Kryptonian Reflection

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The Perennial Death of Supermen: Dying Gods Just Keep Popping Up!

By Jacob Klatte

In honor of Superman’s 85th anniversary being celebrated today, and poignantly embedded in the Church’s calendar celebration of Christ’s resurrection, I present a humble meditation on a phenomenon in the world of Superman stories I noticed recently…

Back in 1986, DC was preparing to restart it’s in-comic universe with the seminal Crisis on Infinite Earths, the first in what would prove to be a new tradition of universe reboots (for better or worse) every decade or so. But in 1986, the novelty of the enterprise got DC thinking it might want to commission a swan song or two for certain flagship characters that had carried its company during this half-century long continuity. Thus was Alan Moore asked to craft a final love letter to Superman, which became the extremely well received storyline, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, a story in which Superman “dies” six years before the iconic Death of Superman story would sweep pop-culture in the early nineties.

Outside of comic aficionados, however, this is a less known tale. Perhaps the epilogue reveal that Superman is not truly dead, just hidden away, lessened the impact of his “demise” and the likelihood that it would gain notoriety outside of fandom. Perhaps the Crises reboot that immediately followed stymied its legacy. Perhaps DC was just better at marketing such a cataclysmic idea by the time the nineties rolled around!

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