I think that two separate rumours are being conflated here.  I did hear that the Superman offices intended to marry Clark and Lois earlier than they eventually did - perhaps planning to unite them around 1995/early 1996 or so - but held off until the pair got married on the show in 1996.  I never heard any rumours about synchronizing the marriage before then however.  I think what's being recalled here is a decision to keep Clark and Lois as single as the comics could enable them to be (that is, engaged but single) to more closely align with the show where they'd be single, albeit unattached, so that viewers of the show would find a status quo more recognizable to them than having them married would present.

As for the reasoning behind killing Superman...

Once the death hits, DC will throw one gimmick after another at the character which, I think, is partly why Superman found himself synonymous with cheap sales stunts.  The Return of Superman!  The Death of Clark Kent!  Electric Superman!  Electric Superman-Red/Electric Superman-Blue!  The Wedding Album!  Sure, it started with Marvel and bled over to Image, but from I recall (and my memory might be faulty) Superman just seemed to revisit that well if not more frequently, then at least more obviously than those who had beaten him to the punch.

In fact, although Shaxper has done an outstanding job of establishing (or at least thoroughly convincing me) that DC's Impact! line was the company's real last attempt to avoid succumbing to the temptation to give into the speculator's market of the era by simply telling strong, compelling stories with innovative characters, I can't help but wonder if to Carlin and company, The Death of Superman was just a continuation down the road they had begun to pave with Superman #50 where the man of steel proposes to Lois.

The proposal, as Shaxper pointed out in his review of the issue, seemed to come from nowhere.  I remember a big to-do being made about Lois finally learning the identity a few issues later in Action Comics (admittedly, a story they had no choice but to tell once the proposal was made and accepted) and then two issues after that, we get the death of Luthor.  No polybags, no multiple covers, no foil enhancements were involved (Superman #50 got a second printing, but that was it, I think) so it doesn't real feel like the start of a trend, but it could be that that "We have to come up with a fantastic gimmick that people will HAVE to buy!" mentality was already in effect.  

I remember hearing Mike Carlin claim that the response to the announcement of Superman's death took him completely by surprise - a statement which I always found hard to believe.  How can killing Superman not be anything but a major story?  But seen in this light - the proposal, the revelation, the death of Luthor not setting the charts on fire - I can kind of see it. 

Carlin has also recounted being confronted by reporters asking why he was killing Superman and responding, "Because you stopped buying him".  I think that if you're announcing that you really expect 40 year old journalists to be buying comic books you're clearly illustrating a misunderstanding of who your target audience should be, but I think his statement suggests a flailing level of desperation borne out of repeated failures to really move sales the way he had been hoping to.

There are still retailers in my area with entire long boxes of Image's Tribe #1. I don't think we can blame the retailers for giving people what they were demanding. I remember my LCS putting limits on numbers of copies of key books that individuals could buy when the investor surge first began in 1990. In the end, those customers went somewhere else. He closed shop a year later, right when sales from speculation were going through the roof.

Where I'm lost is how this is especially DC and the Superman Office's fault. They tried it every other way, but the only way to stay alive was to give people cheap sales stunts. At least the stories within were still quality (which is more than could be said of what other comanies were churning out at the time!).

The retailers were the ones guilty of over-ordering, though. It would have been a different story if they were selling every copy they bought. The sales figures we have from the distributors are pre-orders not actual sales. That was part of the reason why Marvel's share price took a hit when that newspaper article mentioned that there were a lot of unsold copies of X-Men #1. I'm not saying the retailers were entirely to blame, but they became just as intoxicated with the sales as the comic book companies were. 

Adventures of Superman #493 (August 1992)



"Sibling Rivalry"
Script: Jerry Ordway
Pencils: Tom Grummett
Inks: Doug Hazlewood
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Albert DeGuzman

Grade: B


The Superman Office may be in the process of planning The Death of Superman as a means of winning back casual readers, but The Blaze/Satanus storyline feels like it's being done strictly for the loyal fans. No catchy name to this event because the name "Blaze" is supposed to sell it all its own; Blaze being the enigmatic Post-Crisis Superman villain who has now appeared in two previous storylines (a significant while back; see here and here) without us learning much of anything about her beyond 1) she's not actually The Devil, and 2) she collects souls. Personally, I never found that premise at all compelling, but the Superman Office seems to be betting this storyline on the idea that loyal fans will feel differently.

How do I know?

We get (no exaggeration) a four page recap of everything we learned about Blaze last week in Superman #70 (which is still on sale). So the intended audience is folks who know/care who Blaze is and who haven't been reading lately. Essentially, bring back the loyal readers they lost with a surgical strike before trying to bring back everyone with a nuclear bomb. Too bad comichron carries no data from the second half of 1992; no empirical way to know whether or not it worked.

