#jerry grant | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

popculturebuffet · 1 month ago

Text

Supermay II: The Death of Superman Review

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to Supermay II: The Sequel You Knew Was Coming. In addition to my look at both times superman smashed the klan, i've got another double feature ready to go courtsey of Brotoman.exe, who sponsored the looks at what's so funny about truth justice and the american way and it's adaptation Superman Vs the Elite. Once again we're looking at a dtva movie and it's source this time The Death of Superman and it's first film adaptation Superman: Doomsday. Next year i'll look at the Death and Return duology of films and the first apperances of the substitute supermen.

For now we're looking at one of the biggest comic book stories of all time. A massive event in and outside the comics, making national news, making a nation mourn and showing people WHY superman was important. And it all started with what was intended to be a throwaway joke.

Backing up a bit, Death came about in the 90's, during Superman's "triangle era", the era right after John Byrne left. Instead of each book having it's own storyline, all three books and an eventual fourth would pass the stories and subplots along from writer to writer. To facilitate this an annual summit was held where the writers hashed out the ideas, fought to the last man standing, or compromised to plan out the years titles.

The writers at the time were:

Jerry Ordway, writer and artist for the Adventures of Superman (Originally just superman before a new title was launched with that name post crisis) He took over after wolfman left and also co created infinity inc and post superman succesfully revivied Captain Marvel (Aka Shazam, Aka the Captain), after the poor guy spent most of post crisis in limbo.

Roger Stern, writer for Action Comics. Stern had been one of marvel's best writers, writing acclaimed runs on Spider-Man, Avengers and Dr Strange, writing "Who Can Stop the Juggernaught?" for the former, and "Under Siege" for the latter. He left following scraps with editorial.

Dan Jurgens, writer and artist for Superman. Creator of Booster Gold who did excellent work on that series and got rewarded with superman. Left a massive impact on the franchise and returns to it frequently, writing action comics during rebirth and doing a death of superman anniversary mini series recently.

Louise Simonson, writer of Superman: The Man of Steel. Another marvel vet who left after Jim Shooter honked them off, Louise Simonson was the editor on X-Men for years, and later jumped into writing. She wrote the excellent X-Factor and a decent run on new mutants, the former shaping just who apocalypse is and most of his personality and turning the book from a half hearted spinoff into a proper one.

The books were doing well creatively but were hit in sales. This was at the peak of the dark age of comics and anti heroes were selling while Superman was seen as passe. This was far from the first or last time superman had hit a slump but the writers found ways to keep intrest up: They built up Lois and Clark's relationship, cumilating with a moment decades in the making: he told her he was superman. He later proposed and things seemed to be moving towards a wedding.

The writers had everything planned.. then corprate synergy hit.

Yup once again this has always been a thing. In this case the show Lois and Clark was doing gangbusters and the execs wanted DC to wait to do the wedding around the same time as the show. Which meant the WHOLE YEAR had to be scrapped and started over and they needed something to replace it FAST.

So with things tense Jerry Ordway did what he always did at these meetings: he made a joke. He suggested they kill superman. What normally got a laugh or I assume a "shut up jerry"... instead hit silence. With sales low and a story needed.. everyone genuinely considered. As Louise Simonson was quoted in an article I cannot find

"Death show[s] just how much that character means – to his friends, family, enemies, to the whole world!" Carlin agreed. The world was taking supes for granted.. so he'd show them what the world was like without him. Ordway was in shock.. even more so when DC agreed. They got the blessing of co-creator Jerry Siegel and were off to the races using an idea Dan Jurgens had had of a giant hulking monster tearing his way to metropolis. And thus the Death of Superman was born, streching across all 4 books AND Justice League america which superman was headlining.

The book itself got massive press coverage, massive numbers and successfully got the public to care again. It's a titanic story one that changed superman and comics forever, still holds up after all this time, and holds up on a re read. Let me show you why under the cut

I rarely mention how i'm reading a story but in this case I wanted to spotlight my trade I got at Vintage Stock years ago, the same one I used as the cover photo for this article. I bring it up because comic collections were a bit sparser then: They happened but it was usually reserved for either long out of print titles or big events. So for this to not only get a trade but one aimed at the christmas season was a BIG deal and I have no doubt it's massive sales number, it's still the #1 selling graphic novel of all time, helped influence publishers to start doing more collections again.

