The Death of Superman is a classic 1992 comic storyline chronicling the death of Superman at the hands of the monstrous alien known as Doomsday - and his subsequent resurrection. While it's a known fact that comic book heroes die and get resurrected all the time, actually killing off DC's flagship character and one of the first superheroes ever was incredibly shocking at the time. Shock value aside, the comic itself was well regarded and is still remembered fondly today, receiving an animated adaptation in 2018 and was the basis for an incredibly dark Elseworlds one-shot in 2019. The only major problem with the storyline is that the title is a lie: Superman never actually dies in The Death of Superman.
Surprisingly enough the supposed villain of the comic, Doomsday, is only a bit player in the grand scheme of things. He only exists to kickstart the plot. After breaking free of his containment cell, Doomsday managed to defeat most of the Justice League. It's where he got his name from Booster Gold who described the monster as "like Doomsday." Naturally, Superman is the only one left to fight Doomsday, and the two begin to fight one another in one of the most epic slugfests in DC comics history.
After a long brawl The Man of Steel was finally victorious, but tragically he seemingly died from his injuries after the battle was over. The rest of the story is spent dealing with Superman's funeral and the aftermath of his death- the "Reign of the Supermen" arc where four separate heroes appear, and each one appeared be the real Superman brought back to life. Among these imposter Supermen are two superheroes in their own right, Superman's teenage clone Superboy (AKA Conner Kent) and Steel, AKA John Henry Irons, DC's own Iron Man who built his own Supersuit to honor the memory of the hero who saved his life. The actual conflict of the story (and the secret behind Superman's "death") comes from the remaining two Supermen because in reality, they were both Superman villains impersonating him named Eradicator and Hank Henshaw, better known as the Cyborg Superman.
Of course none of this is enough to fool expert reporter Lois Lane, who suspects the two fake Supermen right from the start. It's here that Eradicator's identity is revealed but the real twist is that the once mortal enemy of Superman is actually sincere in being a good guy now. In fact, he's the one keeping Superman alive! After his supposed "death" Eradicator took Superman's body and kept it in a healing Matrix designed to help him recover his strength in secret. Cyborg Superman on the other hand has less than noble intentions, and it's revealed that he was planning to conquer earth the entire time with help from another Villain Mongul. They begin their attack on earth by targeting Coast City, home of Green Lantern Hal Jordan.
Henshaw and Mongul assumed that with Superman dead, they would be free to take over the world with no opposition. In reality they were horribly wrong, as destroying Coast City meant having to fight not just the newly awoken Superman but his entire Superfamily and a very pissed off Green Lantern. Thanks to the original Superman Mongul and Henshaw were soundly defeated, meaning the only problem left for Superman is how to explain Clark Kent's absence during this adventure. This was resolved into one of the funniest epilogues in comics, where Clark had to pretend that he was trapped under rubble for several days to maintain his secret identity.
Despite being one of the most famous Superman stories of all time The Death of Superman didn't change much about Superman's continuity aside from introducing Conner Kent and Steel. The biggest consequences of the Death of Superman wasn't how it impacted the Superman mythos but in how it affected the trajectory of the Green Lantern comics. Since destroying Coast City Cyborg Superman has effectively become a Green Lantern villain, and the loss of his hometown would eventually lead to Hal Jordan's downward spiral into evil and one of the most controversial Green Lantern storylines ever. But as for the Man of Steel, he can rest easy, having just defied Death and tricking everyone (including the audience) into thinking that Superman was gone for good.