May I present to the superman death community, nuclear semiotics
Something happens right. Some major disaster involving Superman, it’s only a matter of time before something like this happens. Doesn’t matter what it is, it could be big or small, depends on what “major” means, but what matters is that it happens. And nobody can change it. The world leaders were all suspicious of him already, he’s not from here, he’s dangerous, what if Something Happens? Maybe some of them hope something will happen. They wait for him to slip up and Something does happen because Superman is super and all but he’s not perfect. It doesn’t matter if he makes a mistake, what matters is that they decide, he’s gotta go.
Superman doesn’t get a say, but he understands where their minds are at and he doesn’t fight their decision. It’s a hard one to make and still, some people are on the fence about it. He’s done so much for humanity, isn’t there a chance that maybe he made a mistake? Does one bad thing cancel out all the good?
But Superman tries to ease them and their worries. It’s okay, he’s proven he’s too dangerous to be kept alive. He’s done so much good, but he has the capacity to cause destruction on an incomprehensible scale, it’s not worth it to keep him alive. The world can learn by example, the good he’s done, and do it to others without him having to carry the world on his shoulders. It’s not right to have an entire species rely on him anyway.
So for the greater good, they kill him. (Not before studying him though. They study all of him, map him inside and out before they put him out of his misery.) That’s what was always going to happen, and it’s easy, because the best minds on Earth already thought up a thousand ways to go about this very thing. But he’s as dangerous as he was when he was alive. Thousands of years in the future he’ll still be dangerous and they need to come up with a way to warn the future generations of this thing. Of what, specifically? He’s not made of Kryptonite, and so far, studies show that Kryptonite has little to no effect on the human body. It doesn’t matter. Studies can be wrong, and if not the Kryptonite, then his body. Something about Kryptonian biology and how his body breaks down. If not that, then his values. What he stands for. It doesn’t matter. If enough people say it’s dangerous, that’s what it is. It doesn’t matter.
They purge the media of anything that portrays him in a positive light, it’ll be easier for the future if they manipulate the narrative now. The good that he’s done… that’s good and all, but what he did was unforgivable, that takes precedent over everything else, or so says the ones in charge. They turn his symbol of hope into a symbol of fear, it gets slapped on the container of every piece of Kryptonite that gets found, on the entrances to his gravesite, deep beneath the Earth somewhere so far away from civilization that it’s impossible to happen across it. Back in civilization, there’s outrage, rumors of conspiracy, how can that big blue boy scout be the monster that everyone is suddenly saying he is? Where’d he go, anyway? People can speculate all they want, but when theory is relegated to forums and conversation starters, how is it not possible to believe what seemingly everyone (whose opinions matter) is saying?
Eventually, word gets out that Superman was killed. No, he died. It was for the best, and the media agrees, and the people of Earth aren’t a monolith but maybe they should agree too. It’s easier than the alternative. And secretly, some people do regret what they did. The people who speak out disappear, but people still think. His executioners, those still alive, are kept up at night. Does he deserve all of this based on a “what if?” What’s done is done, and they all have to live with the consequences of their actions. Looking back on what he did, it… really wasn’t much of anything at all. It was most likely a mistake, but did it warrant this? A forest of jagged spikes in the middle of nowhere, messages translated into every written language warning untimely visitors of the dangers to be found if they venture further, telling them that, this place is not a place of honor, that no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here, that nothing valued is here. Is this really what Superman deserved?















