HUGE GAME OF THRONES BOMB DROPPED!!!! ***SPOILERS***

Did you hear it? Cause I freaked the heck out! Ok, only keep reading if you're up to date on all the episodes of Game of Thrones...


So in last night's episode there is a scene between Sam and Gilly. Sam is transcribing old scrolls per his assignment from last week's episode while Gilly is enjoying her freshly aquired reading comprehension skills. She's finding random trivia points written by an old Septon from the Mad King's days.

At first it seems as if they're just silly things she's talking about, like how many steps there are at the Citadel in Old Town or how many windows there are in the Sept of Baelor ("None, anymore".) But then she asks Sam an innocent question... "What's an annulment?" she asks. "It's when a man sets aside his vows of marriage." Gilly goes on to say (in a super casual way that you might miss if you're not paying attention), "well Septon So-And-So annulled a marriage for a Prince Ragger (RHAEGAR) and performed a secret wedding ceremony to another woman in Dorne." Then Sam flips his steps, I mean shit, totally ignoring what Gilly just said.

So do you get it?

Who was Rhaegar Targaryan again? Well he was the son of the Mad King Aerys Targaryan and heir to the Iron Throne. His wife, Ellia Martell, was raped and murdered along with their 2 children during the seige of King's Landing during Robert's Rebellion! Rhaegar, before all that, met and fell in love with another woman.

Still don't know what I'm talking about? Well, who do you think that other woman was? It was head-losin Ned Stark's sister LYANNA STARK!!!!!! Remember last season when we found out who Jon's real parents are? Last night's revelation means that DAENARYS IS NOT THE HEIR TO THE IRON THRONE BUT JON SNOW IS!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

VAGARY #2 words and pics by Kevin Davis

Haven't read the FANTASTIC FIRST ISSUE YET? Check it out here first! http://superdupernerdynews.blogspot.com/2017/04/vagary-part-1-words-pictures-by-kevin.html

The Fate of the Furious - Movie Review

THIS MOVIE IS RIDICULOUS! But, if you are already a fan of the Fast and Furious franchise then you already know this. The absurdity level seems to get kicked up a notch with every new film in the series, as it should, but this one reaches new levels. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. No, I've come to really enjoy how absurd and ridiculous some of these action movies can be. For example, in the last installment Furious 7, Paul Walker and Vin Diesel steal a car from a prince in Abu Dhabi. To escape the bad guys, Vin Diesel drives the car out the window where it flies through the air, crashes into another building, lands and races through that building, flies out of the 2nd building, and finally crashes through a 3rd building where the car plummets to a final fiery crash. Of course both leading actors survive this.

So how do you top that? Well screenwriter Chris Morgan certainly has some crazy ideas knocking around his head! One of those crazy ideas involves hacking into cars that have an "auto driver" function. Then using these "zombie cars" (not my term) as a weapon for the bad guys in order for them to retrieve a suitcase containing launch codes for a cache of nuclear missiles from the Russian Minister of Defense, who just happens to be in New York City at the time. The entire premise is ridiculous, but is also an amazing amount of fun.  I found myself both laughing out loud and gasping in astonishment at what I was seeing.

The most absurd aspect of this movie, also with the last three, is that now these former street racers are all part of an elite strike force who specialize in fast cars. For the life of me I can think of a situation that

1. presents a problem involving an army of driverless cars
2. has a solution that involves MORE CARS!

The payoff for this scene is extraordinary. It's exactly what I love about these absurd action films. I go in not knowing what I'm about to see and walk out having seen something that I never in my life would imagine having wanted to see until I saw it.

Now, I do believe the producers of this film skipped over a unique opportunity. Why is this movie called The FATE of the Furious, when it clearly should have been titled The F8 of the Furious? It's the eighth movie of the franchise, but it does not sour the series at all. In fact, just like Fast Five did, F8 gave the franchise new life.

Without Paul Walker, the team was missing a major player, but his real life death was handled very well in Furious 7 as well as Fate of the Furious. Paul Walker, or Brian (his character's name), is mentioned a few times in the new movie and we learn that he's still alive but not involved in the team's hijinks anymore.

F8 spins the formula of the series a bit too. This time the Furious squad faces the one person they can't beat, Vin Diesel himself! Dominic Turretto (Vin Diesel) finds himself in between a rock and a hard place and must decide between his racing family and his real family. That's ok though, where one good guy flips to bad, a bad guy flips to good. Jason Statham returns as Deckard, the main antagonist of Furious 7, but this time the good guys reveal the motivation behind Deckhard's behavior. It turns out, he's not such a bad guy after all, just misunderstood.

