The Death of Superman Retrospective II: Funeral for a Friend // Comics History 101

Last time in our retrospective on Superman's death, Superman… well, died.

It was a hyped event, originally intended to spin the wheels of the four-comics-a-month behemoth of Superman while his new TV show launched and slowly teased its way over to having a married Lois and Clark. A beast known only as Doomsday appeared, wrecked everything in his path, and Superman died stopping the monster. Most stories would stop at this, but DC had intended all this time to bring Superman back from the grave. They even stopped publishing Superman comics for three months, so advanced solicits wouldn't spoil the fact that they were planning for him to come back.

Publishing comics with the Big S once more, Adventures of Superman 500 was coming up fast. This would be the time to resurrect Superman, according to all the original plans. So why not hype it up a little?

DC leaned into the event hard, with eight issues of Superman's adventures (two months of real-world time) featuring Metropolis without him. Supergirl stepped in to cover most of Clark's adventures, while Lois and his parents struggled to carry on without one of their lives' emotional centers. A trio of special comics also came out at this time, focusing on an in-universe publication called Newstime, a one-shot called Superman's Legacy, and a comic featuring the new Adventures of Supergirl and Team Luthor.

The Funeral for a Friend storyline opened with Adventures of Superman 498, showing the immediate aftermath of the fight with Doomsday, with all of Metropolis' standing defenders trying to perform CPR on the Man of Steel, or using a special power generator to jump-start his heart.

It doesn't work.

The body of Doomsday is carried away, also presumably dead and finished. Metropolis begins to rebuild and grieve without the Man of Steel in Action Comics 685. Cadmus, the top-secret clone factory, attempts to place a claim on Superman's corpse for various experiments and dark nefarious plans. This is surprisingly undone by Lex Luthor, who has worked with the government to ensure that Superman will be buried as an American hero rather than experimented upon like a guinea pig.

As Martha and Jonathan Kent begin to finally absorb the fact that their only son has died, the world grieves. Lois Lane also does her best to carry on without Clark. Luthor, still pretending to be his own son, decides to take out his rage on the corpse of the creature.

However, the most touching moment of Action 685 actually comes with the final page. Bibbo Bibowski, a former prizefighter who had been saved by Superman early into the Post-Crisis reboot continuity is also Superman's self-proclaimed best pal. A then-recent addition to the Superman family, Bibbo was a rough-and-tumble character who took no crap from anyone and often stopped any bar fights with his fists. Lost after seeing someone he considered to be his pal die in front of his eyes, Bibbo briefly sends a few thoughts to the man upstairs.

While maudlin and rather cliche, it also feels genuine to the character. At the very least, it's a welcome addition to the examples of how Superman changed lives and those who miss him now that he's dead.

While not part of the regular Superman publishing schedule, Justice League 70 would toss their hat into the tie-in ring as well. Proclaiming it should be read exactly after issue 75 of Superman, this issue focuses on the Justice League as they deal with the fallout from Doomsday and the death of the greatest hero in the world. The League, forced to face one of their greatest failures, begins to splinter. Guy Gardner is his typical macho 90s blowhard self and nearly comes to blows with Maxima and Booster Gold over making light of Superman's death. Ice finds herself lost, likening her feelings for Superman to a schoolgirl crush. However, they would not be alone in mourning.

Heroes and other teams from across the DC Universe assembled at the Justice League headquarters, all wanting to find some way to express their feelings for their lost friend and comrade. Oberon, eternal sidekick to Big Barda and Mister Miracle, as well as League assistant, has an idea.

While some DC heroes would be seen wearing these armbands, it almost feels like this is the first hint at the marketing department starting to mess with the story plan as a whole. You see, it wasn't just the heroes of DC who could wear these armbands: you could too!

Can’t forget the copyright symbol for your national mourning. Gotta market off that sorrow.

Released in the special edition copies of Superman #75, still, on sale in second and third special printings, readers could pick up a special polybagged copy of the issue that was already labeled a collector's item. Despite being produced in the tens of thousands, these special items promised comic collectors that their copy would become valuable someday, somehow. They currently litter eBay, selling for maybe three or four times the cover price at most as a complete set. For readers who cracked open the polybag, they would receive commemorative stamps, a full-color poster, a copy of Superman's obituary, and even the ubiquitous collectible trading card. And, of course, the armband.

Ironically, this wasn't even the first time people wore an armband to mourn the death of Superman. That came from almost a decade before, in a Super Powers cartoon episode from 1985.

Superman Armbands! Become the man women want to be with and other women envy!

So even marketing wasn't being that original, honestly. And it looked like co-conspirator Louise Simonson actually objected to the idea of the marketing push, with her and the rest of the Man of Steel crew actually bringing a scalper to the funeral of Superman, with a lot of familiar symbolism in hand.

The funeral for Superman devolves into chaos as people try to take advantage of the death of Earth's greatest hero, while others panic. This results in Ma and Pa Kent shutting off their televised coverage to have their own small ceremony for Clark. A rather touching series of pages has them gathering Clark's childhood belongings and burying them in the crater left by his rocket on their farm.

