What's new in comic books?
How about Superman being killed in issue No. 75 of Superman Comics, due out Nov. 18?That's not new! It happened at least several times before in the 1960s and 1970s.
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What we are seeing here is a publicity stunt designed to increase interest and sales in the Man of Steel because of tough competition from smaller, independent comic book companies. (After all, what could be more intriguing to readers than the "death" of a so-called invulnerable man?)
Superman is scheduled to die fighting "Doomsday," a super-lunatic from a cosmic insane asylum who sounds like a cross between the Joker and a Terminator. The death and funeral of Superman will take a month - in consecutive issues of: "Superman," "The Man of Steel," "Action" and "Adventures of Superman" comics.
DC Comics, publisher of Superman, Batman and other comic books, doesn't want to spell out more details, but they have confirmed the death will happen and that Doomsday will stay around for a while fighting other sup-er-heroes of the Justice League of America (Green Lantern, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, etc.).
When DC Comics killed off one of the versions of Robin, Batman's sidekick, in the 1980s, sales of the Batman comic rose not 20 or 30 percent, but more than 200 percent. The same was true when DC announced the engagement of Lois Lane to Clark Kent in early 1991 (Action Comics, No. 691).
Strangely enough, what's not highlighted in the publicity surrounding Superman's death is that Lois Lane is also going to be killed by Doomsday. Now, that is unusual, since she hasn't really "died" before.
Also, it's one thing to bring Superman back to life. After all, he's an alien from another world and death to him may not be the same as for humans. But Lois is only human. Still, anything's possible in the comic books, and therein lies its fascination.
"We're overwhelmed by people asking if he's really dying," said Amanda Williams of Comics Utah's downtown Salt Lake store. "It's not death as we know it. . . . It will surprise a lot of people," Williams said, explaining that comics dealers don't know many more details about it.
Williams said that with more than a month to go before the fateful issue is published, Superman's death has already generated more interest than the death of Robin did a few years ago.
Will Superman come back?
"DC would never kill off their biggest moneymaker," Williams said, indicating she understands that "Matrix," alias Supergirl, will try to take over for the Man of Steel, but he'll be back, probably in three months.
DC Comics is still accepting one-year subscriptions by mail to all of its Superman comics - an indication that the Man of Steel will soon return to life.
Superman was revamped and started again from scratch in 1986, and was made less powerful than before. Technically, this modern version of the Man of Steel hasn't been killed before, as was the case with his predecessors in the 1960s and 1970s.
The real questions with this latest death of Superman are what force actually kills him (Superman is supposed to only be vulnerable to Kryptonite, magic and other things from Krypton) and also how he will be restored to life.
Some fans hope that when Superman returns to life he'll be more powerful than before and that he'll get revenge on Doomsday for killing him. (Perhaps he'll be thrown into the sun, the source of his superpowers, and be restored to life.)
However, DC Comics has killed off superheroes for good before. For example:
- Supergirl died in the 1985 "Crisis on Infinite Earths" 12-issue series, and although there is now a new version of Supergirl ("Matrix"), she's actually an artificial form of life and not a relative of Superman.
- In the same "Crisis," DC killed off the Flash, alias Barry Allen, and sent the Golden Age "Superman II" from another parallel Earth to heaven. (DC then made a relative of Allen - Wally, the new Flash. With no more infinite earths, there became only one Superman.)
- The Golden Age Batman was killed in the April 1979 Adventure Comics, but again, this was the Caped Crusader of another dimension and another Earth.
- Superboy was killed in a 1987 Legion of Super-Heroes Saga, but he was from a "pocket universe" and a different version of Earth. Since then, he's only been brought back in a limited series that was aligned with the syndicated "Superboy" TV series that ended last spring.
- "Hawk," a part of the "Hawk and Dove" superhero team, turned villain and was killed off (at least his future self was), in the 1991 "Armageddon" series.
With revamped histories, multidimensions and fertile imaginations at work, anything - anything - can happen in the comics.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Superhero survives `fatal encounters' with mortal enemies
Previous times when Superman (or a Superman?) has "died":
- Superman comics, July 1966: Zunial, the "Murder Man," also an alien, kills Superman with a Kryp-tonite ray. However, a Superman android some villains had built and designed for combat training to act like Superman himself gave up his artificial life to bring the Man of Steel back.
- Justice League of America comic, April 1977: Count Crystal, an unknown master of magic, kills Superman. The Justice League, led by the Phantom Stranger, travels to a realm of dead souls to bring Superman's spirit back before a devil creature permanently captures his soul.
- World's Finest Comics, November 1971: Clark Kent is hypnotized into thinking he needs to help kill his alter ego, Superman. He obtains a powerful magical wand and is killed when Doctor Light, a supervillain, uses the weapon. Batman gets the wand back and reverses the spell to bring the Kryptonian back to life.
- Action Comics, January 1967: After pretending he has reformed,Lex Luthor succeeds in killing Superman with Kryptonite. However, this comic story stated it was only "an imaginary tale" and never really happened. (How's that for a contradiction in terms, since comics are already fiction!)
Significant times when Superman almost died:
- Action Comics, April-August 1968: In a five-part saga, Clark Kent is hypnotized to want to kill Superman, and he inflicts himself with Virus X, a fatal disease from Krypton. He nearly dies, but during his supposed cremation in the hottest star in the galaxy, the virus is burned off and he's restored to full power.
- World's Finest Comics, November-December 1969: Superman's death is faked so Batman and Robin can flush out some criminals. The criminals even steal Superman's supposed body parts to gain super-strength, hearing and lungs, but the parts don't last because they are from an android Superman created.
- Action Comics, April 1970: In a story titled "Even a Superman Dies," a time-traveling Superman becomes more than one million years old and is nearly killed by a weapon Lex Luthor let loose to search for the Man of Steel centuries ago. Superman is healed by a robot and is flung into the time stream by a comet - going so far into the future that he returns full circle to the present and is restored to his youth.
- "Superman Spectacular," 1977: Luthor and Brainiac team up, and the comic's cover shows them having killed Superman, but they didn't, and the Man of Steel captures them.
- Superman Comics, January 1969: The Man of Steel is shown to be dead on the cover, but it's an exaggeration.
- Action Comics, April 1971: Superman is taken to the far future where he sees his preserved, dead body. However, as it ends up, he was in the future of a parallel universe and that was a "different" Superman.
- "The Best of DC," 1977: Titled "The Last Days of Superman," he is supposed to be dying from the fatal Virus X, but as it turns out, a small piece of Kryptonite stuck in Jimmy Olsen's camera is what's killing him, and that's destroyed before he actually dies.