What make DC greenlits "Death of Superman" arcs?

[LAWtoyoto 432]

This years will make the 30th Anniversary of " Death of Superman ". An event that change the course of the comic books publication. This event that received unprecedented coverage from the mainstream media. This storylines is what lead us to many adaptions in the DC media. From "Justice League" series to "BvS: Dawn of Justice". A iconic storylines that remain classics for today's readership.

[Jabare]

Are you asking a question or ..... ?

[SecretWarrior]

To build demand for the character by decreasing the supply.

To show how highly regarded he is by having characters mourn his passing.

[BohemiaDrinker]

Legend is, in a DC meeting in which they had no clue what to do with Supes, someone - I believe it was Jerry Ordway, but I'm not sure - went "Well, why don't we just kill him?". This seemed to have sparked ideas. The rest is history.

[SecretWarrior]

Legend is, in a DC meeting in which they had no clue what to do with Supes, someone - I believe it was Jerry Ordway, but I'm not sure - went "Well, why don't we just kill him?". This seemed to have sparked ideas. The rest is history.

I think that happened because they had trouble with coming up with interesting ways to handle his character at that point.

[BohemiaDrinker]

I think that happened because they had trouble with coming up with interesting ways to handle his character at that point.

Yes, they say they were struggling with directions to take him in. I read a bunch a bout it, but don't recall it all right now.

[Jim Kelly]

The explanation I remember is that they were building up to the marriage of Lois and Clark, but they held off on that because the LOIS & CLARK television series wasn't ready yet to do that, so they were asked to hold off until they could tie it in with the show. And they had to do something in the meantime.

Given how the T.V. show fumbled the marriage event and how the comics had to ultimately squeeze the marriage in between two different events, I think they would have been better to go ahead with the wedding in the comics as they had originally planned rather than kill time waiting for the series.

Not that "Death of Superman" wasn't just as profitable an idea. It did boost sales and served to launch a few other titles. Although, it is blamed in part for the crash that hit the comics market immediately thereafter.

All these events really just take what would have been single issue or possibly three-part stories in the old days and then inflate them incredibly into these bloated events. Imagine if every time, in the old days, they made a big deal out of all the "Death of," "Wedding of," "Crisis of," "Dawn of," "Day of," "Night of," "Revenge of," "Secret of," "Battle of," "Invasion of" story titles.

The readers wouldn't have stood for it, because these plots were a routine diet each month and nothing to get overly excited about. You knew that if a character died or got married, it wasn't going to stick and everything would go back to normal by the end of the story. You knew that the Earth would recover from any invasion or inter-dimensional crisis and it would be like it never happened in the next issue.

Those dramatic story titles were just the tease to get you to buy the comic, but they were taken with a grain of salt and there was no fandom freaking out every time a death appeared on the cover of a comic book.

[MajorHoy]

What make DC greenlits "Death of Superman" arcs?

$$$$$$$$$$!

[j9ac9k]

$$$$$$$$$$!

Yeah, but that's like saying "The sun is hot." Money is the reason they do anything - it's a business.

[Jim Kelly]

In the second half of the 1990s--because of the big speculator crash and Marvel nearly going out of business and other publishers actually going out of business as well as a multitude of comic book shops closing their doors--there was a rethink of this money making idea, because it brought the industry close to the brink of its own destruction. So sure, in the short term, these stunts might goose sales reports, but in the long run there's a big cost.

[Jim Kelly]

Disappointing that the mods chose to move this to the Superman forum, since the way I see it this is about the publisher's use of arcs and events like these on all their books, not just the Superman books. "Death of the Justice League" being the most recent example.

[SuperX]

I love how ppl **** on the death, funeral, Reign and return of superman, while I loved every issue of it, and happily still look back at it.

Yes, comic companies over use long drawn out storylines, and need to do shorter more beginning, middle, and end type stories with the characters we love, but not all suck.

[Tofali]

When DC president Jenette Kahn nixed a story of Lois and Clark marrying because of a tv show the frustrated writers and editors decided to kill him

[JAK]

I love how ppl **** on the death, funeral, Reign and return of superman, while I loved every issue of it, and happily still look back at it.

Yes, comic companies over use long drawn out storylines, and need to do shorter more beginning, middle, and end type stories with the characters we love, but not all suck.

Same, and agreed. The revisionist history seen everywhere about how this came to be is crazy - and Max Landis's craptacular video has something to do with it.

It's not "they didn't know what to do with him" - that team was far from out of ideas for the character. But they'd just spent the week or whatever plotting out (as already said) the lead-up to the wedding of Lois and Clark in December of 1992. However, WB wanted the comics and their new show to sync up so the wedding was a bigger push, and told them they couldn't do it.

As said, they were frustrated that what they'd just put together was scrapped, and that actually make them take seriously the running joke of "let's just kill him". And since DC didn't care what the Super team did as long as it wasn't Lois and Clark getting married, it was green lit. Once buzz started happening, DC paid attention and hyped it.

None of them had any damn idea it was going to be a cash cow initially, they were just telling a story and letting out some frustration. AFTER that, however, DC wanted everything to be on that scale, and the "event bloat era" of comics was born.

[DABellWrites]