I'll be using scans from the recollored 2013 trade as it's what I could find, so with that off we go

We begin with the teasers leading up to the storyline: a mysterious figure clad only in a green jumpsuit pounding the walls of it's prison, each time making more and more of a dent, as it does destroying part of it's gloves to reveal a spiked fist. Each kraang, kraang hitting till...

We'll get back to this ominous harbinger of doom later as for the bulk of the rest of the issue we have some unrelated wacky nonsense to deal with. I'm not one to take the side door i'll come up front and knock: I have not read a ton of this era of superman. It hasn't been collected especailly well till very recently so i've only read pieces: the death and return trilogy, some of superboy's solo, some of Superman's time leading the justice league (More on that later), and the crossover right before this panic in the sky. So i'm going mostly by what i can look up so if I miss something, apologizes in advance.

In this case what I had to look up are the villians of our first issue as while i've read this story twice before.. I still had no idea who the fuck these guys were

These are the underworlders. Their a mix of castoffs from genetic research lab and mad science factory Project Cadamus and aliens left over from an attack by Braniac using Warworld, a giant murder planet created by the despotic Mongul.

They've decided to , what else, take over the city and are hyjacking the power grid to do it. They've also recurited the various unhomed folks who live down there to help. I will be summarizing this as much as possible as it's not really important... though bafflingly it was adapted into the video game adaptation for some reason.

Look i'm sympathetic to a lot of lesser known characters as in the right hands they can become something amazing. I mean Peeper went from "that guy who sure did existed' to a memorable if brief part of al ewings sword run with just a few panels

But these bozos are a mishmash of various plot points all strung together that distract heavily from the story.

Keith, a young boy whose neglectful mother was taken by the undeworlders is terrified of them.. but realizes they might be lying and goes for help. As Lois reads a note at the planet warning superman to check bellow , charlie skulks around the tunnels. I like how lois handles the note. She goes to investigate because.. she's lois but leaves clark a note on his computer... just as the also rans cut the power, meaning Clark dosen't see it and only knows she left something. Which is bad as while Lois lane can fucking roundhouse kick.. she kicks a man with the consistcey of a brick wall who takes her prisoner.. and jokes that the boss "dosen't take hostages". We get a true gut punch as Keith reflects on what this means

This whole time the poor boy has been hoping he could make his mother love him.. and she's gone.

Thankfully the desperate boy has a good idea; he picked up some glow in the dark paint earlier and in one of the best sequences of the issue, paints a glow in the dark s on the ground desperate to get Superman's attention. I love the shot of the poor boy praying.. and Superman arriving hugging him, making sure Charlie is okay. The rest of this story is passable at best.. but I do love Charlie and this moment and the one above. He's such a great character and I can't remember if he did more after this but I hope so.

As you'd expect Superman.. easily cleans out. He even makes a guy eat a grenade. I mean he's invunerable but still tha'ts fucking awesome. He gets into a spot of trouble here or there.. but it's easy. Why the writers choose to wrap this issue up in doomsday's first proper apperance I don't know. But the day is saved and turns out lois is alive: charlie, one of the unhomed men living down there, was the man who sent the note and helped bust things open and convinced their leader, some pink dude, to let him take her to be executed.. then didn't. Charlie is left in charge and is named the daily planet's new underworld corrispondent and there's foreshadowing to some other threat the less murdery citzens of the undeworld chasing in the tunnels.

Now you may be wondering: Where was Doomsday during all this? Well during this story I was trying to get through to get to the actual meat, Doomsday was intercut. He took a bird in his hand.. then squashed it, did a reverse optimus prime on some deer and generally showed it's a remorsless creepy monsters who laughs at the death it causes. It's nice ominus setup.. this creature slowly approaching, no remorse, no soul just death .. and it ends the issue easily punching a truck and laughing at the explosion it causes. Another Trucker calls the state troopers for help.. and thankfully the proper authorites pick it up: The Justice League America.. or Justice League International if your nasty.

I'm so excited to talk about these guys. So a brief recap for those less familiar with them: The Justice League International were the first justice league after crisis on infinite earths. With most of the big 7 unavaliable for various reasons, writers Keith Giffen and JM Demattis and artist Kevin MacGuire went in a diffrent direction: Make it a sitcom. Don't completely ignore drama or danger, but have the characters banter off each other, using lesser known heroes who could use the bump. It's one of my faviorite teams ever.

