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!