Dust and Spores

The Death of Superman / Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Louise Simonson, Roger Stern
New York : DC Comics, 1993
Pencils by Jon Bogdanove, Tom Grummett, Jackson Guice, Dan Jurgens
Collects Superman: The Man of Steel #17-19, Superman #73-75, The Adventures of Superman #496-497, Action Comics #683-684, and Justice League America #69.
167 p.

Earlier today I reviewed a graphic novel on the death of Batman. Now, in an effort to make the world even more depressing, I review another graphic novel about the death of a hero, this time Superman. It is called -- this may shock you -- The Death of Superman.

The story is simple: This crazy strong evil monster who's REALLY REALLY ANGRY arises from somewhere and beats up the Justice League, beats up America, and then beats up Superman until they both die. The end.

That's it. I'm totally serious. I mean come on! This was the Man of Steel. The Man of Tomorrow! Krypton's ichiban ass-kicking muchacho!! And the best death story they can give him is "a big monster punched him really hard"?!?

And Lex Luthor's like: "Punching him! Of course! Why didn't I think of that!?"

The collected story is 170 pages, but it's essentially one long fight scene. The JLA takes on the monster Doomsday first, but they fail. Superman is next. He kinda keeps the guy in a holding pattern, but he essentially fails. Supergirl shows up for a minute but she gets punched so hard she turns into goo. (I'm not sure what was up with that.) And then Superman fights again.

The monster's origin and motivation are apparently not important because they got left out of the story. All we know is he is very strong and very mean. A big mean evil strong thing with stalagmite acne.

Yes, Superman fights with everything he has to save Metropolis. Yes, he's a big damn hero. It's all very noble, and that's precisely why a story about punching to death really doesn't cut the freaking mustard, dudes. Sorry.