But all great things must come to an end and this run ended just before.. but the team lived on and both the JLI (aka the Justice League America ) and the Justice League Europe second team were rebooted, each given a new leader and a new direction. The JLE got Hal Jordan pre-parallax and a pedophile for a writer and JLA got Superman and Dan Jurgens. He added one of superman's own supporting characters and a newcomer and gave the book a more standard superhero direction but without sacrifcing the humor entirely or the characters that'd been build up. The results from what i've read are pretty good: Not as great as what came before but a solid redirection for the team that builds off the past and creates something neat.

Superman stepping up was signifigant as up to this point post crisis superman had stayed out of teams. But after the whole warworld fiasco , he realized he needed the rest of the community and when the jli was slowly reforming, gladly backed them. So it makes perfect sense for them to show up here.. and get railed out by Doomsday, though thanfkullyt his was LONG before the trend of killing off minor characters for drama was a thing so everyone surivives and their all treated with respect.. they just won't be enough.

So our team at the time was

Blue Beetle (Ted Kord): One of my faviorite characters. A gadgeteer genius in a bug costume usually with a quip and some fear for his life, but he'll press on anyway. Drives the Bug, a cool as hell giant beetle flying car thing that became the league's mode of transport.

Booster Gold: Ted's best friend and a shiftless man from the future who stole some shit, headed to the past and wanted to become a superhero to recover his old glory. This didn't quite pan out, but he did grow as a person. He still never met a zany scheme he didn't like, but he will do the right thing when it matters.

Fire: A bombshell with fire powers who was part of the Global Guardians.. the team the JLI made defunct. Woops. She quickly decided to apply for the League instead, got in and remained a part of it since. She's one of the leagues more powerful members and her firey flirtatious personality is backed by skill and a care for her bestie.

Ice: Said bestie. The more naive, kind and sweet yin to Fire's yang, with ice powers to match. She's the heart of the team and was with Guy Gardner for a while till he broke up with her because he was jealous she had a crush on Superman. Or she broke up with him. Still don't know the specifics I just know Guy was butthurt

Green Lantern Guy Gardner: Captain Butthurt. The man Batman once punched into the face. The man who mooned batman. The man who got into a fight with a normal cat and lost. The man who thinks a bowlcut is styling. Guy is a green lantern giving him tons of power.. but is also a macho, arrogant, jingoistic, sexist asshole, the team douche. Like Booster and Fire he's far more versatile than he gets credit for.. but unlike them he really does suck a bunch and apparently picked a fight with superman. You know Supes just saying "i'm in a commited relationship" could've.. ended all this. Maybe. You'll see this guy in all his douchey glory in July.

Maxima: One of two new additions to the league. Maxima was a longtime superman supporting character post-crisis, the queen of a distant warrior race who wanted to fuck superman and make him her king. Many a reader would agree but superman both didn't like her warlike ways and you know.. was in a relationship. Which was wiser not to bring up this time as Maxima would try and break lois right in half. Like a kit kat bar. She reluctantly agrees to join the team. She has super strength, flight and telepathy.

Bloodwynd: The odd man out. He was introduced at the refounding of this new iteration of the league saving their asses. He is.. a lot to explain. At the time no one knew who he was but his ass saving got him a slot. I'll go ahead and spoil the mystery that is built up here with Beetle even figuring it out: Bloodwynd is the martian manhunter.. brainwashed byt he spirit of a racist who became a demon who trapped the real bloodwynd in their own crystal. A bunch of slaves used magic to kill their master, as they should and passed the crystal down and the latest BLoodwynd got the short end of the stick. It's a lot of not so wacky nonsense we don't get into and has a lot of less than stellar implications. Point is Bloodwynd is botht he martian manhutner and a real guy.

They start the next issue rescuing people from the aftermath of Doomsday's rampage: the freeway's covered in fire and our heroes have no idea just WHAT could've caused this just that they need to find it. Ice is bummed.. because she's missing tv

I mean even if it's because Superman's being interviewed... focus Tora. As the team banter in the bug, Beetle suggest bloodwynd use his vauge psychic powers to locate Doomsday.. as a sneaky way of gauging them so he can figure out who the guy is. Unfortunatley Maxima agrees to help. I bring this up partly because Beetle's search to find out who Bloodwynd is, aka who I just told you it is, plays a part later and partly because it's a nice contrast to the last issue: like last issue it loops in a plot that's not really tied to the main story.. but unlike that it feels more organic. Beetle isn't punching some guy that will have anyone tuning in just for the story going

You get enough from his thought bubbles to get what's going on and Maxima's search yields important info: She's found Doomsday.. and he's hate and bloodlust personafied, quickly proven by the man choking out a deer that happened to be curious. Man the one dear in history that isn't scared shitless by a stranger and you killed it you monster!

