Death and Return of Superman Omnibus

I first heard about the DC comics Marketing mega-event “The Death of Superman” when I was a kid, visiting the Superman Museum in Metropolis.

That is… Metropolis Illinois: a mild-mannered town in southern Illinois that has embraced Superman.

You can see the Superman statue, tour the Superman museum… Superman is on the police and fire department patches.

It’s weird and kind of wonderful.

The Superman statue in Metropolis Illinois, just outside of the Superman Museum. Source: Wiki Commons

There is a comic shop at the front of the museum and that’s where it caught my eye: a black sealed Superman comic (that had a black armband included) all about the Death of Superman.

The black “bloody” sealed “Death of Sueprman” comic from Metropolis, along with the sealed white issue #500.

It looked important – there weren’t any other comics sealed like that. I ended up buying the sealed black comic and later in life the sealed white one.

However, kid-me thought: “Superman can’t die – that’s dumb.” I did not like the fact Superman even could die… so I just never read it, or even opened it. That way, to me Superman never did die.

The idea of the story stuck with me though. As I got older I had always been meaning to read it this story, but it always felt so big and inaccessible. I knew the basics just from comic-osmosis: Doomsday killed Superman, but he got better.

When I saw this HUGE Omnibus for sale I decided to finally pick up the collection and give it a read!

The Book

Like most Omnibus collections, this book is THICK. The binding is nice though, and I think it will survive multiple reads. The pages, coloring, and text in my version looked great.

My original “Newstime” supplement. I got mine in Metropolis, IL – the Omnibus includes the magazine, although it’s a little smaller than the original.

Included as well is the “Newstime” special edition, an in-universe magazine that is heavy on flavor and a little sillyness here and there. This was sold separately at the time (I still have my copy!) but is nice to see included here as well – this supplement is not included in all “Death of Superman” collections so it was nice to see.

The Story

The story has three main arcs: The big fight with Doomsday, the Superman Funeral and its aftermath, and the “Reign of the Supermen”.

The Fight

Little time is wasted introducing Doomsday. No explanation is given as to where he came from, why he wants to destroy everything, or why he gets fixated on killing Superman. He is a walking MacGuffin: a writing device with one narrative purpose: kill Superman.

I like this a lot.

Monsters are more scary when they are in the dark, mysterious. Not intricately explained and analyzed.

It’s fun to wonder: is Doomsday some alien being that was basically so impossible to kill he was tied to a rock and sent into deep space? The fact he escapes near Earth is interesting – maybe he’s solar powered like Superman? It makes the reader think and ponder the mysteries.

Hopefully you enjoy the mystery too because you never get an answer (in this book at least. Other media has origin stories and more for Doomsday.)

World Without a Superman

What’s so fun about the stories after Superman dies is the focus on everyone else around Superman – his death serves as a foil to let us see some of these characters with fresh eyes.

Not just members of the Justice League but Lois, Clark’s parents, Bibbo, and reporters at the Daily Planet, and more.

How do Clark’s parents cope with his loss? How does Lois deal with the grief when people tell her Clark may eventually turn up in the rubble of Metropolis but not be able to tell anyone that Clark won’t be back, because she was there when he died?

The Reign of the Supermen

After his death many ‘Superman replacements’ start showing up.

There is a great mystery here too as to which Superman is real that I enjoyed.

Is it Cyborg Superman that has a lot of Superman’s memories? Is it Sunglasses Superman, that seems the most like Superman physically but is cold, cruel, and heartless? There’s also Superboy (although he does not want to be called that!) a clone of Superman that doesn’t have time to fully mature (and it shows). There’s also John Henry Irons, aka Steel, a brilliant inventor who is a fun new hero that makes a Mech-Suit that allows him to fill in for Superman.

All the Other Stories

A few other highlights I enjoyed was a story about Clark’s father, who has a “dream-sequence” like adventure trying to bring Clark back from the dead. It is a really surreal story and it’s not clear if it was a real adventure on the ‘spirit plane’ or if it was entirely in Johnathan Kent’s head – a fun bit of unreliable narrator storytelling.

Another ‘short story’ I liked a lot was from the perspective of a reporter (Ron Troupe) investigating one of the potential Supermen – it reminded me a bit of Watchmen where the perspective on the story would change a lot. Investigating along with the reporter really pulled me in, and made the world of this story feel more real!

The Death of Superman has so many great little stories that all weave together. It paints a big, rich world that feels lived-in and interesting.

It takes the time to explore a lot of characters who are often just in the background and makes the world of Superman seem so big and alive – a big accomplishment for a book with “Death” in the title!

Worth a read?

The Death and Return of Suprman Omnibus was a great read. I don’t regret buying it at all and I know I’ll read it again. It’s one of the best BIG Superman story arcs I’ve read in a while. No wonder this plot keeps getting referenced and re-told from the Animated Series to full animated verison of the story.

If you can afford the price I really suggest picking this up. You can often find it for sale on Amazon new, and eBay will occasionally have it as well for a little cheaper. Why not try your local comic shop first though?