Superman & Lois: First Final Season Poster Homages Classic Superman Cover

It sure looks like Superman & Lois will tackle The Death of Superman in its final season.

By Russ Burlingame

Superman & Lois appears poised to adapt "The Death of Superman" in the series' final season, with a new poster that mirrors the cover to Superman #75 by Dan Jurgens, Brett Breeding, and Glenn Whitmore. In the image, Superman's cape is in tatters, floating in Earth orbit, reflecting his spaceborne battle with Doomsday at the end of the third season. In Superman #75, the cape was tattered and blowing in the wind in Metropolis, but the image is too similar to ignore -- especially when the introduction of Doomsday has had fans speculating about an adaptation since the end of season three.

The image was posted to Instagram, where they asked "What is a world without a Superman?" and also teased that there will be a trailer coming tomorrow. You can see the poster (and the cover for Superman #75) below.

superman-and-lois-final-season-poster.jpg
(Photo:

Superman & Lois: Season 5 poster and Superman #75 cover by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding,

- The CW/DC)

In 1992, "Doomsday!: The Death of Superman" was a multi-part story that spanned all four monthly Superman comics as well as Justice League America. In the story, a powerful being known as Doomsday appeared from out of nowhere and battled Superman across multiple states. Finally, both of them died in a final, brutal battle in front of the Daily Planet building.

The story has been adapted a few times -- first in DC's first DC Universe-branded animated movie, Superman: Doomsday. In that story, it wasn't a very close adaptation of the comics, but it did introduce the notion that Lex Luthor was tied to the creation of Doomsday. That happened again in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which also ended with Superman's death, and then there was a two-part Death and Return of Superman animated movie.

"World Without A Superman!" was the tagline not just for the "Funeral For a Friend" Storyline that followed the death of Superman, but also for a number of related comic books from around the DC Universe that told stories that spun out of Superman's death. 

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After his death, Superman was revived in Reign of the Supermen!, a story in which four other characters all tried to replace the dead Man of Steel. The four "Supermen" were John Henry Irons/Steel, a genetically-engineered Superboy, The Eradicator, and Hank Henshaw, a Cyborg Superman who proved to be the story's ultimate villain. Versions of Eradicator, Steel, and Superboy have all appeared in Superman & Lois, presumably setting up some version of Reign of the Supermen! during the fourth season. The show also used a version of Superman's black "recovery suit," which debuted in Reign of the Supermen!, as the suit for an evil Superman who killed Lois on John Henry Irons's Earth. It's hard to imagine too much of the season happening without Clark or lead actor Tyler Hoechlin, though, so it's unlikely to be a 1:1 translation of that story.

A trailer for the final season is coming tomorrow, which will presumably give us an idea of what the final season will be like.

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