Superheroes dying is neither a new, nor an especially novel, concept. In times gone by, it was de-rigueur in superhero comics to kill the star character (usually on the cover), only for the story inside to reveal an elaborate hoax, the death of a parallel version of the character, or that the whole thing was, in fact, a what if? adventure. Still, when DC announced that their flagship character, the first (and best) superhero was about to bite the dust, people went absolutely insane. The story as to how this event actually came about is far less exciting, but nonetheless deserves to be told. Essentially, Supermans respective creative teams wanted to give Supes a year-long story arc that would garner mainstream interest and keep fans buying the books. To this end, they decided to have him marry his long-time girlfriend/love interest Lois Lane... There was just one problem, the producers of the hit TV show Lois & Clark (which took its cue from John Byrnes Superman reboot) were already looking to do a wedding storyline. As a result, the Superman teams story was re-scheduled, giving them a year with no stories to tell... ...So, they decided to kill off Superman. A gobsmacked global media spread the news around with reckless abandon and sales were driven into the stratosphere as a result. After the dust had cleared, comic book publishers realized that, with the right promotion, the death of a major character was good for business; VERY good for business... In the years since Supes died and returned, almost every superhero has done it at least once and it is now a major genre convention of superfiction.
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
If you are interested in reading more of my stuff, you can find it on http://quicksilverstories.weebly.com/ (my personal site, which has other wrestling/comics/pop culture stuff on it).
I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work.
Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?)
Latcho Drom,
- CQ