While that attrocity goes on Cat intreviews Superman. It's done in a neat way, as the top panel of each page while the other 4 deal with the league. Cat Grant was a reporter at the planet and is now a talk show host for some reason. She also dated Clark breifly early post crisis and would later return to the planet. She's become a staple of superman usually as the office alpha bitch, sometimes with a heart of gold sometimes not and sometimes played by miranda running her own company.

In this case she's inbetween.. not totally callous at this point but still downplaying the JLI, claming Superman's return has given them new strength and other ways of basically saying they sucked until he got there. Superman, being superman, disagrees, correctly countering that no they were good heroes and good people long before he got there. Also guy was there. He also apparently fought Guy recently, i'm betting it was Guy's fault, but refuses to disparage him. Bet it felt good punching him. Man if Diana hasn't punched him she should. Complete the set.

The League is having bigger problems though.. Doomsday spots the bug and throws a fucking tree through it, a nice casual display of strength.. and some cunning. While Doomsday is guided almost entirely by impulse it shows WHY he's so hard to put down: He dosen't know where he's going, but once he has a target he can destroy it. He lives only to destroy.

The League thankfully escape with Guy hitting on his ex Ice because of course and Booster being the one to catch Beetle.. because of course so Doomsday resumes smashing cars while Superman fields questions from students, about if they party and what not. He says they all have their own intrests , a way to dodge the question really and that guy gardner "has.. intresting ways to spend his free time"

A kid also wonders if superman fired Guy from being a green lantern. This had me wondering as... I never thought about that. I hadn't last time I read it as I forgot this was BEFORE Emerald Twilight, when all but one green lantern was left standing. Why DID he loose his ring.

Well this being guy the story is hilarious as it is petty and stupid. Hal wanted his position as Lantern of this sector back and wasn't willing to share so Guy challenged him to a fight for it. To his credit guy willingly retired when he unsuprisingly lost. This brief brush with dignity lasted all of 5 minutes as he quickly wanted powers again and conned lobo into going to Quard, the anti matter universe to get Sinestro's ring. Sinestro was dead at the time. He got better. When he found out they didn't have it he headed to oa, graverobbed sinestro and was back in buisness. Crimes against your former foes do pay off!

Back to the plot and more Guy as he does his thing: Rushing headlong into the fight without any backup, ignoring blue beetle's advice and in this case getting wrecked horribly by Doomsday. What I like about this is normally this would be guy either just getting beat up for comedy or being his usual self. Here... it shows just how dead serious things are as before Guy can even conjure anything Doomsday grabs him at super speed by the face and SLAMS him into the ground. Guy goes from his usual self to scared shitless. Fire does her best to contain doomsday, horrified as while she may not like guy.. damn if this wasn't bad. But nothing she does stops the thing. Bloodwind also tries using the power of the spirits or something something and ... gets knocked though refinery bursting it into flames.

Beetle goes to get him... and finds out who he is.. and in true fashion for Ted's life Doomsday shows up RIGHT after that to beat the poor guy into a coma. That isn't a joke. Ted is in a coma after this getting his face slammed into some metal and weakly begging for someone to save him. It's hard to read: not only do I love ted and hate seeing him like this it's just.. brutal. The guy is the last one who should've been alone with doomsday and is lucky he lived through this. Oh and to make it worse when Maxima and BLoodwynd try to catch him.. Doomsday grabs bloodwynd and hits maxima with him, leaving ted to hit the ground HARD, Ice unsure he's alive.. and booster PISSSSSSEEEEED. No one kills his dubiously hetero life mate and gets away with it.

He hits him with everything he's got and once again it does nothing. It's a common theme in the issue.. but it works. This league isn't the a-list, but their all still damn powerful: a green lantern, two elementals, two people as strong as superman, a himbo from the future and my boy. And NONE OF them can do anything.

