Thirty years after the original Death of Superman storyline, the iconic tale's writer Dan Jurgens has confirmed which alternate Superman villains almost killed the hero. This story changed a lot about the Superman line of books—including introducing iconic '90s heroes like Superboy and Steel—and DC Comics writ large. But The Death of Superman famously introduced the monstrous Doomsday, and it's difficult to imagine another villain killing the Man of Steel.
The 1992 event The Death of Superman is one of the most famous storylines among comic book fans, and it also made international headlines for killing the world's most recognizable superhero. Though Superman didn't stay dead for long—concretely introducing the death-and-return stories that are now ingrained tropes in superhero comics—his death by the hands of the senseless monster Doomsday has had long-lasting effects on the DC Universe, both in continuity and metatextually. This year marks the 30th anniversary of this iconic and historic Superman tale, and the original writer Dan Jurgens has returned to pen a new story for the saga, as well as to clarify just how the writing of The Death of Superman went down.
In an interview with Screen Rant, Jurgens confirms that he and the other event creators didn't always have the creation of Doomsday in mind for the big killing:
"We had sort of decided to kill Superman but hadn't figured out exactly how we were going to do it. The back and forth of it was, should it be Lex Luthor, or should it be Brainiac, or should it be someone new? I just said I just want to do a big Superman flight, you know, I had written down on a notepad and presented it. You know, monster crashes Metropolis. So, as we talked about that, 'Well, if it's just a monster, what is the story?' What we got hooked on there is the idea that this monster would be the opposite of Superman. That if Superman is this creature of reason, that this monster Doomsday is more a force of nature. It's like a hurricane. There's not a specific agenda so much as something roaring across the country toward Metropolis."
Lex Luthor and Brainiac are great Superman villains because of their intellects; they are each as conniving, manipulative, and clever as the other, despite their different origins, and perhaps even Superman can see a little of himself in their intelligence. Luthor and Brainiac are Superman-level threats because of their schemes, but, according to Jurgens, Doomsday truly is Clark Kent's opposite. Like Luthor and Brainiac, Superman always has an agenda: save people and be kind while doing it. Doomsday is pure chaos ("like a hurricane") and is far more like a natural disaster than a world-dominator. Clark can't reason with him.
Doomsday is the perfect Superman threat because he is pure monster—no humanity within him. If Jurgens and the other Death of Superman creators had decided to run with Lex Luthor or Brainiac as Superman's killers, the threat to Superman's life—as well as his status as a symbol of hope, reason, and kindness—wouldn't have felt as compelling. Despite his massive power set, Superman is no monster, which is why the pure monster that is Doomsday is the only villain that could have killed the Man of Steel.
The Death of Superman Anniversary Special #1, will be available on November 8!