New Superman movies and the comics (spoilers)

[JohnClay]

I was watching the new “Batman V Superman” movie with a friend and I noticed “Doomsday” was there. I told him that in the comics he kills Superman…

The Death of Superman

In the movie Doomsday does kill Superman and for the rest of the movie at least, Superman stays dead…

In the comics there are four replacement super heroes…

The Death of Superman

The Man of Steel: John Henry Irons was an ironworker and an ex-weapons designer for the military who wears a suit of armor and wields a hammer:

The Death of Superman

The Man of Tomorrow, also called the Cyborg Superman, arrived with augmented Kryptonian technology:

Hank Henshaw

The Metropolis Kid, who hated being called Superboy, is a reckless teenage clone of Superman:

Superboy (Kon-El)

The Last Son of Krypton was a visored, energy-powered alien who dealt with criminals lethally:

Eradicator (character)

Later the normal Superman returns…

The Death of Superman

During the time Superman spent in stasis recovering in the Fortress of Solitude, his hair grew to shoulder length. Even after reclaiming his title as the one true Superman, he kept his hair long and this was how he was depicted for much of his appearances in the 1990s comics. Before his wedding with Lois, he cut his hair.

I guess it would be too crazy to replace Superman with any of those four in the sequel… I wonder how they explain Superman’s resurrection… (I assume that like in the comics Superman will also return in the sequel). I haven’t read the comics and I don’t really understand how Superman came back to life in the comics.

[RealityChuck]

The same way most other heroes and villains come back to life: handwaving and double talk.

I was reading comics in the death of Superman era. There wasn’t a comic book reader over the age of five who didn’t think he’s come back eventually.

[JohnClay]

@RealityChuck

The same way most other heroes and villains come back to life: handwaving and double talk.

I was reading comics in the death of Superman era. There wasn’t a comic book reader over the age of five who didn’t think he’s come back eventually.

Hi what happened though? I assume they buried his dead body in a grave… did someone dig him up and then how did he come back to life? I’d like to know the details.

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

@JohnClay

Hi what happened though? I assume they buried his dead body in a grave… did someone dig him up and then how did he come back to life? I’d like to know the details.

The link you posted actually spells it out. “Superman’s alien genetic material enables him to absorb sunlight and perform superhuman feats. Superman survived his death by entering into a hibernation-like state, and the Eradicator’s use of him as a ‘conduit’ by which he could absorb solar energy ‘restarted’ Superman’s body”. It specifies who stole his body, adds that he was “in stasis” – it’s all there.

Pretty stupid of us hairless apes to put the solar-powered superbeing in a dark coffin as per our silly Earth customs, but, hey, whadayagonnado?

[JohnClay]

Thanks… well I guess the Eradicator won’t be in the sequel so they’d need to restart Superman in some other way. Also I didn’t know that Superman was affected by the Sun in that way. In Superman IV the baddie was powered by the Sun though.

[Chronos]

The baddie in Superman IV was just like Superman in every way. Except that he was also NUCLEAR!, which made him scary and gave him a few other powers, because NUCLEAR! power is scary. Oh, and you can get a dude’s body into the reactor core just by dropping him down the cooling tower, and doing so will make all the lights in the city brighter for a few moments.

[JohnClay]

BTW in the movie when Superman was hit from the nuclear missile in space he seemed to be dead for a while. Maybe that is a precedent that shows that Superman can come back from the dead.

[JohnClay]

Batman V Superman Ending Explained

…Superman’s body was returned to the Fortress of Solitude where he was placed in a regeneration matrix – but an Superman (known as The Last Son of Krypton aka the Eradicator) was harvesting the Man of Steel’s regeneration energy (which proved to be a bane and a boon for the real Superman). As a result, it isn’t entirely clear how long Superman would have recovered from his battle with Doomsday – had he simply been left alone to heal…

So in the comics he was eventually dug up from his grave. I guess this will happen too in the sequel.

[Ike_Witt]

@JohnClay

BTW in the movie when Superman was hit from the nuclear missile in space he seemed to be dead for a while. Maybe that is a precedent that shows that Superman can come back from the dead.

No, that was lifted pretty much directly from The Dark Knight Returns. It shows that a heavily battered Superman can return to normal after getting some sun.