The Real Reason Why DC Killed Superman [Part 2]

In this video, Owen explains the history of the Death of Superman, the real reason why DC Comics killed the Man of Steel off and how this ambitious stunt broke the comic book industry forever.
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#Superman #DCComics #VideoEssay

[@OwenLikesComics]

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[@privateconfidential4775]

Free Speech/ keepin it real from a guy who lived it: Dan Jurgens looks Exactly like how I perceived he draws superman: like a male fashion model

[@jcaseyjones2829]

This idiotic story was broken from the jump. Absolutely no one believed he'd stay dead, so it was basically just a few months where Supes took a break. I did enjoy Hank He shaw, the Eradicator, and Conner Kent, but whoever came up with Steel should be slowly fed into a woodchopper feet first.

[@leonarddillon256]

My God, are you going to just completely ignore what exactly caused Superman to die? Doomsday's inclusion to have back and forth fist fight for several issues to finally killing Superman is a testament on how really bad 90s Comics were. Hell, this was NOT even Superman's only Death advertised prior to this event. Go back to Superman's issues in the 50s, 60s, and 70s where DC already killed Superman several yikes over and brought him back. The only difference with 90's Death of Superman is you and the media all fell for it and you never learn that a money maker like Superman will never stay dead.

[@snakes3425]

These days the only Superman stories DC seems to want to tell are: Superman is now evil, or Superman is now dead....again

[@rorqualmaru]

Daniel Appleton those were the best kind of silver age storylines.

[@snakes3425]

​@Daniel Appleton How about that time Superman had President Kennedy pose as Clark Kent? In all seriousness Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen should've been called: Superman's Various Attempts to Troll and Murder Jimmy Olsen because no one likes Jimmy Olsen

[@ottovonbismarck5007]

snakes3425 only Jimmy Olsen I liked was the one from Smallville.

[@Gworms]

Daniel Appleton Woah ok. I’m sorry. So you’re saying you DON’T want a what if story where superman turns into an ape?

[@maxalaintwo3578]

"SuPerMan iS ScARy. If hE wErE rEAl hE'd TaKe OveR THe WorLD." These writers just can't wrap their head around someone like Superman, so they unnecessarily deconstruct him to become a dictator so the David of Batman and his resistance can overthrow the Goliath of Superman.

[@connorharnage6697]

My favorite moment is when Batman doesn't attend the funeral until everyone's gone. It's so in character for Bruce while still not compromising their friendship

[@AdmiralBonetoPick]

Man, if I were a comic book company editor, every time the writers pitched a story to me about "killing off" some character, I would insist that they also work out in advance how this character will ultimately be brought back to life. Seems like common sense.

[@lewisaino]

Or leave them dead.

[@Psycopathicus]

Personally, I think both 'Death of Superman' and 'Knightfall' are really terrific storylines, the latter, specifically, being probably my favorite Batman story of all time. But the trouble came when they started being used as a business strategy. 'DoS' and 'Knightfall' were, in a sense, inevitable - Superman had been the seemingly invincible protector for decades, so of COURSE we'd ultimately get a story where he got thoroughly trounced. Batman's whole deal is that he manages to survive the worst Gotham throws at him because he's JUST THAT GOOD, so what happens when he finally meets someone who's better? One could argue that they were stories that needed to be told, to inject a much-needed shot in the arm and remind us that heroes CAN fall, so stop taking it for granted that they won't. But not every hero needs that sort of story, let alone multitudes of them. If EVERYONE starts getting the crap kicked out of them in giant over-hyped storylines that never end, it becomes stale, and unfortunately, that's what happened. The higher-ups just wanted to recapture lightning (and money) in a bottle, and obviously, that failed. If everyone had just settled down for a while after half the JLA had gotten killed, replaced or revamped, and allowed a few years for the status quo to adjust before going quite THAT big again, then maybe the comics industry would be in a healthier place right now. They didn't, so it isn't.

[@turtleanton6539]

Yes

[@johnnyskinwalker4095]

Good point. Just Superman itself following the Reign of the Superman which was good, the titles themselves turned into an excuse for doing all these big non-stop big events. It's like they saw that it was successful and could not stop themselves

[@creativeguy1138]

Death Of Superman and Knightfall were absolutely amazing.

[@ImrahilToChaos]

Something as simple as "Being trounced" is exactly the thought process that made Death of Superman suck though. Superman has plenty of enemies that are more powerful than he is in the comic books, why in the heavens did it need to be some random grey rage monster with no background or character that was the one that did it? I feel like your take completely dismisses the actual problems with the Death and Rebirth storyline and reduces what's 'good' about it to such a conceptual level that we're basically not even talking about the actual story we got anymore, just an idea of the story.

[@Psycopathicus]

@@ImrahilToChaos I believe the argument - and this applied to 'Knightfall' as well - was that Superman's traditional enemies had gotten plenty of chances to kill him; power aside, if they were truly able to, they would have done it by that point - and if one of them DID, that would forever diminish their future possibilities; like 'well, you killed him ONCE, why don't you just do it again?' (and, of course, that did in fact later become a problem with Bane). In order for the story to work, they needed an outside challenger. I will admit that Doomsday is not exactly very interesting as a character, but as a THREAT, he's significant, and that was what they needed. And I like 'Death/Rebirth of Superman' for a number of reasons beyond what I talked about here. I wasn't reviewing it; I was making a point involving it.

[@imjmar]

For me, I see this is as the point when death in comics stopped mattering. The “oh they weren’t REALLY dead” trope started here but i still fawking looovvveeee these stories

[@Christ2010Grad]

GoodOle JMar True. Speaking of which, when was Jason Todd resurrected as Red Hood?

[@dcmarvelcomicfans9458]

@Lee that's not what he meant

[@dcmarvelcomicfans9458]

Yeah I agree with you man death does feel irrelevant if you know the characters coming back

[@OwenLikesComics]

Funnily enough, I've been contemplating making a 'Who Killed Death in Comics?' type video for some time.

[@dcmarvelcomicfans9458]

@Revan true

[@dqreps]

It actual helped comic sales etc. If they didn't pull a dead Supes rabbit out of their ass. Otherwise, DC would have gone under. Like it or not, it was a brilliant move.

[@OwenLikesComics]

For sure, as I stated in the video, killing Superman was the best possible thing DC could've done to save themselves. Problem is, the story's success led to a complete oversaturation of the market. You could make the argument that the market, at the time, peaked with Superman #75

[@dqreps]

@@OwenLikesComics ya i agree about the oversaturation on a comic book market. I enjoyed the stories a lot as i was still in high school and still loved the whole doomsday vs Supes thing etc. And ya i have like ten copies of #75..... pretty much worthless but i love em just the same 👍

[@ejmanalastas]

I think this is an event of temporary success, permanent repercussion of failure.

