Original artwork from "The Death of Superman" comic book event sells for over half a million dollars at auction.
Through Heritage Auctions, artist John Bogdanove sold both interior and cover art pages from the iconic Superman storyline. Bleeding Cool reported the various price tags that the pieces went for, which added up to about $513,000 total. The highest-winning bid alone was $204,000 for the original cover art that graces the collected storyline's trade paperback. The sale also comes while "The Death of Superman" celebrates its 30th anniversary this year in 2022.
To sum up "The Death of Superman," Superman dies -- though there is more to it. The event has become one of the most well-known stories to this day, even garnering the attention of the mainstream media at the time it was releasing. The story also introduced readers to Doomsday, who has become one of the most recognizable DC Comics villains in fans' eyes since.
"The Death of Superman" focuses on a brutal fight between the monstrous villain and the Man of Steel, and its plot has been made its way into projects beyond comics alone. In live-action, Superman's death while defeating Doomsday was very loosely adapted for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice directed by Zack Snyder. The full event was more comic-accurately adapted for the DC Animated Universe, between the films The Death of Superman (2018) and Reign of the Supermen (2019).
For the event's 30th anniversary, DC is not only aiming to kill Superman, but the whole Justice League. Written by Joshua Williamson with art by Rafa Sandoval, Justice League #75 -- titled "The Death of the Justice League" -- will kill off nine main heroes from the iconic team. Superman is one of the potential heroes on the chopping block, along with other Leaguers like Batman and Wonder Woman.
The issue arrives right before Williamson's upcoming DC event, Dark Crisis. With the Justice League gone, the legacy heroes of the DC Universe -- the Titans, Young Justice and others -- will have to step up and handle the crisis on their own. Just what exactly Dark Crisis will entail remains to be seen, though art pages released have shown that heroes like Dick Grayson/Nightwing, Wally West/The Flash and Yara Flor/Wonder Girl may play prominent roles.
Justice League #75 releases on April 26 from DC Comics. The issue is then followed by Free Comic Book Day 2022: Dark Crisis - Special Edition #0 on May 7, which serves as precursor to the event that debuts June 7.
Source: Heritage Auctions via Bleeding Cool