Booster is slapped so hard his flight ring, some tech from beyond his time that allows him to fly, cannot stablize.

Thankfully help arrives. While all this was happening superman rushed off to help.. and the final panel is the stories converging, superman catching Booster who proclaims "It's like Doomsday is here!" And he killed a deer

We get a great character moment as the next issue begins: Ice worries ted.. is gonna die. Maxima's response? It was a good warriors death good for him. Ice has to beg her to stop fighting for a second and go save him. It seemingly goes against her honor.. but she acknowledges ice and ted have helped her, so it's only honorable and goes to get Ted to a hospital before his bones pop out.

This leaves Tora in a bad place: She has to go find doomsday alone. And what's worse she's picked up his pattern: He just bulldozes through in a straight line..and is heading right towards a housing development.

At the house he's going to be turning into a warzone, some douchey kid with long hair skates up glad for the weekend. He berates his mom for not having enough snacks, calls superman lame and is somehow not struck down by god for his hubris. Instead Ice crashes through his window and Doomsday ghoulishly follows.. and longhair berates superman for taking a punch. Superman takes another.. that sends him through several houses before doomsday barges into theirs, punching Ice and laughing about it, and that's terrible then preparing to murder jay's deformed clones mother and his baby sister before superman steps in bellowing no. I get the sense gen x runoff here was a jab at their readers but can't imagine the writers would be that petty.

So the team, newly reunited decides fuck it. Time to make their powers combine with a big showy RAINNNNBOWWWW BEAAAMMM. They both fail to summon captain planet.. and do ANYTHING to doomsday. They ripped his suit a bit revealing his now iconic 90's as hell jagged appearence. Most villians this edgelord don't really work for me, trying way too hard. You have to work hard to have spikes work.. and they do here. Doomsday works being a jagged grey spike man.. because of what he is. An engine of distruction. An unstoppable force. A damn literal monster.

Booster quips without his suit he's as "powerful as pee wee herman" he wishes. Even in death he is stronger and wiser than any of us could've ever dared dream. But Booster still can't do anything.. including run as Doomsday is a cruel bastard. It's a clear trait: from crushing the bird to the deer to ice, he will beat on an opponent till he thinks it's dead or he gets bored and moves on to something more intresting to hit. He gleefully laughs as he slams boosters whole ass body into a car door and beats the despairing hero over, and over and over again.

We also get one hell of a cliffhanger after Doomsday takes out Bloodwynd. He decides to leave having had his fun and left the rest of the league a broken mess.... and his attack on bloodwynd sets [email protected]'s house on fire. An explosion leaves fire, who was helping her, knocked out, ice ko'd, and no one to save them except superman... whose chasing after doomsday who can leap tall building in a single bound. And superman... makes the last choice you'd expect..

It's a powerful scene.... because Jurgens art does a good job. You can see above just how much PAIN this is causing. That this is the last thing Clark would EVER want to do. The last thing he can. It's the worst thing he can think of: Someone needs him.. and he can't help them. It's superman's vow to save everyone he can put to it's test: he should save a child calling for help, screaming and begging.. but he can't. And as much as I clown on the hairpile the comic does a good job reminding us: this is still a kid. no matter how much of an ass he was being.. at the end of the day he's a scared child BEGGING for superman to save him.

The opening to the next part is grim: To Booster's credit, and something to show next time he's written off by another fan or a writer as "Just some idiot"... he TRIES to get up, tries to keep going as this kid needs him.. but his body has been through a car door and a giant grey monsters fists. The spirit is willing but the flesh is spongy and bruised. Superman catches doomsday above.. but to his horror, having hoped one of the leaguers could help. .he can't. And proving who he is .. Superman plans to go back down. It shows that while he can TRY to put dozens of lives or another.. ti's just not who he is. he tried ratoinalizing it tried not doing it.. but he can't ignore someone in pain.

Superman realizes that Doomsday can't fly though so he piledrives him into a lake and HOPES it'll hold long enough. He does , with an assit from bloodwynd, save the day and hairbag is releived. With that.. superman's alone. Paramedics have gotten to everyone else and while Guy can urge superman to murder the bastard.. it's all he can do. The league is spent, bloodwynd peaces out to avoid being seen by paramedics.