Meanwhile, President Clinton and Hillary talk at Superman's funeral.

So much for a sliding timeline.

Superman 76 follows the punch fest that killed Superman by having the Justice League try and tackle one of Superman's most herculean tasks:

Letters sent to Superman, from all over the world, all crammed with Christmas wishes and requests. The League does their best to answer what few letters they can, and there is a wonderful epilogue for the family whose home Doomsday destroyed during the fight with the Justice League. It is a complete case of tonal whiplash for those reading the issues of Superman straight, but the story is a delightful epilogue of rebirth and recovery in the wake of a massive loss. However, the issue ends on a cliffhanger, with Cadmus stealing the corpse of Superman!

Supergirl investigates, as Lexcorp's special sensors on the grave are triggered by the theft. She and Detective Dan "Terrible" Turpin wind up in a massive tussle with creatures of the Underworld, genetic outcasts left by Cadmus similar to the Morlocks of the X-Men. Unfortunately, the caverns collapse before they can find out who took the body. Lois does her own investigations, determined to find out who stole her fiance's body, and concludes it was Cadmus. With righteous anger, she gets the news published in the Daily Planet.

Meanwhile, Cadmus has plans within plans, and all of them revolve around cloning Superman. However, they cannot do much more than getting a scan of his genetic code before their living computer chooses to flee the Earth to protect Superman's genetic code rather than let Cadmus have it.

Comics are really, really weird guys.

However, another cliffhanger is thrown at the reader with Adventures of Superman 499. Upon seeing the newspaper headline that his son's body has been stolen and is being desecrated, Pa Kent stumbles to their makeshift grave for their child. When Ma comes out to help him, he falls, having a heart attack.

Luckily for Lois, her article has… convinced Cadmus to return Superman's body. At the threat of bodily harm from Supergirl, but still. As Superman's body is returned to his casket, Lex Luthor, the Second takes one last moment to thrill in the ultimate victory.

Rushed to the hospital, Jonathan Kent begins to slip away, telling Clark he's coming.

Finally, Adventures of Superman #500 hit the newsstands. For those who read last time, this was when everyone planned for Superman to somehow come back to life. However, there were a few flies in the ointment. Retrospective interviews reveal that a lot of creators didn't want to just wave their magic wand and bring Superman back, as they felt it would cheat a lot of fans who had invested in the storyline so far with such an easy return. At an emergency meeting of the four books for Superman, it was decided that a "replacement" Superman would be put into the role for some time.

It made sense on several levels. For one, it would further convince fans that Clark Kent / Kal-El / Superman was dead and gone. DC was also quickly developing a series of legacy heroes, with the Flash mantle having been passed down to the former Kid Flash. Also included were heroes like the second Blue Beetle, the second Wildcat, and other heroes who were considered "lesser" compared to the big A-list stars. Replacing an A-list hero like Superman would be like… replacing Batman or Green Lantern.

Ok, bad example.

There was just one problem: no one could agree on what kind of person or character could replace the Man of Steel. Louise Simonson once more spoke up as the voice of someone who had helmed a collective of scattered comics before under Marvel's X-line and suggested they all make their own Superman replacement. Each creative team would strike out on their own for the first time since the introduction of the Cover Triangle and have their own plots, some unique characters, and even cross over from time to time. The Legacy of Superman was about to get a whole lot more complicated.

But first, Adventures of Superman #500.

To make a brief aside, this was my first Superman comic. I knew a lot about the guy, thanks to family giving me some old kid's books, and renting the Superman movies from the library quite often. He wasn't on TV, but he was all over the comic racks in the supermarkets, and the grade school playground was all abuzz about the fact that he had died. Sure, the buzz over the X-Men and their super cool morning cartoon show came before and after that death, but it was big enough to rock the small minds of my friends and I. For some weird reason, bulk store Costco had gotten into the comic selling business temporarily, and they had a polybagged copy of Adventures of Superman 500.

After much begging, I got the issue.

Not caring about the concept of resale or collector's value, I ripped the bag open and began to read. What welcomed me was not a big punch-em up. It wasn't the grand return of Superman, as the original plans for his death had gone. Pa Kent was on his deathbed, with doctors struggling to keep him alive. Meanwhile, Pa's soul was going through a near-death experience, and the first thing he sees is his son, Clark.

What happens is something I couldn't quite process at the time I read it. Jerry Ordway, the man who unintentionally started this whole storyline, was at the end of his contract with DC for Superman and wanted to do something special. The entire story is Pa Kent traveling through the levels of hell and the afterlife to try and save the soul of his son, as well as his own. What unfolds is one of the best character stories for Jonathan Kent that has ever been done in comics, and it resonates with me even harder to this day after I became a father myself.

Jonathan Kent stumbles through the death he remembers from Korea, and his own brother shows up, having died around the same time Jon deployed to the conflict. After wandering through a wasteland of corn, skeletons, and dead bodies, Jon finds himself in the depths of hell itself.