All in all, this was a very fun blockbuster movie. If you're a fan of absurd action sequences, can get over the mediocre acting (not from The Rock, of course, I'll never say anything bad about The People's Champion), and ridiculous premise (it's a prerequisite for seeing these films that you throw any ideas of normalcy, or more simply, just the laws of physics in general out the window) then you are in for a treat.

Final Grade: B

World Without a Superman

This story only partially answers the question of what the Earth would be like without Superman. I say only partially answers, because besides a few panels featuring people from around the world, the story is set in Metropolis and doesn't go anywhere else.

What this story does capture, and capture very well, is the emotion surrounding the death of such a beloved person. It picks up right where the end of issue #75 leaves off. The battle between Superman and Doomsday is over, both combatants are dead and now people are trying to do their best to save Superman.

EMS shows up and attempts to use a defibrillator machine to resuscitate Superman, but fails even with the assistance of Dr. Emil Hamilton and Bibbowski aka Bibbo (friends of Superman) and a leftover LexCorp. Security Guard armed with energy blasting armor. Dr. Hamilton tries using a machine that collects energy and then channels it through paddles (like a much more powerful defibrillator machine). Again, it doesn't work. There's a line about how Superman's skin is too strong that needles will just break against it.

As a young reader, these things didn't faze me. Superman died in the issue before. He's dead now. That's it. Remember, I had no idea what I was in store for. There was an internet back then, but my friends and I didn't have computers that could access it and there certainly weren't any comic book news sites to check. Heck, I didn't even follow the Comic Book News that was given away at local comic shops! So, I was happy to follow along with the story line.

The first few issues of the story arch are mostly about Lois dealing with the loss of her fiancé, the Kents handling the death of their son while also watching the world deal with the loss of their greatest hero.  Also, we start to get clues that Lex Luthor Jr. isn't the good guy he's made everyone think he is. **Quick back story on LL Jr.: some time before Doomsday arrived, the public found out that Lex Luthor Sr. had "died" in a plane crash. Not long after that, it was announced that Luthor had a son raised secretly in Australia. We later find out that Lex Jr. is actually Lex Sr. in a cloned body. More on this in another post!** So Lex Jr. is in charge of Superman's funeral. He's arranged a parade that leads passed The Daily Planet to Centennial Park where he's had a statue erected as a memorial to Superman. Here's a pic of the statue:

Martha and Jonathon Kent don't bother trying to get to Metropolis for the funeral because of how crowded it will be. They're not wrong. The whole city turns out, along with an appearance by then President of the United States Bill Clinton along with First Lady Hilary.

As it turns out, with Superman dead, the criminals of Metropolis start coming out of the woodwork thinking the city is theirs for the taking. Before the funeral, Supergirl takes up the mantle of Metropolis' Champion, along with help from some C-List heroes like Gangbuster and The Guardian. Then the day of the funeral arrives and with it, other Super Heroes. The Justice League is back to full strength with the arrival of the core group we're all most familiar with: Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Nightwing, and Captain Marvel.

After the funeral, the heroes come together to figure out a way for them to honor Superman. They find sacks of fan mail filled with letters to Superman from people thanking him for all the good he's done for them, and some with requests for help. One of the letters is from the Mom of the high school kid and baby, who's house was destroyed while the JLA fought Doomsday. The JLA decides to help this woman by rebuilding her house and finding her son, who's gone missing. It turns out that her son, Mitch, after learning of Superman's sacrifice left home for Metropolis to find someone close to Superman and apologize for being a dickhead teenager. The letter also talks about how the father of these two kids left the family some time ago. Guy Gardner goes off on his own to track down the Dad. Soon enough they're all reunited and the JLA is able to complete their own memorial to Superman. It's a nice moment during a time of loss and sadness.

Now, I wouldn't be writing about this series if this is all that happened. Issue 5 of the series ends with a cliffhanger. It seems someone has STOLEN SUPERMAN'S BODY!!!! There's a bunch of suspects to and it's up to Lois Lane, Supergirl, and Inspector Dan "Terrible" Turpin with his partner Captain Maggie Sawyer of Metropolis PD to find it!

