Short History of Superheroes

story it really needs to have a great hook and an even better reason to attempt it.’

It had long been a problem for superhero comics that the escalation of powers in both heroes and villains never seemed to reach a conclusion. The heroes always had to win, but each time they had to be matched against a ‘worthy’ opponent. What both the Death of Superman and the following Batman KnightSaga dared to do was play out the consequences if the villains were to win. This required new villains (Doomsday for Superman, Bane for Batman) capable of defeating the superheroes. The implications of such a move were that subsequent books would have to ‘realistically’ follow through on the after-effects, otherwise they’d prove as pointless and affectless as the many battles of the past. The closure of the Superman line for a while was the logical result of the removal of the main character. The Death of Superman had been a risk, but DC editors knew that something significant was required to shake up superhero comics. The problem thereafter was that killing off a superhero became a crutch for floundering books, and readers now knew it was unlikely to last. However, the effect of Bane on Batman would not be quite the same, as the story would have major implications for the future of both the Caped Crusader and Bruce Wayne.

Batman: Knightfall was the Dark Knight’s equivalent to the Death of Superman, a year-long, editorially driven, impactful event that also served as a publicity hook. Running from April 1993 through to August 1994, the Knightfall saga comprised three story arcs 267