I am shameless stealing DTM's movie rating format to start up something similar with important comic book story lines.

This one is for the infamous Death of Superman story line.

Taken as just a story and ignoring all the media hype and special event extra nonsense and so on that went with it, I kinda liked it. Of course, it was no surprise to anyone that Supes would be back and that none of his four replacements were going to be the regular "new" Superman, so for me it all depended on whether the storytelling direction taken to bring Superman back was entertaining and well-told. I thought it was.

Doomsday is hardly the single best villain ever created, but his fight with Superman was well-choreographed. The method for bringing Superman back to life was eventually explained in full and made reasonable comic book sense. The Cyborg/Mongul team-up and the final battle against them were both fun.

Also, there's a bit towards the end of the story that still gets me all misty when I think about it. Superman has returned and is helping to clean up the rubble still littered about Metropolis. Suddenly, he spots something with his X-Ray vision. Yelling "GET AN AMBULANCE, NOW!!" as he quickly tosses aside several tons of debris, he uncovers two children who were buried in a disused bomb shelter. Both are weak from thirst and hunger,but one of them tells Superman she knew he wouldn't let them die.

Superman reaches down to pull them to safety as he says. "Of course not. I'd rather die myself." Great Superman moment.

I'd give it a 7/10. I admit all the unnecessary media hype was annoying, but the story itself was a fun ride.

0/10 for me

Death of Superman ranks as one of my all time worst ever comic book stories. It was a cheap (and this was very obvious) ploy to garner sales.

Superman should never be killed off, EVER. However, if you absolutely 100 percent must do it, then it should have been Lex Luthor who killed him. Not some jumped up specially made 1990s atrocity like Doomsday (made speciffically to kill Superman).

This, Bruce Wayne stepping down as Batman for Jean-Paul, and the Spider-man CloneSaga/mess story are the absolute worst dreck to have comeout from the 2 major companies.

Don't hold back, Maniac. Tell us what you really think.

You know, I actually like the story. I think it expanded Superman's cast, and changed his character to some degree. He's more aggressive as a charcter now, but maintains the qualities that make him Superman. No longer does he hold back against his foes like some Supes-haters, and those that aren't familiar with the character like to claim. It also gave him a foe that he has to use his mind in order to defeat, an attribute that seems to be forgotten about him. Plus we got Steel, Kon-El, and the Cyborg Superman out of the story. It also set up some great stuff later on.


I'll also give it a 7/10.

0/10.

A cheap sales tactic to hook speculative collectors.

Hey, the arc put me off of reading DC for quite a while.

I dropped Flash and Batman like a bad habit about that time, partly because every other Batman arc was going all demonic/devil worshiping, and the other part because I didn't care to support a company that would kill off the world's greatest hero in such a lame publicity grab.

As a former comic shop owner during this period of history- all I can say is thanks for the CASH, Thanks for the headaches (sell-outs & irate customers), Thanks for a crappy story that did not increase readership once the story arch was done.
Tripe served in a black plastic bag. Reading 0/10, Marketing 11/10


BTW- Kalel21- an intersting idea to add to the forums.

For best story archs: Phoenix Saga, Daredevil/Kingpin/Elektra saga

I've only read the Death part of the story. I managed to snag the trade for about 2 dollars. I don't feel like I wasted my money, but I'm glad I didn't pay any more then that. One thing I will give it credit for was spawning the SNES video game of the same name which was a great Final Fight clone. For that superfluous reason, I'll give it a 3/10

Current rating after 6 votes: 2.83

Ouch.

I give it 6/10.

I liked the story, even if it was all hype. There were some great moments in there, and other characters were given the opportunity to shine (like Booster Gold and the JL taking on Doomsday). It also introduced some good characters like Steel and Conner. I knew it was temporary, but I still enjoyed the ride. If you read it now, it will never be up to par with today's stories, or some of the great stories that came before it. But when I first read it when I was in 6th grade, I enjoyed it a lot. The game was good as well, IMO.

That brings the score to 3.29/10 after seven votes.

Poor Superman appears to have died more than one kind of death in this storyline.

I'll give it a totally middle-of-the-road 5 out of 10. I don't think it was quite as bad as some folks are making it out to be. It did have several good moments, and without it we'd have never had Young Justice. On the downside, Doomsday was just stupid and the whole execution of the concept was weak.

I'll give it a 5/10 as well. It sure was better than the Clone Saga.(shudder)

I hate to echo things already said, but I have to agree. The story could have been done a bit better, but I do/did really like Steel and Superboy.

Having said that, it was as part of this that Coast City was destroyed leading to Hal's Crazy Pills.

I'll give it a 6/10.

If it wasn't for Steel, I'd rate it a lot less.

My only issues with The death series and the breaking of the bat is something Dc did that i found totally lame. Granted over all i did enjoy both series as a read, being a comic book fan as long most of us have we all knew that supes wouldnt stay dead and the bat would get his wings back so to speak. Anywho my only issue that i had with both series and where marvel did differ with the spider-clone mess was this......why did dc create two new villians just to be in the death and breaking of the bat series. If anyone is gonna "kill" superman it shouldve been luthor or darksied or even brainiac, same thing with the breaking of the bat, something that big shouldve been left up to the joker, not some reject masked wrestler on steroids. At least with the spider-clone they used a villian that at one time had the chops as a major spidey villian, the jackyl. and whats worse doomsday and bane have become nothing more than another second rate villian to be added to the long list in dc. this concludes my two cents of this rant.