Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #5

Part of DC's 1996 "Legends of the Dead Earth" Annual event, this issue imagines Superman's legacy stretched across a dying cosmos. The cover by Jerry Ordway presents a long-haired Man of Steel standing triumphant atop alien wreckage, his cape billowing dramatically against a vivid magenta sky filled with futuristic spacecraft and strange structures, while three ghostly figures — an older bearded man, a young braided warrior, and a woman — loom large in the background as if echoing across generations. With Kurt Busiek writing and Paul Ryan and Joe Rubinstein handling the interior art, "The Never-Ending Battle" promises a thoughtful, far-future exploration of what the Superman ideal might mean when Earth itself is gone.