Creative Cat Productions | How DC Comics colluded with the media to sell millions of copies of the Death of Superman in 1993 @creativecatproductions | Uploaded November 2022 | Updated October 2024, 4 hours ago.
In the early 90s DC Comics was getting their butts handed to them in terms of sales by their crosstown rival, Marvel Comics. Despite flourishing public interest in comics, almost all of the attention seemed to be garnered by Spider-Man, the X-Men, and something called the Avengers. DC meanwhile, despite some success with the Dark Knight, and Tim Burton’s Batman movies, still came off as old fashioned and childish to the teenage readers and aging fans of the silver age. So, in order to garner some attention, Mike Carlin, the editor of the Superman comics, came up with the idea of killing off Superman….permanently….or at least that’s what we were led to believe. Somehow the story got conveniently leaked, either accidentally, or deliberately, and Superman became headline news throughout the United States.
Sales for the comic were extraordinary, attracting not just die hard fans, but even numerous casuals and outsiders, who erroneously believed that perhaps, one day, the special sealed Black Death bag containing the lurid comic would be worth serious money. Well, its 30 years later, and the comic is basically as worthless as ever. What happened? And is there is lesson to be learned here?
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Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:50 - overview of various times Superman died in comics
3:21 - the Death of Superman was widely covered in the media from 1992 to 1993
5:42 - the Death of Superman was bogus from day one
6:20 - the public reaction to the Death of Superman was overwhelming….why?
8:11 - someone please buy my chicken nuggies
10:54 - comic collection economics 101
13:36 - to what degree did the media and DC collude with each other?
15:12 - conclusion: we ought to think critically about stuff the media sells us
In the early 90s DC Comics was getting their butts handed to them in terms of sales by their crosstown rival, Marvel Comics. Despite flourishing public interest in comics, almost all of the attention seemed to be garnered by Spider-Man, the X-Men, and something called the Avengers. DC meanwhile, despite some success with the Dark Knight, and Tim Burton’s Batman movies, still came off as old fashioned and childish to the teenage readers and aging fans of the silver age. So, in order to garner some attention, Mike Carlin, the editor of the Superman comics, came up with the idea of killing off Superman….permanently….or at least that’s what we were led to believe. Somehow the story got conveniently leaked, either accidentally, or deliberately, and Superman became headline news throughout the United States.
Sales for the comic were extraordinary, attracting not just die hard fans, but even numerous casuals and outsiders, who erroneously believed that perhaps, one day, the special sealed Black Death bag containing the lurid comic would be worth serious money. Well, its 30 years later, and the comic is basically as worthless as ever. What happened? And is there is lesson to be learned here?
_________________________
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:50 - overview of various times Superman died in comics
3:21 - the Death of Superman was widely covered in the media from 1992 to 1993
5:42 - the Death of Superman was bogus from day one
6:20 - the public reaction to the Death of Superman was overwhelming….why?
8:11 - someone please buy my chicken nuggies
10:54 - comic collection economics 101
13:36 - to what degree did the media and DC collude with each other?
15:12 - conclusion: we ought to think critically about stuff the media sells us
