in the 2005 novel It's Superman by Tom De Haven. In the Superman mythos, Byrne wrote Clark Kent as having a more aggressive and extroverted personality than previously depicted, comparing him to Jimmy Breslin, and even making him a top high-school football player. Byrne came up with explanations for how Superman's disguise works, such as the public simply does not realize that he has a secret identity since he is unmasked, that Superman would vibrate his face via his super speed in order to blur his image to photographers, and having Kent keep a weight training set around to explain how the human and presumably weaker Kent could have a frame as massive as Superman's. Byrne described Superman as becoming a "Super Republican", seeking to incorporate renewed interest in American patriotism during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Byrne's Superman felt that his deepest roots were on Earth, and that his home planet of "Krypton is anathema to him". The origin and early career of Byrne's version of Superman debuted in the six-issue miniseries The Man of Steel (July–Sept. 1986), the first issue of which was marketed with two different covers illustrated by Byrne, the first use of variant covers by the American comics industry. Byrne penciled the six-issue DC Universe crossover miniseries Legends (Nov. 1986 – May 1987) during this time. He wrote and drew two monthly Superman titles with the hero's present-day adventures: a new Superman title beginning with issue #1 (January 1987) and Action Comics, in which, beginning with issue #584, Superman teamed up with other DC characters. The original Superman book was renamed The Adventures of Superman starting with issue #424 and was initially written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Jerry Ordway, but the writing chores were taken over by Byrne after a year from issues #436–442 and 444. As 1988 marked the 50th anniversary year of Superman's creation, Byrne did more Superman-related projects while working on the core Superman monthly titles at the same time: he wrote the prestige format graphic novel, Superman: The Earth Stealers and three separate four-issue miniseries: The World of Krypton, The World of Metropolis, and The World of Smallville. He supplied the cover art for the March 14, 1988, issue of Time magazine and an interior spread featuring Superman, where his pencils were inked by Ordway. After his initial run on the Superman titles from 1986 to 1988, Byrne would