Base-Breaking Character: Doomsday tends to be seen as either one of Superman's greatest villains or one of his all-time worst villains. The sheer impact he had on the franchise, his intimidating design, his awe-inspiring power, and his frequent use in other material has earned him a strong following, but just as many fans see him as an incredibly dull and lazily-written character who didn't deserve to be the one who killed Superman and whose continued prevalence only further shows his flaws.
Franchise Original Sin: This story is the Trope Codifier for the modern overuse of Death Is Cheap in comic books: a story in which the major superhero of the DC universe dies and is brought back over the course of a major storyline. However, back then, killing Superman was actually shocking to the audience because it hadn't been done to death yet (previous examples were rare and usually not planned), created immense Emotional Torque, and the Reign of the Supermen was a brilliant takedown of the '90s Anti-Hero. It's still a classic of comic book storytelling and a point of light in The Dark Age of Comic Books, but it also set such a trend for future Character Deaths that the comic book afterlife had to have a revolving door installed.
Part of the reason that this comic was so important was that, for better or for worse, writers realized that they could kill off a major character and just bring them back later. Starting with this, Death Is Cheap has become so prevalent in comics that it's almost impossible to take any death seriously.
It's worth noting that NO ONE familiar with the Superhero genre expected Superman to stay dead. Even back then people would tell you that only Uncle Ben, Bucky Barnes, and Jason Todd stayed dead in comics (which was true until 2005, when Barnes returned as the Winter Soldier and Todd returned as Red Hood — Uncle Ben is still dead, though). What "Death of Superman" started was killing off/resurrecting heroes for shock value to generate sales. Before this story, superheroes died and came back plentynote Including Superman himself, who was often killed off in imaginary stories., but rarely with much fanfare outside of their own titles. After this story it began to happen far more often, and always with huge marketing pushes to make sure you knew it was going to happen.
At the end of the Justice League America tie-in to "Funeral for a Friend," Booster Gold sits by the comatose Blue Beetle's hospital bed and prays for his recovery after seeing the other heroes all paying tribute to Superman, hoping he won't have to go through another hero's death immediately after, especially if it's his best friend. 13 years later Booster really would end up mourning Blue Beetle after Max Lord put a bullet through Beetle's skull in Countdown to Infinite Crisis.
The Toyman's appearance during "Funeral for a Friend" where he's shown to be mourning Superman's death by noting how he always looked out for kids, in light of his next appearance shortly after the whole "Death of Superman" saga ended which controversially re-imagined him into an Ax-Crazy child murderer.
During "Reign of the Superman" a fan commented in his letter that "It's amazing how far comics have come in twenty years. Then Doomsday would have been some monster thrown from Krypton or something". When Doomsday's origin was eventually revealed in Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey, it turned out comics actually hadn't changed that much.
During his fight with Doomsday, Superman muses that he would suspect Luthor was responsible for creating Doomsday if he were still alive. Sure enough, Luthor ended up being the one who created Doomsday in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
During Adventures of Superman #502 Luthor comments on how he and Superboy are more alike than he thinks. Guess who Superboy later turns out to have part of his DNA cloned from in addition to Superman?
Like You Would Really Do It: As Max Landis "educational parody film" The Death and Return of Superman explains, comic book readers at the time really did believe Superman was gone for good. At the time, death wasn't something focused on in comic books, especially the main characters dying. As such, when The Cape himself died, it was a big thing for both readers and people who didn't even bother reading comics. However, in hindsight the idea that one of DC's most popular heroes and de factoMascot would really be Killed Off for Real seems ridiculous. Also, after Superman's death and resurrection, every comic book with a dead character decided that it would be equally cool to have them return, until the concept of Character Death in comics was so inherently cheapened that He's Just Hiding became the constant response any time a popular character died.
Max Landis: The Sacred Suspension of Disbelief, as far as death, had ended. 'Death of Superman' didn't kill Superman. It killed death.
Moral Event Horizon: The destruction of Coast City. Mongul and Cyborg Superman killed seven million people.
Once Original, Now Common: Because of the "Death Is Cheap" trope (whose former Trope Namer is "Comic Book Death"), this story is hard to take seriously today. However, it's believed to be the Trope MakerforDeath Is Cheap, so at the time it was a big deal. Heck, it made the nightly news, at a time when Comic Books were believed to be culturally irrelevant.
Signature Scene: The image of Superman's torn cape snagged on debris, fluttering in the wind like a macabre flag. In-universe, it was a picture snapped by Jimmy Olsen, and regarded as important an image as the flag raising at Iwo Jima. Out-of-universe, it is the defining image of this story, included in almost every single adaptation of it (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice a notable exception, although an altered version would later be used to promote Zack Snyder's Justice League), and is likely to make many a Superman fan at least a little misty-eyed.
