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A review by topdragon
The Death and Life of Superman by Roger Stern
4.0
Wow, this one really surprised me! I must first confess to not being a huge Superman fan. I don’t dislike him so much as simply tend to prefer superheroes that are more human-like and use brains and gadgets to become super. Ironman, Batman, or, even better, the pulp heroes of yesteryear like Doc Savage are more to my taste. (And the Hulk. Can’t help but love Hulk). But Superman…nearly indestructible…tends to be boring for me.
I also remember back in 1992 when the announcement came that DC Comics was going to kill off Superman. So, maybe not so indestructible after all? This book is the novelization of that storyline as told in the actual comic books and, surprisingly (at least for me) is quite good. It’s told in three acts, (Doomsday, Funeral for a Friend, and Reign of the Supermen), each addressing major events of the story arc. You don’t have to be a comic book aficionado to appreciate it.
I was worried at the beginning of the book because, by necessity, there were a lot of info dumps. Many characters are introduced including the entire newer version of the Justice League, many of whom are not common household names for readers. Not being much of a follower of the DC Comics universes myself, I found myself frequently consulting internet sources to see how these people all fit together. That’s actually a good sign for me because when I started reading I did not expect to become so vested in the characters. The info dumps were handled pretty well for the most part, in the sense that most were done via short flashback sequences. For example, Superman would be flying along and see a particular building and flashback to the time he first met Jimmy Olsen. It seemed like there were a few too many of those flashbacks but now, looking back at the entire novel, I can see their importance because every one of those characters played important roles in later events and at least I knew them.
Happily, this book read like a novel, not like a pieced-together word version of a series of comic books. It had pretty good characterization, a complex plot, and plenty of action mixed in with well-written drama. I’m glad I read it.
I also remember back in 1992 when the announcement came that DC Comics was going to kill off Superman. So, maybe not so indestructible after all? This book is the novelization of that storyline as told in the actual comic books and, surprisingly (at least for me) is quite good. It’s told in three acts, (Doomsday, Funeral for a Friend, and Reign of the Supermen), each addressing major events of the story arc. You don’t have to be a comic book aficionado to appreciate it.
I was worried at the beginning of the book because, by necessity, there were a lot of info dumps. Many characters are introduced including the entire newer version of the Justice League, many of whom are not common household names for readers. Not being much of a follower of the DC Comics universes myself, I found myself frequently consulting internet sources to see how these people all fit together. That’s actually a good sign for me because when I started reading I did not expect to become so vested in the characters. The info dumps were handled pretty well for the most part, in the sense that most were done via short flashback sequences. For example, Superman would be flying along and see a particular building and flashback to the time he first met Jimmy Olsen. It seemed like there were a few too many of those flashbacks but now, looking back at the entire novel, I can see their importance because every one of those characters played important roles in later events and at least I knew them.
Happily, this book read like a novel, not like a pieced-together word version of a series of comic books. It had pretty good characterization, a complex plot, and plenty of action mixed in with well-written drama. I’m glad I read it.