Scans_Daily

And we come at last to STEEL 52, the final issue of the series. While I'm not certain, that has to make it DC's longest running title starring a person of color, right?



This issue is crammed to the bursting point, as the creative team rushes to tie up as many dangling plots as they can. They had very little advanced warning of the cancelation.

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STEEL 50 was slated to be part 7 of 9 of the "Millennium Giants" cross-over event that ran through a bunch of DC's books. Priest asked them not to do this. He implored DC not to involve STEEL's fiftieth issue of all issues in an event whose other eight chapters would occur in other books, an event where Steel was just one player among a dozen. He begged the higher-ups to allow him to give the long-time Steel fans the milestone issue they deserved.



Guess how that went.

I was originally only going to post the single page out of the entire issue that has to do with the events of this title -- the other 21 are about the Millennium Giants story -- but flipping through the issue, I'm reminded that there's some stuff about Steel adjusting to being a JLA member and suddenly operating at a much larger scope that's sort of interesting, I guess. (He joined in an earlier chapter of the crossover, I believe.)

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But if you want to skip all that, here's the only page from STEEL 50 that actually has to do with the rest of the series:

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Throughout the run, Steel's brother Clay Irons has been lurking in the background, secretly working to keep Steel and Natasha safe in his own criminal way -- that and taking possession of a pair of Steel's flight boots. This issue, we get his full story.



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Superboy attempts to romance Natasha Irons. This is one of the more light-hearted issues of the run.



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Still coming to terms with his run-in with racial profiling last issue, Steel pays a visit to Metropolis, which is apparently some sort of Bizarro Jersey City. He runs into Superman and Lois Lane, who gives him relationship advice.




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We continue with STEEL #40-41, in which Natasha Irons faces sexual harassment on her first day at her new school and Steel gets arrested for murder. #40 also marks the debut of the most well-known version of Steel's hammer, thanks to its usage in his JLA appearances -- the one decked out with hi-tech gizmos that famously flies faster the farther its thrown.



( A third of two issues... )

We continue with STEEL #37 and #38. In #37 we meet the assassin Skorpio, who becomes a recurring character. #38 is a team-up with the Question.



We hit a bit of a series slump here. Both issues are flawed in their own way. #37 suffers from a muddy ending and the fact that Skorpio doesn't get especially interesting until later. #38 feels like (and probably is) an inventory story. More on that later.

( A third of both issues below the cut... )

( Or, if you just want to see the Question, jump straight to that... )

This will be the first of a number of posts covering STEEL #34-52 (the series' final issue). This was the period during which Steel (the John Henry Irons version) lived in the fictional Jersey City. For the year and a half it was being published, this run was, for my money, one of the most idiosyncratic and interesting superhero books DC was publishing at the time.

We begin with issues 34 and 35, in which Steel gets settled into the world of Jersey City and meets his new supporting cast, which includes this guy. Superman has Lex Luthor, and Steel has



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