I can't say I'm too invested in the plot at this point:



though isn't Satanus supposed to be after Superman's soul? Why does he seem like the good guy in this issue?


And the potential return of Jerry White (the guy everyone loved to hate, who was not only killed and pronounced dead, but ALSO had his soul carried to the afterlife way back in Adventures of Superman #470 so that there was no way he could ever be brought back) certainly doesn't make me happy.



More proof this issue was catering to older fans, by the way! When was the last time anyone in these titles even muttered the name "Jerry White"? Maybe Perry and Alice in passing while on their cruise at the start of "1991"?

Anyway, despite a lot about this issue not working yet, Ordway is positively on fire with his unique brand of deadpan, absurd humor. The bad guys are an utter riot:







even if Grummett's art doesn't really do anything to add to it.


I also like the more casual humor Ordway splices into the Daily Planet banter, once more helping to make this world feel very real and enticing to us; a sort of family.



...except pooor token minority character Ron Troupe doesn't seem to be a part of it. Literally every bland, character-less comment he makes seems to irk our main cast into detesting him:



Like, what the hell? If you're going to force a token minority character on to the cast, can't you at least make him likeable and liked? Is this going somewhere? Will Ron eventually find some meaningful way to ingratiate himself to them?


The Ron hatefest continues, but so does Ordway's exploration of the otherwise rich Daily Planet culture and Post-Crisis history, especially as various staff members react differently to hearing that Sam Foswell is back on his feet at a rival paper:




Offbeat humor, tight continuity, and true camradery (except for poor Ron Troupe!) -- that's Jerry Ordway for you.




Minor Details:

1. I'm still struggling with how Clark can be so unsure that his neighbor, Andrea is being abused.



He must still be sleeping at his own apartment some nights. Otherwise, why keep it, and why go back there to change clothing (as he's clearly just done), so how the hell is he not hearing this happening only a few doors away? And where's that super intellect he's supposed to have? It seems clear that it's more an issue of Clark not wanting to believe she is being abused, despite all the evidence staring him in the face. Heck, why wouldn't both a reporter and a costumed superhero committed to the public good not want more information on a mugging incident involving someone close to them? I'm hoping Clark's stubborn unwillingness to see the truth will ultimately be the point and not just a flaw in storytelling. Still, he's the living embodiment of goodness and wholesomeness. It truly bothers me that he's failing to right this wrong.


2. Going along with things that bother me, Grummet's recap depiction of last issue now has Blaze (posing as a guardian angel) deep-kissing Sam Foswell, which was never suggested when the encounter actually happened. That story depicted Sam as a grieving widow, still visiting his wife's grave to talk, and attempting to kill himself because he couldn't handle life without her and their child. Having a sexy guardian angel make out with him, and having Sam not be bothered by this, feels wrong. Sam may be a lonely old man, but he's presumably lonely because he is committed to the memory of his wife.


3. Titano's Pizza (first seen in Adventures of Superman #487) is back as both a running gag and a potential storyline for Jimmy, who is suddenly making a career out of being Turtle Boy in commercials for the place. The adorable Pre-Crisis references aside, I'm left wondering if this is going to be the next Big Belly Burger, or if it's supposed to be more of a mom and pop operation. After all, this guy seems to be the owner:



suggesting that this is not a corporate chain, but then how is Jimmy becoming a star from the commercials they are running? I'd imagine a single pizza shop running commercials would only have the funds and interest to do it on local channels. That shouldn't warrant Jimmy a substantial income nor adoring fans:



I so wanted that Ninja Turtles joke to be more clever.





All in all, a fun issue that does a lot right, even if the main plot isn't doing anything to keep me interested right now.

Action Comics #680 (August 1992)



"Payment Due"
Script: Roger Stern
Pencils: Butch Guice
Inks: Denis Rodier
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Bill Oakley

Grade: B-


More of Superman, Lois, and Jimmy fighting off an office building full of demons, except Ordway's humor is missing this time around, leaving us with little more than a slugfest. This would seem appropriate for a book called ACTION comics, except that Guice is still figuring out his style at this point. What made his work on this title striking thus far has been his use of models and/or photo referencing for an unmistakable real-world feel, but that doesn't lend itself well to surreal action sequences:






However, he makes up for it with some truly striking panel arrangements:



It's not ACTION, exactly, but it keeps the eye moving and feels very much like the layouts Liefeld and the like are beginning to churn out over at Malibu/Image:



from Youngblood #2, published only two months earlier.

