10 DC Characters Who Killed Superman (And What Happened To Them)

While it's perhaps unfair to include Lex Luthor twice, Superman: Red Son takes place in an alternate universe where Superman grew up in the USSR and is kind of evil, which makes for a different dynamic between the two.

After Batman, Wonder Woman, and countless others try to kill the Man of Steel, Lex manages a smarter tactic: convincing Superman to end himself. After the destruction of half the known world has happened due to these battles, Luthor leaves a note for Superman to find - 'Why don't you just put the whole world in a bottle, Superman?' - a direct reference to Superman putting Stalingrad in a glass bottle earlier in the series.

The majesty in Lex's plan lies in simply showing Superman that he had become a danger to the people he was trying to protect - and that, in trying to save the world, the Man of Steel had instead made himself the exact kind of controlling figure that he fought against for so long.

Kent pretends to die in a dramatic explosion, and in a sense, Superman dies along with him - with the hero hanging up his cape from this point onwards, leaving Luthor to take care of Earth.