[@michaelwallace6592]

You have to be Elan collector are just a collector Dynomite no sense but what you said the same thing. I stopped buying comic books DC did this because of the little snot-nosed Lantus pen holder had to kill one of the greatest things invented other than Tarzan how many still had Johnny West and all the other comic books and stuff but I stopped collecting that matter fact when they did it I put all my Comics that I had out collecting I put them in storage and walked away from comic books as if they can if they can kill the man of steel the most pride of a comics that they won't stop at nothing else and I was saying you know you got in gays and and you know women playing men's parts and stuff like that equal gender stuff like this hi politically correct sucks so sorry dude I don't think you're right and I said there's actually if you'll do a little more research the comic book in his feet did really tank some more after that are talking about I spent a regular of about $10,000 a year on comic books I have a about a little over 10,000 books collectors I'll leave them to my great-great grandchildren they'll be settled in about because my children want them and my grandchildren they are they want to read them in Carl comic books okay

[@agonleed3841]

@Requiem4aDr3Am 1996...playstation got better. Stories being told in video games as iconic as comic books were. Internet started getting better. As media got better, books became less used...or to say as technology got better. from 1994or 1995 to present, technology has been steadily advancing..and that mid 90s to early 2k years really was a leap. I was one of many kids that started with comics to tell great colorful stories, moving into all the available tech that did the same thing in more than a few pages. Comics starte way back in a time when there wsan't much option. and it lasted until options were plenty. then it dwindled.

[@leonkent1365]

I agree that I thought that Reign of the Supermen and the twist in Hal Jordan's storyline were the most interesting thing about comics in the 90's. But comics very quickly became totally based around 'earth shattering' events and serials such as 'maximum carnage' for Marvel, and that is basically what comics have become reduced to nowadays.

[@luchomscyfy]

I think it started a trend of using "death of an important character " to improve sales. I mean, it was used before, but after that, the cycle of "death and rebirth" cheapened the drama. It wasn't taken seriously.

[@lewisaino]

Yeah, now instead of gasping we ask when the Chars would return

[@seanandrewin2531]

I remember paying 1.25 for comic book as a kid then the price going up to 5 bucks with six special edition issues at a time, that why I stopped buying them couldn’t afford to keep up

[@Lodatzor]

I think the problem was more a case of too much, too often. The success of the Death of Superman proves how monumental it was, as well as how well executed it was. Because it deals with a foe that even Superman cannot survive, it becomes, all at once, the _quintessential_ Superman story, and reveals to us the reason why Superman exists in the first place: to save the day, when no-one else can. To sacrifice himself, to save the planet he was sent to protect. It embodies the fulfillment of everything Superman has ever wanted and striven for, and I think that was captured excellently in the newer animated version released last year (2018). Yes, the fact that it was an unprecedented event helped drive that whirlwind of sales, but the true impact of the storyline only comes from how well it was told. I think when Marvel and DC started doing events just for the sake of them, they too often didn't put much thought or effort into the quality of writing, and that started to become banal. I believe lightning could have continued striking if they'd restrained themselves and kept events to a regular but controlled frequency, always making sure the event was worth it, the decline would not have been as sharp, because people would have considered it worth it, instead of being bored/overwhelmed by it.

[@carlrood4457]

Look at Marvel. How many times have they replaced Iron Man and Captain America in the intervening years?

[@amead78]

This is why The Dark Phoenix Saga is considered one of, if not, the best X-Men story ever told. Claremont took a character that was considered to be a joke and built her up to give her a big send off with her death. There was no plan to kill her off and bring back Jean Grey. Claremont considered her to be dead and that was that.

[@georgeelmerdenbrough6906]

She wasn't even the first X-man to die .

[@ComicDrake]

Thanks for having me! :D

[@OwenLikesComics]

My pleasure! Let's collab again soon

[@ComicDrake]

Absolutely!

[@mrmacross]

I loved the Death of Superman story in 1992. However, in 2019, I'm pretty damn tired of how DC and Warner Bros. (more the latter) thinks the best way to sell Superman to the general public is to kill the character off. That's why they rushed to kill him in BvS. It's also why when they started the annual line of animated movies, they started with DoS, and then went back to it 11 years later.

[@someonerandom8552]

mrmacross Yeah it’s getting pretty old. Though I’ll admit to really enjoying the animated Reign of the Supermen movie.

[@Brickfrog427]

Wait waddya mean they DIDN'T HAVE A PLAN TO BRING HIM BACK?!? They killed him off without a plan for the future. They had a destination in mind but no road map. What a mess.

[@matti.8465]

Well, you know what last ditch attempts are like, tere's no hope it'll work or plan in case it does. Just a desperate move.

[@vaughnturner]

Yup. Kinda like the DCEU.

[@JudgementalGoat]

The same creative team kept Superman afloat (if you can call it that) until 1999, by that year Superman sales were so low and the character was so event-driven that no one was giving two fucks about him. Mark Waid pitched in a great idea for a revival but he was outright rejected, DC got Jeph Loeb and Joe Kelley, and they had an amazing run with the character for 4 years

[@LoganWood121]

@@vaughnturner Came here to write this.

[@Ryz414]

It killed comics by proving that Superheros cannot die, people don't care about somebody if they can't ever be gone forever. "Death is what gives life meaning. To know your days are numbered. Your time is short. "

[@lazarx804]

Ironically a quote of a comic book character lol

[@JudgementalGoat]

It pains me to say this, but that's why I think manga stories are superior, they are finite, you get to fall in love with these characters until their stories are done and the artist then moves on to his next work, but you'll always have what he did there to treasure regardless of the time it passes. death also proves to be pretty definitive in manga...unless we are dealing with Dragon Ball which has the most idiotic deux ex machine fix with the cursed 7 spheres to fix any lasting repercussions

[@RICANSTEIN]

@@JudgementalGoat unless youve got dragonballs

[@michaeltheodore5149]

@@JudgementalGoat Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z did have rules to a certain degree...until Toriyama shat all over said rules.

[@maxalaintwo3578]

Eh. Fictional deaths aren't that much of an issue for me. Gorefests like Apokolips War killed alot of people permanently, but I didn't feel any impact. I don't mind characters resurrecting, but the characters actually have to feel something. The resurrected character can't just stay the same. Something has to change.

[@chikish]

The death and return of Superman is one of those things that was both a blessing and a curse. The industry, and DC Comics in particular, needed that shot in the arm; but I think the publishers got greedy after the success of the event and, combined with the involvement of speculators, really hurt the medium in the end.

[@OwenLikesComics]

I couldn't have put it better myself. This!

