Lex In Death Of Superman Series

[clark25]

I was looking threw the death of superman series and I was
surprise to see that Lex looked just like Smallville's Lionel
almost.I felt my mouth drop when I saw that but let me know
if Lex always had that look before the death of superman stories
thanks........

[Gangbuster]

No, though I've noticed that, too. In 1986, they started Superman over and remade old stories for about 10-15 years. The post-Crisis (meaning post-1986) version of Lex Luthor, Jr. is actually Lex Luthor himself!

Here's what happened. Lex started out (after 1986) looking like the Kingpin. He had a kryptonite ring to keep Superman away, but he eventually got cancer from the ring and had to amputate his hand. Eventually the cancer spread throughout his body, so he faked his death. He cloned himself a new body, and came back as his own son and heir!

At the time that they redid the Death of Superman story, neither Superman, nor hardly anyone else in Metropolis knew that Lex Luthor, Jr. was actually his father.

All this happened in 1990 and 1991...the Death of Superman saga began at the end of 1992.

[knightofkrypton]

They never "redid" the death of Superman, nor really redid old stories. Sure they redid the origin story but they attempted to put completely new spins and realities for Superman and all other DC characters. BAsically they made Supes more relatable to the common man.

But to my knowledge Supes never died before in any comic.

But yes Lex faked his death came back as an assuie LL Jr. Then he got the clone disease, lost all his hair, eventually was healed...buffed up became President of the United States and is now declared a criminal after discovery of his abuse of power and many other crimes too numerous to mention.

[Gangbuster]

They remade old stories. The Death of Superman was written in 1961 by Jerry Siegel.
Other stories that were remade post-Crisis:

-John Byrne's Man of Steel miniseries was an expanded version of a 1948 Superman origin. The 1948 origin was written a year after Siegel and Shuster first left DC, and removed Superboy from the origin, probably because DC didn't own the copyright to Superboy.
-The first Superman comic I bought as a child featured Jimmy Olsen stretching uncontrollably (1991.) This was a remake of Elastic Lad.
-Lex Luthor, Jr.
-Panic in the Sky
-Death of Superman, Funeral of Superman
-Wedding
-Superman Red and Superman Blue
-The Death of Clark Kent (done four times before, to my knowledge)
-World's Finest
-Return to Krypton
-"Krypton II"
-the Supergirl from Krypton

only two significant original things happened between 1986 and 2001. The first was the character Steel, who was inspired by a 1942 Superman novel, but expanded. The second was Lex Luthor becoming President.

Oh, and Superman killed Zod. Superman killing someone was also original.

[knightofkrypton]

when superman died in the 1961 version was it anything like the post-crisis version?? Just because he died does not make it a remake. How did he come back to life? Was he married to Lois?


Just becaue there may be certain elements in one or two other comics does not make them remade, possibly an extension of the original idea.

I don't recall supes ever being actually married to Lois before, exccept in some of the alternate stories that never actually happened. Was it a full time marriage like the one thats going on now?

Reign of the Supermen? Cyborg?

Superboy wasn't a remake of the original, he's a completely different Superboy, he's name is the same, thats about it.

Same with the first Supergirl in Post-crisis. The new Supergirl may be similiar.
The Eradicator?

Electric Superman?

Lex jr being a Clone of Lex Sr? The Fall of Metropolis series?

Superman Red and Blue was a completely different red and blue, the only thing the same was them being red and blue. He was the electric Superman back then.

Clark Kent may have "died" due to Superman having to cover up him being Superman but it was completely different to the Death of Clark Kent series which involved Kenny Braverman and placed his entire friends and family in peril.

Zero Hour? Similiar to Crisis but not.

Again, simmilarities but that does not mean they are remakes of the same story, many of whats happened in post-crisis will take a germ of the story from the old ones and do something completely different with them.

[Gangbuster]

That's all that I was saying, is that they have basically taken old stories and...I say remade them, you say done something different with them with the same title.

Yes, Zero Hour was a blatant copy of Crisis. But we can't count Crisis as being pre-Crisis now, can we? Besides, Zero Hour was important in explaining how Hawkman got rebooted again.