Now this does lead to an issue I have with the storyline: Where the hell is everyone else? It might be explained in funeral for a friend but i'm baffled NO ONE comes in to try and fight this monster as i'ts broadcast on the news. I get he's out in the midwest at this point, he's not to metropolis YET, my neck of the woods.. but Green Lantern can fly, The Flash can run, Wonder Woman can also fly at a decent clip, and the justice league europe still exists. I don't buy that NONE of the heroes fast enough to get here just sat it out and it feels weird.

Out of universe.. I get why. It's to not crowd it. They used who they had in office and most of those heroes would've also gotten banged up and unlike the league, it'd be harder to thread into their own books. It's a hard ask. It still baffles me on JLE as while not a superman book.. Oberon, the league's man in the chair, could've still called them for backup. And bruce.. well bruce had his own issues

Where Power Girl is I have no idea.. but it's clear there's simply no one strong enough at the time to do anything to doomsday alone except the Man of Steel.

What's next is mostly one long fight as Superman finds Doomsday sprining up from the abyss to attack a helicopter and while Superman saves the people he can't do much. The two end up in a small town and as the sheriff calls for civil defense the whole place gets destroyed: buildings are shatterd, cars are gone and superman is using his FULL strength. Superman is always holding back trying not to kill.. but for once in his life Guy was right.

I'm not someone whose for superheroes killing: If there's another way, you should not kill the person. Simple as that. You start killing because it's easy or the justice system is fucked, it just gets easier. But... i'm also not one to clutch my pearls if they do it for the right reason. The world is complicated.. you can save every life you can but sometimes... someone is just going to keep going and killing till they can't be stopped. Invincible did a great job both in the comics and this season of showing that, that sometimes you HAVE to do the hard thinga nd it dosen't make you a monster. It's doing it because it's easy or because you can that does.

Superman dosen't WANT to do this.. but doomsday can't be reasoned with. He likely can't be contained as he broke out of his own hole in the ground, and he bodied the entire justice league. He will keep killing till there's nothing left. He does his best and Maxima arrives to help.. but it may not be enough.

So back in Metropolis Lois storms into a tv taping jimmy's doing for his show turtle boy, a nice nod to the silver age. He's needed at his main job as you know , Doomsday and all that. The two watch on tv and prepare for doom to come to metropolis

Someone else watches.. Lex Luthor

This.. is gonna take a lot of explaning and boy oh boy have I been looking forward to this. There's a lot of things i've had to look up for this storylines, a lot of things I was unaware of and had to edcuate myself on. But this one.. was genuinely fun. Ladies and Gentlemen I present

Yup.. this all happened. And in the dark and edgy 90's no less. Not an imaginary story, not an imaginary tale and it was never retconned out pre-flashpoint. It may or may not still be canon, we genuinely do not know but man is it a trip.

Okay so post crisis it was decided Kryptonite was radioactive, and it wasn't good. In a clever twist.. Lex got cancer, something the DCAU adapted and where I first saw this storyline play out. It did not have an australian clone son. A shame.

Luthor did what he always does: a complicated scheme. He faked his own death in the andes, had his brain put into a younger body and returned to metropolis as his own bastard son, Lex Luthor II. The new him was hairer, muscled and presumibly has a MASSIVE wang. While the younger and muscular part is understandable I do love that lex had to give himself not only a giant luxrious mane of hair but a full beard and extra arm hair, something he already had but wanted more dammit! It's so gloriously petty.

As for supergirl at the time she wasn't superman's cousin but an alien blob from a pocket universe that followed him home. She was a blank, wanting to find her place in the world and on returning.. found lex who seduced her with.. no effort. Him saying love in the european sense.. was mistaken for a confesion and he was like "fuck yeah I can finally fuck superman".

Lex tells Supergirl not to go help, as she did recently and he was cross about it because lex does not know how to treat a woman or he wouldn't need a genetically engineered ding dong and millions of dollars to get women.

The fight continues but Maxima and Supes are tripped up by their diffrences. Maxima cares not one iota of a shit for collateral and tosses Doomsday into a super market. This argument distracts the two just long enough for Doomsday to turn around and turn the tide. Maxima is strong as superman.. but sloppy, yanking out a light pole and causing a massvie explosion due to all the other stuff they've busted up. Maxima is out and Superman is knocked out, woken up by the Guardian.

