After Superman died in the comics: how did they try and bring him back? Who were the ones who replaced him?

Question

Superman is Great

How'd he die? Who killed him? I believe there were 4 other supermen they tried to create after they killed him what/who were they? Did they have different abilities?

Answer 1

He was Killed by Doomsday in a long drawn out battle. He may not have completely died at that time, but it was a death as far as humans were concerned. He burned through all of his reserve energy fighting Doomsday over a long constant physical battle.

He was replaced for a time by Superman the Last Son of Krypton (Later Revealed to be the Eradicator - Could not see with the Sunlight, so had to wear a visor. Was a bit of an executioner and had fireballs that he could create with his hands), Superman the Man of Steel (John Henry Irons - A Metal Worker wearing an Armor Suit and Later called Steel - Did not have any powers, was actually just a man in a suit of Lexcorp Armor. Wielded a Hammer and a Nail Gun as weapons), The Man of Tomorrow or the Cyborg Superman (Later revealed to be the main villain of the Reign Arc, Hank Hensaw an Astronaut that was exposed to strange Radiation in space a la Fantastic 4, but lost his humanity and later his mind thinking Superman was to blame for it - Could create weapons out of his body as he was mainly a machine.) and the Metropolis Kid (Later Revealed after several retcons to be Superboy, the Clone of Superman and Lex Luthor's DNA - Had tactile Telekinesis powers - Could disassemble things using his powers. Could also fly, but later developed more Kryptonian powers).

The Eradicator actually tried to revive him by placing him in the Fortress of Solitude where the real Superman was allowed to again charge up from Yellow Sunlight.

All of this was done because Lois and Clark had just gone on the air during this year. The originally were going to have Superman #75, the issue where Superman Died, be the Wedding Issue, but because of the other media events, they chose to kill him with a new villains instead.

The Death arc was followed by the Funeral for a Friend, and then the books were put on Hiatus for a couple of months. In that time there were a few one shot comics, the Legacy of Superman and Supergirl and Team Luthor.

Supergirl (Matrix) and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) were both involved in the final part of Reign of the Supermen where Coast City was destroyed by Mongol and the Cyborg Superman. This actually lead into the fall of Hal Jordan as he could not deal with the loss of Coast City.

At this Time, Superman is Married to Lois Lane, Steel is in 52 the comic, Cyborg Superman reappeared in Green Lantern on the Manhunter Homeworld, Superboy is dead, and the Eradicator is MIA.

Hope this helps.

Also, this is the only Continuity Death of Superman that is part of the Modern Superman's History. Anything that happened before 1986 has been changed with Retroactive Continuity Changes that from time to time change as it serves new stories.

Answer 2

Janssen is correct, but you must remember this is NOT the first time that Superman died!

Long ago in the 60's, there was the Superman Revenge Squad, (from which the team that went to challenge Mongul and the Cyborg was named, in the 90's) The original SRS was composed of aliens whose crimes Superman had thwarted on many planets.

Someone got the bright idea to turn Kryptonite rays into radio waves and kill Superman that way. They tested it on a Superman android programmed to react the same way Superman would, and it worked.

One of the aliens was chosen to come to Earth, and infitrated a big radio station in Metropolis. He used his scientific knowledge to hook up Kryptonite into the radio transmitter, and soon all Metropolis was blanketed with Kryptonite radiation. Superman felt it and took off, trying to escpe, but he didn't know where it was coming from and couldn't fly far enough, fast enough. He turned green all over.

Superman died and the alien caught him in mid air before he could hit the ground. The alien took Superman's corpse back to their homeworld for a trophy (kind of sick, but at least they didn't decide to mount his head on the wall!)

When they arrived at the homeworld and put Superman's body on display, that was the last straw for the decent, law abiding people of that world who had been terrorized and oppressed by the bad guys. They revolted.

The Superman android was not destroyed, just shut down, and became reactivated. It learned that Superman was dead, and figured that it could reverse the action of the device to draw the Kryptonite radiation back out of Superman's body. When this happened, he returned to life! (The android died due to an unexpected side effect.)

Then Superman had to defeat the bad guys again, because they were planing to use a doomsday device which would eliminate all written materials and plunge their world back into the Dark Ages, if they were not accepted as the legitimate government. Superman beat them and the opposition party (the law and order guys) were put in power. Supeman came back to Earth and people passed off the rumor that he had been killed as just a wild story.

I think this was around issue 163, but don't quote me on that.

3 DEC 06, 1954 hrs, GMT.

Answer 3

Doomsday killed him. Big grey guy, bone shards sticking out of his appendages, chest, face. He beat the crap out of the Justice League first. I'm going off of really old memories, but I think 4 people replaced him:

Superboy: Kind of a clone from Cadmus, (large science/government group). Half Superman, I think half Lex Luthor. Different, but similar powers. Teenager. Very 1990's. Character was killed recently, I think.

Steel: I think I he may have been the only one who stated emphatically he wasn't the original Superman. Wore a metal suit (kind of like Iron Man) and carried a big hammer. If you ever want to watch a real piece of crap movie, there's a Steel movie starring Shaquille O'Neal (I think he (Shaq) even actually says "It's hammer time").

Eradicator: Some machine from Krypton that looked like him. More violent. I think he was some kind of Kryptonian weapon. Anyways, the costume was a little different and he wore these big reddish-purple, auto-factory safety glasses. He stole Superman's body from Cadmus (I don't think he was completely dead...Doomsday wasn't either) and put it in the regeneration matrix.

Cyborg: Astronaut in an accident. Got turned into a cyborg and decided to go back to space?! Went crazy there (and vowed revenge on Superman) and found some Superman DNA thing in orbit. Came back and pretended to be Superman.

Answer 4

Doomsday-mindless killing machine(not actual machine)full of hate, he beat the hell out of JLA, Killed a few of them too, Fought Superman to mutual death(or so it seemed) in front of the Daily Planet after a chase/fight across half the US

attempted CPR at the scene-
blew out the defibrulator
Buried him
Cadmus took the body started cloning attempts.
Newsboy Legion snuck pix out to Lois
Supergirl retrieved the body and destryed info
A second scientist was planning his own clone
that data survived lead to Superboy being created
Newsboys broke him out early before he finished aging
A cyborg Superman just appeared
The Eradicator stole the body after the second burial
used Clark as a Battery at the Fortress to recharge himself
John Henry Irons was saved by Superman and dedicated his life to living up to Superman's ideals
John Henry became Steel(think Iron Man)
eventually the real Superman charged up enough power to breakl out of his battery shell

So the 4 you are thinking of are
Superboy--same as Clark, w/ some Telekinisis, think he lacks X-ray(not sure), average teen, very cocky

Cyborg-Really Hank Henshaw, has robot parts that mimic Clarks, bad Guy, faked goodness to destry earth in Superman's Name

Kryptonian/Eradicator- Must wear visor, light hurts eyes,so X ray and Heat vision are out, other powers intact, bad attitude, low tolerance for criminals(broke every bone in a safe crackers arms from the elbow to finger tips)

Steel- man in a suit, rocket boots, bolt gun in gauntlet, big hammer

when Clark woke up he was mortal, but Supergirl, and Steel helped him fake it, until Eradicator recharged him in the battle against Mongul and Cyborg

Answer 5

they decided his death was purely psychological. it was a bizare thread. He wakes from the grave.