[@chikish]

@@OwenLikesComics By the way, excellent in-depth video as always! Also love seeing some of my favorite content creators collaborating.

[@paxhumana2015]

Add in various SJW bullshitters that a. knew fuck all about the characters, b. made shitty SJW characters that reflected their shitty SJW agendas, and c. knew fuck all about writing good stories, as well as character developments, and you have a more accurate picture of the situation.

[@AdmiralBonetoPick]

It was the Death of Superman that pressured Marvel to come up with their own massive event, which resulted in the Spider-Man Clone Saga (that ultimately caused sales of Spider-Man comics to permanently fall by about 80%).

[@JurassicRod]

I love how you get appropriate voice overs for all the quotes you do until Paul Kopperburgh, a grey haired old man who gets given the voice of a teenage girl.

[@ciaranmurren]

The random quotes in some sort of American accent are hilarious.

[@MikaylaJLaird]

One of us was British, but yeah. It makes me laugh, but it's cool none the less.

[@ciaranmurren]

@@MikaylaJLaird it's not cool *shakes head*

[@josesarango3408]

I think the Death of Superman is an OK story. I love Reign of the Supermen though

[@Tethloach1]

a characters death only has meaning if the fans can buy it otherwise the fans won't find it significant. In some shows the main character dies and it is significant because the character is actually dead and everyone morns their death. expectations and giving people good quality stuff counts. different people have different expectations so pleasing everyone is impossible.

[@Mike739107]

Reign of the Supermen and Knightfall . . . the Summer of 1993 is hard to beat.

[@gendoruwo6322]

i really loved it when Steel fought The Eradicator.

[@RansomeStoddard]

I am just the opposite. I liked the Death of Superman and the Funeral for a Friend, but hated the Reign story.

[@joshuanelson6795]

I love both.

[@Danielo7R]

It's a testament to the worst things in comic books. As your title states, it killed comic books. It killed the illusion of consequences. It killed the concept of death. Nothing was off the table any more.

[@bigbabysld]

true @zero and @Daniel Appleton, how long did they even have superman "supposedly" killed off, maybe a handful of issues? personally I think they should have pushed SUPERBOY and let Clark stay "dead" for at least 5yrs and do a slow comeback. and yeah, it was whack bringing SPOCK back after 1 freakin movie.

[@krim7]

@Daniel Appleton Daniel Jackson at least makes sense. He ascended and then came back... Then did it again. ^_^ Interesting that you bring up Gwen and Bucky. Both were killed and stayed dead for decades. They are the kind of the antithesis of your argument.

[@turtleanton6539]

Yup

[@suarezguy]

I think Marvel bringing back Jean Grey in 1986 had already and much more killed off the idea of death being consequential.

[@suarezguy]

I don't like deaths being reversed often but that happening didn't and doesn't kill comics, let alone if it was rare.

[@rayleeds6080]

There was something else happening at the same time. Japanese animation had popped it's head in around the same time and videogames were being marketed and promoted like madness! When you have multiple forms of entertainment happening at once, limited amounts of money, and one becoming the new most popular thing then a shift will definitely occur and cause declines in other markets. The 90s - and particularly the early to mid 90s - were pretty much the zenith of gaming, so much so that even Hollywood started churning out movies BASED on games. Then there were games based on comics. I remember buying more Super Nintendo games and renting TWICE as many compared to comics and eventually gaming became my new love. Plus like I said the popularity of gaming meant that all your friends were doing it so you wanted to fit in etc. One other thing was accessibility. Only way to get a comic was a comic book store. Walmart and Target weren't selling the latest issues so when Mom and Dad were shopping the kids were running off to electronics begging for Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 2 😂

[@PosthumanHeresy]

I think that's also tied to the industry's 20 year death throes too. However, with one bonus factor: inflation + stagnant wages. Sure, each comic only costs a few bucks, so cheap that only junk food compares, but it's also 1/6th of a story. Trade paperbacks cost the same price as like 10 games in a Steam sale, or a XL pizza, or custom porn from someone's OnlyFans.

[@stormhawk31]

Anime had been around, and popular, for over a decade at that point. Go back to Battle of the Planets and Star Blazers back in the late 70s, and society in the early 80s.

[@globalistgamer6418]

I had a similar thought while watching the video. In the early nineties, although the games market was growing, it was technically difficult to represent the style and density kind of story content you would see in comic books. But by the end of the decade, it's much more plausible that games like Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid could have provided more direct competition to comic book style stories (although these games aren't quite contemporaneous with it, comparisons in theme and style with, say, the Spiderman clone saga would be reasonable).

[@mrScififan2]

Hey Owen! You’re so right. remember these big events from the same time period? The nobody gets out alive storyline killed Reed Richards. Fighting Chance: Captain ’s super soldier serum starts to degrade. Maximum Clonage: Peter Parker finds out that he was never the real Spider-Man. And he’s dying. Ben Richards, the clone was the real Spider-Man all along!. Age of Apocalypse: Prof X is killed before he founded the X-men. Diana loses the mantle of Wonder Woman to Artemis. Charles Xavier becomes the evil Onslaught... Knightfall The Long Night: in which the justice league is powerless to save our Sun. Time and Tide: Aqua man becomes grim and gritty. Gets a beard. Loses arm.

[@Shiirow]

like with every industry, you reach a boom period and the suits up top expect the boom period to go on forever and end up destroying the industry with overly ambitious expectations. if a comic could sell 4 million copies, imagine 5 comics selling 4 million each or even 10, but they fail to realize _WHY_ it sold 4 million copies and trying to replicate it over and over again just tires out the reader. if every event is earth shattering, you start to grow weary of it all and stop reading. now we have comics barely scratching 10k copies and well thats an different problem entirely, atm.

[@JStarStar00]

Actually, the original "Death Of Superman" storyline, an "imaginary story" from 1962, was an awesome storyline which could be updated perfectly for the present day.

[@turtleanton6539]

What happens

[@JStarStar00]

Turtle Anton: This was all in an "imaginary story" which is what they called "Elseworlds" in the 60s. It was a 3-part story, one of their first multi part stories. So here it is. Luthor, in prison, uses his scientific genius to discover a cure for cancer. The world rejoices. He tells the authorities he wants to go straight and help humanity. Superman remembers Lex was once a good kid in Smallville so he goes along with it. Superman supports Luthor and builds him an orbital workshop to help humanity. Of course Luthor doublecrosses Superman with a Kryptonite deathtrap and he does indeed kill him. Luthor also kidnaps Lois, Jimmy and Perry and forces them to watch Superman's quite gruesome (for 1962) death throes from Kryptonite radiation. There is a huge state funeral for Superman featuring all the DC superheroes. After the funeral, the criminal underworld goes wild, believing Superman is gone forever. They throw a huge celebration for Luthor to celebrate his feat. But just as Luthor celebrates his victory over Superman, Supergirl, who had been training in secret and was not known to the world, reveals herself, blasts into the criminal hideout and arrests Luthor. He is put on a worldwide televised trial for the murder of Superman, held in the bottle city of Kandor (since Superman was Kryptonian). About to be convicted, Luthor offers to use his genius to return Kandor full size if he is set free. The Kandorian judges tell him to shove it and sentence him to permanent imprisonment in the Phantom Zone, effectively the death penalty.

