Death of Superman - 20 years later

[Slam_Bradley]

I thought it was ridiculous at the time and time hasn't changed that opinion. It was fait accompli that he'd be back. Te whole thing was much ado about a crappy story with a worse than crappy villain.

[shaxper]

I thought it was ridiculous at the time and time hasn't changed that opinion. It was fait accompli that he'd be back. Te whole thing was much ado about a crappy story with a worse than crappy villain.

I think it's fair to call the marketing event both absurd and a reflection of the worst of what the comic industry had the potential to be, but given that starting point, I think it shaped up to be a very solid story in and of itself.

[dupont2005]

Before the death of Superman I had bought a few Superman and Action comics, but very few. I wasn't a huge fan of the character but I tended to buy whatever looked cool in the bargain bin. When it was announced I thought DC had balls of steel, I thought they were really going to kill off their most iconic character forever, and not replace him with a virtual clone in the same suit, going by the same name, continuing the same long running series. I thought there would be no more Superman, no more Action Comics. I actually started buying a few of the Doomsday comics and reading up, thinking it was a historic event. Of course it wasn't, and that really soured me on DC. Then Knightfall pretty much did the same exact thing, except I actually was a Batman fan. So after that I felt betrayed by comics, and soon after quit reading them. I had realized how stupid they were, and could never take super heroes seriously again. It was like telling four year old me that Santa wasn't real.

[dupont2005]

You know, that's the funny part. I truly have never seen an unopened polybagged copy in a dollar bin. I generally still see them going for $5 to $10 and even still proudly displayed on the walls of some comic shops. Somehow, despite all the other hyped comics that have fallen from grace since the '90s, fans have never fully let this one go.

I sold an unopened copy for 50 cents. They are easy to come by on eBay for sure.

[MDG]

I distinctly remember the outrage I felt that my LCS was pulling them out of the box and selling them for $10 a piece unless it had been on your pull list.

That was a fairly common practice for "hot" books in the late 80s-early 90s. Even earlier for things like Howard the Duck #1.

I sold an unopened copy for 50 cents. They are easy to come by on eBay for sure.

I was at a comic show with my son about six months after the bagged edition came out and my son picked one up fior fairly cheap. We were sitting and my son (about 9) mentioned that he didn't know whether to open it and people started trying to convince him to either open it ("that what comics are for!") or leave it in the bag ("it's a collectable!").

I have (what I think is) a pretty rare DC collectable from around this time. I'll try to find it and post a photo tonite.

[shaxper]

I was just giving this some more thought and realized for the first time how odd it was that the most hyped/marketed book of the 1990s didn't come in variant editions -- no five different covers, different trading cards included, nor extra incentive gold polybag editions. Aside from the newsstand version (non-polybagged), there was only one way to get this thing.

In hindsight, I think that was the right call from a sales perspective. It made the regular edition seem to be the highly collectible one and so, even though hundreds of thousands of copies were printed, people bought and hoarded as many as they could as instant collectibles. Had there been five variants, I think more people would have limited themselves to five copies and, had there been an ultra exclusive variant considered more rare than the regular version, people would have just bought one copy of that extra expensive edition. Instead, you ended up with some people hoarding 10 copies of the regular edition, and I'm sure someone out there bought a long box worth.

[Scott Shaw!]

What about Superman's "death" and "rebirth" themselves? As I recall, it all boiled down to "He died but he got better." Not only lazy writing, but a sure-fire way to piss off those who began or returned to reading funnybooks due to this overblown stunt. Marketing ruined comics, in my opinion.

Aloha,

Scott!

[Reptisaurus!]

Completely ruined for me by the crappy art. Superman-who-mysteriously-gained-Plastic-Man's-body-modfication-powers vs. the Hulk who-is-reflected-in-a-funhouse mirror.

I liked all the four different Supermen foofaroo that came after it, though.

[shaxper]

What about Superman's "death" and "rebirth" themselves? As I recall, it all boiled down to "He died but he got better." Not only lazy writing, but a sure-fire way to piss off those who began or returned to reading funnybooks due to this overblown stunt.

I was sure I was remembering this wrong, by my memory from adolescence was something like Pa Kent helped him decide to just wake up in his coffin. Was it truly that stupid of an explanation?

Marketing ruined comics, in my opinion.

And it's a pretty widely held opinion, at that.

[thwhtGuardian]

I liked the rebirth story a lot, I haven't read it in years so it's possible my measure of it is over inflated but I loved that issue where Pa Kent traveled through the afterlife looking for his son. And after all the run around by various spirits and demons he finally finds Clark and helps him realize that he's not done yet and then they both help each other back to the world of the living.

It struck me as very mythic, like Orpheus attempting to bring back Euridice, or Persepone's return from Hades. I grew up with the Greek myths right along with superheroes so the idea that death could be transitory never bothered me.

[Roquefort Raider]

Stunt.

I was far more affected, in those days, by the many deaths in Legion of super-heroes. Those usually stuck.

(Until Legion reboots were invented, that is).

[shaxper]

It struck me as very mythic, like Orpheus attempting to bring back Euridice, or Persepone's return from Hades. I grew up with the Greek myths right along with superheroes so the idea that death could be transitory never bothered me.

Excellent comparison, though I would argue that the very point of those stories was how impossible it was to do just that. Orpheus' tragic failure in that story is one that virtually any person would have made, and yet his struggle to get as far as he did was super-humanly monumental. Message I received: If Orpheus couldn't do it, no one can. Don't f*ck with death; just let your loved ones go.

[dan bailey]

Stunt.

I was far more affected, in those days, by the many deaths in Legion of super-heroes. Those usually stuck.

(Until Legion reboots were invented, that is).

I've lost track -- is Ferro Lad still dead?

[thwhtGuardian]

I always took it the other way, if you did try hard enough and loved strong enough you could make it through. It doesn't work like that in real life, I know well enough, but in fiction? I've always enjoyed that message, and the image of Pa grasping Clark's hand and pulling him back really struck me.

I think I'm going to need re-read that issue, though seeing the fight with Doomsday was cool Pa's trip to the after-life during his own ear death experience was my favorite part.

Plus, the cover was amazing:

[shaxper]

Plus, the cover was amazing:

I always thought it looked like Supes was going to take Pa's hand and then sucker punch him in the face

But yes, I see and respect your viewpoint, and you're making me look forward to reading that issue again in a year or two, when my Superman reviews thread finally gets there..