Superman #75
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeSuperman #75 (vol. 2, cover-dated January 1993) stands as one of the most culturally resonant single issues in mainstream comics history: it is the chapter in which Superman dies in combat with Doomsday in the streets of Metropolis, concluding the seven-part 'Doomsday!' crossover and sending shockwaves far beyond the direct-market. The story broke out of the comics press entirely, generating national television coverage and op-ed columns debating what the death of a decades-old symbol meant for popular culture. Its audacious formal conceit — each page reduced to a single full-bleed panel, compressing the final battle into an almost wordless visual countdown — remains one of the most discussed storytelling devices of the early 1990s. Three decades on, the issue continues to anchor a still-expanding catalogue of collected editions, anniversary specials, animated adaptations, and live-action cinematic references, cementing its place as the definitive proof that a superhero's death could be treated as a genuine cultural event.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The entire 'Death of Superman' initiative grew out of an editorial scramble: a planned Clark Kent–Lois Lane wedding story was postponed to synchronize with the television series Lois & Clark, leaving editor Mike Carlin and the assembled Superman writers — Dan Jurgens, Roger Stern, Louise Simonson, Jerry Ordway, and Karl Kesel — in need of a replacement arc. It was Jerry Ordway who, partly in jest, suggested killing Superman, and the creative room ran with it. Superman #75 itself was written and penciled by Jurgens, with inks by Brett Breeding, and its cover-date of January 1993 made it the seventh and final chapter of the 'Doomsday!' thread that wound through four Superman titles and Justice League America. DC backed the release with an unusually aggressive retail campaign — press kits including cardboard coffins, posters, and stickers were distributed to shops — and the collector's polybag edition came bundled with a black armband, trading card, and stickers, reflecting the speculator-market climate of the era.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Superman #75 is the concluding chapter ('Doomsday! Part 7 of 7') of the crossover storyline that ran through Superman, Action Comics, The Adventures of Superman, Superman: The Man of Steel, and Justice League America.
- Written and penciled by Dan Jurgens (creator of both Doomsday and Booster Gold), with inks by Brett Breeding; edited by Mike Carlin.
- The issue depicts the simultaneous deaths of both Superman/Kal-El and the villain Doomsday, with Superman dying in the arms of Lois Lane — an image that defined the issue's cultural impact.
- Its page structure is unique: each successive issue in the 'Doomsday!' arc used fewer and fewer panels per page until Superman #75 arrived as an unbroken sequence of single-panel pages, a formal escalation meant to convey mounting, unstoppable momentum.
- DC published the issue in multiple editions at release: a standard newsstand copy, a direct-market edition, and a collector's polybag 'Memorial Edition' containing a black mourning armband, poster, stickers, and a trading card.
- A Platinum Edition — numbered on each copy and produced in limited quantities for the direct market — was also distributed, making it one of the more closely tracked variant configurations of the era.
- The issue has been reprinted across dozens of collected formats spanning more than 30 years, including the Death and Return of Superman Omnibus editions (2007, 2013, 2019), a Dollar Comics reprint (2019), a 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (2022), and a Facsimile Edition (2026).
- The story was directly adapted into the 2018 animated film Superman: Doomsday and informed the depiction of Doomsday and Superman's death in the 2016 theatrical film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
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