After telling the Devil himself to go to Hell, Jon throws himself into one of the cavernous pits… and falls into space. Kismet, one of the aspects of reality in the DC Universe, has taken an interest in Jonathan's quest to save his son. After giving him some confusing advice, she gives him a gentle push to where Clark has gone.

Kryptonian funeral rites were weird, too.

However, it turns out this was an illusion to claim the soul of Clark for Hell. Jonathan's words barely are able to reach Clark, who decides he's done following the rituals of Fake Krypton. 

Before Jon and Clark can truly escape from this nightmare of an afterlife, Jor-El appears, grabbing Clark by the leg. He tries dragging his son deep into the light, and Jonathan is having none of that shit.

Jonathan Kent should have been a member of the JSA.

Finally, Jonathan goes back to the land of the living, with Clark carrying him the rest of the way.

The beautiful thing about this comic is that it plays the afterlife utterly straight… while also not actually ever saying if it was real. The pages of Jonathan Kent and Clark going on a bogus journey through the afterlife are colored with faded tones, focusing mostly on green and yellow to give a strange unearthly tone. Everyone working on this book were working on full steam, from Ordway on the script to Tom Grummett on pencils, Doug Hazlewood with inks and shading, Glenn Whitmore on colors, to Albert DeGuzman on letters. The book is wonderful and deserves any credit it can get.

...but issue 500 wasn't done yet.

As Lois flies home from Smallville, a red and purple blur streaks past her airplane.

A small girl says that a man with a big S on his chest got her kitty out of a tree, and he smelled funny.

A jogger in Centennial Park tells how a guy who looked like Superman saved her from being run over by a runaway cab.

A family in Suicide Slum on TV relate how they were saved from their home burning down by Superman.

The North Point Nuclear Power Plant was in danger of melting down until Superman flew inside and fixed it.

A mugger almost killed a woman in her apartment's laundry room, until Superman blew through the basement wall and killed her attacker.

And to make matters worse, the real Superman's body was gone.

Again.

And we're still not done. At the back of Adventures of Superman 500, a smattering of pages previewed the unfolding drama of the replacement Supermen. While a gang war rages in Suicide Slum, a man with a sledgehammer frees himself from rubble. Buried during the Doomsday fight, he proclaims he has to stop Doomsday. Somehow.

A carjacker is frightened off by a flying caped figure. He's bulletproof, he wears blue, red, and yellow. And he fries the carjacker without regret.

Deep in the bowels of Cadmus, a genetic experiment has broken free. Investigating, the Guardian notices shreds of a red cape and a familiar S on those shreds. Meanwhile, the Newsboy Legion (themselves Cadmus clones) leads this mystery experiment into the night. One of them offers his leather jacket, calling him Superb-

Right. Sorry. Superman.

Finally, a family visiting Metropolis for the first time visits the Daily Planet. They stop and mourn the Man of Steel over the spot where he fell against Doomsday until a figure in red and blue flies down from the skies… and vaporizes the memorial plaque.

There is ZERO chance this 1993 comic was not referencing the biggest movie of 1991, Terminator 2.

To quote 7-year-old Brandon Masters, "What the heck is going on?!"

This gap in time for Superman is known in collections as the "Funeral for a Friend." Unlike the Death of Superman or the books that would follow, a lot of these issues feel listless. Without Superman, the book aims at the supporting cast while also not developing anyone beyond "I miss Superman." Lois becomes a side character in what could have been her own book and story, and finding Clark's body is just a side-note in the extensive Cadmus drama. Even a special issue starring Lex Luthor as a hero to take Superman's place as a bootleg Iron Man feels pointless, as Lex breaks his leg at the end of the issue and swears off heroics.

Outside of the timeless Adventures of Superman 500, there is not a large amount of impact on the overarching story. What good moments do exist are overshadowed by a weird marketing push to mourn Superman, or would be completely forgotten about once the mystery of the four Supermen would hit the newsstands. While moments like Justice League 70 are also touching, I could not find any DC hero wearing the armbands in their solo adventures outside that specific issue. Combine that with the in-universe publications like Newsline celebrating the death of Superman, and it began to feel like the story was cheapened by trying to cash-in.

Considering the whole event spawned from a desire to keep the corporate executives at Time-Warner happy so that dumb people couldn't be confused over the idea of two different continuities of Superman (one on TV, one in comics), it almost feels patronizing in retrospect. The idea of exploring a world without Superman is genuinely interesting, but any collections out there don't focus on what Batman or Green Lantern feel. It doesn't go over to Flash, who had just lost his mentor and uncle Barry a few years prior. Instead, the comics obsess with "who stole Superman's body" and mysteries that don't go anywhere.

For completionists and those who want to dive deep into the 90s, the Funeral for a Friend collection does flesh out the aftermath of Superman's death. However, it genuinely doesn't change what came before, and only Adventures 500 sets up what's to come. Maybe just grab a second-hand copy of that book rather than a collection if you're tight for cash.

However, Superman was back... four times over. Now it was time to figure out who the REAL Superman was? We're any of them? Find out, in Reign of the Supermen!