Superman is one of the most powerful superheroes in comics. His repertoire of powers is quite vast and his weaknesses are pretty specialized, making it hard for his foes to defeat him, let alone kill him. However, that doesn't mean that Superman is impossible to kill, as he has died on multiple worlds across the DC Multiverse.
While it may be hard for some to believe, Superman has had lots of deaths over the years, both in battle and metaphorically – ending the mantle of Superman for good. Some death were fairly brand and not worth remembering, while others were been much better and deserve their place in the sun.
10 Death Of New 52 Superman
The New 52 juggles of good and bad, and while the reputation of New 52 Superman is dicey, his death was very cool. Towards the end of his life, he had been through a lot and his powers were on the fritz. A human named Denny Swan was struck by lightning and gifted with powers like Clark, as well as delusions that he was Superman.
Superman had to battle the deluded man but was beaten at every turn, finally turning to his super flare power to beat the villain. However, the damage caught up to Superman and he died from the Kryptonite poisoning that had been afflicting him, but not before saying farewell to his friends.
9 Superman From Batman: Last Knight On Earth
Batman: Last Knight On Earth saw Batman deal with a post-apocalyptic future that had many of his friends already dead and unable to stop the villain known as Omega. Superman was one of these heroes and his death was unconventional to say the least. He and Lex got into a debate on the nature of morality and the people of Earth voted on who lost.
Superman lost and Lex was finally able to kill his hated foe. Of course, he would come to regret this as Omega may have been stopped if Superman was alive. It may not have been a big flashy death, but it was a pretty cool one nonetheless.
8 Superman: Red Son
Superman: Red Son was an Elseworlds tale that saw Superman raised in Soviet Russia and become leader of the USSR. Much like the Superman of the main Earth, he usually won, expanding the power of the Soviet Union in a fan favorite alternate universe story. Lex Luthor, the president of the US, would finally come up with a way to defeat Superman and put it into effect.
In a battle with Wonder Woman, her Amazons, and a Luthor created Green Lantern Corps, Superman would decide that the world was better off without him and fake his death, stopping a Brainiac he himself created, ending the power of the Soviet Union forever and "killing" Superman.
7 DCeased
DCeased came late in the cycle of zombie comics, but it is one of the best, seeing a zombie virus based on the Anti-Life Equation and Cyborg's technology ravage the DC Universe. Some of the biggest names got infected, including Superman. While zombies are scary, a zombie Superman is probably among the most frightening things imaginable and the surviving heroes went to great lengths to protect themselves from him. It took the entire Green Lantern Corps to even force the undead Superman to retreat, taking refuge in the sun, where he'll seemingly remain until the end of existence.
6 Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice
The DCEU has gotten a reputation for being pretty dark and the darkest it got was Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice. The movie has a reputation for being grimdark, from the acting to the action to the color palette. It also features the death of Superman at the hands of a Zod clone Doomsday created by Lex Luthor.
While this movie gets a lot of flack for some very valid reasons, the end battle is pretty well done and Superman's death works very well, using the Kryptonite spear that was meant to end his life against Doomsday, knowing that it would result in his death. It was the most Superman moment in any of the Zack Snyder DCEU movies.
5 Superman: Camelot Falls
Superman: Camelot Falls is an underrated Superman story that, among other things, shows readers a terrible alternate future. A new villain named Khyber enters the scene and marshals the world's villains into finally succeeding in their battle against the heroes. Superman attacks Khyber, but the villain throws him into the Earth so hard it causes a nuclear winter, wrecking civilization.
Thought dead, Superman returns and takes up the battle against Khyber again. He hesitates in striking the death blow and Khyber kills him. This one has it all – a great battle with huge stakes and Superman's death caused by the most Superman thing of all: not wanting to kill.
4 The Kingdom #1
Seeing Superman die is a pretty rare occurrence, but seeing him die multiple times is even rarer. In The Kingdom #1, the sequel to Kingdom Come, readers get to see the death of Superman over and over again. Gog, a human granted powers by the Quintessence, decides the best thing to do with those powers is kill Superman.
He likes doing it so much that he starts to travel throughout the timestream, killing Superman over and over again. There's something that is so cool about seeing Superman die over and over again, losing his life in battle against an implacable foe.
3 Infinite Crisis
Infinite Crisis would see the death of the original Superman, the Man of Steel of Earth-2. After spending years in a paradise dimension with his wife Lois, Superboy-Prime, and Alexander Luthor of Earth-3, he's spurred into action by the state of the DC Universe, playing right into Luthor and Prime's hands.
Eventually seeing the light, he helps defeat Luthor and Prime's plans before falling in battle with Superboy-Prime. What makes this death so great is the sheer emotion behind it. Lois had already died earlier in the book and Superman's sacrifice allowed the heroes the time they needed to defeat Prime. Dying in the arms of his niece Power Girl, it was an affecting moment to say the least.
2 "Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?"
Meant to be the end of the story of the Silver Age Superman as if Crisis On Infinite Earths wasn't happening, this Alan Moore penned story saw Superman's greatest foes banding together in an effort to destroy the Man of Steel. Eventually, the villain behind the whole thing would be revealed and Superman would defeat them using Lois's help, before using Gold Kryptonite to depower himself, walking out into the Arctic tundra surrounding the Fortress of Solitude. Of course, this wasn't the way things actually went, simply the story Lois told everyone. Clark would take on a new identity and the two would live happily ever after, Superman dead and buried in their past.
1 The Death Of Superman
The Death Of Superman is a blockbuster of epic proportions and easily Superman's best death. It's not thematically rich or anything like that – it's just a slugfest – but the story does an amazing job of creating a threat that only Superman can end and playing up the pathos of every moment.
It's just a lot of fun to read, with the final part of the story consisting entirely of splash pages, selling the action on the page in all of its epic glory. The Death of Superman wasn't a bait and switch – Superman does indeed die – and it's portrayed wonderfully, from the multi issue battle to the pulse pounding climax that sees the Man of Steel die in the arms of the woman that he loves.