The story of DC Comics in the ’90s is very different from that of Marvel. In the decade of extreme, the House of Ideas chased the collectors’ market and almost went bankrupt. Meanwhile, DC mostly soldiered along pretty successful. They kicked off the decade with one of their biggest stories ever – “Death of Superman”. This story would live up to its name, killing the first superhero and beginning an epic story that would end with his return. Fans love “Death of Superman” and for good reason; it made a generation of readers in love with the X-Men take notice of DC and would plant the seeds for the modern comic industry in a lot of ways. However, “Death of Superman” was just the beginning, because the next part of the story would be much more important to DC history.
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“Reign of the Supermen” would kick off with Adventures of Superman #500, ending with the introduction of four new characters who have all become legends – Steel, Superboy, Cyborg Superman, and the Eradicator. These four characters would debut with the eyes of the entire world on them and were able to do something that no one figured they could – actually succeed. When we talk about the entire death of Superman saga, we usually end up talking about the death itself, but we rarely talk about “Reign of the Supermen”. We didn’t know it back then, but we were reading a story that would change comics forever, even if everyone learned the wrong lesson from it.
“Reign of the Supermen” Presaged the Modern Comic Industry
I was 12 when “Death of Superman” came out. It was a legitimate cultural phenomenon. It was reported on the nightly news and on the day Superman (Vol. 2) #75, comic stores had lines around the block. The books sold like hotcakes and suddenly every kid was reading the Superman comics, leading into “Reign of the Supermen”. Back then, no one knew for sure whether Superman was actually going to come back, so there was this feeling that these four characters could be around for a while.
Nowadays, it’s easy to look back on that idea – that Superman was never coming back – and laugh, but this was new territory at the time. No one had never killed a superhero this big before and there was a chance that DC would try to do something wild. As far as we knew back then, these four characters were the ones that we would be reading if we were reading Superman comics. Luckily, the creative teams behind Superman, Adventures of Superman, Superman: Man of Steel, and Action Comics were more than up to the challenge.
The Cyborg Superman was thought to be Superman’s original body, which had been stolen from his grave, brought back to life with Kryptonian tech, spending a lot of time around Lois and The Daily Planet. Steel was an engineer who was saved by Superman and decided to use his skills to create a suit of armor to protect the innocent. Superboy was a clone who escaped Project: Cadmus, created to replace Supes and wanting to have all of the respect without earning it. Finally, the Eradicator was a mysterious Kryptonian figure, out to reshape the world in the image of his homeworld.
Superman followed Cyborg Superman, Adventures Superboy, Man of Steel Steel (that one was kind of a no-brainer), and the Eradicator in Action Comics. Each book had a totally different vibe; Superman was the pure superhero book, Adventures the teen hero book with a ’90s attitude, Man of Steel was like a street-level Iron Man book as Steel fought the gangs of Suicide Slums, and Action Comics was a more violent, ’90s-style hero book, with a grim hero willing to kill. They were different from what we got before and fans were invested.
This was the key to the success of the story; it didn’t feel like a continuation of what came before, it felt the dawning of four new ages. By the time Mongul showed up and destroyed Coast City alongside the Cyborg Superman, fans were shocked. No one expected the story to go in this direction. Superman would return, Superboy and Steel would get their own books, Cyborg Superman would become a big time Superman villain, and the Eradicator is… around occasionally (yeah, he kind of sucked). For a lot of us, it was the first time we realized how quickly things could change in comics.
The story was massively popular, and DC decided to take its example – replacing their big hero – and bringing it to other characters. Over the ’90s, Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and numerous others would get “killed off” and “replaced”. Some of these stuck, some of them didn’t, but they all sold well. Replacing heroes with new characters became one of the biggest tricks in comics, one that still see today. However, none of these newer stories can match “Reign of the Supermen” for a simple reason.
“Reign of the Supermen” created four characters that fans wanted to read about, which is a big reason why it was successful. However, back then, we didn’t know it wouldn’t be permanent. DC didn’t announce the return of Superman a year in advance. These characters had to convince readers that they were ready to be permanent parts of the DCU and they succeeded. Maybe I’m being naive here and everyone else figured that Superman would be back to life in a scant few months. However, there was a feeling that things like this were meant to be permanent back then and that’s not really something you can say anymore.
“Reign of the Supermen” was able to succeed where a lot of these kinds of stories fail because, to begin with, we got great stories from these characters. However, it was more than that. These characters had to be built to last. They had to make readers think that they were the status quo and they had to do that without angering them. The story walks a tightrope and the proof of its success is in the pudding, as all of its characters still show up to this day. Replacement heroes were just built different back in the day.
Marvel and DC Both Learned the Wrong Lesson from “Reign of the Supermen”
“Reign of the Supermen” wasn’t the first time that the Big Two replaced one of their big heroes with another, but it was able to do it better than anyone else. It was so successful that DC kept doing it throughout the ’90s. Marvel would take notice and start doing it more as well, leading us to where we are today. Every major hero has been replaced at least once in the 21st century. Some of the replacement heroes have been able to keep their popularity, but most of them just fade back to where they were.
This wasn’t the case with “Reign of the Supermen”. Steel and Superboy are still important members of the Superman Family and the Cyborg Superman has become a major Superman and Green Lantern villain. The Eradicator didn’t have legs, but the character has returned numerous time. This story birthed icons in a way that other newer hero-replacement stories just can’t. It was from another time, when readers didn’t know that it was all temporary, and its characters were built to be superstars.
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