[@FALLENSK8ER1995]

@@JStarStar00 that would be awesome

[@JStarStar00]

xFBE STEEZ: They could definitely reboot it for the present day, they would have to change some details but the basic story would still work. In fact it might even work better now that we really do have space stations.

[@randaljbatty]

I hated the whole concept of Superman being killed off just for the sake of DC spiking its sales. My answer was to start buying independent comics, e.g., Harris, Image, Dark Horse ... whatever looked interesting and had great artwork. I even started buying "adult only" comics because they too seemed different and had amazing artists. Marvel was producing so many X-Men titles simultaneously that it seemed lecherous and difficult. I bought a bunch of DC but objected to all the Superman variants and how it affected other main titles. So yeah, I think the death of Superman was a pivotal point in the industry, and not a good one. After killing Superman, I began to realize that the publishers would do anything with their characters if it promoted sales, and that belief is still hanging around. The movie industry is doing whatever it likes, picking and choosing everything from costume design to storytelling. Some of it works and a lot of it doesn't. Sad.

[@laserbeamlightning]

Thor Odinson to be fair, films get to refine all these messy ideas after they’ve been through the ringer often redefining iconic imagery for their purposes to mixed results but overall positive reception. Films make more money than comics anyhow and at least with a film like Endgame, they know when to end a character’s story. Comics run in perpetuity and the fact that they’re so drawn out contributes to their decline. Manga’s quickly becoming the new comic book to many young readers because short ones will end. Even a 10 year book like the wildly successful Attack on Titan will end next year. If the comic book industry truly wants to regain popularity, it needs to get into a place where it can make statements and speak some truth again rather than seeing its audience as pure dollar signs.

[@prometheusmodelow8322]

​@@laserbeamlightning Honestly they have to use reboots more wisely, they of shy from actual character-changing stories and showing a natural passage of time, ending up in a logical end to the storylines, they keep sticking to the same status quo despite the ammount of "game changing" stories they put out, and they don't reboot because the timeline/universe whatever that they're dealing with has run it's course, they do it to sell new #1 issues. This is why alternate forms of this media like animated series or movies have been getting more popular than the comics themselves, they all take the story forward instead of being stuck forever and rebooting for no reason and with little to no differences.

[@OSW]

This is excellent! Thank u for the great recap and insight. I was a teen at the time and the Death of Superman was a massive milestone event; the resurrection split 4 ways was a GIANT slap in the face, my love for comics never recovered. Cool stroll down memory lane!

[@OwenLikesComics]

Thank you so much, I'm a big fan of your work so I genuinely appreciate that!

[@SylentEcho]

THANK YOU for not skipping over 'World Without A Superman/ Funeral For A Friend', like every other youtuber. Cadmus stealing Supes' body, Lois having trouble sleeping ad dreaming of him, Gangbuster and Guardian filling in and Supes' parents burying a box of Clark's toys etc. were amazing moments. The supporting cast was so good at the time!

[@OwenLikesComics]

Funeral For a Friend has some of the best moments in the entire story!

[@BainesMkII]

No serious comic book readers believed Superman would stay dead, hiatus or not. Further, DC's public pretense that Superman was really being permanently killed off (due to low sales and not fitting modern audiences) annoyed some fans. People knew DC was lying in order to bring in the gullible non-readers who didn't know how the comic book industry worked. People also knew the backlash would be bad would be bad when the non-reader market realized that they were lied to, much worse than it had been with prior PR stunts. The death itself was a pretty decent story. DC did the work to build up Doomsday as a threat that only Superman could face. But DC's blatant greed and impatience hurt it afterward.

[@mrheroprimes]

only issue is a open the floodgates for characters that have been killed previously to be brought back to life. the most famous being Bucky Barnes and Jason Todd you were both resurrected around the same time ironically. I don't have any problems with Jason Todd being brought back to life because the only reason he died in the first place was because apparently a single person had voted for Jason to die more than 100 times - having programmed his home computer to dial the Joker succeeds number every ninety seconds for eight hours, which pretty much means the guy cheated to ensure Jason's demise .

[@BainesMkII]

@@mrheroprimes I don't know how true the autodialer story is. It was a common rumor that mass calls were involved which gradually turned into "fact". Denny O'Neil appears to have popularized the story that it was a single person using his computer that swung the final result. However, when O'Neill repeated the claim in an interview last year, he prefaced the story with "if what I heard is true" and followed it with "I have never been able to verify the story". Over 10,000 total votes were cast, with the death option winning by 72 votes. No one ever questioned whether people were trying to rig the survival option, and the idea of multiple people rigging the death option faded with the prominence of the claim of a single person casting enough votes to sway the results. It is worth noting that the number of calls attributed to that lone computer user vary in different accounts. Last year, O'Neill said the man cast 85 votes. Much further back, O'Neill claimed the man was calling every 90 seconds for 8 hours, which would work out to 320 calls if every call went through.

[@FritziSchnitzel]

Events were definitely part of what killed my interest in comics. Along with the dark turn superhero comic stories took beginning in the late 80's, the decompression of the story telling, annoying & unwanted secret identity swaps, and blatant political proselytizing. The death of Barry Allen in Crisis on Infinite Earths marks the beginning of my dissatisfaction with superhero comics. And it only got progressively worse from that point on.

[@dawolf856]

The deluge of mutant comics. The darker storylines. Massive, unnecessary crossovers. Weak writing. Writers CLEARLY not knowing the history of the characters or source material. Multiple covers... *sigh*

[@brucehoward8826]

Again, I was never a hardcore comic fan but I probably would have to agree with you on your statement. Especially with all the Marvel "What If" comics coming out left and right in addition at that time, it was hard to keep up and I think it may have really discouraged me from even getting into the comics as a whole. It was a very confusing time.

[@Shiirow]

@@brucehoward8826 I dont mind the what if comics, they were usually one shots and didnt effect the main continuity. the event comics were really the nail in the coffin, they failed to understand why events sold well, it shook up the continuity for sure but it was because there was a solid foundation to shake up. if everything was an event, there was no longer a foundation to build and shake up. Im sure most people got tired of it all because how can you get invested in a character or a story if they were just going to toss the universe into a Yahtzee cup and roll it out again in a couple months.

