Subject: Re: superman
Reply-To: mtemplar@redunser.demon.co.uk
Distribution: world
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Organization: Chez MonTemplar, Redunser
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 23:35:44 +0000

In article <1992Nov20.165743.6530@midway.uchicago.edu> mss2@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>In article <By0JyL.7vE@news.cso.uiuc.edu> trumpins@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu (Barbara Trumpinski) writes:
>
>>"NOBODY has mentioned a very important death which occurred earlier
>>this week...superman has met his match...he died in lois's arms.
>
>>rest in peace, superman...
>
>>you gave me many hours of joy when i was younger."
>
>><crash>  her glass hits the fireplace.

Heard about this on the news at the beginning of the week, see below for my
reaction...

>       "Um, Kitten... I don't think you need say your final goodbyes
>to Kal-El of Krypton just yet.  Yes, DC Comics has pulled off a fairly
>impressive publicity coup, but I this being comic books I suspect
>(read `am certain') that his death ain't in no ways permanent.  Rumor
>hath it he'll be up and about in six months.  Even if that's just
>rumor, if he isn't alive and kicking within the year I'll eat my
>fedora and have my walking stick for dessert.  :-)  (DC Comics may not
>be the brightest company in the world, but I suspect that the chances
>that they'll permanently kill off a marketing property literally worth
>millions to them are, well, slim.)

My thoughs exactly. They need popular, money-earning characters like Supes
and Batman, to cover against new ventures (adult titles, graphic novels,
crossovers, experimental, etc) which have a high risk factor attached to
them.

[...]
>       Michael puts down the comic.  "Right after they published
>that, they reworked Superman significantly, at least from the
>perspective of someone who reads these things.  As a result, after
>some attempt to like their `new' Superman, I realized that the
>prologue to `Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow' was correct--
>Superman died there after all.  The death of his replacement might
>have affected me if it had been well done.  And I'm a sucker for these
>sorts of stories.  I have the comics in which Supergirl was killed
>back in '85 (and she actually didn't get better, but was written out
>of the history and later replaced with a character who had
>significantly different powers and origin), and in which Superboy was
>killed in '87 (turned out, as part of the rewriting mentioned earlier,
>he wasn't Superman as a boy after all, and he died saving his parallel
>universe's Earth) and I can still actually get choked up reading
>either of them.  It's costumed heroes and melodrama, but the writers
>are able to make me care about these people.  But they couldn't
>conjure up anything of the sort this time-- I suspect, in the end,
>that that's why I'm disappointed in them."

There is of course, the (in)famous case of Readers vs Robin, or more
specifically Readers vs Jason Todd's Robin, since chronicled in "A Death In
The Family". In summary, readers were presented with Robin being feared dead
at the mid-point of the story, and were offered the chance to choose whether
he lived or died, with DC producing a different continuation of the story
depending on the outcome. (note: I'm trying to spoil potential enjoyment of
this particular story).

The result was a resounding "let him have it!"

To be fair, Jason Todd hadn't gone down too well as the replacement for the 
original Boy Wonder, Dick Grayson. But even so, the result came as a shock to
DC.


If Superman's 'death' is just a stunt, to allow DC to redesign and redeploy
the Man of Steel, as it were, fair enough. (Tho I don't know how he 'dies',
so my decision would be conditional on a thumping good story to mark this
event.)

But if it ain't a stunt... well, it will be a sad day for comics, leaving the
Dark Knight to carry the DC torch - not that that would be bad in itself, mind
you, Bats is more than up to that task, but Supes has always been the
undisputed number one, and for him to fall from grace after such long service
would be a great shame...

>Michael
--
Alan Ralph, AKA Kimberley MonTemplar (when in alt.callahans)
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