The Guardian is a tad complicated: he was a wartime creation of Jack Kirby, a blue hero with a shield and Kirby's second after a certain other guy who punched hitler. He was brought back later when Kirby went to dc again and created the fourth world, this time a clone of the original. This backstory stuck post crisis , with the DNA Project he worked at becoming Cadmus, with the only adjustment being that Jim was shot the second he found out about the clones and each of the clones not lasting long.

This one finds supes and wonders if all this destruction was REALLY necessary. I mean it's only a mindless engine of destruction. Superman decides he must do this alone. Because he can't certainly call other people who are powerful and know what the hell they are doing, that'd make sense. Wonder Woman had scabies that week I guess.

Next issue and after talking with Guardian a bit, who at least wishes he could've been there sooner to get tossed around like a ragdoll, Superman tracks Doomsday, thinking about his opponent. He likens him to a tornado, a force of destruction and wishes he knew where he came from. The team didn't come up with an origin at the time, figuring it wasn't important.. and they were right. While I don't mind his later backstory as the ultimate weapon or some such, Doomsday as is.. works. He's a force of nature that comes out of nowhere, the rare time that works as WHY he is isn't important: he's a mindless monster who attacks anything in front of him then stumbles around till he finds another thing to hit. Superman has to save a poor guy whose car is sent flying.

This puts him behind as Doomsday finds his way to lex mart! Lex Mart, come for the australian clone of yourself, stay for the 40 cakes. Doomsday wrecks it till he watches a promo on tv

Dammit hulk hogan once again the blood of the innocent is on your hands!

I do love this gag... it's both unesettling given where it's send the war machine.. but also a nice bit of comedy. It's something I do like about this writer's room: They aren't afraid to inject some silliness into things: Clone Lex Luthors, Hulk Hogan inspirsing death machines to kill, flying cars, weird shots at pee wee herman. IT adds some levity to this pretty grim storyline without undercutting the tension.

Superman interupts Doomsday's stories to fight him once again, crashing through Lexmart.. and then noticing to his horror as he spots choppers.. specifically the Daily Planet's flying newsroom.. which sadly is not the globe fitted with jet rockets so it can go catch scoops. Though if any of the current superman writers are reading this, that idea is free. I completely give it to you and dc comics and will sign whatever. Just make it canon. Same goes for the writers of my adventures with superman. Give Jimmy another pile of money to burn. Make my stupid wishes reality!

We get another interlude with Aussie Lex, letting off a bloody hell before insiting supergirl stay at home dammit. "This is a healthy stable relationship that won't end in you trying to kill me for cloning you!". His real reason is he thinks Superman will win because he always does. Only this time.. it'll come at a cost.

For now Lois and Jimmy look on grimly, the fight bellow not exactly fun to watch as it's clear Superman is struggling and never has like this. And when Doomsday starts changing metropolis, Clark realized that the huckster has gotten him all riled up and throws the fucker into a mountain to try and get him away. This seemingly lands him in nowhere.. but the mountain is a facade. This is Cadmus' main base.

Superman is horrified to realize he plunged Doomsday into Cadamus' hidden ewok villiage which is thankfully uninhabitaed and they brawl through the trees as they collapse.

Superman barley gets out and rendevous with Guardian who was summoned.. only for both to get knocked out as doomsday escapes. Even having a thousand ewok homes collapsed on him did nothing. He's headed right for Metropolis. Doomsday is here!

Beggining our penultimate chapter, doomsday snaps a construction workers neck as Superman arrives to save the rest of them, and I like how the art makes him look tired. He's trying but while it's clear he will not stop.. there's a question of what he can do to stop any of this.

If this has all sounded like one long fight scene.. it absolutely is. The arc easily boils down to "The justice league then just superman tries to fight doomsday but barely slows him down, rinse and repeat". It could get reptitive.. but it isn't. The sheer amount of damage poured on could get tedious but instead just emphasises how BADLY outclassed Superman is. At this point Doomsday's been hit by the justice league repeatedly, hit by them with everything, hit by superman repeatedly, been caught in an explosion, piledriven into an ocean, a moutnain and an ewok villiage, and punched a lot. And the only thing that's been hurt.. is his outfit. Meanwhile superman keeps going.. but every panel shows off just how tired he is. The damage hasn't sunk into his body visably.. but you can see just how much he's straining.

