Superman (Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?)

"Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" is a 1986 comic book story featuring the DC Comics character of Superman. The story was published in two parts, in the final issues of the series Superman #423 and Action Comics #583'', both published in September 1986. Written by Alan Moore, pencilled by long-time Superman artist  Curt Swan, and inked by  George Pérez (Superman) and  Kurt Schaffenberger (Action), the tale incorporates the  Mort Weisinger-era style but has a distinctly modern twist. The story was intended to close the book on the original character's history subsequent to the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths and in preparation for the following The Man of Steel reboot by John Byrne, and was Swan's final major contribution to the series, though he would later occasionally return for special occasions.

Superman (vol. 1) #423
The framing device of Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? is the tale of a  Daily Planet reporter, Tim Crane, in the then-future year of 1997, paying a visit to former Planet reporter Lois Lane-Elliot, hoping that she, as the last person to have seen Superman alive, can shed some light on the mystery of the Man of Steel's disappearance ten years previous. The majority of the story is told in flashback, as Lois recounts for Crane the tale of Superman's final days.

Ten years beforehand, a period of relative peace had ensued after the majority of Superman's enemies had either died or vanished, Brainiac believed to have been destroyed two years prior, Lex Luthor going underground and The Parasite and Terra-Man having killed each other. However, upon returning from a government expedition in space, Superman is met with an unpleasant reunion of an old foe. Bizarro, historically a harmless dunce who says the opposite of what he means, changes his modus operandi to become a "perfect imperfect duplicate" of Superman, by first going on a killing spree (since Superman never kills anyone), deliberately destroying the Bizarro World and coming to Earth as an adult (since Superman's home planet of Krypton was destroyed in an accident and he was sent to Earth as a baby) and then — taking the "opposite" theme to its logical conclusion — committing suicide, via exposure to blue kryptonite (since Superman was, in fact, alive, Bizarro's twisted logic translated this into his having to be dead to be the perfect imperfect duplicate). His last words were, "Hello, Superman, hello." This darkening of intent is furthered when two famous, if minor, past nuisances of Superman's, the Toyman and the Prankster, learn of Superman's secret identity from Pete Ross, whom they have tortured and killed, and during a live TV newscast, the "fearsome funsters" launch an attack that exposes Clark Kent's secret to the world.

While this is going on, Lex Luthor is searching an unidentified snowy wasteland for the remains of Brainiac, who presumably died when his organic spaceship crashed (see Action Comics #545). Finding the android's seemingly inert head, Luthor claims it with the intent of disassembling it to learn its technology. However, he inadvertently re-activates the head, which quickly moves to take over Luthor's own body and motor functions. With the intent of avenging his own defeat at Superman's hands, Brainiac, now in full control over Luthor, moves to build a new ship and take the fight to Superman personally. Along the way, he stops to pick up the Kryptonite Man, who has also been compelled to seek out and destroy Superman.

After saving the Daily Planet staff from an assault by an army of Metallos, Superman takes his closest friends (including Lois,  Jimmy Olsen,  Lana Lang, and  Perry White and his wife Alice) to his  Fortress of Solitude for safety. Krypto even joins them here, having returned from unspecified adventures in deep space especially for the occasion. At this moment, the Legion of Super-Heroes, including the recently-deceased Supergirl (who, from an earlier point in her own lifetime was visiting the Legion in the 30th Century at the time they took this trip to her near-future), pay a visit from the far future, to bestow upon Superman a gift — a trophy of him holding the  Phantom Zone projector inscribed "HIS SUPREME HOUR" — in what is clearly, though  Brainiac 5 pointedly denies it, a token of farewell.

Action Comics #583
True to Superman's fears, by the morning Brainiac and the time-traveling Legion of Super-Villains have begun a siege on the Fortress, with Brainiac erecting a forcefield around it to prevent other heroes (including Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, and others) from interfering. In the ensuing battle, Jimmy and Lana find inside the Fortress trophies of their own past dalliances with superpowers and decide to use these artifacts to aid Superman in this standoff. Lana is able to subdue the Kryptonite Man, while Jimmy successfully shuts down Brainiac's force-field generator. During this skirmish, Luthor is able to wrest back enough control of his body to beg Lana to kill him; she complies, snapping his neck.

Unfortunately, the Legion of Super-Villains is able to determine how these two ordinary humans were able to gain superpowers, and using that knowledge, they kill Lana. Jimmy is murdered by Brainiac, who is able to temporarily maintain control of Luthor's corpse. He then notes that his force-field is still keeping the other heroes away, despite the destruction of the device generating it. A nuclear bomb, launched by Brainiac, finally breaches the walls of the Fortress. The Kryptonite Man rushes in, almost insane in his desire to see Superman "turn green and die" at his hands; Krypto, sensing the threat to his master, attacks and kills the Kryptonite Man, but succumbs to a fatal dose of Kryptonite radiation in the process.

In the end, with Brainiac finally deactivated when Luthor's body goes into rigor mortis and the Legion of Super-Villains having fled back to the future due to Superman's apparent murderous rage at the death of Lana (screaming, "You hurt LANA?!"), Superman realizes that not all of his old foes have yet been accounted for — and that the one missing name, Mxyzptlk, must be the villain behind all of this, as only he could have caused such bizarre events to occur. Sure enough, the extradimensional imp appears, with a decidedly darker color scheme and grimmer, more serious smile on his face, and claims credit for orchestrating the attacks, saying he has grown bored with simply being "mischievous" and now wants to see what it would be like to be "evil" instead. He then reveals his true form ("Did you honestly believe that a 5th Dimensional sorcerer would resemble a funny little man in a derby hat?"), a giant purple, truly five-dimensional (as Lois puts it, “I can’t describe what Mxyzptlk then became. He had height, width, depth, and a couple of other things, too.”), vaguely humanoid shape, and begins stalking Superman through the ruins of his Fortress.

