I guess. I just feel that it's a little too meta to be a legit argument. I mean, Superman can't be killed because he's Superman. It's a round-about, but very accurate statement. The Man of Steel embodies an unquenchable hope for the future. It wouldn't be a very good symbol if you could actually kill it. I just feel that that is a little too abstract in a super powers vs. super-powers debate. You can gauge how strong he is, how invincible, what weaknesses and so on and compare them to other characters, it gets really fuzzy when you start adding in things that aren't really powers per say, but are more a willing suspension of disbelief on the part of the audience. In all reality, Superman can be killed, permanently. Kryptonite can kill Superman. Other Kryptonians can as well, which is an extension of the first weakness. That's point of having an achillie's heel after all. Wouldn't be much of a weakness if it wasn't lethal. But no author would dare kill off Superman permanently because that would mean the deconstruction of a symbol a company spent decades building up. So they wrote around it and brought him back in a way that suggests he's unkillable, but really they're never ever going to kill Superman again. That was a one-shot story arc. You don't get to do that twice. So it becomes more of an informed power than a real one.
Or maybe I'm reading too much into this. Really, you're right. I can't think of anyone else that has come back without having to resort to weird continuity re-writes. And since no writer has tried to kill Superman since, I don't know if he would just come back of not. I just feel it was written as more of a one shot deal. Superman failed ONCE. And then he came back from the dead to set things right. It's implied that he will never let himself fail in such a way ever again. And functionally, he hasn't since they haven't written Death and Return of Superman 2: The Read-Deadening (thank God)
Or maybe I'm reading too much into this. Really, you're right. I can't think of anyone else that has come back without having to resort to weird continuity re-writes. And since no writer has tried to kill Superman since, I don't know if he would just come back of not. I just feel it was written as more of a one shot deal. Superman failed ONCE. And then he came back from the dead to set things right. It's implied that he will never let himself fail in such a way ever again. And functionally, he hasn't since they haven't written Death and Return of Superman 2: The Read-Deadening (thank God)
