It’s time once again for my semi-occasional, govenmentally-mandated post on "The Death of Superman."

§ August 20th, 2007 § Filed under death of superman § 3 Comments

So here’s another buried treasure from the depths of our backroom:


Straight from 1993 and right into all of our hearts is this commemorative poster by Dan Jurgen and Brett Breeding for that one time Superman died for a couple of months.

For you folks who only know the Vertigo Comics Swampy, proof that he used to hang with the DC Universe at large:


Deathstroke the Terminator puts in an appearance, one of the few villains to do so in this image:


This was about the time DC was pushing Deathstroke as a Punisher-esque “anti-hero” rather than the out-and-out villain he is now. I have a hard time imagining the current, post-Identity Crisis Deathstroke having his presence tolerated by the other heroes.

I’ll take “more-or-less forgotten DC characters” for $100, Alex:


Yeah, I know you all recognize Agent Liberty, but really, that character didn’t stick around too long, did he? (Has he put in an appearance anywhere, lately? Seems like he’d pop up in Checkmate or something.)

Here’s the second villain appearance in this poster:


Okay, I can see Darkseid acknowledging the death of a respected foe, raising his chalice of sparkling cider in tribute, but at Casa de Darkseid back on Apokalips. I just can’t see him marching along with everyone else in a funeral procession, particularly with a Dead Superman armband. I mean, c’mon, it’s Darkseid. Just seems slightly out of character.

Here’s another Vertigo headliner, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, staring at the back of the Ray’s shiny, shiny helmet:


And, hey, it’s Booster Gold, heading up the funeral procession, and one of the major focuses of the entire image:


Huh, wonder why Booster got such preferential treatme…


…oh, yeah.

Here are Elongated Man and Power Girl, in mourning not just for Superman, but for their costuming choices:


I actually kinda like these briefly-used costumes for the Hawk-folks:


Alas, they’re from the period of the Hawkman reboot, so they also remind me of how the characters were nearly broken what with all of DC’s continuity shenanigans.

While I liked Kelley Jones’ redesign of Deadman, it’s one of those designs that only works if Jones does it:


And I had a sneaking suspicion about this, and the Wikipedia article also notes it, so I guess I’m not imagining things…but I believe the Bloodwynd identity (at the lower left) was being assumed by the also-pictured Martian Manhunter at the time of “The Death of Superman.”


Not pictured (mostly): an uncomfortable number of Team Titans and Darkstars. I always love how pieces of merchandise like this are such snapshots of comic book continuity of the time. In fact, I saw a fella at the store on Sunday wearing a Mullet Superman t-shirt. The storylines may be dead, but the merchandise lives on.

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