[@4thcoming]

Concrete???? You like that? Dark Horse???

[@girlkrazy6519]

Superman had always been my favorite superhero and I had always followed him. I preordered 10 copies of the death of Superman from a comic shop I brought my comics from. On the day the books were to be sold I was refunded the money I had prepaid for those ten issues and was told I was allowed one comic at cover price and all other were to be sold at $10 per issue price. I never went back to that comic shop and they closed less then a year later. I continued to collect comic books but my faith in comic shops was shaken to the core. My faith in Marvel and DC was bruised also, I no longer felt like a customer but a sucker to be fleeced. 12 different X-men # 1 covers !!! Now comics are $3.99 - $4.99 and the industry is heading for another fall. 40 years is a good run maybe it’s time I stopped collecting and moved on. 😔

[@outpostalpha]

I remember reading the Reign of the Supermen storyline in trade paperback form a decade or so after it was originally released, and feeling like it dragged on forever. I can only imagine what it must have been like reading those issues month-to-month back in 1993, it's not surprising that the whole Death and Return of Superman affair left a lot of fans feeling disenchanted. It's definitely fascinating to learn what a profound impact that story had on the comics industry and community as a whole.

[@leighfoulkes7297]

They could have tried to come up with horror comics, fantasy, pirates or any other idea. Maybe sales were going down because the super heroes comics were getting old and they needed a new direction.

[@Eyrrll]

As the video detailed, the Death Of Superman did have a hand in the industry decline a few years later... however, it was a minor affect compared to a few other things going on at the time. 1). The most devastating hit to the industry at that time came at the hands of the rise of video game rentals. Video stores were everywhere by the mid 90s and nearly all of them carried game rentals. The game rental market was having a huge surge at the time as many kids learned their first lessons in the value of the dollar... “Do I buy two comics that I will finish reading in an hour, or do I rent a game that I can play for days?” Comics were facing a competitor that didn’t even exist 10 years prior... and they ultimately lost. 2) Marvel decided to self-distribute their comics. Although Marvel tried to keep discount levels close to what retailers had been paying, this was still a hit to the profitability of every store in America. Stores were now paying 10 to 20 percent more for the same comics, due to altered discount brackets and the need to pay shipping costs to two different distributors. This happened just as the market started to decline (the absolute worst time for it to happen). 3). I had a third thing in mind, but totally forgot it due to being long-winded in points 1 and 2... eh, well, maybe I’ll think of it later. Edit: Number 3 was, of all things, a Major League Baseball strike. Sales in the sports card industry started sliding around 93, probably in part due to how popular comics had become. As a result, there were a TON of sports card shops that got into the comics business at that time. My first retailer seminar was in 92 or 93 and boasted attendance of right at 800 people, which was the highest ever (keep in mind that this was for retailers and not open to the public). The very next year had a crowd of 2,300... shattering the record set the year before. It was almost entirely card shops that boosted the numbers (people had badges with shop names and most card shops were fairly obvious by the names). Anyway, these shops boosted sales a bit artificially, which did not help the market. And when the baseball strike happened in 1994, it only got worse. The card market was shrinking before then, but it completely imploded due to the strike... which caused even the hold out shops to add comics, further bloating the market. Then the card shops learned, very painfully, that comics and cards could not exactly be approached with the same business model... and they started dropping like flies. The Death Of Superman had its affect (absolutely) but in my opinion, I think it was small beans by comparison.

[@juanmmendez449]

Thank you I was one ☝of those kids, hell I was buying SNES games and renting them to kids at school.

[@Eyrrll]

Breath OLife I was a retailer with 3 stores... 2 of which were next to video stores, so I saw it first hand. I can’t blame the kids for choosing games over comics, hell I ended up buying a console and rented some myself. There just wasn’t a good way for comics to compete with video games... it’s probably the primary reason why a whole generation of kids completely skipped comics as a form of entertainment.

[@juanmmendez449]

@@Eyrrll For sure, also collected comic book action figures, tv shows like the x-men Animated series, Spiderman, Hulk, Iron man and Silver Surfer. Can't forget about the comic cards.

[@jimparker9345]

What sucks is that I watched quite a few comic shops go under after the return of Superman because they over extended themselves buying 3-400 books of each title expecting another run on the stores and not being able to recover.

[@OwenLikesComics]

Thanks for watching! This video is the follow-up to a previous video I made recently, discussing the origins of the Death of Superman story, and how it came to be. *WATCH HERE* ▶ kzbin.info/www/bejne/oWGviWhqjNNnaMk

[@Tethloach1]

The idea of the death of superman seems cool and interesting as a concept, but it is all up to expectations vs writers ability to impress people.

[@imblacksoimslow5731]

I think superman is gay!!!!!

[@owenoulton9312]

This was the final straw for me. It actually drove me out of comics collecting. I'd already become disgruntled by "events" where you were expected to buy every comic by a publisher in order to follow a mega crossover like Crisis on Infinite Earths and Secret Wars. It was so obviously a cynical scam that I went from buying two dozen comics a month to going cold turkey.

[@rockridgesecondaryfilm4658]

Ahh, this brings back memories. Great video essay on the DOS. I still have a box in closet of old comics sitting around. I remember if you missed a week of newsstand price the cost shot up like a rocket. Could you drop a video about The Flash? My little girl is in love with the hero and it’s hard to explain his origins. Wally is my Flash from my childhood, in fact one of the first comics that stuck with my was COIE saga when Barry “died”. Wally took over and that was that. Anyways, I’d love to see Flash timeline to explain everything. Cheers.

[@ronniejdio9411]

Great breakdown. Everyone bought death of superman and they should have printed a million more copies. They botched the return but not compared to other big event endings

[@DrPluton]

The Death and Return of Superman comics were what got me into reading comic books in the first place. I remember watching the Superman: Doomsday animated movie in college, and I got to wondering how the events played out in the actual comics. After reading all of the comics involved in that event, I went back to the 1986 Man of Steel John Byrne mini-series and continued from there. By the time I had read everything up to 2006, it was 2008 or 2009, and I took a break by reading the Wonder Woman comics of the same years. When I was just about to start buying new comics, The New 52 happened and soured my opinion of DC until Rebirth. I can definitely see what you're saying in this video. Dark Knights: Metal really hurt my already low tolerance for Batman who thankfully usually only appears in Justice League from the comics I read. Why does everything have to be so doom and gloom all the time? Why can't there be more comics like Super Sons with more humor and traditional superhero action?