Lois Lane. Watching the man she loves fighting and dying while still determined to recording the fight is hard enough, but what made her cross into this territory is that, unlike the other heroes and civilians, she is both completely powerless to do anything and, in this storyline, knows both Superman and Clark Kent. While the story's focus is on actions, poor Lois's grief and pain is detailed very clearly, especially with the four new Superman who crop up later in the story.
Lana Lang, the Kents and Supergirl were also this, as they had to keep secret Superman's real identity after he died. Superman was known to be dead, but Clark wasn't. Lois counts doubly due to this - she had to pretend Clark may still be alive to preserve the secret, while knowing full well he is dead and gone.
Jimmy Olsen also deserves a mention as to him he has lost both of his pals and has to watch one of his closest friends grieve.
Although Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman refer to Doomsday as a mindless killing machine, the monster displays a few moments of It Can Think. It fights in a more tactical manner against Superman, most notable when it tries to strangle him with his own cape. This implies that Doomsday is in fact a sadistic entity who enjoys the suffering of others.
After beating Superman to a pulp, Lois stands up to Doomsday. Doomsday's lack of passion as it attempts to kill her could be seen as showing Lois a degree of respect by giving her a warrior's death.
Ending Fatigue: Similar to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the film goes on for several minutes after the death of Superman. Both essentially compress Funeral For A Friend into the denouement of Death, as Funeral isn't "meaty" enough to stand as its own, separate story.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Despite initially being released the previous year, The Death of Superman got its theatrical debut in January, 2019, mere days before the release of Dragon Ball Super: Broly. As if the Fandom Rivalry between Superman and Goku fans wasn't usually intense enough, the two films feature relaunches of earlier films and sell themselves by way of their villains, Doomsday and Broly, a pair of Unstoppable Rage, Power Of Hate-fueled savages.
Memetic Badass: Outside of Plot Armor, Lois Lane is considered this due to being in close proximity of Superman's final attack, which was strong enough to snap Doomsday's neck and produce a powerful shockwave that affected the entire city. Jokes that the real reason she stopped throwing a second rock is to avoid destroying the Earth or would have killed Doomsday popped up like weeds in the comments.
Pandering to the Base: Superman enters the opening scene delivering as many quips as possible within the space of a few minutes. It comes across like DC Animated is trying to simultaneously appeal to the Marvel Cinematic Universe crowd and distance themselves from their live-action counterparts.
Slow-Paced Beginning: The movie does take awhile to really get going with the first half establishing the current status quo, Clark's struggling how to tell Lois about his Superman identity and Doomsday's arrival on Earth.
Suspiciously Similar Song: The music when Superman saves Wonder Woman has the similar beats as the MCU Avengers theme.
Tainted by the Preview: The fact that this adaptation takes place in the New 52 styled universe, and the apparent dropping of Wonder Woman and Superman as a couple, has been a bit contentious, due to how Lois has had very little screentime and thus development within the films. Some people also weren't fond of the decision to do another version of the Death of Superman storyline, as the movies had already done it before (as the very first film, no less), with Superman: Doomsday.
The New 52 styling of the two-part animated film has received public indignation from fans who expected a more comic-accurate adaptation.
Though to a lesser extent, the fact that Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, and John Henry Irons had been recast, just for the sake of having bigger names attached to the project, is also a bit divisive. While Rebecca Romijn (Lois) gets the least flack since she's the wife of Jerry O'Connell (Superman), Luthor and Irons' voice actors get more flack.
Tough Act to Follow: The film is generally considered one of the best in the DC Animated Movie Universe, due to its great action scenes, much more likable depictions of Superman and Lois Lane, and offering a fresh take on the comic book classic while still being rather faithful to it. In comparison, its direct sequel was much more polarizing, with many fans claiming that it failed to reach the standards set by its predecessor. As a result, it grossed less than a third of this film's gross totals.
explains, comic book readers at the time really did believe Superman was gone for good. At the time, death wasn't something focused on in comic books, especially the main characters dying. As such, when The Cape himself died, it was a big thing for both readers and people who didn't even bother reading comics. However, in hindsight the idea that one of DC's most popular heroes and de facto Mascot would really be Killed Off for Real seems ridiculous. Also, after Superman's death and resurrection, every comic book with a dead character decided that it would be equally cool to have them return, until the concept of Character Death in comics was so inherently cheapened that He's Just Hiding became the constant response any time a popular character died.Max Landis: The Sacred Suspension of Disbelief, as far as death, had ended. 'Death of Superman' didn't kill Superman. It killed death.