LOTS of dialogue conveyed across a few striking, busy visuals instead of trying to show every moment of the scene.


It's therefore more than a little confusing why Carlin is still going with Art Thibert covers, which hide all the visual gold happening within this particular title. If visuals are what's selling books in 1992, they need Guise on covers.

And, by the way, if you asked me to thumbnail a panel in which Supergirl tries to push past an invisible energy barrier and gave me a hundred years to consider it and try it from every possible angle, I still probably wouldn't have come up with this totally unique approach:



WOW, Guise is something else.


As for the writing, I feel like Stern phoned this one in. For example, we've established that the building is crawling with demons, attacking from all sides, and Satanus blasts his firebolt in a single direction.



Superman initially assumes he killed Lois and Jimmy, realizes he was mistaken, and then there is a sudden break in the fighting that last for two pages, during which all necessary information gets delivered and Superman and Lois hug in a way that's got to leave Jimmy wondering about some things.



So...all the other demons just stopped attacking for no particular reason? Coffee break? When the fighting resumes, there's similarly no explanation for it. Coffee break over.


Additionally, Stern's character voices serve the plot without any concern for consistency. Take Satanus, a character we are still trying to figure out: Sometimes his dialect is downright biblical, sometimes it's conventional, and sometimes he uses playful 1990's humor like he watches American sitcoms.




Similarly, Sam Foswell starts talking like a generic villain immediately after Blaze transforms him into a super demon:



I can't imagine Foswell talking like that in his wildest fantasies.


Then you've got basic plot inconsistencies. For example, the entire conflict between Satanus and Superman began last issue when Satanus heavily implied that the only way to stop Blaze's demons was to kill Foswell. Now he's arbitrarily changed his mind:



And whereas Blaze clearly indicated two issues back that Satanus was here because he was after Superman's soul, we've apparently forgotten about that entirely:



So the very little plot we've been given thus far is already twice contradicted.


All in all, we probably didn't need this issue at all. Superman and Satanus deciding they're on the same side for now, Foswell being turned into a monster, Supergirl deciding to help out, and Satanus transporting them and the Newstime building to another dimension all could have been done in two pages instead of twenty-two. Fortunately, it's somewhat entertaining, and Guise's artwork (mostly) makes up for whatever else was lacking here.



Minor Details:

- Satanus once ruled Blaze's dimension but was overthrown by her.

- Supergirl still has conflicted loyalty to both Superman and Lex Luthor:

Agreed.

My hope is that this is deliberate and part of the point: we all turn a blind eye to domestic abuse, allowing it to continue. After all, Clark and the Daily Planet staff ignored all the evidence that Alice the intern was homeless two years back, and that had been the point then, too. Even smart, good people fail to notice issues that are right in front of them, and that needs to change.

But, again, it's just my hope that this is where it's going. Could well just be lazy writing.

Bogdanove's cover is an homage to the splash page of Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2 which, I suppose, only helps to support your argument that the Superman titles didn't exactly have their finger on the pulse of what 1992 audiences wanted. 



Since the whole point of an homage is that it is recognized as an homage, it's strange that Bogdanove tipped his hat to, well, a splash page which I can't imagine that most readers would have recognized - it's not exactly an homage to Amazing Fantasy #15.  Weirder still to me is the fact that Bogdanove is only copying parts of the background, Spider-Man's legs, and left arm. Even side-by-side, the similarities aren't immediately noticeable (to me, at least). 

Any cover by Ditko, any of those glorious splash pages used in the first annual with The Sinister Six, Spidey lifting that machinery in issue #33 - an homage to any of those and I'd understand, but page two of that annual where Spider-Man teams up with Dr. Strange?  I don't know...  



"Simonson and Bogdanove are still turning in crap like this? Ridiculous."


"Have The Rolling Stones killed."

"But, Sir, those aren't-"

"DO AS I SAY!!!"


I'd personally cut Bogdanove a bit of slack for the fact that Kerry Gammil and Keith Giffen drew this issue, but if you think I'm going too easy on the guy, you let me know.


"We're still teasing the return of Jerry White."

Had Jerry White not died, I think the writers could have gotten some mileage out of Lex Luthor's plan to reclaim his empire by posing as his own son hitting a possible snag when people start hearing rumours that Perry White's kid might actually biologically be Luthor's.  Not that things would have turned out differently in the end, but it may have made for some pretty interesting subplots where Perry White doesn't want his wife's infidelity becoming public knowledge, but still wants what's best for Jerry, while Luthor has to decide if he's ruthless enough to steamroll over his own son, while Jerry... etc, etc.