[@walterhicks5520]

Because those would sell, and their agenda/propaganda pieces would just sit there on the shelves.

[@VixXstazosJOB]

More Importantly WHY do you hate Batman... it's not like he doesn't make sense for a human... more like he reached the misteries of Top Notch Tier HUMAN LEVEL

[@richardranke7878]

The New 52 was the end of buying comic books for me. I gave it a try, but gave up after a year or so. I read about Rebirth,but Superman and Lois with a son? Forget it! DC has no sense of continuity anymore and I gave up on the whole scene. These aren't what I loved in the old days.

[@VixXstazosJOB]

@@richardranke7878 why's so wrong about Sups and Lois having son... it's like shtting on DB just cause Goku had a son... what

[@stevenslouber4947]

What happened? Killing Superman did to readers then what Ultimate Marvel killing Peter Parker did for me. It turned people off to comics.

[@dildonius]

Well that’s dumb, because a lot of people who actually read the series will tell you that the death of Ultimate Peter Parker was a fantastic story and the story of Miles Morales trying to fill in his shoes is an even better one as he came into his own. And it seems after some growing pains, he’s coming into his own in Earth-616 as well, this time side-by-side with Peter Parker. To whine about that story is to fundamentally misunderstand what the Ultimate Marvel comics were all about and it’s hard to not conclude that you either blindly hate it because it made such a major change and god forbid meaningful changes actually happen and stick in comics, gotta have what we’re used to, change is scary and different! Or, god forbid, you just blindly dislike it because the new Ultimate Spider-Man was a mixed-race Black & Latino character instead of yet another generic white guy, a Peter Parker clone. Whatever it is, there’s no way it’s because the story is bad, because it just ain’t. Marvel comics have done far more stupid things of late that might actually warrant a long-time fan giving up the brand. This wasn’t one of them.

[@stevenslouber4947]

dildonius, Just pointing out It's simply a big risk within any franchise when the choice is made to kill main/favorite characters. That is half what caused the Transformers anime movie in the '80s to flop (other half was crap animation that didn't live up to '80s expected standards). I will say that I did give Into the Spiderverse a chance and Miles makes a great Spider-Man. I'm not against anyone else being a Spider-Man and the team-ups were nothing short of awesome. It was just a tough blow that Miles's universe's (Ultimate) Peter Parker had to die. It for sure had to play with Poor Miles's sanity a bit watching him die and then suddenly being thrown back in the mix with the 616 Peter.

[@the_scraggler]

I don't know if it's been mentioned but there were news reports when Superman #75 was released of lines stretching down the block with people who were buying it (it was in a documentary I watched but I can't remember the name of it). Every single person who was interviewed said they were buying it as an investment so they could afford to send their kids to college or they wanted to buy a house or retire on it after they sold it. Of course, it was printed in such large numbers that this was never going to happen but the general public had no idea. They just saw dollar signs. Then DC brought Superman back and people were seriously angry and upset that their dreams of retiring on a $2.50 comic book had been dashed and I'd be willing to bet that 99% of those people never bought a comic again. I truly don't think DC knew how big this event was going to be and, conversely, how drastic the blowback at his return would be because of these would-be investors. It gave DC a shot in the arm, to be sure, and Image comics coming along just a little later caused a total comic buying frenzy for a while. But once people wised up and realized that you couldn't retire on comics, everything slowly started going down the drain. I'm not saying this is the main reason the industry went into a downward spiral but it definitely contributed. People weren't buying comics back then for the stories, that's for sure. Anyway, great video. I wish there were more examinations of the comics industry like this.

[@LRHSLakewoodLive]

Excellent video. As a collector from 1980 until now, I lived through the 90's crash and eventual "Rebirth" if you will. However, I feel a final death blow may be stalking the comic book industry. The influx of untold numbers of variants (Marvel mostly), twice monthly titles at $3.99 each, constant #1 relaunches, and the Diamond shipping monopoly may prove to be the real Doomsday. To keep this amazing industry alive I think publishers should lower cover prices, OR set new prices levels for year long titles subs or pre-orders using the Previews timeline. Then limit the number of books printed and shipped to the LCS market. Because as it stands there is a huge speculative market or book flippers taking over the industry. At the very least we need to get back to a time when we the buyer feel like the comics are worth the price paid for them. Ex: Heroes in Crisis. Ugh.

[@ejmanalastas]

Law of economics: Supply and demand. The reason why old comics are priced high than comics from 80's up until now is because of rarity. 80's up to now, there is no more rarity in the comics due to preservation unlike the old ones where in preservation was not really being considered by everyone specially when WWII erupted, comics where freely contributed.

[@Lizard1984]

Lakewood Live_Archive excellent point. I totally agree.

[@everettsnowsson2429]

Lakewood Live_Archive Hastings entertainment store going belly up made comics a thing of the past in my town.

[@JCResDoc94]

☼ They just copied the end plot of the "Batman v Superman" movie. Hacks.

[@kojikaze8228]

Reign of Superman is fantastic!

[@parkb5320]

Without a doubt the 90’s killed comic books for me. I had been an avid fan throughout the 70’s and 80’s, but I couldn’t survive the dark and event driven days of the 90’s. Still to this day we have nothing but event after event every single year. And how many reboots have we gone through? It took 50 years of continuity for the first Crisis to “fix” things and now we have one every decade of so.

[@caligulapontifex5759]

I had the same experience. I was basically a child of the 80s and comics were a large part of that experience but the majority of comics in the 90s were rubbish. Horrible art, incomprehensible story arcs, tons of variant covers and gimmicks for no other reason then to push sales. I left comics for a period of 10 years for all these reasons.

[@INFERNO95]

parKb5 The 80,s were more dark and gritty then the 90,s. Yet everyone act like the 80,s was the greatest era in comics. Plus most 80,s story was obsess whit rape or sleazy sex stories. Atleast the 90,s try to move away from that gimmick by being creative.

[@beejj6190]

My comic reading years were from ages 7 -13 (over 4, 000 back at my mother's). I'm a marvel fan and just spend a £1, 000 re-collecting 75 tpb across the best stories/ characters. Everything stops for me at around 1995...

[@TheSwordfish009]

come over to manga. Rarely there are any reboots and there's one consistent writer. Thousands of original comics, short and long.

[@ejmanalastas]

DC and Marvel is like Looney Toons, instead of slapsticks, its serious and has less repercussion when it comes to changes within a character. Marvel's first Ultimate line up shows permanent changes until its end and "reboot".

[@truekaliban4674]

The only thing I can stand about that period is that Ordways' Lois was INSANELY hot! He's my second favorite Superman artist, right behind the great Curt Swan, even though I never really followed the character after 1986. The sense of wonder that the books had under Mort Weisinger was gone.

