Superman to Meet Death, but Is It the End?

Could this be the end for Superman?

The Man of Steel will meet his match in a four-part series of comic books scheduled to reach dealers Nov. 18., said Mike Carlin, editor of DC Superman comic books in the trade magazine Advance Comics.

The series will pitch Superman into a fight to his death, he said. But Carlin was coy about whether death for a Krypton native is final.

“Never say we wouldn’t kill Superman, never say we wouldn’t bring him back,” Carlin told the November issue of the Madison, Wis.-based magazine that combines a catalogue with interviews. It began hitting comic book stores this week.

Superman will die fighting to save Metropolis from a super-lunatic called Doomsday, a new villain who is an escapee from a cosmic insane asylum, Carlin said.

“Doomsday will emerge from somewhere in America and just start walking,” he said.

“The fight will be taken to Metropolis, during the course of the stories,” Carlin said. “There will be a lot of death and destruction around Metropolis as a result of the fight. . . . Superman is going to die at the end. But he is going to die saving as many people on Earth and in Metropolis as he can, which is what he’s all about.”

DC Comics, publisher of the four Superman comic books, wouldn’t comment further.