Action Comics and Curt Swan. Following the events of "Crisis on Infinite Earths", writer/artist John Byrne relaunched the Superman franchise in "The Man of Steel" limited series in 1986. "Action Comics" became a team-up title with issue #584 (January 1987) featuring Superman and the New Teen Titans. Other costars during this period included the Phantom Stranger, the New Gods, the Demon, Hawkman, the Green Lantern Corps, the Metal Men, Superboy, Big Barda, Mister Miracle, Booster Gold, the Martian Manhunter, the Spectre, Lois Lane and Lana Lang, Checkmate, Wonder Woman, and Man-Bat. The first "Action Comics Annual" was published in 1987 and featured
Action (comics) the title, with Mills, Wagner, and Steve MacManus contributing stories. The team evaluated several names, including "Boots" and "Dr Martens". The comic was briefly to have been called "Action 76", with the title incrementing each year, until it was named simply "Action". Many of the stories in "Action" were what Mills called "dead cribs", essentially rip-offs of popular films, books, and comic heroes. Rather than being a straight copy, the "cribs" in "Action" had their own slant on the idea. "Hook Jaw", for example, combined environmental issues with the graphic gore and shark anti-hero of Steven Spielberg's film "Jaws" (1975),