One of the most memorable moments in DC history is when Superman fell in battle against the unstoppable Doomsday in the pages of 1993's Superman #75 by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding. As the culmination of "The Death of Superman" story arc running through the pages of all the Superman comic book titles at the time, along with Justice League America, the very public death of the DC Universe's mightiest superhero sent shockwaves through the DCU as the world mourned the loss in their own respective ways. And while replacement heroes rose up to fill the void and defend Metropolis, the Man of Tomorrow's eventual return to the land of the living is one of the more controversial aspects of the classic story.

In the wake of Superman's death, four superheroes began to appear across Metropolis to continue the hero's mission in their own way. These included a teenage clone of Superman that was quickly dubbed Superboy, an alien being revealed to be the Eradicator, the armor-clad Steel and the villainous Cyborg-Superman. As Cyborg-Superman revealed his twisted true nature and conspired with Mongul to destroy Coast City, Superman's body was discovered to be missing from its tomb. The grief of losing his son and the shock of his corpse being stolen nearly prove to be too much for Jonathan Kent who suffered a near-fatal heart attack. Before recovering, Jonathan encountered a vision of Clark Kent's soul in the afterlife and pleaded with him to come back in Adventures of Superman #500, by Jerry Ordway and Tom Grummet.

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Superman Jonathan Kent Afterlife

Ultimately, the Eradicator was revealed to be the culprit behind Superman's grave robbery, taking the corpse with him to the Fortress of Solitude and placing it in a Kryptonian regeneration matrix. With the solar energy stored in Superman's cells perfectly preserving his body, the matrix allowed him to recover from his mortal wounds. Superman emerged from the matrix, weakened but alive, with his hair growing longer from the healing energy in 1993's Superman: The Man of Steel #25, by Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove. With Superman's powers still in flux, the resurrected superhero wore a black regeneration suit to increase the amount of solar energy channeled directly into his body as he led the attack to defeat Cyborg-Superman and Mongul to prevent them from transforming Earth into the new Warworld, regaining full use of his powers in the nick of time to save the day.

Superman wouldn't be the only superhero resurrected by the regeneration matrix, with the Justice Society of America's Starman revealing himself to be part of the Legion of Super-Heroes. After the death of Superboy during the crossover event Infinite Crisis, Starman dug up Kon-El's body and placed him in the regeneration matrix. Given Kon-El's status as a clone and the severity of the wounds he endured at the hands of the evil Superboy-Prime, it took the body until the 31st century to recover, with Superboy emerging just in time to help Superman and the Legion defeat Superboy-Prime once again before the two Kryptonians returned to their own time.

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"The Return of Superman" was regarded as somewhat notorious for the relative ease in which Superman came back to life and the overall brevity of his death, the Eradicator's use of the Kryptonian regeneration matrix restored the DCU's flagship character back on top.

The black solar suit has become a fan-favorite look for the character (even if the long hair continues to divide fans) while the story has been referenced many times since. If there was ever a superhero that could not be conquered by death, it would be Superman and, thanks to the Eradicator, the Man of Steel returned to save the day.

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