Not so long ago, before the Justice League film and well after Doomsday’s first rampage, Superman died in battle and had to be revived by Wonder Woman‘s ingenuity. Superman’s most famous death was the comics event of 1992, cinematically retold in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Meanwhile, in the pages of Justice League of America, Wonder Woman applied her godly powers and a little magical thinking to undo Superman’s untimely passing.
In the ”Power and Glory” storyline from writer-artist Bryan Hitch, DC’s finest heroes are locked in battle with the Kryptonian sun deity Rao, who has all the yellow-sun-enabled Kryptonian powers on top of being a virtual god. Naturally, it takes a concerted effort by the League’s science- and magic-based heroes to oppose him. In the climax of Justice League of America #8 (2016), after a colossal exchange of force, Superman falls. Wonder Woman examines his body and utters with finality, “He’s dead.”
Click the button below to start this article in quick view.
When we return to the scene in Justice League of America #9, Wonder Woman is attempting mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and chest compressions, to no avail. Fortunately, Diana came equipped with her robust array of magical weapons and divine instruments, including the spear-like Lightning Bolt of Zeus. She uses Zeus’ weapon to summon a truly massive torrent of magic lightning upon Superman’s body. The key word here is “magic,” since magic is traditionally able to circumvent Superman’s invulnerable physiology, allowing unlikely miracles to happen.
The divine defibrillation succeeds, kickstarting Kal-El’s heart back into action. Readers of the Death of Superman will remember a similar scene following Superman’s death at Doomsday’s hand, with Guardian and other high-tech denizens of Metropolis trying unsuccessfully to revive their local hero with superhuman strength and shock cannons. As far as Superman’s sensitivity goes, the magical aspect makes all the difference, even in emergency medicine applications.
Wonder Woman’s heart-shocking trick aligns nicely with the moments when Shazam (née Captain Marvel) used his transformative lightning bolt as a weapon against Superman, e.g. the last issue of Kingdom Come. “The power of Zeus” part of Shazam’s skillset presumably derives from the same mystical-electrical stuff as the actual Lightning Bolt of Zeus which Diana carries around, so (by DC mythos standards) it makes a kind of sense that Zeus-sourced electricity could behave with both positive and negative effect towards Superman. Also, considering the fact that Superman has that rare body capable of surviving Wonder Woman‘s CPR, the sequence ends up being one of the most well-reasoned undoings of death in recent comic book history.
