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The first occasions were as "imaginary stories" (that is, set outside of the official [[Continuity]]) published during the [[Silver Age]] of comics.
 
The final episode of ''[[Super FriendsSuperfriends]]'' (aired in November 1985), was also titled "The Death of Superman", and opened with the funeral ceremony, featuring [[Burial in Space|the coffin being sent into the sun]]. [[Disney Death|He gets better -- he was only mostly dead.]] An earlier story from ''Challenge of the Superfriends'' also featured Superman (and the rest of the League) being killed.
 
However, the most famous instance was the "Death of Superman" [[Story Arc]] in the Superman comics during the 1990s, and the animated movie (based on that story) titled ''[[Superman: Doomsday]]'' that came out in 2007.
 
''The Death of Superman'' is split into three parts:
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In this story, a monster named [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Doomsday]] comes out of nowhere and thrashes both Superman AND the [[Justice League of America]]. When it attacks Metropolis, Superman must [[World of Cardboard Speech|unleash all of his hidden power]] to stop it, killing Doomsday but also getting mortally wounded in the process. He dies in [[Lois Lane]]'s arms', while his ragged cape ended up hung on a pole as a sort of tragic flag: possibly the most effective visual ever seen in comic book history.
 
Naturally, [[DC Comics]] was [[Like You Would Really Do It|NOT]] planning on really killing off one of their main [[Cash Cow Franchise|most famous characters]] permanently: it was a [[No Such Thing Asas Bad Publicity|publicity stunt]] to boost sales, and the plan was to soon bring him back. However, the general media picked up the story and ran with it, and a lot of people believed it. This is because, at the time, this thing ''hadn't'' been done to death; this story may have been the [[Trope Codifier]] for the [[Comic Book Death]].
 
''The Death of Superman'' arc happened by accident: originally, the then-current Superman writing were going to get Superman and Lois Lane married; however, ''[[Lois and Clark|Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman]]'' was already green-lit at ABC, and the producers of the show wanted the wedding to happen first on the show. Forced to come up with a new storyline to replace "The Wedding" arc, Jerry Ordway, the then-current writer for ''The Adventures of Superman'', jokingly said at the next meeting, "Let's just kill 'im!" Normally, the other writers would laugh it off, but this time, they would do the deed.
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* '''The Man of Steel ([[Steel]]):''' A [[Race Lift|black]] hero wearing a suit of [[Powered Armor]]. He was the only one to both admit he was NOT Superman from the start ''and'' not actively claim the name for himself. [[Meaningful Name|John Henry Irons]] merely wanted to keep the spirit of Superman alive (although there were hints that he may have been literally serving as an anchor for Superman's soul).
 
Each of these characters was allowed to star in one of Superman's then current titles for a few months. It was eventually revealed that the real Superman was {{spoiler|none of them, he wasn't even dead but rather in [[Suspended Animation]]}} and in fact the {{spoiler|Cyborg Superman}} was a ''villain'', with {{spoiler|Mongul}} as his [[The Dragon|Dragon]]. whom the others had to team up to stop. Superman was soon [[Back From the Dead]] afterwards, and (very infamously) came back with a ''mullet'', which [[Dork Age|lasted four maddening years]]. The Superman [[Legacy Hero|legacy carriers]] stuck around for other stories, with two of them ([[Superboy]] and [[Steel]]) even getting their own series. Steel would also appear in ''[[Superman: theThe Animated Series]]'' and ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]''.
 
The storyline also had a huge impact on [[Green Lantern]]. {{spoiler|The Cyborg Superman}} turned out to be a villain collaborating with {{spoiler|Mongul}} to prepare Earth to be converted into a [[War World]] (basically like a Death Star). He started by annihilating [[Green Lantern|Hal Jordan's]] home town of Coast City, while Jordan was in space. When Jordan returned, his grief drove him into his controversial turn as [[Face Heel Turn|Parallax]].
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* [[Mutual Kill]]: Supes and Doomsday
* [[Nineties Anti-Hero]]: Both Cyborg Superman and the Eradicator are pastiches of this 90's trend. {{spoiler|Only the Eradicator plays this straight. Cyborg Superman (aka Hank Henshaw) is a villain.}}
* [[Red Skies Crossover]]: The arc affected everyone on The [[DC Universe]]'s Earth, seeing as how their [[Big Good]] had just been killed. It got a nod in the lead-up to the [[Batman (Franchise)|Batman]] arc ''[[Knightfall]]''.
* [[Younger and Hipper]]: [[Superboy]] is a pastiche of this type of trend.
 
== The Death of Superman has been referenced in: ==
* ''[[DragonballDragon Ball]]'' (which borrowed heavily on the Superman mythos): Goku was killed off at the conclusion of the Cell Saga with the intention of ending the series there and implying a [[Changing of the Guard]]. ([[Executive Meddling]] resulted in a bringing the character back.)
* ''[[Shortpacked (Webcomic)|Shortpacked]]'': Resident [[Jerkass]] Mike [http://shortpacked.com/comic/book-1-brings-back-the-80s/03-customer-protection-rackets/a-35/ makes] a [[Too Soon]] joke about the then-recent death of Pope John Paul II, referencing the Reign of the Supermen.
* This ''[[Wonderella]]'' [http://nonadventures.com/2007/06/16/the-death-of-wonderella/ comic]
* ''[[FoxTrot]]'': Jason and Paige [[Take That|draw mean comic strips about each other]], including strips saying the other caused Superman's death.
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