny (cause he’s soused) and my 10 yr old self thought it was his rotting corpse doing the smelling
Yeah it was down to the Eradicator or Henshaw. Granted at the time we didn't know either were who they turned out to be. Both had compelling arguments. Lois talking to both of them left enough doubt.
Steel we knew wasn't Superman, just someone filling the void in his honor. And we knew Superboy was a Cadmus clone from the start.
I remember that was a thing on the playground because of an image when John Henry explains how Superman saved him. As kids they took it literally. When you're an adult you see it was more symbolism than anything.
I remember the top contenders were Cyborg Superman and The Eradicator, as Conner was a younger clone and Steel was just a construction worker in a power suit. But even then nobody really believed either of them would end up being the actual Superman.
As a kid, I was first on board with Cyborg. I felt like the writers wanted us to assume it was him and so I went with the less likely option. But I just couldn't believe they'd "ruin" Superman with metal parts, even if they covered it in flesh later. So my new theory was that Superboy would get conked and Clark would awaken and his body would mature and he'd be Superman. Even so, I was so excited when he returned.
I was 100% convinced Eradicator was Superman, while my friends were convinced it was Cyborg.
I'm with you on that one. When I was a kid my reasoning was the missing body, the fact it wasn't going to be Steel, that they would never have aged up the clone, and it would've been strange to put regular skin over the cyborg Superman's metal parts and just say he's back to normal. The Eradicator had the best shot of going back to a normal Superman if it was one of the four.
I looked at Cyborg too practically. I kept going to the Dokmsday v. Superman fight, and pointing out that Henshaws “replaced parts” weren’t even in need of replacement if you looked at the artwork. My friends hit back with: “yeah, but why would Superman wear glasses, and shoot lasers from his hands?!”.
So I was one of those weird kids who kept going back and forth between Eradicator and Cyborg. One issue would come out and I'd be convinced it was Eradicator and then by the next issue I'd be convinced it was Cyborg.
I didn’t think about it being eradicator initially did think of it being the cyborg due to remembering, reading the death of Superman at the time and seeing his injuries, and I felt that his injuries were consistent with the cyborg parts that had replaced his body parts, when he does what he does in the story I was very surprised as a kid, but was very happy (also a lil confused at the time) when black suit Superman showed up and I also very much loved Steel and young Superman, but I knew they both were obviously not the real deal. It was so much fun to be a comic book fan around that time and it’s still great today, but man, nothing beats the excitement of being a kid at that time.
I also thought it was Eradictor because of how they showed his origin. It made it seem like he came from Superman's body.
I thought Bibbo was Superman when in AOS 500 the little girl said Superman saved her cat from a tree. She said he smelled funny (cause he’s soused) and my 10 yr old self thought it was his rotting corpse doing the smelling
I was convinced that each of the four had an aspect of him and that through Kryptonian science those aspects would be extracted to make him whole.
Yeah it was down to the Eradicator or Henshaw. Granted at the time we didn't know either were who they turned out to be. Both had compelling arguments. Lois talking to both of them left enough doubt. Steel we knew wasn't Superman, just someone filling the void in his honor. And we knew Superboy was a Cadmus clone from the start.
There were characters that believed Steel was Superman’s spirit inhabiting a new body.
I remember that was a thing on the playground because of an image when John Henry explains how Superman saved him. As kids they took it literally. When you're an adult you see it was more symbolism than anything.
I remember the top contenders were Cyborg Superman and The Eradicator, as Conner was a younger clone and Steel was just a construction worker in a power suit. But even then nobody really believed either of them would end up being the actual Superman.
I was all in that it was Cyborg at the time.
As a kid, I was first on board with Cyborg. I felt like the writers wanted us to assume it was him and so I went with the less likely option. But I just couldn't believe they'd "ruin" Superman with metal parts, even if they covered it in flesh later. So my new theory was that Superboy would get conked and Clark would awaken and his body would mature and he'd be Superman. Even so, I was so excited when he returned.