[@marcobaker1475]

It's only two problems with these books two big problems they made too many books and they brought him back wayyyyyy to soon

[@bigbabysld]

That was the sad part, bringing him back the way they did...at least 5yrs, they could have pushed SUPERBOY and slowly bring Clark back into the fold

[@turtleanton6539]

@@bigbabysld yup

[@suarezguy]

About 7 months (with four issues a month) seems a fine length for the return story to last.

[@marcusgurley9495]

This was my senior year of high school. it reignited my love of comics throughout college

[@chrissawyer1484]

Same here.

[@prowellerable]

That was part of it for me and the fact that villains that can't die and are all powerful. Why do they have to kill off heroes and villains live on or always come back? The death of Robin started it for me. The writers are dark hearted and are out of touch with their patrons. Plus the violence got so graphic and consistent.

[@billybones6463]

Bibbo wasn't all tears tho; he put on a Supes T-shirt and baseball cap and started passing out sandwiches to the homelss with Krypton, his dog. Everyone tried to do a little more after he was gone. The series was great and the covers of those 10 issues are just great

[@egobaby4246]

The speculator market peaked and then dropped like a kryptonite rock

[@everettsnowsson2429]

EGO BABY my comic book shop guy was trying to sell the ploybagged Death issue for $75, when we ordered ours for three bucks.

[@andyrandall9289]

I still collected the comics, the John Bryne Superman was the most human.

[@hukes]

I stopped reading comics alltogether when they revived Superman. It felt like cheating on me as a reader who really cared for Superman for years and finally saw him die.

[@DoctorTopper]

I respect your opinion. It's too bad. But just in case it makes you feel better: I'm glad that the way they brough him back involved previously established plot elements, instead of plain deus ex machina. Good for me I guess. I see how it could still easily seem cheap.

[@QUINOVIN]

I can't think of this comic without thinking about that one video that summerised this comic with a super low budget and a jumpscare at the end

[@oldatarigamer]

Short term over saturation was successful but hurt the industry long term.

[@simonm.1122]

A couple years prior you had Spider-Man 1, X-Men 1, X-Force 1, all with variant covers or sealed in a bag. That was the beginning of the end.

[@beejj6190]

My comic reading years were from ages 7 -13 (over 4, 000 back at my mother's). I'm a marvel fan and just spend a £1, 000 re-collecting 75 tpb across the best stories/ characters. Everything stops for me at around 1995...

[@johnnyskinwalker4095]

ah that is funny I still have 4,000 sitting at my mother's house. I need to sell them

[@cha5]

I remember the Death of Superman, although I tried to avoid it at the time being that I thought it was lame and a blatant cash grab on DC's part. I was mainly into Golden Age back issues and the main current comics back then I was reading were ones like Garth Ennis's Preacher and Neil Gaiman's Sandman and Alan Moore's From Hell, plus Sam Kieth's The Maxx & Peter David's The Hulk among some other comics. The superhero comics era back then just didn't do a lot for me

[@therealpaulortiz]

Owen- 1st time I'm checking out your videos and I gotta say you do an excellent job reviewing the pros and cons of every character story arc along with the industry ramifications. Hats off to you sir!!!

[@OwenLikesComics]

Thanks so much, Paul! There's plenty more videos like this, and plenty more on the way. Hopefully you stick around for the journey.

[@mattronimus]

I was 12 when the death of superman happened. I know he came back, and it's ultimately a sales gimmick. It showed how important and beloved Superman is, and I get tears every time I read it.

[@kh7688]

I'm only just getting into your videos and I love them. There's a calmness to your voice that makes listening to these videos all the more enjoyable.

[@OwenLikesComics]

Thank you so much, Kamal. That's really nice to hear, I'm glad you enjoy the videos so much!

[@bubbastevegarcia2459]

This just showed up in my recommended feed and I'm glad it was! INSTANTLY SUBBED! I can tell you truly love comics by the way you talk about them! You hold such reverence and love for these Characters!

[@gschneyer]

What killed it all off for me was the Onslaught series. At the end almost everyone died, I was so done. "What lame reason will they give to bring them all back?"

[@felipea1399]

I would love to see an elseworlds where Superman really died and Eradicator becames Superman by adopting his morals

[@grahamfrasier8670]

This is the story that started it all for me (as well as countless others) It will always be the gold standard to me. Still reading after 23 years. Great video!

[@pershop4950]

It makes sense that Superman's death in the comics was a big impact to the world and other heroes...but not so much in the movie Batman v Superman. At that point, Superman was still not the hero for the world, and only 2 apparent heroes had joined with him to even care about who he was or how his death impacts them. It was a wrong time to do a death of Superman storyline in the movies.

[@robjames6121]

Have you done one of these on the electric blue and red superman I’d love to see an overview of that. Keep up the good work.

[@drbladerunner]

Excellent video & analysis. You've earned another subscriber. Cheers!

[@leavonfletcher4197]

Really great video. I also heard both Matt Draper and Comics Drake. Thoroughly enjoyed.

[@jonathanandrews3399]

The Return of Superman remains one of my favorite comic events of all time. I was a teenager when it came out, so I may be biased. 😸 Thanks for the video!

[@flamingstallion]

The whole death of Superman and how they brought him back actually sounds like a good story. And the idea of a superhero modeled off of John Henry also seems like a really cool idea. Kind of like Luke cage powers while wielding a sledgehammer and a strong moral code

[@JudgementalGoat]

I was an impressionable kid back then. This shook my world because it came out of nowhere. I felt cheated when he returned, but also relieved

[@strangelovemd1]

People literally thought they were going to put their kids through college by buying multiple copies of Superman 75 and keeping them in pristine condition.

[@aguywithalotofopinions412]

It's a real shame because in many ways, as significant and as well executed as it was, it showed that comics weren't willing to take risks in the long run. I mean, did anyone actually think Damian Wayne would stay dead? Or more recently, Alfred?

[@unkle2262]

The death of superhero comics wasnt cause of superman, its cause every western action comic is a procedural. Every single one. You can only use the same cast and same settings a number of times before everything has been overdone to the point of meaninglessness, and the final nail in that coffin for supers was the death and resurrection of Superman. Dragon Ball introduced the idea of serialized comic book storytelling, and because of it has become the new standard for comic book storytelling. It's the sole reason why a series like One Piece can outsell all of Batman in a quarter of the time, WITH rolling momentum; because with serialized storytelling, those plot elements actually have weight to it, and won't be handwaved away or undone by another author, because it's under the protection of the serialized format.