Remember Project Cadmus that I briefly mentioned in my post about THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN? Well, they took Superman! Over the next couple of issues, Lois and Captain Sawyer fight to get it back. All while we get a look at how the Kents are dealing with the loss of their son. Jonathon is not doing well. He doesn't sleep and Martha finds him mumbling to himself one night while digging up the spaceship that brought Clark to Earth. The Kents are overwhelmed. First they loose their son, then they find out that his body has been stolen. Jonathon is already not doing well, because of a heart condition and now Martha finds him at the spot where the spaceship crashed. He says, "This is where the rocket brought him to Earth. He seemed so helpless then. I swore I'd protect him... I'd keep him safe. But I couldn't. I... just keep thinking how he said-- 'They all want a piece of me--UHFF" and he collapses. Martha gathers him into her arms screaming, "Oh Jonathon! Not you too!"

Jonathon's condition ends one issue and leads up right into the finale of this series. Lois, with some help from some weirdos on ATVs and Supergirl, are able to rescue Superman's body from Cadmus. But Jonathon is clinging to life back in Smallville. While doctors are doing their best to bring Jonathon back, he suddenly opens his eyes says, "CLARK!" and then his eyes close as his heart monitor gives off the long sustained beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

So what happens to Jonathon Kent? Is he dead now too? Did he see a vision of Clark before he died? Now that Superman's body is back, is that the end of the story?

HELL NO! Come back next week to see how all of this wraps up and then launches us into the RETURN OF SUPERMAN story. I know, the title spoils it, but hey we get to talk about one of the more memorable times of my early comic collecting life and the sub story of Superman's return with THE REIGN OF THE SUPERMEN!

Have a great weekend!

VAGARY Part 1 words & pictures by Kevin Davis

A Closer Look at THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN Part 2: THE FIGHT!!!

This is it! The battle of the century! Unfortunately because of the title the book, we all know how it ends. Well, if you couldn't decipher the ending from THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN then I'm going to spoil it for you. Superman totally dies. But it's HOW he dies that's interesting, right?!

Doomsday has been making his way towards Metropolis, despite Superman's and the Army's best efforts to stop him. Behind him lays a path of death and destruction. The Justice League has been run over, with most of the members being brought in for medical attention. It's come down to Superman.

Supergirl (the girlfriend of Lex Luthor Jr. at the time), attempts to help Superman, but one punch from Doomsday reduces Supergirl to a protoplasmic mess. Supergirl's origin says she was actually created by the Lex Luthor of Krypton and wasn't actually a person, but a being grown in a test tube that could do incredible things including shape shift).

Just check out some of the brutal shots these two Goliaths exchange:

Readers were seeing Superman take a beating like never before. Not only was he bleeding but he is visibly bruised and weakening with each punch. And Doomsday shows NO SIGN of tiring!

Then Superman takes a piledriver from Doomsday and is temporarily put down. Doomsday turns his attention to Lois Lane who is standing nearby with Jimmy Olsen, both covering the story for the Daily Planet. Lois and Superman are also secretly engaged and Lois can't bring herself to be away from Superman while he's fighting for his life as well as the lives of everyone around him. If Superman can't stop Doomsday, then who can?

But Superman is not letting Doomsday step over him and harm his woman! He recovers a bit and delivers a devastating kidney punch!

He follows this up with a tremendous blast of heat vision!

I love the detail of Superman stepping on his battle-torn cape that's fallen off from the fight. This panel also shows Superman using up a lot of his reserve energy in order to keep Lois safe. Superman is saving people left and right, all while fighting Doomsday. Why can't Lois keep back a bit?

She does prove to give Superman a second wind though. As they're able to share one last romantic moment, which hulks up Superman and gives him a new found energy!

I remember reading this for the first time, and feeling like this was coming to a head. Not just because I could tell how many pages I had left, but the fight itself was building to something. At one point, Superman and Doomsday and fighting just outside the Daily Planet and Superman says to himself that "this is the line. I stop you here or die." They're hitting each other so hard, the windows of the building are shattering from the shockwave of their punches.

Then, they're both rear back with all they have left.

And land the final blow that ends both of their lives.

They both fall, in what must feel like slow motion. Lois rushes to Superman, cradling his head in her arms. He struggles to breath, but is able to weakly ask, "Did I do it? Did I stop him?" To which Lois replies, "Yes, you did it. You saved us all." And with that, the greatest hero the world has ever seen succumbs to his wounds and breathes his last, his head falling back as Lois explodes in sobs and tears.

