The Death of Superman (The Death and Return of Superman #1)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: The Death of Superman
Series: The Death and Return of Superman
Author/Artist: Dan Jurgens, et al.
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 168
Format: Graphic Novel







Synopsis:
A creature dubbed Doomsday wreaks a path of destruction towards Metropolis. Along the way he takes out the entire JLA and it is now up to Superman, alone, to stop this unstoppable monster.

My Thoughts:
This book has a lot of nostalgia built in, so my thoughts might be a bit wander'y here.

I was not much aware of the DC universe when this storyline was taking place. I accidentally picked up the next to last comic in this crossover [there are 7 comics comprising this graphic novel] and since I was used to once a month comics and not used to crossovers, I waited until the next month to pick up what I thought would be the finish, only to find that the Death arc had ended and some other storyline had started up. I couldn't afford to buy a comic EVERY week, so I pretty much gave up on this.

Fast forward about 2 years. I now had a summer job of painting and the whole Death and Return story arc had finished and was collected in 3 graphic novels. I'd been saving up all summer and on one trip to Barnes and Noble I spent my "stash" on all 3 GN's. They blew me away and made me a life long Superman fan.

So now on to my thoughts this time around.

First off, I had forgotten how garishly colored comics are. After novels and walls of text, it is kind of fun to see wicked BRIGHT primary colors.

Second, the time frame from beginning to end was less than 8hrs. I had forgotten that this was lightning fast. Doomsday just explodes onto the scene, destroys a whole slew of superheroes and then proceeds to kill Superman. He KILLS Superman.

Two titans brutally beating each other with their fists and any material on hand. While the artwork varied comic by comic [different artists obviously], the intensity just came through in each panel.

I wasn't sure if I was going to like this as much as before, but I am thankful to say that my 20+ year old paper copy, while now yellowed and slightly bent from standing cockeyed on my shelf, is just as entertaining and good as it was back then.

And I think that the following 2 pictures encapsulate the feeling of this whole book.