The fourth and final season of The CW‘s Superman & Lois kicks off on Monday, October 7th with a two-episode premiere. While the series was already poised to be an emotional one as not only the final season of the fan-favorite television show and the end of an era for the network with the series being the last DC-inspired series on The CW, the upcoming season is going to be powerful for fans for another reason: the Season 3 finale of Superman & Lois suggested a grim fate for Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) and everything we’ve seen leading up to Season 4 has only reinforced it. The series appears to be adapting the iconic “The Death of Superman” storyline in its final season, with trailers that have teased that Superman is no more. Ahead of the return of Superman & Lois, here’s what you need to know about that iconic storyline — as well as how The CW series may deviate from the comics to make the story it its own.
Kicking off in 1992, “The Death of Superman” is a crossover story that appeared across several of DC’s titles at the time — Superman, Action Comics, The Adventures of Superman: The Man of Steel, Justice League America, and Green Lantern. Written by Dan Jurgens, Roger Stern, Louise Simonson, Jerry Ordway, and Karl Kesel across those titles, the story had three arcs, “Doomsday!” “Funeral for a Friend,” and “Reign of the Supermen!” In the first arc, “Doomsday!” Superman dies in a fight with Doomsday, with the second arc following the mourning of the loss of the hero and its impact, while the third arc sees four Superman imposters make their arrival before Superman is himself resurrected. The event was a major landmark for DC and Superman #75 — the issue that featured Superman’s death — not only became the top-selling comic of 1992, but its cover art of Superman’s tattered cape flapping in the wind remains iconic, so much so that a poster for Superman & Lois took inspiration from it.
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In the overall story, Doomsday emerges from an underground bunker and takes on the Justice League International and while he defeats them with ease, Superman shows up and a fight between the two ensues and Doomsday soon begins heading towards Metropolis. Superman attempts to stop him, but Doomsday makes it to Metropolis. The fight ends when Doomsday and a gravely injured Superman fight each other in front of the Daily Planet and while Superman delivers a killing blow to Doomsday, the fight has left him mortally wounded as well. The hero dies in Lois Lane’s arms. The hero’s death has major repercussions across the DC Universe with his funeral attended by superheroes and villains alike. Project Cadmus then steals Superman’s body at one point with intent to clone him, but Lois and Supergirl get him back. Meanwhile in Metropolis, Superman’s death leads to a spike in crime rates which in turn leads to a team funded by Lex Luthor stepping in.
Superman’s adoptive father, Jonathan Kent takes his son’s death particularly hard and has a heart attack. Additionally, four men all claiming to be Superman — Steel, Cyborg Superman, Superboy, and Eradicator — all emerge and it is soon discovered that Superman’s grave is empty. While it’s concluded that Cyborg Superman is the “real” Superman, the reality is that Eradicator took Superman’s body and put it in the Fortress of Solitude and had been using his recovering energies for power. Eventually, a powerless Superman (in the iconic black costume) escapes and while Cyborg Superman is helping Mongul destroy Coast City and recreate Warworld in its place, Superboy and Steel go to fight Cyborg Superman and both the real Superman and Supergirl join in. Eradicator also joins in on the fight and in the end, Eradicator protects Superman from Kryptonite gas, and while that gas kills Eradicator, Superman is able to regain his powers, defeating the Cyborg Superman.
How is Superman & Lois Setting Up Death of Superman?
While Superman & Lois‘ take on this iconic storyline won’t be a beat for beat adaptation, we’ve already seen the series do some of the legwork to set up their own version. Season 3 of Superman & Lois saw Superman face off with the Inverse Superman who, thanks to Lex Luthor, has been transformed into a Doomsday-like monster after repeatedly being killed. Superman and the monster fight in a fierce battle that ends with the two locked in battle in space, last seen hurtling towards one another seemingly prepared to deliver killing blows.
Since the direct outcome of this epic battle isn’t going to be revealed until the Superman & Lois premiere, it is anyone’s guess exactly how the series will take things from there. What we do know, however, is that Lex Luthor (played by Michael Cudlitz) certainly seems to believe that Superman is dead – he says as much in a trailer for the season – and Hoechlin has himself indicated that he didn’t have quite as much to do filming the final season — even joking that he “may have snoozed through a rehearsal or blocking at one point” — though he did confirm that his character appears in flashbacks. While that doesn’t confirm the “death” of Superman, it does seem to indicate that the hero will be off the board, so to speak, for at least part of the season before the story comes to its emotional conclusion.
The fourth and final season of Superman & Lois will debut with a two-episode premiere on Monday, October 7th at 8 p.m. ET on The CW with new episodes following on Monday nights at the same time going forward after that.
