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Matt Hawes
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
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| Posted: 20 November 2017 at 5:09am | IP Logged | 1
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Wow... Truly time flies!
While cover dated January 1993, "Superman" #75 was published and distributed in 1992, making this technically the 25th anniversary of that event which rocked the comic book industry and set it on a course of similar "big events" for years to comes.
There were event comics before, naturally, but this one got such media hype and impacted on the industry so much that in some ways the comics industry still has yet to recover from it. Heck, "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" and the recent "Justice League" films draw directly from that storyline.
In 1992/1993 I had yet to open my own comic shop (that would come in 1996), but I was employed at another comic shop during this period, so I witnessed firsthand how crazy it was. There was a line outside the door of fans, speculators, curious members of the public, and others who took interest in the comic where the first real superhero seemingly met his end. I recall people asking me if I thought he would stay dead, but ever a cynic and realist, I'd point out that the trademark is worth to much to DC alone for that to happen.
What are your thoughts and memories about this major comic book event?
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Don Zomberg
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Joined: 23 November 2005
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| Posted: 20 November 2017 at 7:00am | IP Logged | 2
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I'd never seen a company give away the ending of a storyline in a press release before.
"Superman will give his life stopping a monster named Doomsday and die at the foot of the steps of the Daily Planet. Be sure and buy multiple copies, suckers!"
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Andrew Bitner
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| Posted: 20 November 2017 at 7:51am | IP Logged | 3
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SUPERMAN 75 was a pretty good book, generally, but it wasn't well served by the issues leading up to it. "Death of Superman" as a storytelling crossover ranged from okay to mediocre.
Let's break it down:
- The then-nameless monster breaks out of his steel egg, manages to loose one arm, goes on his first rampage.
- He confronts the Justice League, then kind of a mixed bag of heroes, and beats them *with one arm tied behind his back.* (Literally.) Booster Gold names him Doomsday when Superman arrives.
- Superman and Doomsday trade punches, Superman realizes he's really strong but doesn't alter his strategy of punching him (maybe flying him up into space would work?). Superman takes breaks to save endangered bystanders, giving Doomsday the chance to keep moving toward his target: Metropolis. (Why? He saw a wrestling commercial.)
- Superman's costume gets torn up a lot and he's bloodied a bit. Doomsday isn't notably worn down. Lois Lane's final scene with Superman isn't much of a tearjerker given what we know is coming (IMHO).
- At the Daily Planet, they put their all into it and... bang, they're both dead.
It was a major event. It would be hard to duplicate it in this day and age, especially with Superman--they've already been there. It sold a lot of comics. That's what DC wanted and that's what it got.
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Eric Sofer
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Joined: 31 January 2014
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| Posted: 20 November 2017 at 9:13am | IP Logged | 4
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I hated it. Completely. The media circus was not worth it, was so exaggerated, and while it was great for sales - including those damned speculators - it wasn't all that great a story.
It had the same real world taint to it that the Legion of Super-Heroes had in context of the comics - we know that Superman/boy will survive, because he has to. The real question was, how long will they drag the damned thing out?
It demonstrated a couple of things to me...
1) At that point, Superman comics could do pretty well without Superman in them. This had been shown by the plethora of supporting characters who took a lot of page time away from Superman before he died... at times, looking at those, I wonder why the books weren't called "Friends of Superman, guest-starring Superman." Two (three?) years of books after that, they finally brought Superman back... and while I don't know the sales over that time, I can't imagine they fell too far.
2) The editor(s) wrote Superman at this time, and the writers were just dialoguing the existing story. Hell, they bragged of their "super summits" where storylines were discussed and designated. "Death of Superman" etc. HAD to follow a very strict storyline. What could a writer do? No creativity. No varying. They were scripting chapter eleventeen of a forty-twelve part serial. "You dialogue it, Roger."
3) The second the Justice League got involved, the restrictions should have been off. The JLA went down? Where were the Outsiders, the Titans, the JSA, Captain Marvel, Green Lantern, etc? They did it in "Panic in the Sky" - so it HAD precedence. Yes, I know, "they had their own cases", "they didn't want to intrude on Superman's fight." So what's more important - tracking the Force of July or saving Superman's life?
4) The solution was simple and it bothered me that Superman never did it. Throw Doomsday into orbit. THROW DOOMSDAY INTO ORBIT. It obviously couldn't fly, and it was obviously tough enough to survive vacuum (and even if not... it had killed HUNDREDS. Once again, that crappy writing shows up - either I kill it, or thousands more die.)
Pfah. Mr. Byrne did it better in 22 pages.
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Robbie Parry
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Joined: 17 June 2007
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| Posted: 20 November 2017 at 9:38am | IP Logged | 5
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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 have read some issues, but not the whole arc.
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Petter Myhr Ness
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Joined: 02 July 2009
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| Posted: 20 November 2017 at 10:10am | IP Logged | 6
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I was reading it monthly at the time, and I really did NOT like that storyline - and especially the ones that followed! In many ways, it lead to me moving on to other things before returning to superhero comics in the early 2000s.
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Michael Roberts
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| Posted: 20 November 2017 at 10:26am | IP Logged | 7
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I still have my multiple polybagged copies of Superman #75 sealed, ready to fund my vacation home purchase.
I was perfectly aware at the time that all of this was a stunt, but the surrounding media coverage sort of validated comic collecting for my parents, and they stopped giving me shit about buying them afterward.
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Andrew W. Farago
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| Posted: 20 November 2017 at 2:38pm | IP Logged | 8
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The Death of Superman was pretty underwhelming as a story, but the Return of Superman was a blast. Louise Simonson, Jon Bogdanove, Karl Kesel, Tom Grummett, Dan Jurgens, Roger Stern, Jackson Guice, all working together on a weekly serialized mystery that unfolded over the course of the summer of '93...that was a lot of fun. That core group was making some great comics before and after the Death storyline, and I'm still a big fan of that era.
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Andrew Bitner
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| Posted: 20 November 2017 at 2:42pm | IP Logged | 9
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I liked the Return set of stories much more than the Death of stories.
My favorite new character out of that remains the all-new Superboy, Kon-El.
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Mark Haslett
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| Posted: 20 November 2017 at 3:33pm | IP Logged | 10
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I avoided it until a well intended relative bought the TPB for me. I was surprised by the all-splash format of the final confrontation. It completely sapped what little oomph the storyline had going for it so the finale came across as almost literally by-the-numbers.
25 Years.
It ain't what it used to be.
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Andrew W. Farago
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| Posted: 20 November 2017 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | 11
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25 Years.
It ain't what it used to be.
When Marvel turned 25, 15 of those years happened before I was born, so it seemed like a long, long time ago.
Now that the mid-nineties is getting into 25 years ago territory, it sinks in that literally everything reaches that anniversary eventually. I can celebrate the 25th anniversary of this post in 2042, if anyone wants to have a party for it.
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Joe Zhang
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| Posted: 20 November 2017 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | 12
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I remember people lined up in the morning downtown, waiting for the news seller to open. The line didn't quite reach a block. I wasn't a Superman reader then, so I wasn't part of the line.
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