What an issue! So many feels! Writers did a fantastic job capturing the raw emotion, and keeping the action grounded pretty well. I felt as if this was a very realistic way for Superman to die. He would go out making sure that everyone was safe. What do you think?

Next up: what happens to the world without it's Superman? I'll talk about it next week in the follow up story to Superman's Death. WORLD WITHOUT SUPERMAN/FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND. Thanks for reading, have a great weekend!

A Closer Look at The Death of Superman Part 1

Imagine if you will, that you are a 10 year old boy with a love of super heroes. For your entire life you've believed that Superman is the greatest super hero ever created and that he'll be around forever. Now, what would go through your 10 year old brain when you heard that DC Comics was going to kill off Superman?

I was mad. Hahaha yeah. I remember being mad about it. I had no concept of issue sales or marketing techniques, all I had was my love of a character. And I could not, for the life of me, understand why DC would want to kill off someone as beloved and well known as Superman. I mean, he's probably the most iconic super hero of all time. Everyone knows who Superman is, so why would the powers that be want him dead?

Those feelings didn't stick around too long, because pretty shortly after this I started to ask myself better questions. Specifically, HOW would they kill off a character with the amount of power that Superman has?

That's what I'm going to talk about today. 25 years ago I had no answers to that question, and now I have PLENTY. THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN was my, along with thousands of others, first look at how Superman could be stopped. I had yet to read THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, with it's awesome fight between Batman and Superman, and so I had no idea just what was possible.

The writers of THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN (Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Louise Simonson, and Roger Stern) chose the same route my 10 year old self would have thought was the ONLY for Superman to die. To go down fighting a being of equal brute force.

What I didn't know how to do back then, was build up a character that readers would believe was capable of not only fighting against Superman, but actually hurting him. Until this story, I had never seen Superman bleed, and couldn't fathom Superman being beaten in a fight.

Then came Doomsday. Introduced in the pages of Superman The Man of Steel #18 with a warning. The first panels of the issue are of a gloved fist striking against solid steel wall. With each blow, the glove tears away revealing a hand with spikes of bone protruding from the knuckles. The words of warning telling us that "unrelentingly, unstoppably, and unbelievably... Doomsday is coming." And finally, as the fist breaks through the steel wall, we're told that "Doomsday is here!"

Meanwhile, back in Metropolis, Superman is busy stopping monsters (created by the Cadmus Project, a secret government funded research facility located just outside of Metropolis that will add more to the story later. Cadmus is really into cloning wink, wink, hint, hint) from invading the city from the sewers. It's a nice, short little adventure to keep Superman from responding to what is happening a few states away.

What is happening is that Doomsday is running wild! We see him (still under a hood, with one arm tied behind his back) wreaking absolute havoc around the countryside. After killing a few animals and laughing about it, Doomsday finds a populated highway and comes face to face with a tractor trailer truck. The truck is moving to fast to swerve out of the way, but it doesn't matter anyway. Doomsday lands one punch and the truck erupts in flames! Who will stop this monster? Well, the trucks dispatcher decides it's time to contact THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA!

During this time, the JLA didn't have the major players that most of us are familiar with. Example, there was no Wonder Woman, Batman, Shazam, Green Lantern, Cyborg, or Aquaman. Instead it was Blue Beetle (aka, Ted Kord, who was more of a scientist than a super hero), Fire (a Human Torch like character that used green fire instead of traditional fire colors, and also a lady), Ice (had freezing powers much like Iceman, but not encased in ice), former Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Guy is a cool character that was kicked out of the GL Corps. At this point he wore a power ring that was just like the GL ring, except it was powered by "gold energy" which would later be revealed to be a yellow power ring), Bloodwynd (awful name, mysterious and boring character. It was later revealed that he was actually The Martian Manhunter J'onn J'onzz, but that isn't relevant to this story. Bloodwynd, aside from having a name that sounds like a really painful fart, would "call upon the spirits of the dead" to strengthen him. That strength was comparable to Superman), Booster Gold (a time traveling goofball, which a power suit capable of powerful energy blasts and generating force fields), and Maxima (an alien from the planet Almerac. She has limited telepathic/telekinetic powers, can fly, and is nearly as strong as and as invulnerable as Superman). These characters, while not the classic JLA, still were tough enough to handle most threats to the USA.

How do you prove how strong and dangerous Doomsday to your readers? Well taking out the Justice League all at the same time will do the trick quite nicely!

