The Death of Superman
Superman is pretty much the original super-hero and possibly the greatest of all time, and that of course comes with awesome feats.
Superman Media
Storylines
- All-Star Superman
- The Black Ring
- The Death of Clark Kent
- For the Man Who Has Everything
- H'el on Earth
- Kryptonite Nevermore
- Krypton No More
- Krypton Returns
- New Krypton
- The Superman Adventures
- Superman: At Earth's End
- Superman/Batman
- Superman: Birthright
- Superman: Brainiac
- Superman: Doomsday
- Superman: Lois and Clark
- Superman: Secret Identity
- Superman Unchained
- Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man
- War World
- Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?
Supporting Cast
- Brainiac
- Legion of Super-Heroes
- Lois Lane
- Supergirl (see that page for individual Supergirl storylines)
Films
Live-Action Series
Animated Series
Comic Books:
Golden Age
- Waaaayyyy back in 1938, the cover of Action Comics #1 managed to get attention by showing a certain brightly-costumed character performing the never-before-seen feat of lifting a car over his head, and smashing it to pieces!.
- If one still doubts the strength of the iconic cover art alone cementing the series as a hit, keep in mind that Action Comics #1 was an anthology comic with several different stories, with Supes' first adventure getting sandwiched in out of desperation for new material. And for the next 13 issues, the cover didn't feature Superman at all—but the comic was still selling like hotcakes because people were buying the new issues just to see if more Superman stories were included! The sheer idea of reading a new Superman story was enough to drive sales of the comics, all on the strong first impression of his debut comic! From #15 and on, they wised up and gave Superman permanent top billing on the covers from then on out, and eventually just dropped the anthology format to make it a standalone Superman book, even though he ended up having his own self-named comic book running alongside it! The rest is history.
- Supes' establishing character moments in Action Comics #1. When forcing his way into the governors house, he shows off his strength for the first time by effortlessly lifting the butler over his head. When he finds out the governors room is sealed with a steel door, he easily tears it loose, to the shock of the butler. Then the Butler tries to shoot him at point blank range, and Superman doesn't even flinch.
- In the same story, Superman immediately comes to the rescue of a housewife who is being beaten by her husband. Superman flings the jerk so hard against a wall, it cracks!
◊ - Superman fighting the KKK - both on the radio show and in real life.
- A little context to the awesome... the aforementioned KKK-fighting occurred back in the 1930s or '40s, when the KKK was still "respectable" (or, as respectable as a bunch of racist kooks in pointy hoods can be) and when membership in the organization was in the South less reputation suicide as it was a savvy career move. He fought them in real life by putting actual KKK rituals and passwords into their appearance in the show; this naturally made them something of a laughingstock by showing how silly they were.
- Something that isn't widely known, and that counts as real-world awesomeness on the part of the producers of the Superman radio show, is that they were getting all this secret, insider information on the actual Klan rituals and passwords from a volunteer who agreed to intentionally infiltrate the KKK just so he could pass their secrets along to be made public. Talk about going the extra mile!
Silver Age
- In his first appearance -Action Comics #242-, Superman was unable to beat Brainiac. Superman threw chunks of planetoid at Brainiac until he ran out of planetoid. The whole time Brainiac just stood still, grinning and letting his deflector shields take the blows.
Bronze Age
- Superman (vol. 1) #297. "Clark Kent FOREVER — Superman NEVER!" If the title didn't tip you off, this is A Day in the Limelight for Clark himself, where he gets romantic with Lois, tells off Morgan Edge, and punches out Steve Lombard. But his best moment in the story is his anti-gravity battle against Intergang, putting his weightless space maneuvering skills into effective use.
- In Superman Volume 1 #338, Brainiac accidentally hits himself with his shrinking ray, and he pleads with Supergirl to save him, but Supergirl coolly states that the enlarging ray doesn't have enough energy left to save Superman, Kandor and him.
- This is a comprehensive (but by no means complete) list of Superman's post-Crisis feats. And not all of them involve punching out enemies. Some involve his intelligence, durability, and sheer kind-heartedness (like helping a stranded pregnant woman deliver a baby).
- Superman (Volume 2) #4:
- Bloodsport, a paramilitary supervillain who can pull weapons out of thin air, shoots and downs Superman with Kryptonite bullets. As he closes in for the kill, however, Jimmy Olsen grabs one of Bloodsport's discarded weapons and threatens him with it if he doesn't leave his pal alone. Bloodsport backs off.
- Jimmy gets a quieter awesome moment at the end of the issue. He stops Bloodsport's rampage by bringing in his brother to talk him down. How did he know this would help? He remembered something Bloodsport yelled during his first massacre and tracked down the villain's entire backstory from there.
Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths
- Superman killing Doomsday. The unstoppable monster had plowed his way through the United States, wiping the floor with the Justice League, so Superman uses all his strength to stop Doomsday right in front of the Daily Planet, punching Doomsday so hard all the windows and ground shattered. Superman died in the process, but not before Doomsday did.
- His fight with Lex Luthor at the climax of Up, Up, and Away. Superman's been depowered and Lex is without his battle suit so they slug it out on the beach like normal humans. Even without his powers Superman still manages to beat Lex in a fight, all the while mocking him for wasting so much time trying to kill him when he could be curing cancer.
