Just two days ago the famous director Zach. Schneider screened the ultimate director's cut of Batman v Superman, which he personally explained. Zack. Schneider has always liked to include a lot of tributes and metaphors to religion, reproduction, etc., which increases the sense of ceremony and seriousness of the film, but also makes the film seem dull and lengthy.
There are many references to dc's original comics in Batman v Superman, among which Superman's battle with Doom Day and finally Superman's sacrifice of his life to defeat Doom Day are all borrowed from the famous comic book event "Death of Superman".
"Death of Superman" has achieved unprecedented success, and may even be the last one, which has greatly promoted the sales of DC comics and even the entire American comic book market, but it has produced extremely serious adverse consequences, and the project of "Death of Superman" can be said to be a failed successful project.
Before we officially begin, let's take a look at a picture of the 1992 North American comic sales charts.
1992 North American comic sales charts
The number one Superman #75就是超人死去的那一期, and in the top 20 of the list you will find that except for this issue of comics, there is no dc company comic, and the rest are almost all Marvel and Malibu comics.
If you zoom in on the list to the top 100, there are only 3 dc comics. Only 8 dc comics were on the list of the top 100 North American comic sales in the previous year, 1991.
In the early 1990s, Marvel's X-Men series of comics was in full swing, sales were increasing day by day, and multiple series of comics were launched with great success, and spider-man and venom comics of the Spider-Man system were also popular, and Marvel was the deserved king of the American comic book market during this period.
Before the official establishment of Image Comics in 1992, the company's cartoonists temporarily published and created under the Malibu Comics umbrella, and Malibu Comics became the top comic book company in the United States. It wasn't until these cartoonists formed the image company themselves and broke away from Malibu Comics that Malibu Comics fell off the altar and disappeared into history after being acquired by Marvel in the mid-nineties.
Faced with the powerful Marvel Comics and Malibu Comics, DC Comics fell into an unprecedented predicament and was on the verge of bankruptcy.
The DC company, which is on the verge of bankruptcy, finds Marvel and asks Marvel to buy dc company, but it is rejected by Marvel, on the grounds that the dc company is in the current predicament because the role setting is not attractive.
But in fact, on the one hand, Marvel is dealing with the monopoly lawsuit of First Comics, on the other hand, the dc asking price is too high, so Marvel did not acquire dc.
Unable to get a Marvel acquisition, DC could only save itself, so dc's creator began to study the plan, and finally decided to take Superman, the most influential superhero in the United States, and launched "Death of Superman".
Born in 1938, Superman was the first superhero in the history of American comics, pioneering the comic book category of superhero comics and ushering in the golden age of American comics.
Superman is considered a symbol of the American spirit, and you may not know Batman or Spider-Man around the world, but you must know Superman.
Let Superman die in the comics, and the impact can be imagined.
"Death of Superman" is a large-scale linkage event across publications, involving "Superman: Body of Steel", "Superman" v2, "Action Comics", "Superman Adventure", "Justice League of America", "Green Lantern" and other publications.
Death of Superman comic cover
#18中毁灭日出现 in 1992's Superman: Man of Steel, a monster with enormous destructive power capable of crushing any person or thing that stands in his way, all superheroes can do nothing about it.
Superman rushes up, fighting Doom Day while rescuing other superheroes, soldiers, and civilians in distress.
In 1992, Superman v2#75 went through an uphill battle in which Superman defeated Doom Day, but died in his beloved Louis. Ryan's arms.
In the comics, Superman dies in Louis's arms
The release of Superman's Death was immediate, and the issue of Superman v2#75 Superman's Death sold a record $30 million on the day of its release.
Even in reality, many people spontaneously held funerals for Superman.
With "Death of Superman" DC is a beautiful turnaround battle, and after that DC's sales have exploded.
Let's take a look at the 1993 North American comic sales charts.
1993 North American comic book sales charts
That's right, DC came back to life, with five comic book publications featuring Superman becoming the top five in the 1993 North American comic book sales charts, and DC once again becoming the top company in the American comic book market.
Image was officially established and sprang up.
Malibu Comics declined and was acquired by Marvel in 1994, but Marvel did not want Malibu Comics superheroes but simply wanted to reduce a competitor, so in 1996 Malibu Comics traces disappeared.
The U.S. comic book market began to compete for supremacy.
"Death of Superman" led to an explosive growth of DC Comics, and led by DC Comics, the entire American comic book market knocked down the peak of sales, setting a sales record, selling tens of millions of comics per month in 1993 and 48 million copies in April.
The comic book sales market also swelled rapidly, with more than 6,000 retail stores.
The U.S. comic book market has reached an unprecedented scale.
Originally, "Death of Superman" was a highly successful business project, not only brought the DC back to life, but also led the entire comic book industry to the peak, but after the "Death of Superman" DC launched a series of fan operations, which not only damaged the image of Superman, sales and popularity declined, but also caused the entire comic industry to fall into a downturn, indirectly leading to marvel bankruptcy.
It turned out that "Death of Superman" was only the first part of a quadrilogy project, which was called "Death and Rebirth of Superman", the second part was called "The Funeral of a Friend", the third part was called "Superman Dynasty", and the fourth part was called "Superman Rebirth", and superman was resurrected in "Superman Rebirth".
Superman resurrection
Superman's resurrection caused a lot of negative effects:
1. When Superman dies, the reader really feels sad, but he is resurrected after death, so what is the meaning of his death? Readers feel cheated. Therefore, Superman's popularity began to decline, gradually changing from the original American comic brother to the dc second oldest, and even overtaken by Marvel's Spider-Man.
2, due to the success of "Death of Superman", companies have begun to follow suit, in the comics superheroes have died, in "Final Crisis" Batman died, in "Civil War" Captain America was killed, and even Superman himself died in later comics, but at this time people are no longer willing to pay for the death of superheroes, do not want to be fooled by comic companies, when these heroes die people have foreseen their resurrection. The deaths of these heroes not only do not seem tragic, but they are somewhat laughable.
3. The sales boom of "Death of Superman" attracted a large number of speculative funds into the comic book market, and when sales began to show signs of decline, these speculative funds withdrew faster than when they entered, causing a collapse in American comic sales in 1994, and more than a thousand retail accounts were closed in January 1994.
4, marvel company that originally relied on the X-Men series of comics to sit on the first throne of American comics, due to the "Death of Superman" market share began to tilt to DC, and then superhuman resurrection caused the entire comic industry to further shrink the low tide of sales, coupled with the failure of Marvel management's business strategy, in 1996 Marvel company declared bankruptcy.
In 1992, DC failed to get a Marvel acquisition while it was dying, and launched "Death of Superman" to save itself.
The success of "Death of Superman" not only led to a surge in sales of Superman comics, but also brought DC back to life and led the entire comic book industry to the peak of sales.
But then a series of fan operations of dc companies not only caused a sharp decline in superhuman popularity to give up the position of a brother, but also a collapse of the entire American comic book industry, and even more caused the bankruptcy of Marvel Company.
"Death of Superman" can be described as a failed successful project launched by DC.