20 Years Ago Today: The Death of Superman

[palitoy]

I was heading downtown the day it came out and several of my dorm mates asked me to pick them up "investment copies". None of them were comic guys, at this point in my life neither was i. The first store I hit was one of those miserable ones that popped up during the sports card craze in the 90s, the people running it told me that a copy would cost me $200 and EVERYONE was sold out.

Something told me that DC probably printed a billion of them so I went elsewhere. I bought 10 copies with ease at the next store, I don't even think I kept one. I just didn't think it was ever going to be worth anything. I'd seen a guy I briefly knew struggle to sell the 500 copies of Spider-Man #1 he'd "invested" in a year earlier.

[emeraldknight47]

I had that problem with several books that I "invested" in. There were SO many of them produced that they lost pretty much any value in the second-hand market place. Now maybe in about 20 or 30 years, they MIGHT be worth something, but right now, they'll get you barely enough to buy bus fare!

I was heading downtown the day it came out and several of my dorm mates asked me to pick them up "investment copies". None of them were comic guys, at this point in my life neither was i. The first store I hit was one of those miserable ones that popped up during the sports card craze in the 90s, the people running it told me that a copy would cost me $200 and EVERYONE was sold out.

Something told me that DC probably printed a billion of them so I went elsewhere. I bought 10 copies with ease at the next store, I don't even think I kept one. I just didn't think it was ever going to be worth anything. I'd seen a guy I briefly knew struggle to sell the 500 copies of Spider-Man #1 he'd "invested" in a year earlier.

[BlackKnight]

I barely got 1 in My Area ...., They were like 70 Bucks the Next Day Everywhere, then in 1 Bins when He Returned.

I agree that Reign was Much Better ...., Led to Cyborg Superman, Which Lead to Cyborg Superman/ Mongul Destroying Coast City ..., Jordan Flipp'in out becoming Paralax, to The Kyle Rayner Decade. S In a Sence ...., Death of Superman = Birth of Kyle Rayner . Atleast it to me it did ...., which all revertes back to Green Lantern Rebirth. lol.

[emeraldknight47]

ALL-STAR SUPERMAN puts the whole Doomsday farce to shame, IMHO. It handled Superman's passage in a very mature and cool way...

[Hector]

I'm guilty of buying a ton of them...guilty of buying a ton of the new revived Superman #1's too...lol.

[BlackKnight]

ALL-STAR SUPERMAN puts the whole Doomsday farce to shame, IMHO. It handled Superman's passage in a very mature and cool way...

lol.... That is the Absolute Worse Superman Crap I ever Tried to get involved with ...

[madmarva]

I've bought Superman and Action monthly(or weekly) since 1976, except for Superman 75. It was sold out all over the Memphis area. I found a news stand version about a month later.

I enjoyed Funeral for a friend, but didn't care for Reign of Superman. I do like the Cyborg, but hated The Eradicator and Clone Boy. I think Steel is a good third tier hero.

Hated that DC used the resolution to the return of Superman to destroy Hal Jordan for a decade. Hate that Johns appears to be discarding him now.

[kingdom warrior]

I avoided buying the whole thing cause I knew it was not going to be permanent. I just stuck with my Independent books
and avoided much of the junk that DC and Marvel were spewing out.......I knew so many "collectors" who thought they were gonna make money of of them....there's a goodwill next one of the Supermarkets I shop in, I go in there just to see what they may have and I just saw two bins full of those same Superman comics for under a dollar....lmao!

[Figuremod73]

By the time those Superman issues had came out I was tired of people talking about comics as valuables. Gimmicks were being done on almost every major book.

At first I fell for it with Mcfarlane with Spiderman and Spawn but quickly figured out that those type of books had high print runs and they were most likely not going to be highly valued later on.

[boynightwing]

I was in my first year of highschool I think. I went downtown to the comic store at lunch and picked up that and an issue of the third(?) Robin miniseries. It sold out pretty quickly and there was this guy at my school that all of a sudden decided to get in to comics. Or rather he wanted that one. He found out I had a copy and followed me around for a week and a half trying to buy it off me. He got as high as $80 in his offer and I told him he needed to back off. See I genuinely cared about Superman. I wanted the book because of that. In hindsight I should have taken the $80...

[Godzilla]

I'm really happy for anyone who enjoyed the storyline. I was very disappointed. After years of Superman stories, the way to kill him is just to punch him really hard? That's it? I thought a hero of his stature deserved a much more interesting end and a much more interesting villain than Doomsday.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

I was working at the comic shop when this came out, and this story was the END of the end. The story itself isn't bad.... not great, but not bad.... but the hype by far outstripped it. It was the apex of the comic speculator era; everyone was looking for the next big thing and EVERYONE thought this was it. Disappointment once the bubble burst is what I think led to the collapse of the then mainstream industry.

The "Death of Superman" was a story DC used to run every few months back in the day, but without the artifical buildup, hype and promise of riches.

>I'm guilty of buying a ton of them...guilty of buying a ton of the new revived Superman #1's too

You've been punished enough. Funny thing; I think EVERY comic shop in N. America has a basement full of these.

Don C.

[Figuremod73]

I think EVERY comic shop in N. America has a basement full of these.

Alot of comic shops closed because of them to.

[BlackKnight]

I'm really happy for anyone who enjoyed the storyline. I was very disappointed. After years of Superman stories, the way to kill him is just to punch him really hard? That's it? I thought a hero of his stature deserved a much more interesting end and a much more interesting villain than Doomsday.

Agreed.
And the Look of Doomsday was So Damn Stupid to me too.
I was So Disapointed by this new Villian that did Superman in ...., the Only really Shinning moment to me, was the Fact that Jurgens was penciling aton of Superman at the Time, and well, ateast Superman looks better than He does today.

All this Same Crap Didn't sit well with me with Bane Too. That 1 was worse for me. I really took that Hard, And Never really bought a Batman Book again , outside of The Elseworld Graphic Novels , Till Jim Lee and Loeb Did Hush.

[dr_cyclops]

Wow, you guys make me feel old. Just like others here, I was working a Seattle U-district comic shop when this came out. We ordered high on the 'Death issue', knowing it would sell. We sold out. Within a week, a commission sale appeared in our display counter for $50.
I tried to warn my fellow workers to avoid ordering too large on the issues to follow. Sadly, the sales/interest of this one issue, convinced them otherwise.
My favorite 'Death of Superman story' will always be, "Whatever Happen To The Man Of Tomorrow?"