Superman - The Death and Life of (Roger Stern, 1994)

Roger Stern, being a narrative veteran in the vast plethora of the Comics Realm, plunges us into the amazing situations around the cosmopolitan city of Metropolis, his super hero Superman, and the fast paced circumstances leading to his (apparently impossible) untimely death in 1992.
The story begins with a brief background of Superman (and other super-beings involved), including his arrival on Earth, his life, loves, and escalates to his death at the hands of the creature called Doomsday. The greater part of the book focuses on the time right after his death, where several impostors try to re-live his name by taking justice and the world's safety into their varied-visioned and twist-goaled hands. Where did these other self proclaimed Supermen come from? Did Superman really die? How did he come back to life and bring back order in that tumult of Super-men chaos? Topped with intense emotional conflicts amongst the people who love and miss (Superman's secret identity)Clark Kent, we immerse ourselves in a journey of discovering family, friendship and romantic values that only a great loss can unveil. These are all topics easily read and answered in the action-filled plot of heroism and suspense. While entertaining, the writing is mildly slow at times. Stern has done a great job in filling in the "narrative" blanks not relevant in comics and having us care (or not care and actually skimming through the parts) for characters that surely are not portrayed in the Action Comics, giving it the Novelesque flavor needed for a book. Although adapting comic dialogs to a narrative can prove tedious or cheesy, rendering them unrealistic, full of stereotypes, and very dated, not to mention the "cringe worthiness" of the many one-liners, the author sure managed compensating well with vivid descriptions and colorful action sequences. Although it keeps the reader at a "safe distance" from the whole plot to feel Real, taken into account that Super beings with Super powers exist in a Mega metropolis, it did it's job in translating the graphic novel into a narrative easily read prose.