The story was originally published in
Superman #423 and
Action Comics #583 (both dated September 1986). The first half of the story, published in
Superman, was billed as the comic's "Historic Last Issue" as it was retitled
The Adventures of Superman with #424.
Part 1: Superman #423 Daily Planet reporter Tim Crane interviews
Lois Lane – who has married a man named Jordan Elliott – for a story about the last days of Superman, as she is the last person to have seen him before his disappearance ten years prior. Lois explains that a period of relative peace had ensued after four of Superman's most dangerous enemies were rendered inactive;
Brainiac had been damaged beyond repair,
Lex Luthor had gone missing, and
Parasite and
Terra-Man killed each other. With no one left to fight against, Superman dedicated himself to conducting research in space. Upon returning from an expedition, Superman finds
Metropolis destroyed at the hands of
Bizarro, who until then was a well-meaning being endowed with a reversed reasoning that leads him to perform the opposite of his intentions. When Superman demands an explanation, Bizarro reveals his plan to become the "perfect imperfect duplicate": since Superman is a superhero who saves lives, Bizarro would become a villain who kills; since Superman's home planet of
Krypton was accidentally destroyed and he came to Earth as a baby, Bizarro destroyed the
Bizarro World himself and came to Earth as an adult; and since Superman is alive, Bizarro commits suicide with a piece of blue
kryptonite. Lana subdues the Kryptonite Man while Jimmy successfully shuts down the force-field generator; though the force-field mysteriously remains intact. Luthor briefly overcomes Brainiac's influence and begs Lana to kill him; she complies, snapping his neck. The Legion of Super-Villains kills Lana, while Brainiac maintains control over Luthor's corpse and murders Jimmy. A new attack on the Fortress breaches its walls, allowing the Kryptonite Man to rush in. He is ambushed and killed by Krypto, who succumbs to radiation poisoning in the process. Superman flies into a rage upon discovering Lana's death, and the Legion of Super-Villains is frightened into fleeing back to their own time. After Brainiac deactivates when Luthor's body goes into
rigor mortis, Superman realizes that not all of his old foes have yet been accounted for, and that the last one,
Mister Mxyzptlk, must be behind such bizarre events. Mxyzptlk emerges, sheds his outer facade as a "funny little man", and reveals that after hundreds of years of being merely mischievous, he had become bored and began a new villainous phase in his immortal life. As Superman and Lois flee, they suddenly realize the significance of the statue Superman received, and Superman threatens Mxyzptlk with the Phantom Zone projector. Mxyzptlk panics and says his own name backwards, which sends him back to the Fifth Dimension; at the same time, Superman activates the projector, sending Mxyzptlk into the Phantom Zone. Mxyzptlk dies as he is torn in half between dimensions. Superman, in penance for breaking his own code against killing, voluntarily enters a chamber containing a sample of gold kryptonite — which permanently strips him of his powers — and disappears into the Arctic. Although Superman's body is never found, it is assumed by all parties that the powerless hero died of exposure. After Crane concludes his interview and leaves, Lois and Jordan's son Jonathan plays with a piece of coal as the couple comment on how much Jordan prefers a normal life; this and the name of their son implies that Jordan is really the de-powered Superman. As Jonathan squeezes the coal into a diamond, Jordan winks to the reader, as he and Lois continue to "just live
happily ever after". ==Collected editions==