With Lois' help, Superman suddenly realizes the significance of the trophy given to him by the Legion of Super-Heroes, and threatens Mxyzptlk with the Phantom Zone projector. Upon seeing this, Mxyzptlk panics and says his own name backwards, which sends him back to his own dimension — at the same instant, Superman activates the projector, sending Mxyzptlk into the Phantom Zone. Torn in two between dimensions, Mxyzptlk dies with a horrific scream. Since he has broken his own code never to kill, Superman, in penance, voluntarily enters a chamber containing a sample of Gold Kryptonite (which would permanently strip him of his powers), and disappears into the  Arctic wasteland. When the other heroes enter the remains of the Fortress, they find only Perry White, his wife, and Lois still alive. Superman's body is never found, and it is assumed by all parties that he wandered into the Arctic wasteland, powerless, to die.

After the interview is over and Crane leaves the Elliot residence, it is indirectly revealed that the mechanic Jordan Elliot, Lois' husband, is in fact Superman himself — apparently now without powers and living the life of a typical  working-class  suburbanite with Lois and their son Jonathan (very likely named after Jonathan Kent) — meaning he did not in fact die in the Arctic, although exactly how he did survive is never revealed. He seems to prefer the life of a normal man, finding great pleasure in his job as a car mechanic and stating, "Superman was overrated. Too wrapped up in himself. Thought the world couldn't get along without him." At his feet, his son Jonathan playfully squeezes the coal in his hand. Opening it he stares gleefully at a large, glimmering diamond. The final image is of Jordan delivering a classic "Superman" wink to the reader, as he and Lois continue to "just live happily ever after."

Allusions

 * Superman's new identity pays homage to both of his fathers; not only is Jonathan, his son with Lois, named after his adoptive father (Jonathan Kent), but his own new name, Jordan Elliot, hearkens back to Jor-El, the name of Kal-El's  Kryptonian birth father.
 * In the Superman/Batman comic book series, an older Superman from a future timeline appears wearing the same costume that Superman wore in Kingdom Come. In 2005, at the closing moments of the "Absolute Power" arc in Superman/Batman, with the intervention of Metron, the future Superman manages to change the timestream and with it, he becomes Jordan Elliot, ready to live happily ever after.
 * The story's name is a reference to the backup stories published in DC Comics Presents from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s, which revisited various long-unused Golden Age and Silver Age characters; these stories were all titled "Whatever Happened to (x)?"
 * When originally published, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? was presented as if it were indeed the last Superman story - because, as far as the Silver Age version of the character was concerned, it was precisely that. The first half of the story, published in Superman (vol. 1) issue #423, was even billed as that magazine's "Historic Last Issue" (which was accurate in a sense, as that magazine would be retitled Adventures of Superman effective with issue #424, but subsequently retitled back to its original title Superman with issue #650 in 2006, after the Infinite Crisis story arc). A second series, Superman Vol 2, was published during this duration, but it too was canceled with issue #226 (April 2006) after the events of Infinite Crisis.
 * Regardless of DC's editorial intentions, this "final" Superman story was presented by DC as being an "Imaginary Story", a Silver Age convention, revived especially for this occasion, that served to tell "What If?" stories that would have been considered series-killers if they were to happen in the "real" continuity of the comic. Thus, it is debatable whether or not this story should be considered canonical with the Superman series as it existed pre-Man of Steel reboot.
 * The story opens with a brief legend that ends thus: "This is an Imaginary Story... Aren't they all?" The legend is a triple entendre:


 * 1) It could be interpreted that the story is non-canonical.
 * 2) It could be interpreted that the story is canonical, since all comic books are "imaginary stories", so it is as valid as any "official" Superman comic.
 * 3) It could be interpreted that the story is canonical, but only for this incarnation of Superman, as the upcoming John Byrne reboot would render the earlier series as "imaginary".
 * 4) It could be interpreted that the story is the end of the  Earth-One Superman had the Crisis on Infinite Earths never happened.

Collected editions
The story was originally reprinted in 1997, in trade paperback format. In 2006, DC pulled the original trade paperback from the market and inserted it, along with Batman: The Killing Joke, into a revised edition of Across the Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore (now titled DC Universe: the Stories of Alan Moore). The initial printing of this collection omitted the introduction essay at the start of the story, though this was corrected with later printings of the collection.

In 2009, DC Comics has announced that they will be re-releasing the story again as a stand-alone hardcover. The new version will collect the original story as well as additional Alan Moore penned Superman material: Superman Annual #11 (featuring the classic "For the Man Who Has Everything" story) and DC Comics Presents #84, which features a team-up between Superman and Swamp Thing.


 * Superman: "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" (trade paperback, 47 pages, 1997, DC Comics, ISBN 1-56389-315-0)
 *  DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore (trade paperback, 2006, Titan ISBN 1-84576-257-6 DC ISBN 1-4012-0927-0)
 * Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? Deluxe Edition Hardcover trade paperback. Released on July 8, 2009.