History ComicBook / AllStarSuperman

->''"You're much stronger than you think you are."''

** Leo Quintum is basically a supervillain who uses all that SuperScience to help humanity instead of committing crimes.

When ComicBook/LexLuthor finally manages to poison the Man of Tomorrow with an overdose of solar radiation, Superman decides it's time to look back and wrap up his life. There are villains to overcome, answers for the woman he loves, and the Twelve Challenges of Superman to perform, but Lex is still planning something and there is a villain hiding just out of sight...

* ActOfTrueLove: ComicBook/JimmyOlsen risks his life by turning himself into [[ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman Doomsday]], risking that the DNA will overwhelm him, to stop a [[BrainwashedAndCrazy black Kryptonite infected]] Superman instead of sending his best friend to the PhantomZone.

---> "Doomed planet. Desperate scientists. Last hope. Kindly couple."

* AntiHero: Bar-El and Lilo. While they do use their abilities for good, they are also more than happy to lord their powers over humanity, have nothing but disdain for Superman and spent most of their time on page acting like superpowered bullies.

* ArbitrarySkepticism: ComicBook/LoisLane and Jimmy Olsen go through incredible adventures with and because of Superman, yet when he willingly reveals himself as Clark Kent ''twice'' during the story line, Lois and Jimmy, along with the rest of the ''Daily Planet'' staff still believe it's just a ruse to fool Supes' enemies, and in reality the "real" Kent is hiding somewhere. The fact that Kent is Superman is actually pretty down to earth compared with the other zany stuff they do believe.

* BadassNormal: ComicBook/LexLuthor has no proper superpowers, but his intellect and cunning make him far more dangerous than Superman's other foes. He has access to top-notch technology and devises a successful scheme to kill the Man of Steel.

* TheBusCameBack: Nasthalthia "Nasty" Luthor was a Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} villain who bedeviled the Girl of Steel during her ''Adventure Comics'' run and then faded into comic limbo until Morrison brought her back for this story after 34 years.

* CardCarryingVillain: ComicBook/LexLuthor is a subversion -- he identifies himself as a born dictator and all that, but truly does seem to believe that the world would be better off under his absolute rule and without reliance on Superman.

* TheChessmaster: It wouldn't be ComicBook/LexLuthor without this trope. [[spoiler:The entire series is his plan, building up to him gaining the power of Superman and taking over once the solar energy overdose finishes Superman off. Two problems with that: one, the energy overdose ''isn't'' killing Superman, but causing him to transcend mortality; two, having Superman's powers gives you Superman's perspective on the world, and that makes Luthor realize how pointless his entire scheme is.]]

* CompositeCharacter: Being Kryptonian villains who have to be put into the Phantom Zone to save their lives, Bar-El and Lilo are a cross between the normal Phantom Zone criminals and [[ComicBook/{{Valor}} Mon-El]].

* CradlingYourKill: Downplayed; ComicBook/JimmyOlsen (transformed into Doomsday) cradles Superman as he recovers from black Kryptonite exposure.

-->'''Superman:''' [[spoiler: They surrender.]]
-->'''Ultra-Sphinx:''' [[AC:Answer... acceptable.]]

* FightingFromTheInside: Superman seems to be doing this before the black Kryptonite completely overcomes him -- he describes how he's being affected and says, "[[ComicBook/JimmyOlsen Jim]], I need help."

* GreenEyedMonster: As always, ComicBook/LexLuthor, and he makes it clear that it's his motivation for killing Superman.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Luthor's fate in his battle with Superman: [[spoiler: when he juices up with superpowers, he goes full-on SmugSuper, casting aside his gadgets as unneeded and ignoring any strategy outside of straight-up brawling. This allows him to be OutGambitted by Superman, who [[{{Irony}} uses his own technology and scientific knowledge]] to stop Luthor in his tracks and negate his powers completely. "Brain beats brawn every time." after all.]]

-->'''Morrison''': "Somewhere, in our darkest night, we made up the story of a man who will never let us down and that seemed worth investigating."

-->''No say, am no see by am night's early dark!''\\
''How shamefully quiet by am morning's first fading!''\\
''Thin stripes and dull stars through the comfortable peace,''\\
''Under trenches no watch, am so cravenly hanging!''\\
''By no rocket's blue shade am no shells dead down there,''\\
''Gave no proof all day long that the flag was unwhere!''\\
''No say does am spar-strangled shroud hang limply!''\\
''Under land of no free! Am us home cowardleeee!''