The Superman of Earth-2 married Lois and they lived happily ever after...until they dissappeared into some blinding light at the end of Crisis.

Cyborgs and weird kryptonian machines aren't new. In fact, them claiming to be Superman isn't either...though that storyline actually was nothing like "Reign of the Superman," where the title came from:



My point stands, that the "new" Superman continuity hasn't really escaped the 50-year continuity that came before it. It's kind of like a weird copy of it.

[knightofkrypton]

They aren't really a copy. They take a germ of something that happened and use it in a completely different way. The stories are different (except for the origin story which has to generally be the same)

The marriage of Lois and Supes wasn't even part of the main continuity (if continuity can be used for pre-crisis). Many of the things in pre-crisis that happened were just things the writers thought would be fun to do for one or maybe two comics and could basically be classified as Elseworlds...same with the Death of Superman....was it anything like the Post-crisis Death of Superman??? Did it last more than one or two comics, was it part of another reality???

Cyborgs, machines, clones, etc...are common in sci-fi/comics. Therefore it has to be expected they would use a cyborg in the pre-crisis comics but again its not the same story.

Its a story with a cyborg/clone/machine, not The Cyborg Story told with one or two new things.

Thats like saying that if in Superman Returns (and this isn't a spoiler or real) Superman looses his powers that its just a remake of Superman II. But the story and reason he lost his powers are completely different.

If the stories were the same with just a few differences then I'd agree with you but are they?

[dsv100]

Originally posted by knightofkrypton
...same with the Death of Superman....was it anything like the Post-crisis Death of Superman??? Did it last more than one or two comics, was it part of another reality???

You can read the story yourself and find out:

http://superman.ws/tales2/death/1/

As you can see, it's an imaginary story and was self-contained in one issue. I'll list the similarities between 1961's "The Death of Superman" and 1992's "Doomsday":

1. Superman died.

That's about it.

[Gangbuster]

Clearly. The second time, Superman went out like a punk. (Though to be fair, that made all of his enemies angry too.)

And knight, yes there was continuity pre-Crisis. There was a pretty constant stream of continuity for nearly 50 years...it's only now that Superman continuity has become as conflicted as it is. The original continuity was thus:

Kal-El rocketed to earth, watched over by the Guardians of Oa. His powers derived from evolution on the larger, harsher planet of Krypton, and other powers derived from Earth's yellow sun. At age 8, he began operating secretly as Superboy, under the direction of Johnathan Kent.

At age 12 he revealed himself to the world, and even got to meet the President. Little did he know he was the star of an alien reality TV show called "Superboy." The producer of the show created a serum that made the Kents younger, and better for TV.

Nevertheless, when Clark was 17 his parents died of a rare tropical disease. He promised to use his powers for good, left home, and went to Met U. After his roommate died and he was unable to save him, he went into exile for about 2 months, and reemerged as Superman.

Superboy had been the first Superhero, but he was soon joined by Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, etc. and they formed the Justice League of America.
[The Superman of Earth-2 appeared in 1938, worked at the Daily Star, and couldn't fly. These are the earliest Superman adventures that we on Earth-Prime have.]

My original point was this: Superman continuity was restarted in 1986. No, actually my original point was "this is why Lex Luthor looks like he does in your graphic novel."

[knightofkrypton]

I thought that the reason there were Earth 1 and Earth 2 and so on was because they kept coming up with stories that were conflicting or something similiar and therefore DC created all the Alpha and Beta Earths to explain the continuity mix-ups. Maybe not.....



Just read that story, I'd read it before. God I love that site...lots of good old comics on it. Love those old comics.....

[Gangbuster]

Earth-2 wasn't originally a continuity fix, but it came to be used for that. Consider this:

In the Silver Age, Marvel brought back Captain America, in an Avengers comic. Where had Captain America been all this time? In a block of ice.

Earth-2 was used for the same purpose. Where had the original Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, and the Spectre been all this time? A parallel universe, existing on a different wavelength in the same space.

By the time of Crisis, I think there were four, maybe five "earths." Several more were created during the series.

[knightofkrypton]

Well, I never said Marvel was anywhere near following any type of continuity.....if it is....I don't know who understands it. LOL