] type='image/vnd.microsoft.icon'/>

Friday, July 15, 2011

Death of Superman Poster - 1992

sg
I stumbled across this promo poster for the 1992 "Death of Superman" mega-event during a Google image search for another post, and was happy to see Aquaman included--and as one of the Man of Steel's pallbearers, yet!

A couple of other random observations:
--Changeling is one of the pallbearers, really? Changeling?
--next to Blue Beetle is Thunderbolt, one of the few characters to be bought by DC, only for them to lose him again.
--Martian Manhunter has to stand next to Darkseid? What a dis!
--speaking of Darkseid, I'm calling shenanigans. I'm all for calling a truce during a time of, er, crisis, but this is a guy who has tried to destroy the universe a hundred times over. I'd say the heroes of the DCU missed a chance to take him out once and for all. Geez, Superman dies, and the other heroes just lose it!

18 comments:

Anthony said...

Beast Boy's a pallbearer, but not one of their most iconic characters, Batman (who's nowhere to be seen on the poster)?!

They worked in *Darkseid*, but not Bats?! Guess they took that tiresome "they're not friends but uneasy distrustful allies at best" shtick seriously (even if to me it made them seem like two 8-year-olds fighting in the back seat of the car on a family trip...).

r duncan said...

Maybe he was the Earth-2 (Earth-3?) Darkseid.... I still don't get why Lobo gets to walk free in the DCU.

Woodrobin said...

If I recall correctly, the people who look well lit were the ones that were actually at the funeral in the comic, while the ones that are in shadow knew about his death or observed his funeral, but didn't attend in the conventional sense. Dream of the Endless, the Guardians, the Legion of Super-Heroes, for one reason or another, weren't actually at the funeral. Mon-El is the dividing line. Interesting, since he also essentially bridges the 20th century heroic era and the 30th century Legion era.

I could be wrong, though. It's been years since I read that issue.

Shellhead said...

If I recall correctly, Batman takes Changling's place in some versions of this poster. There was some kind of legal issue involving what kind of merchandise the Dark Knight could appear on. I think the version you have is from the art that appeared on T-shirts and the license for Batman apparel was farmed out to someone else at the time.

Anonymous said...

haha..yeah I've always felt the same way about Darkseid being in the funeral

Brent said...

Who's the guy next to Nightwing? Looks kinda like Geo Force. Oh yeah... and where's Batman?!?

John said...

Martian Manhunter is standing two places behind Bloodwynd....I thought that Bloodwynd was, in fact, MM in diguise?

Diabolu Frank said...

Did Knightfall have anything to do with anything?

The weird thing isn't that Martian Manhunter is next to Darkseid. The weird thing is that Martian Manhunter and Bloodwynd are separated in the same image at a time when they inhabited the same body. Readers called foul on that red herring back in the day. Also, I dig that J'Onn is caught between his brother's dark god and one of his own, the Sandman/Morpheus/Lord L'Zoril

Earth 2 Chris said...

I think Batman was originally in Captain Marvel's position, and Changeling took Robin's position on this poster. At the time, DC was selling a Death of Superman card set thru Skybox, but Batman and company were licensed to Topps. Nightwing made it through the cracks since he w as a Titans character only at the time.

Chris

Jakethy said...

I haveta mention the fact that Nightwing's worst costume version (second worst?) is captured for posterity here, too.

David J. Cutler said...

Batman watched the funeral procession from a rooftop or something, but this was during one of his most urban legendy periods and he didn't come out in the daytime as a rule, much less at a media event with cameras and stuff.

Looking at this poster, DC was going through one of its strangest periods at that time. Were they trying to make Punisher-type anti-heroes out of Deathstroke and Darkseid? I'm not sure you get more 90s than Bloodwynd. And check out the Hawks!

I know it's a friend's funeral and all, but Blue Beetle is being awfully dramatic.

Aaron said...

Darkseid was there because they said there would be sandwiches.

Marc Tyler Nobleman said...

This is NOT the original poster.

THIS is: http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/6/65157/1249209-funeral_super.jpg.

Captain Marvel is supposed to be Batman.

Changeling is supposed to be Robin.

Thunderbolt is supposed to be Captain Marvel.

Wonder why someone bothered to change it?

Wings1295 said...

Regardless, shouldn't the Martian Manhunter have been one of the pallbearers? He knew Supes for years and they were JLA members together! Why put Changeling there at all?

JasonMotesBowles said...

Brent, the guy next to Nightwing is Gangbuster, who was a supporting hero in the Superman comics, kinda like Guardian.

Boosterrific said...

It is important to note that this image is NOT in continuity. This is not a representation of who actually attended the funeral for Superman in SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL #20. This is an alternate version (in this case, the back of 9 DEATH OF SUPERMAN trading cards) of a promotional poster showcasing as many prominent DC properties as possible. In this case, DC didn't care about continuity, they only cared about promoting the DC brand.

Technically, in continuity Martian Manhunter was a pallbearer, as it was eventually revealed that Manhunter was unintentionally masquerading as Bloodwynd II while under the influence of Bloodwynd I's soul gem. (As far as mysteries go, I thought DC pulled it off rather well, certainly far better than they managed ARMAGEDDON 2001 the previous year.)

In the comics, the pallbearers were mostly Superman's teammates in the Justice League: Bloodwynd (Manhuter in disguise), Booster Gold, Guy Gardner, Ice, Maxima, and Supergirl (standing in for an injured Fire). Booster Gold wasn't even in costume, as his power suit was destroyed by Doomsday. Blue Beetle never attended at all because Doomsday put him in a coma.

Unknown said...

How much are these posters worth

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I have this poster and Changeling is "Robin" and Shazam is "Batman"

I hadn't seen this version until today, but the poster on my wall has Batman and Robin carrying Superman.