* OffingTheOffspring: Played for BlackComedy during the Bizarro World arc. According to Bizarro Green Lantern, Bizarro Franchise/{{Batman}} was shot dead by his parents.

* SuddenHumility: [[spoiler:ComicBook/LexLuthor got empowered with abilities like Superman's for a day. While he at first reveled in the power and used it to terrorize Metropolis, at some point, the SuperSenses began to kick in, and Luthor suddenly gained a newfound perspective and started to Go Sane From The Revelation. For the first time, he understood the wonder of the world that never mattered to him and the enormous weight that was on Superman's shoulders every day of his life.]]

** Faced with the choice of letting a black-Kryptonite-influenced Superman rampage or watching him sent to the PhantomZone, ComicBook/JimmyOlsen decides on a third option -- turning himself into Doomsday and fighting Superman to a standstill.

* UnwittingMuggleFriend: ComicBook/LoisLane doesn't know Superman's secret identity.

* PitifulWorms: Issue four has Superman compare humans to flies swarming near the sun while under the effects of Black Kryptonite.

* SonOfAnApe: Lilo suggests moving the Apes out of Metropolis and building the capitol of New Krypton.

%%* LovableRogue: Samson and Atlas.

* CanonWelding: The appearance of [[spoiler:Kal Kent]] and [[spoiler:Solaris]] ties this comic to ''ComicBook/DCOneMillion'' (a crossover series plotted by Morrison), which is nominally in different continuity. Even though ''DC One Million'' was released years before ''All-Star Superman'', it actually provides a conclusion for the events of the latter series, as we get to see Superman [[spoiler:return from the Sun]]. ''All-Star Superman'' also gives us the origin of [[spoiler:the infant universe Qwewq]], who was an important character in Morrison's ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers''.

%%* CasualTimeTravel: Samson and his "custom Chronomobile".

** The OriginStory is covered in four panels and eight words.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Superman has replaced the giant key to the Fortress with a normal-sized key made of dwarf star matter, weighing over 500,000 pounds. He keeps it under the welcome mat. An object that small, that dense, and that heavy would immediately start breaking through the ice and head straight for the center of the planet the moment he put it down.

* CutLexLuthorACheck: Superman points out that [[TropeNames Luthor]] could have solved a lot of humanity's problems if he didn't focus on killing Superman.

* ArtificialGravity: The bottled city of Landor has it at eight times Earth's.

** When Superman can't find a way to enlarge the people of Landor and doesn't want to leave them tiny, [[spoiler:he releases the tiny Kryptonians to live on Mars.]]

* TemptingFate: Superman brags to Lois on her birthday that no one on the planet except him can lift the key that unlocks the door to his fortress of solitude. Naturally, later on when he comes back from a 2-month abssnce from the planet two Kryptonians have come to Earth and taken up residence in the fortress of solitude, and one of them [[Lampshading tells Superman he shouldn't have left his key lying around to be used]].

%%* CloseOnTitle: Done with issues 3, 7, 8, 9, and 10.

* OffingTheOffspring: Bizarro Franchise/{{Batman}} was shot dead by his parents.

* SuperDickery: Referenced with a lot of the covers;

%%** Samson and Atlas skirt the border between this and UnscrupulousHero.

* BizarroUniverse: The square Bizarro World is a shapeshifting planetary parasite from a higher-gravity dimension that grows inhabitants to appear more like the world it's feeding on, albeit with polar opposite traits from the originals. These include Bizarro versions of the Justice League: A Flash who moves extremely slow, a Green Lantern who can't think of anything to make with his ring, a Wonder Woman who was turned from a goddess into a clay statue. Bizarro Batman himself is dead, as his parents shot him dead in an alley when he was 8 years old. Then there's a Bizarro Bizarro named Zibarro, who is the OnlySaneMan on the planet.
* BlackComedy: There is no Bizarro Franchise/{{Batman}} in the Underverse. Why? His parents shot him as a child in an alley. Bizarro Franchise/WonderWoman now being a clay statue also counts.

--->'''Ultra-Sphinx:''' [[AC:Answer... acceptable.]]

** Atlas and Samson also fight evil in downtown New York City (albeit in the form of gangsters, not dinosaur-men) in the 1970 Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger OldShame ''Film/HerculesInNewYork''.

* OnlySaneMan: An extreme case with Zibarro, the only one out of billions on Bizarro World that is sane.
* PaperThinDisguise: Actually averted this time: Quitely's Clark can contort his muscles to where he looks more fat than ripped. Thus, nobody would suspect the flabby Clark is really the mighty Superman. He also wears oversized clothes to help the illusion (which has since been imported to the mainstream character.)