Not Human?? Are you telling me this self-proclaimed Champion of the Earth is -- an alien being?? 
The Man of Steel #5 is an issue of the series The Man of Steel (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 1986.
Synopsis for "The Mirror, Crack'd"
Superman apprehends a thug wearing a Lexcorp designed super-battle suit. He flies the goon to Lexcorp's Hong Kong branch office and presents him to Lex Luthor. Luthor claims that the suit was stolen from him and he bears no responsibility for any attacks made against Superman's person by whoever was wearing it at the time, and a side-effect of the suit's use renders the user too brain-damaged to testify to the contrary. Still carrying the goon, Superman flies back towards Metropolis.
Lex meanwhile consults with one of his scientists, Dr. Cheng, who is overseeing a classified program known as Project: Changeling. By scanning Superman's DNA, Cheng hoped to construct a perfect clone duplicate of the Man of Steel – one that would be completely subservient to Lex Luthor. However, Cheng did not take Superman's alien biology into account and the Superman clone crystallizes, transforming into a twisted Bizarro mockery of the true Superman. Disgusted by Cheng's failure, Lex orders the creature destroyed. Bizarro escapes however and flies towards Metropolis.
Some time later, Bizarro arrives in town and begins demonstrating behavioral patterns similar to that of Superman. He assists a disabled ambulance and saves the blind Lucy Lane from committing suicide. He then steals a cheap business suit and attempts to walk to the Daily Planet as if he were one of their employees.
Clark Kent notices the strange creature, and quickly changes into Superman. The two begin fighting on the streets of Metropolis, until Lois Lane arrives to witness the destruction. Bizarro shares many personality traits with Superman, including a fondness for Lois Lane. He leaves Superman alone, and whisks Lois away in his arms. He flies her to Lois's apartment and meets Lucy for a second time.
Superman recovers from Bizarro's most recent attack and discovers that his foe's skin secretes a chalky, white residue. Analyzing the dust with his microscopic vision, Superman learns that Bizarro is in fact an android.
He tracks his adversary back to Lois's apartment and the two foes begin fighting once again. They fly directly towards one another, but once they collide, Bizarro's body explodes into a cloud of white dust. The dust comes into contact with Lucy, and miraculously completely restores her eyesight.
Appearing in "The Mirror, Crack'd"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Lex Luthor
- Bizarro (Single appearance; dies) (Unnamed) (Origin)
Other Characters:
- Jimmy Olsen
- Doctor Teng
Locations:
Items:
- Battlesuit (First appearance chronologically)
Vehicles:
Notes
- This issue is reprinted in Superman: The Man of Steel Vol. 1, Superman: Escape from Bizarro World and in Superman: The Man of Steel Vol. 1 (2020 Edition).
- This is the only appearance of the first Post-Crisis Bizarro.
- Jimmy Olsen appeared last in The Man of Steel #2. He appears next in Adventures of Superman #424.
- Lex Luthor appeared last in The Man of Steel #4. His next chronological appearance takes place in Swamp Thing (Volume 2) #52.
- Lois Lane last appeared in The Man of Steel #4. She appears next in Superman (Volume 2) #1.
- This is the first appearance of the Post-Crisis Lucy Lane. The details surrounding her blindness are expanded upon in World of Metropolis #3.
- This is the first appearance of Lex Luthor's Warsuit post-Crisis on Infinite Earths. It bears a strong resemblance to the special armor worn by the Pre-Crisis Lex Luthor of Earth-One. (Interestingly, in the splash page, it appears as if Superman was confronting Lex Luthor in his pre-Crisis battle armor.)
Trivia
- Luthor and Dr. Cheng's creation is never referred to as Bizarro in this issue. However, Who's Who: Update '87 #1 provides an entry for the monster under the name Bizarro.
- All of the other covers for the Man of Steel limited series spotlights a feature character walking towards the reader's point of view. The cover to this issue however, shows Bizarro walking away from the reader. This gimmick is keeping in line with the Pre-Crisis stereotype of Bizarro as a mixed-up, backwards creature.
- The storyline from this issue is loosely based on the origin of the Pre-Crisis Bizarro Superboy as first published in Superboy #68. In the original story, the object of Bizarro's affections was a girl named Melissa, not Lucy Lane.
- This marks the first moment in Post-Crisis continuity when someone learns that Superman is an alien; prior to this, the Kents and Clark had assumed that he was a mutated human from a foreign space program.
See Also
Recommended Reading
- Superman Recommended Reading
- Action Comics (Volume 1)
- Action Comics (Volume 2)
- Adventures of Superman (Volume 1)
- Batman/Superman (Volume 1)
- Batman/Superman (Volume 2)
- Batman/Superman: World's Finest (Volume 1)
- DC Comics Presents (Volume 1)
- Superman (Volume 1)
- Superman (Volume 2)
- Superman (Volume 3)
- Superman (Volume 4)
- Superman (Volume 5)
- Superman (Volume 6)
- Superman/Batman (Volume 1)
- Superman Confidential (Volume 1)
- Superman: Son of Kal-El (Volume 1)
- Superman: The Man of Steel (Volume 1)
- Superman: The Man of Tomorrow (Volume 1)
- Superman/Wonder Woman (Volume 1)
- World's Finest (Volume 1)
Links and References
  After the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a 1985–1986 maxiseries which completely reset the continuity of the entire DC Universe, all of DC's major characters and franchises needed to be updated to reflect the changes in the events of their lives. Multiple story arcs were put out to explain these rebooted versions of popular characters. The Man of Steel #1 • The Man of Steel #2 • The Man of Steel #3 • The Man of Steel #4 • The Man of Steel #5 • The Man of Steel #6 |