At one point, Doomsday hits Booster Gold so hard that he's sent flying miles into the air where's he's caught by Superman.

Awesome way to introduce Superman to the situation. Booster warns Superman about how deadly Doomsday is, but Superman is confident that he can handle it, especially with the combined might of Superman and the JLA. Superman confronts Doomsday with a determined confidence, which could also be taken as cockiness. The first little reveal of a Superman weakness.

Superman takes a full punch to the gut from Doomsday and just stands there. Impressive, yes, but totally naïve.

A split second later, Superman is caught off guard by a side kick from Doomsday that sends him hurtling through a tree and a house with a Mom and her baby inside. The gas line gets knocked loose and a fire breaks out, trapping the Mother and her baby. A side story going along at the same time tells us that this is the mother of a teenager as well, who doesn't like Superman and thinks he's just a goodie two shoes boy scout.

The Justice League regroup and try to use their energy powers to destroy Doomsday. Fire, Ice, Bloodwynd, Booster Gold, Guy Gardner, and Superman all blast the monster with everything they've got engulfing Doomsday in flames. Once they're spent, they stop to see if they're successful, but the result is exactly the opposite of what they wanted. Not only is Doomsday still alive, he is completely free of his bonds and tramples over the League as if they were nothing!

Doomsday then leaps into the air like the Hulk, and Superman quickly follows after him. But just as he's about to catch up to Doomsday, he hears the teenager yelling for help about his Mom and baby sister. Instead of immediately rushing off to save the lady and her baby, Superman says a silent apology, deciding that stopping Doomsday is more important. And so he engages with Doomsday, in a short scuffle, that sees Superman burying Doomsday at the bottom of a lake. Superman decides that's good enough for now and flies back to rescue the lady and baby just in the nick of time! This shows us another weakness of Superman. His inability to be in two places at the same time, and his insistence that every life is special. Doomsday existence puts EVERYONE'S life in danger, and so Superman must fight harder than ever before at the same time as keeping as many people from harm as possible. His plate is fully loaded.

So Doomsday escapes from his murky prison, and bursts out of the water to find a military helicopter targeting him. He leaps through the chopper, destroying it, and causes the missiles it's carrying to misfire. Superman, however, returns just in time to rescue both pilots and destroy each missile before they can cause any collateral damage. BUT, because of his rescue efforts, Superman has allowed Doomsday to escape again! This time, the monster lands outside the doors of the Kirby County Police Department. Just before Doomsday can take his wrath out on the Police Chief and his deputy, Superman arrives to take the fight to Doomsday. The battle causes a butt load of property damage. Buildings are knocked down, the street is torn up, and then another military helicopter arrives to "help" Superman. The helicopter only serves to annoy Doomsday, who grabs a street light and impales the helicopter causing it to crash.

Then Maxima returns from getting Blue Beetle medical attention earlier. This could be the real help Superman needs! The fight is ferocious, but in the confusion of everything Maxima goes to use a streetlight as weapon just as Superman realizes they've just taken gas fumes from a nearby gas station are leaking. The broken streetlight creates enough sparks to ignite the gas fumes and all 3 combatants are caught in the explosion!

When the smoke clears, only Superman and Maxima are there. Doomsday, once again, has escaped.

So far we see Superman has his hands full. Not only with Doomsday and the death and devastation he's causing, but also with the distraction of other heroes or military personnel trying to assist him.

Superman is very smart, and almost always aware of his surroundings, especially when civilians are involved. So his strategy quickly becomes, "let's get this monster the hell away from here!" But before he can do that, he finds Doomsday tearing up a Lexmart (a Lex Luthor owned supermarket). And in the cheesiest moment of the story, Doomsday sees a commercial for a Pro Wrestling event in Metropolis. Doomsday seems to take the commercial as a challenge, and growls out the word "Mrrr-trrr-pplsss". Then Superman arrives and punches him out of town.

Check out Part 2 for the FINAL SHOWDOWN!!!!

Movie Challenge

I've been challenged to list my favorite movie that was released in each year that I've been alive.