The damage does start to sink in here though as superman's cape and costume start to tear. He's lagging.. but he does not let up. He can't... people need him. So he keeps going .. even as his horrified parents watch back home, Martha horrified this is being billed as entertainment. Jonathan however gets it: not everyone understands that Superman.. can actually be hurt and as clark bleeds for the first and sadly not the last time, it's clear he's desperate, trying to grab on as Doomsday ends up underground and kills one of the jobbers from earlier and fly him up into the air.. only for him to grip a gass line.

The massive explosion FINALLY gets Lex's seal for Supergirl to go into action.. though naturally he's also playing this off as being superman's fault

Matrix gives a now bleeding from the stomach superman a second to recover.. but only a second as he smacks her into silly putty

Matrix is down quick to the point I forgot what she even did when getting pictures for the review. It's once again a possible weakness that's instead a strength: with all the build up it was assumed Matrix would easily swoop in and turn the tide, help out or at least give Clark some rooom to breathe. Instead she's down in less than a minute.

Superman's other allies try to help: his science friend Professor Hamilton, Hamilton's waitress girlfriend and Hamitlon's friend, roomate, bar owner, #1 superman fan, superman's pal and the best superman supporting character Bibbo ready a canon that at least knocks doomsday a little.. but he controled falls onto their building.

As superman shields Keith, who lookie there did come back, another superman supporting character tries her hand: Maggie Sawyer, dc's first openly gay character that i'm aware of, head of the metroplis pd and badass and her cop partner and best friend Dan Turpin, who was modeled after jack kirby for superman the animated series. The two try to open fire.. but even with super guns it does nothing.

The issue ends with some guys in jetpacks firing at superman and Doomsday as Superman swears to stop him

Thus we've reached the Climax. The final battle.. and the final sacrifce. A neat trick Dan Jurgens came up with is a sort of internal count down: each issue has had progressively fewer panels, cumilating in an issue of all splash pages, something he'd wanted to do for a while but edtiorial wasn't sure he could pull off. Given how striking this issue is, he more than proved them wrong.

The fight continues as Doomsday hoists superman over him and throws him into helicopters, with superman saving Lois and Jimmy's.. and Lois begging him to go get help. He can't though: The JLA are gone, he dosen't have time for more. Again Wonder Woman or someone probably should've seen this on the news but I get superman not getting help. I may of taken a jab at him.. but he dosen't have time. Every second he's not showing up to fight doomsday is a person dead. And now he's in a HEAVILY populated city surronded by things to break.

The rest is the conclusion to the wrong brutal battle they've been having, superman angry as he's ever been refusing to let him hurt his city or his friends anymore, saving Lois and Jimmy from a close call as he bleeds more and more, his costume more and more ripped as the two fight. It's an intense, powerful fight, one of the best in superhero comics.

Doomsday hurts clark with his bone claws... and FINALLY gives our hero the weakness he was looking for. He realizes that if doomsdays spikes are bones their part of his skeleton and puts all his strength into hurting those.. and FINALLY hurts him. It's a cathartic moment: finally.. superman has a chance to win.

With Doomsday finally vunerable and not much left Superman gives EVERYTHING he has to one last hit, as does his opponent.. and both go down. But it's too late... Superman's last words are making sure doomsday is gone

But he dosen't.. he collapses .. dead. Superman is no more. And that's where we end our story.

The Death of Superman is excellent. Shocking I know, but it manages to make what's essentially one long fight scen work: Every life lost makes superman mroe determined, every false finish makes Doomsday look stronger and the powerhouse final issue makes every last blow hit. Does superman beat doomsday a bit fast? yeah. But the sheer weight of the fight, how it takes EVERYTHING superman, supergirl, the league, his allies, EVERYONE has to even get to the point superman can sacrifce himself shows the weight.

It's a story that showcases why Superman matters; he's a hero who will save people no matter what, who will push himself beyond his limits to keep going against the impossible, who will die to protect us.. all because it's the right thing. Even when confronted with a bunch of lives over a few.. he still chooses the few. In death, the teams here showed just why superman mattered, why his death hit. He gave everything to save the world one last time and he did.

Of course it wasn't the last time, I mean he has two ongoing series going right now. It wouldn't even be the last time he died. But those are stories for another day. For now it's safe to say Death earns it's place as one of Superman's most iconic, impactful and excellent stories. Thanks for reading. Check out my patreon and substack to help support this blog and remember, i'm pulling for you, we're all in this together.

10 notes · View notes