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Steven Myers
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Joined: 10 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 5624
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| Posted: 20 November 2017 at 5:55pm | IP Logged | 1
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I eventually read Roger Stern's novelization, but still not the comics. I really like the novel. In it, Superman does try to fly Doomday off-planet. Mostly, I think Rog did great introducing a lot of characters. Not being a Superman reader, I didn't know many of them.
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Joe Hollon
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 08 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 13675
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| Posted: 20 November 2017 at 6:20pm | IP Logged | 2
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The hype surrounding THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN did get me to
branch out from being almost exclusively a Marvel Zombie
buying kid up to that point.
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Brian O'Neill
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Joined: 13 November 2013
Location: United States
Posts: 1964
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| Posted: 20 November 2017 at 6:41pm | IP Logged | 3
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Robbie:Didn't follow it. The local shop only stocked THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN. Occasionally, once in a blue moon, SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL might show up.
I was nowhere near a comic store at the time, was living in a semi-rural area. At that point in my life, I realized how impenetrable comic events had become. If "The Death of Superman" had been published in, say, 1978, I am sure it'd have been a four-part tale taking place in one title.
I'd moved on from Superman by then, and didn't follow it, although I recall the news coverage, of both that first issue, and the funeral(Rush Limbaugh went off on 'those commie-libs at DC Comics' when it was announced that Bill Clinton had been drawn(before the election) as the President attending the funeral).
The whole 'stories crossing over between two different titles starring the same character' bit had been done before; Marvel had been doing it with a couple of the Spider-Man books, not to mention all the X-Men 'ongoing sagas'. DC had tried it for an issue or two with the Superman and Batman solo titles in the late '60s/early '70s(the first few issues after Dick Grayson left for college, and Bruce started the Wayne Foundation, crossed between BATMAN and DETECTIVE). More recently, for a few years before CRISIS, SUPERMAN and ACTION, as well as Batman's books, were treated as if each hero was starring in a soap opera..and, in my case, I also had trouble following along. For some reason, SUPERMAN was available at 7-Eleven every month, but ACTION wasn't...until DC gave up on that story format, and turned ACTION into three self-contained 8-pagers per issue. As for Bruce Wayne..well, one month, I'd find DETECTIVE, the next I might find BATMAN...but almost never in the same month! I missed a lot of 'Part 1's that way! That changed around 1985, for whatever reason.
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Joseph Greathouse
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 August 2015
Location: United States
Posts: 588
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| Posted: 20 November 2017 at 9:02pm | IP Logged | 4
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I was a Marvel guy. I went into the shop to pick up my regular books. I had asked the owners to pull me a couple of copies. So they were in my stack. I opened one and read it. I think that is the only time. I remained a Marvel guy.
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Matt Hawes
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 16428
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| Posted: 20 November 2017 at 9:54pm | IP Logged | 5
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Andrew W. Farago wrote:
| ...I can celebrate the 25th anniversary of this post in 2042, if anyone wants to have a party for it... |
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I will celebrate if we are still alive at that point. :-)
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Matt Hawes
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 16428
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| Posted: 20 November 2017 at 10:03pm | IP Logged | 6
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Y'know, the whole gimmicky thing about "The Death Of Superman" can kind of cast an unfortunate shadow for some over that period of Superman. However, I believe that, as a rule, the period from the mid/late 1980s' through to the early/mid 1990s' for the Superman line of titles it was one of the most consistently well-written and entertaining series put out.
They weren't always the best, hardly ever the worst, but they were nearly always a solid read. No small part due to the creators during that era, including (earlier on) JB. Beginning with his run, along with Marv Wolfman, Louise Simonson, Dan Jurgens, and Roger Stern (and the rest), it was a great period for Superman that ended somewhere around 1994/95 (after which we started to get electric Superman, among other things).
It's a shame that "The Death of Superman" has come to symbolize the excess and publisher/retailer/collector greed of those times.
Edited by Matt Hawes on 20 November 2017 at 10:05pm
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Petter Myhr Ness
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Joined: 02 July 2009
Location: Norway
Posts: 3823
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| Posted: 21 November 2017 at 3:22am | IP Logged | 7
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I agree with you about the period, Matt. Superman comics were by far my favourite read during that period; Byrne, Stern, Perez, Jurgens - so much great talent.
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Veli Loponen
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Joined: 19 April 2004
Location: Finland
Posts: 78
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| Posted: 21 November 2017 at 3:43am | IP Logged | 8
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Death of Superman is IMHO one of greatest superhero stories. I know it's not
deep or great story artistically. Its greatness is in its action. It's one long
superhero fight from start to end and no excuses are given. It's light reading,
entertaining and easy (you really don't need to know anything about the
characters or their backstories).
But at the same time I could live with out it also especially they resurrected
Superman after it. It could be a decent end for Superman continuity Byrne
started that had already begun to go to wrong way. And after resurrection it
went even worse.
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John Popa
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Joined: 20 March 2008
Posts: 4368
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| Posted: 21 November 2017 at 12:34pm | IP Logged | 9
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I was just out of high school and was starting to move from a kid who read comics to a kid who 'knew' about the business (meaning I'd met a couple pros, knew my local dealers and read CBG.) It was an exciting time for me, at least! I was never a big Superman reader, although I did speculate on the Death issues. I ended up reading the Kesel/Grummett Superboy title after everything shook out, though, and enjoyed it.
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Peter Martin
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Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 15781
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| Posted: 21 November 2017 at 2:00pm | IP Logged | 10
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I was still collecting and reading comics regularly at the time, but I didn't buy or read any of the issues until years later when someone gave me the trade as a birthday or Christmas gift (and I didn't think it was much cop). Batman and Detective Comics were the only DC titles I bought regularly back then, I think, and I also gave these kind of hyped events a big swerve, having been kind of burnt by the experience in 1991 with the launch of X-Force and the new X-Men title and, before that, the frenzy over the new Spider-Man title in 1990.
I think by the time of the Death of Superman I'd garnered enough wisdom to know you could always go back and check things out after the dust had settled and most of the actual comics behind these hyped events weren't really very good.
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Adam Schulman
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Joined: 22 July 2017
Posts: 1717
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| Posted: 21 November 2017 at 3:03pm | IP Logged | 11
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It really screwed up the comics industry and I wish it hadn't been published. Plus, Superman #75 is an awful comic.
There were many talented people working on the Superman titles at that time, I agree, but they were wasting their talents on a storyline that shouldn't have started in the first place. At least, not in the way that it was done.
That said, Dan Jurgens is much, much, much better writer now than he was then.
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