1981 - Raiders of the Lost Ark
1982 - The Dark Crystal
1983 - Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
1984 - Ghostbusters
1985 - The Goonies
1986 - Crocodile Dundee
1987 - Predator
1988 - Die Hard
1989 - Batman
1990 - Total Recall
1991 - Terminator 2: Judgement Day
1992 - Unforgiven
1993 - Jurassic Park
1994 - Dumb & Dumber
1995 - Die Hard With a Vengeance
1996 - Happy Gilmore
1997 - LA Confidential
1998 - The Big Lebowski
1999 - The Matrix
2000 - Me, Myself, and Irene
2001 - Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings
2002 - Spider-Man
2003 - X2: X-Men United
2004 - Shaun of the Dead
2005 - Batman Begins
2006 - Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
2007 - No Country for Old Men
2008 - Iron Man
2009 - Zombieland
2010 - Toy Story 3
2011 - Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
2012 - Marvel's The Avengers
2013 - This Is The End
2014 - Guardians of the Galaxy
2015 - Star Wars: The Force Awakens
2016 - A TIE!!!! Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and The Nice Guys
2017 - so far... Logan

Now I challenge you!

The Death of Superman

How do you kill a being that has almost god-like power? Why would you kill off a character that has been popular since the 1930's? How would the death of a beloved character effect a 10 year old boy just learning about story arches and character development?

These were some of the questions that I asked myself in 1991 when the DEATH OF SUPERMAN event was announced. I was 10 years old and comics were just starting to become my obsession. This event would solidify my love of comic books for the rest of my life.

The 1990's were an interesting time for comic books. The campy comic book era ended in the mid-80's, marked by the popularity of Frank Miller's THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, the growing popularity of The X-Men, and the world shaking event CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. Readers didn't want their heroes to just be catching crooks and stopping bank robberies. The X-Men helped bring social issues to the forefront of comic book story telling, and ushered in an era of Marvel Comics the likes of which had never been seen. The comic book bubble was created.

DC comics was in a strange place. Here they had the most well known super heroes in history but did not have any idea what to do with them! Superman was an unstoppable boy scout who had only recently proposed to Lois Lane and revealed his true identity to her. This was huge! Lois Lane had not known that Clark Kent was Superman for 52 years! But the reveal worked and a true romance was able to be written for Clark and Lois. It also added some emotional weight to the upcoming DEATH OF SUPERMAN.

I remember reading about this event in a magazine or hearing it on the news. Since Superman was so well known, his death was pretty big news. This was also at a time in comic books that characters weren't killed off that often. Barry Allen's Flash had been killed off in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS in 1986 and had yet to return, so the prospect of Superman being killed off was quite extreme to a 10 year old who had no idea what marketing was. I couldn't see beyond the title of the storyline.

This event actually got my Dad into comic books a little bit. I remember him taking me to my favorite comic shop near my Grandma's house when issue #75 dropped...

... (the actual issue Superman dies) and taught me about first printings and buying multiple issues at a time. I still have multiple copies of the newsstand Superman #75 as well as the sealed Collector's Edition (see the 2nd pic in this post) that came with the front page of The Daily Planet, a black memorial armband, a DEATH OF SUPERMAN poster, and a few trading cards. This was a lesson I'd remember forever. Little did I know that I was one of thousands of people learning about this. The comic book bubble was growing at an incredible rate and would finally pop in the late 90's, but DC wouldn't be the loser. Marvel Comics would face bankruptcy and would eventually sell off the movie rights to their most popular characters (Spider-Man to Sony Studios, and X-Men to Fox) in order to stay afloat. To this day, copies of Superman #75 are worth next to nothing, yet people still come to comic book shops hoping to cash their copy in for a big pay day.

Superman's death was both culturally and historically significant. The fight with Doomsday, his death, and eventual return are still referenced in modern day comic books, despite the DC comics canon timeline has been altered multiple times since.

So why would they want to kill off a character as well known and popular as Superman? Well, despite Clark Kent revealing his identity to Lois Lane and their engagement being new to Superman stories. Monthly comic sales were not doing very well and writers were running out of things to do with both Superman and (believe it or not) Batman. Around this time, Bruce Wayne would be temporarily replaced by Jean Paul Valley aka Azrael in another iconic 90's story BATMAN: KNIGHTFALL, but that's will have to have it's very own post.

Coming this week! A more detailed look at the story of THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN, and that's not all! After that I'll be continuing the story after Superpoop's death and discuss the follow up story entitled A WORLD WITHOUT SUPERMAN also known as A FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND,

then I'll follow that up with a look at THE REIGN OF THE SUPERMEN,

and then I'll tie it all up with THE RETURN OF SUPERMAN!

So stay tuned for the next couple of days or weeks, however long it takes me as we follow one of the most fun and significant Superman stories of all time!