In the early 1970s, Stern and Bob Layton published the fanzine CPL (Contemporary Pictorial Literature), one of the first platforms for the work of John Byrne.

[2] This led to Charlton giving Layton and Stern "access to unpublished material from their vaults by the likes of Steve Ditko, Jeff Jones and a host of others.

The two produced a story wherein Captain America considered running for the office of President of the United States,[6] an idea originally developed by Roger McKenzie and Don Perlin.

He created the Eradicator in Action Comics Annual #2[21][22] and later incorporated the character into the "Reign of the Supermen" story arc beginning in The Adventures of Superman #500.

[24][25] In Summer 1995, Stern and artist Tom Grummett created a new quarterly series, Superman: The Man of Tomorrow.

[26] Additionally, Stern was one of the many creators who worked on the Superman: The Wedding Album one-shot in 1996 which featured the title character's marriage to Lois Lane.

Other work for DC included a relaunched Atom series, drawn by Dwayne Turner[13] and the co-creation of the Will Payton version of Starman with artist Tom Lyle.

[13] Stern and Busiek co-wrote the Darkman vs. Army of Darkness limited series which was drawn by artist James Fry and published by Dynamite Entertainment.

In 2007, Stern wrote an issue of The All-New Atom and reunited with Byrne to produce a five-issue story arc for JLA Classified for DC in 2008.

Stern married Cornell University chemistry professor Carmela Merlo in Ithaca, New York, on June 19, 1982, at a ceremony attended by many Marvel staffers, including editor-in-chief Jim Shooter.