Superman & Lois, the very final show of the Arrowverse, is coming to an end — but before that, the superhero drama is delivering its best season yet by adapting a hugely famous Superman story: The Death of Superman. What’s more, the CW show is not just delivering the best adaptation of that comic arc, but improving on the source material.

The Death of Superman is a monumental ’90s comic book event that dared kill one of the most iconic superheroes of all time. As successful and influential as that comic was, it is a rather simple story without much nuance. A big monster shows up out of nowhere, dies while killing Superman, and eventually, Superman is brought back to life. Doomsday is not a great villain; he’s just big and strong, which is a problem that has plagued subsequent adaptations. Either they are stand-alone movies that don’t have a good sense of how many strong opponents Superman has faced before (the two animated adaptations from 2018 and 2007), or they treat Doomsday as an early Superman story (like how Zack Snyder made Doomsday just the second villain that Superman faced, ever).

In Superman & Lois, however, the character has been through three seasons and already faced increasingly stronger villains by the time Doomsday arrives. When Doomsday appears and defeats Superman, it comes across like it does in the comic: an actual formidable force the likes of which Superman thinks he’s faced before, but hasn’t, and he pays the ultimate price for it. Most importantly, this Doomsday is not just a........

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