The Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special #1 has the same creative teams that worked on the The Death of Superman event. The first story, I think the title is a spoiler, is by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding. It has a three page gatefold cover by Jurgens and Breeding that has the fight between Superman and Doomsday. Young Jon Kent is in the foreground holding his father’s shredded cape. The other pages have the moments of the battle and the pages is almost a reverse of the end of Superman #75. Jon Kent first appeared in Convergeance: Superman #2 (2015) with Jurgens as writer with art by Lee Weeks. The team also covered Jon’s childhood in the eight-issue limited series, Superman: Lois and Clark (2016) joined by pencillers; Marco Santucci, Neil Edwards, and Stephen Segovia. The first story is set around this time period. There are 80 pages in this special, the first story is 39 pages.
At an apartment, a boss shouts at his worker, Clayton, about missing work for days. We see a poster about “The Men Who Cleaned Up After Doomsday”, one of the smiling constructions workers is Clayton. We see him in shadow, crystal spikes form on him!, and he cries for help. In the Smallville television series, the seemingly human Davis Bloome, becomes Doomsday. Some kind of genetic pattern unearthed by Clayton in rebuilding? At a school in New Troy, a borough of Metropolis, the teacher, Ms. Walsh, introduces Mitch Anderson. Mitchell Anderson first appeared in Justice League America #69 (1992) during the Doomsday event. He became Outburst and was a part of the Supermen of America. Mitch tells the class about the day Superman died and Jon is stunned never hearing about this story.
Superman is busy lifting up a boulder and flying while construction workers talk. They chat about the monster that had caused the building to fall. Jimmy Olsen rushes up and shows Superman a cell phone video that has a shadowy picture that may be Doomsday. Superman says the creature is trapped in the Phantom Zone. Lois Lane walks with her son and he is justifiably angry that he is the last person to know Superman died. They walk to Centinniel Park which had Superman’s tomb and now has a memorial statue of him. Superman is flying and thinking of the possibilty that this could be Doomsday when a shadowy figure drops down, swings him by the cape, and slams him to the street! Lois says to Jon that his father has to win every battle or people will die. A nice insight into Superman. The two narratives merge and Superman battles the creature his son has dubbed Doombreaker. It is intelligent, unlike Doomsday, and has evolved with new powers!
“Above and Beyond’ is by Jerry Ordway with pencils by Tom Grummett. It focuses on Ma and Pa Kent in Smallville reacting to the television report about the Doomsday fight. Martha can see that her son is wounded, but Jonathan tries to distract her with a scrapbook. He tries to show her the battle with Metallo. There were battles that took him from Earth, taking on Mongul, which gets the attention of Martha. Now, Jonathan is frustrated at the news treating a life and death battle as a wrestling match. Martha gets his attention talking about what doesn’t make the news. She had assembled newpaper clippings of various stories to form the narrative. Quite the detective! She tells him about the rescue of a school bus at a hospital when the accident caused a traffic jam. This leads to an organ donor, but the flights were cancelled from thunderstorms. So Clark flew them to Chicago and saved many lives. I love seeing the family members trying keep up their moral support for loved ones who go into danger.
The third story, “Standing Guard”, is by Roger Stern and Butch Guice. The story features James Harper, Guardian, who carries a shield. He monitors the path of destruction by Doomsday for Cadmus Project. Guardian rides his motorcycle towards the village of Griffith when there is an incredible explosion. He rides towards and helps up Superman. Guardian checks on his Justice League colleague, Maxima, then is recalled back to Cadmus. There is an explosion (an ambush by Doomsday!) that batters Superman and Guardian. He is revived by the mental projection of Dubbilex, a being created by Cadmus. It is after the Doomsday battle, Guardian and Inspector Dan Turpin try to give him CPR. Also on the scene is Captain Maggie Sawyer in charge of the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit. These strong people will defend the city as best as they can with the fall of Superman. Lastly is the story by Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove featuring John Henry Irons, “Time.” He is in his engineer suit holding up rubble while children escape.
It collapses on him and then John Henry Iron stands with his clothes partially ripped. Then, he comes across an eighteen wheeled truck smashed in the fight. John Henry uses his strength, engineering smarts, and bystanders to move the truck. Next, he takes a sledgehammer from a looter and goes to save a trapped woman with a car crashed into her apartment. John Henry tosses up a cable drum runner and uses the cable to bring down the family. He gets them between two cars and takes the brunt of the car explosion with his body. They tell him that the battle moved to the Daily Planet building. He reaches the battleground, but finds that Superman died, he failed after the Man of Steel saved him from falling at a construction site. Still, the man who will become Steel, can save others just like Superman. There are various pinups by artists like Clay Mann, Walt Simonson, and Bill Sienkiewicz. The Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special #1 is packed with great stories and art, plus pinups by fine artists, and a perfect update and companion to the Superman event!
Five Superman capes out of Five!
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