Geoffrey vs. The Death of Superman

This past week I have been revisiting some older Superman comics. I may or may not write about them at some point in time. Don't hold your breath.

What JUST occurred to me though is that Superman died in January of 1993.  This is the 20th anniversary of one of comicdom's biggest events and I haven't really seen anybody talk about it.  Maybe everyone thinks the final word on the Death of Superman was done in a popular internet video by screenwriter Max Landis(1).  It was a pretty entertaining video but not facturate. Here, I'll link to it.

LINK TO DEATH AND RETURN OF SUPERMAN ON YOUTUBE

Like I said, it's not really a straight on retelling of the event and its conclusions are somewhat false but it'll give you the idea.

I'm not really interested in talking about the story, rather I just wanted to go through some of my thoughts about the event.

I remember at the time I was not actively collecting comics. I had no job and was full-time in university so I pretty much just read my friends' comics. This story was inescapable though. It was covered, and widely covered, in the mainstream media.

It was an important story.

It was important enough that my parents, in a VERY uncharacteristic move, bought me not only the issue he died in (a third printing because it sold out and sold out and sold out) but also the immediately released trade paperback collection of the whole storyline. And they must have also bought me the faux-in-universe commemorative magazine because I own it and like I said, no job or money.

So, important. To comic readers and fans. To the general populace.

Of course, Superman came back later in the year, after two big intermediary storylines: Funeral For A Friend  (2) and Reign of the Supermen (3). The former I actually think is REALLY good and I will write about later. The latter I am in the midst of rereading and all I can say is it has some story hooks that were enjoyably followed up on with some long term ramifications.(4)

A comic fan who says they were surprised by Superman's relatively immediate return is a liar. This is one of the points were Landis goes awry in his video. He says that the Death of Superman was the Death of Death in comics. Not so. People died and came back by miraculous last minute saves or convoluted plot device routinely. One of the first American comics I bought as a collector promised the death of the X-Men. Newsflash: No one really died. I guess I can remember people liking the status quo of the post-Death DC Universe and regretted it did not last longer, but really NO ONE in comics was too taken aback to see the new 90s-mullet haired Superman headlining the Superman series before 1993 was over.

Having just reread the story, I am left wondering how it would be told differently now. It's common nowadays to refer to Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman that DC's Big Trinity, but there is no evidence that this was the case back then. Bats and Wondy barely rate in the story(5). In 2013, Superman is dating Wonder Woman and Batman is, if not his best friend a la the Silver Age, at least a very close confidante and certainly would be concerned about the events going on in Metropolis. There was no such thing as an "iconic" Justice League back then either, leading to a League featuring characters called Maxima and Bloodwynd(6) being the best DC had to offer.

I'm meandering here.

The point I am trying to make is that this was a story that mattered to people, even people who might never read it. One rainy winter day 20 years ago, a grey, silent monster beat Superman to death and it led to many fun stories so in the end it was all worth it. I was thinking about what the DC Universe would have been ike without Superman, if he hadn't come back and really there are so many superheroes there that I don't think it would be that different.

That makes me sad for comics and excited about them all at the same time.


(1) Max Landis wrote the found footage "superhero" movie Chronicle, which I have heard is good and want to see, but haven't seen yet. Aside from that, the video he made about the Death of Superman is about all he is known for.

(2)Funeral For A Friend covers the time from immediately after Supes dies, through the attempts to resuscitate him to the fight over his surely valuable remains to the funeral and burial. A solid 8 issues of comics.

(3)Reign of the Supermen kiiinda went down just like in the video, except it was like 5 months after Superman died, not the next week.Four "Supermen" appeared and readers were left wondering which, if any, might be the real Superman! Answer: None of them.

(4)Actually the character most affected by Superman's death was Green Lantern Hal Jordan. His hometown got blown up, he went evil, and the Green Lantern comics TO THIS DAY are rooted in that one event.

(5) In fact, instead of the world's greatest detective, Batman, investigating the mysterious appearance of the 4 replacement Supermen in Reign of the Supermen it was former Green Lantern Guy Gardner who looks into it. Batman was all "Four Supermen? Don't give a shit."

(6)I think Bloodwynd turned out to secretly be League founding memeber J'Onn J'Onzz, the Martian Manhunter. I thought he was going to be Red Tornado.

New 52, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?

I was out. Out of comics. Done. I don't remember the last one I bought. Sometime in 2007. I didn't leave for lack of interest (I was loving Grant Morrison's beginnings on Batman, frex) but for financial reasons. These little, colourful beasts were getting mighty pricey every month and I had a new fiance and debt to be paid and so many other number-crunching reasons that I had to leave my spandex clad amigos behind.

I am a geek though so I kept in touch. Comics would write and I would smile at their postcard. "Hey Geoff, this Bendis Avengers stuff is actually pretty fun. Wish you were here!" and "A new Fables trade just came out and it is faaantastic. Love to the wife and kid!" Stuff like that. So I heard about the end of the DCU and its rebirth after Flashpoint. I heard about it and I thought maybe this would be a good time to jump back in.

Having been away, I was really looking for some new thrills when I returned. Old stuff revisited and made new as well as twisted in a new way. I got most of the number 1s of the new 52. By month 4 I was down to maybe 10. By month 6, it was 6 (And this was the month I dropped Justice League, which as you may surmise from this blog's title is somewhat of a signature series in my comiclife.) As it stands now I am hovering at 4 new 52 titles. Grant Morrison's sublime Action Comics, Green Lantern, Red Lanterns, and Aquaman.

Really, what it  boils down to is that the New 52 isn't really that new. It seems a lot like the old  DCU except that...it isn't. The changes seem arbitrary. The characters sometimes are the same in motivation and personality and sometimes aren't. Huge, universe affecting details pop up at random (Really, Tim Drake was never Robin? Really? Really?) and there has been no expectation that there will be any real resolution.

A lot of this may have worked if the old DCU had actually ended. Which it didn't. It just stopped. The New 52 may be a wild ride, but I kinda wish I was back on the other roller coaster. The one where the comic universe is allowed to grow and change and reflect the new and the old.

Kind of like what Marvel is doing in spades.