Where Do You Rank "the Death of Superman" Among Superman Stories?

[An Ear In The Fireplace]

The death itself is unimpressive--I much prefer the original "Death of Superman"--but it was an impressive event, it showed how well organized DC was at that time that they could pull it off and orchestrate all those titles, keeping everything on schedule, and coordinating all their creative teams, and working the promotional machine. It also became a central reference point in the histories of all the DC characters.

[kingaliencracker]

The Death of Superman was basic, predictable, and formulaic.

Funeral for a Friend/World Without a Superman was poignant and touching.

Reign of the Supermen was absolutely fantastic and epic.

[dancj]

The Death of Superman was really not very good.

Some love it, but I found Funeral for a Friend pretty dull.

The Reign of the Supermen (aka The Return of Superman) is one of the all time best Superman stories. Big, stupid and just crazy fun!

[manduck37]

Much like Sacred Knight, this was where I could jump into Superman comics. Though really, Death of Superman is a terrible story. If you could even call it a story. It was a prolonged fight scene really. No real story to speak of, just punching. The really good stuff was Funeral for a Friend and Reign of the Superman. What came after the death was the good stuff. The actual death itself would never make a top list for me. Unless that was top list was worst comic stories of all time. In which case it would be tied with Knightfall at no. 1.

[davidgrantlloyd]

Jerry Siegel once wrote a 'Death of Superman' story back in the day where Lex killed him through Kryptonite poisoning ... I think that one was much better.

[manofsteel1979]

The Death of Superman was basic, predictable, and formulaic.

Funeral for a Friend/World Without a Superman was poignant and touching.

Reign of the Supermen was absolutely fantastic and epic.

+1

The Death itself was a vehicle to tell two much better stories. It was the later two arcs that really got me hooked on Superman and comics in general after a several year off and on flirtation up to that point. Right around that time KNIGHTFALL began for Batman, and after that...I was all in. Those stories were the reason I still buy, read and collect comics and I consider them the core of my collection.

Oh and on November 18th, it will have been officially 20 years since the release of Superman (vol2) #75. Unbelievable.

[Ultradav]

The Death storyline was quick and to the point. I liked the ever-decreasing panel effect as we got closer to the death issue. I enjoyed the ongoing speculation over Doomsday's origins with every issue. We never did find out(in that storyline) where Doomsday came from, or why he did what he did, which made it all the more terrifying and like real life(people die and it's often with no rhyme or reason which is part of what makes it terrifying).

The Funeral For A Friend storyline was low on action, but high on emotional depth. I totally cried when Pa Kent had his heart attack toward the end. As a kid reading this, seeing the blank next issue box at the end made me truly doubt for a moment that Superman would ever come back.

The Reign storyline was epic. It was an unfolding mystery, trying to figure out which of these four was the true heir to Superman, whether the Cyborg or Eradicator actually WERE Superman. I was genuinely shocked when the Cyborg turned.

All together, this trilogy was one of the best storylines.

[Rithmomachy]

I was close to the perfect age for getting into comics when I read Death of Superman and I barely looked at a comic again for over ten years because even as I kid I thought it was a terrible non-story. I missed out on a lot of good storytelling because that story was so bad it turned me off comics. Literally the worst story I've read in a comic book.

[stk]

I was close to the perfect age for getting into comics when I read Death of Superman and I barely looked at a comic again for over ten years because even as I kid I thought it was a terrible non-story. I missed out on a lot of good storytelling because that story was so bad it turned me off comics. Literally the worst story I've read in a comic book.

Well, if you had to quit comics for 10 years, that was probably just about the best time to do it there will ever be (maybe leaving 3 years earlier and coming back 3 years earlier would have been a little better, though). You did miss some good stuff, but you missed far, far more bad stuff.

[dupersuper]

Well, if you had to quit comics for 10 years, that was probably just about the best time to do it there will ever be (maybe leaving 3 years earlier and coming back 3 years earlier would have been a little better, though). You did miss some good stuff, but you missed far, far more bad stuff.

Seriously? They missed Funeral and Return, Waid Flash/Impulse, Morrison JLA/Animal Man/Doom Patrol/Invisibles, Sandman, Starman, beginning of Vertigo, Busiek/Perez Avengers, Kingdom Come, Marvels, Ostrander Martian Manhunter and Spectre, Peter David Hulk/Aquaman/Supergirl/Young Justice, Vext, Priest Steel, Batman Adventures, Superman Adventures... I weep for them.

[z1co80]

I know this is an old thread and i am not sure it should be bumped but i just needed somewhere i could say just how bad i actually found this story. I didn''t want to start a thread just to hate on the story so i thought using an existing thread would be better.

I have just started reading Superman over the past week and so far i have read For All Seasons which was brilliant, Birthright which was outstanding and i loved everything about it, Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow and For The Man Who Has Everything which were both pretty good even if they felt a bit dated. I then read Lex Luthor: Man Of Steel which i thought was very good but then i read the Death Of Superman and thought it was terrible. It was just pretty dumb.

I had read that A World Without Superman was supposed to better than the Death Of Superman but i couldn't even finish it, I got to when Jonathan drops to his knees and needs to be taken to a hospital and Lois and the Underworlders manage to get into Cadmus with Lois turning into some badasss beating the shit out of people and i just gave up.

I have the Return Of Superman sitting there along with the Doomsday Omnibus and i am not even going to bother reading them. Just going to skip forward and read Kingdom Come then Red Son and try and forget i ever read Death Of Superman and The World Without Superman.

[Ice Wolf]

Seriously read Return of Superman you wont regret it.

[Ismail's Light]

Seriously read Return of Superman you wont regret it.

Not sure about that. I mean, yeah, it is probably better than both Death of Superman and World Without Superman (haven't read the whole thing in ages, but that's the impression I got), but not by such a wide margin that you probably won't hate it either if you hated the first two.

[stk]

I know this is an old thread and i am not sure it should be bumped but i just needed somewhere i could say just how bad i actually found this story. I didn''t want to start a thread just to hate on the story so i thought using an existing thread would be better.

I keep trying to warn people.

It's too late to help you, but others may yet be spared. Pass the word.

[Auguste Dupin]

Yeah, the whole thing is pretty much crap.
Funeral for a Friend works for a while, but even that drags for too long.
Honestly, I just sold the thing right after my first reading, and never looked back.