Hey y’all,
I wrote about Superman and Man of Steel for The Walrus‘ blog. It’s accessible for non-nerds, so don’t be scurred. FYI, The Walrus is a Canadian general interest magazine where I’m actually interning at the moment. Here’s a sample:
In January 1993, waiting in line at Lawtons Drugs, I begged my mom to buy me a copy of Superman Vol. 2, No. 75. She was well aware of its storyline, which had made the evening news: Superman was dead, killed in a brutal duel with an alien villain named Doomsday. She took one look at the now-iconic cover, with Superman’s tattered cape tied to a stake like a flag at half mast, and flatly refused.
“Too violent,” she said.
I was only six years old, after all.
Of course, Superman wasn’t actually dead. DC Comics’ writers soon brought him back to complete the three-part arc, later collected as The Death of Superman, World Without a Superman, and The Return of Superman. With more than six million copies printed, Superman 75’s record for largest single-day sales for a comic book was the industry’s swan song for print. However, in many ways, Superman was dead—or at least his relevance was.
You can read it here.
Cheers,
-B