[@blacklantern001]

The legacy of this is Superman with a wicked mullet

[@Fernando_616]

It's like anything else; once the bar is set, everyone else just ends up chasing the dragon

[@Elementa2006]

3:35 I was really happy they kept that scene in the Death Of Superman animated movie although they changed it to him being on the dock instead of the bar but still had the same impact.

[@jarradjones9149]

Great video like always Owen

[@georgewilliams1470]

This kind of thing is what soured me on comics for a long time.The killing off of the title character especially one of the main icons of the company is something that you know is not going to last.When you consider the amount of merchandise associated with Superman it makes no sense to kill off such a character.

[@poisonshift78]

The KZbin algorithms are working in your favor today. One new sub here, no doubt plenty more will follow. Great content. One thing though, the audio is super tinny, could you get that fixed?

[@welikecomicbooks9758]

Good stuff. I am glad you posted this.

[@jgillan92]

Really love these in-depth videos Owen 😊

[@westswell2757]

I liked Connor. There was also a one-off that I think was collaborated by Time Magazine as how the death of Superman would have been covered in universe.

[@dcc091364]

I worked at a comic book store up to and after the Death of Superman. That day was crazy, we had people paying at least $100 for a copy of that book. There were so many speculators around at that time. They totally threw off the market. They would buy up all number 1 issues and try to resell them. Plus kids weren’t just buying books they liked, or sports cards either. The kids would cherry pick packs of cards trying to get the special insert cards, and then ask to see a Beckett’s to see what that card was worth. Everything had to be kept behind the counter to prevent the cherry picking.

[@RobertBeerbohm]

Owen, looks like you have a genuine interest in exploring comics business history. If I may, you need to expand your horizons beyond the narrow views stated here why there was a mid 90s crash & burn. The largest single factor is those then Wall St mentality Marvel owners buying Heroes World in 1995 and declaring their own monopoly. The Fools. Those then Marvel owners never ever understanding the Direct Market was created summer 1968 when Print Mint took Zap Comics into national distribution pushing creator-owner, royalty-paying comic books. By 1997 Marvel was hat in hand begging Steve Geppi in to saving their collective corporate a$$. Would be happy to provide further elucidation.

[@zipgow]

Gotta admit, both the thumbnail and the title were why I decided to watch an extra Owen Loves Comics video today. I would have really liket to see you express your displeasure with the fact that his death story amounted to little more than he punches a giant rock monster of unknown origin until they're both dead. I don't have the time to watch this today. (I went to your page and couldn't find a video about the "Death of Superman" story, something I'd like to hear your thoughts on if they aren't already mentioned in this video.)

[@Scorch904]

My mom got a copy for me her and each of my brothers as well as one to read. Also started collecting comic cards as well as many other various comics. I just recently gave my copy to my daughter still black bagged. She decided to open it but thanks to the spec boom I can replace it for a few bucks. I miss you mom

[@56postoffice]

Saw previous comments about the state of comics in the 1990s and I more or less agree with most of them. I used to collect *Amazing Spiderman* and it was when Kraven The Hunter killed himself in a dark storyline in late 1987 made me rethink as to where comics was heading. I suppose they were trying to get rid of the tag that comics "are for kids". I almost quit collecting at that point but persevered anyway. I officially stopped collecting *Amazing* in 1997 but still collected *Avengers* up until the 2000s. I don't buy comics per se but buy the odd back issue from the 70s and 80s.

[@Lordoftheapes79]

I was a teenager working at a comic book store during this era, so I got first whack at all of this. To this day Steel is one of my favorite heroes. But some pf my favorite moments came during the funeral for a friend series. From Lex's fuming to Bilbo naming his dog Krypto because he couldn't afford the N on the dogtag. Then there's that time Jimmy Olsen and Robin(Tim Drake) beat the piss out of a paparazzi. And one of my favorite lines(ironically I can't remember who said it, but I assume it was a member of the Justice League) that sums up Superman as a whole,"You know that feeling you get when we show up, that everything's gonna be fine? We know it too, because that's how we felt when he showed up. What's gonna happen now?". Then there's the Xmas issue where the DC heroes are trying to pick up the slack and pick up the letters to Santa and are utterly dumbfounded by how much mundane stuff he did to make everyone's lives a little better every day...

[@FancyGeeks]

I remember doing this! Big collab, lots of fun. Damn, Owen is good.

[@craigamore2319]

For me, The Death of Superman was my introduction to comic books and the birth of my interest in them. For better or worse, that story opened the world of comics up to me.

[@remc0s]

What was odd was that of all Superman stories, they chose Death of Superman to introduce this new character Bloodwynd. This was supposed to be an iconic story about Superman's death, and all i did was wondering about who this guy was and where he came from the whole time.

[@Ash_Yu]

Looking back it's weird how overlooked Supergirl was when considering how to bring back Superman. Especially since Kryptonian technology was ultimately used. It also would've made WAY more sense to paint Clark's cousin as his (temporary) successor than introducing a bunch of new characters.

[@jtpencils]

I saw through the whole “Superman is dead forever” scam that it was. There was still an absolute ton of marketing/promotional material out there, all in the form of Superman. Same for the whole Red/Blue Superman books, heck, even New 52. Yes, impact books are great when they are rare, and they don’t appear to paint you into a corner. But DC has gone to the well too often with their flagship character (as well as the apparent Crisis events). It turns a mega event book that should stand on its own (TDK), into “just another issue”.

[@VXMasterson]

The idea that the most prolific DC hero could be killed and 4 different ideas for successors all getting green-lit is fascinating. I don't know if revivals were a big thing in comics before the Death & Return of Superman, but I feel like it unfortunately sparked that really bad trend of no one staying dead. I often wonder what the DC universe would be like if they had actually kept Superman dead and appointed a seemingly permanent successor like they did with Wally replacing Barry replacing Jay (until they brought back Barry)

[@ryanturcin3112]

It actually got my back into comic books

[@mr.sand7899]

This story is the reason why I hate the 90's era of comics.

[@Lodatzor]

Then you're blaming the story for the greed which followed it. It doesn't deserve your hate. As a story it's an unqualified high-point.

[@bransongrant4833]

Great video review

[@bransongrant4833]

Do you work with creators

[@josemaricortes4138]

In retrospect, the Death of Superman /Funeral for a Friend/Reign of the Supermen/Return of Superman Saga simply became a launching pad to "kill" off characters that we love, and then in one way or another legitimately "bring them back." It started the boom of the tragedy that became repetitive with all the characters and situations across all the different publishing houses. And because everyone saw the first was successful, everyone decided to repeat it/replicate it. With onr or a few intermediate successes and failures.

[@ThatOneGuy7550]

Loved the video, Owen!

[@OwenLikesComics]

Thank you!

[@kurxis1930]

Great content. Subscribed!