It was a day that would be remembered by the US and the planet for time to come and not for the better; the Man of Tomorrow, the most respected and most powerful superhero of Earth... Superman had perished...

The alien monster that came to be known as Doomsday was awakened and had rampaged through the city; causing nothing but destruction in it's wake as it only sought to destroy and the Justice League and other heroes of Earth worked together to try and slow it down and many of them were injured. Superman finally faced the beast in Metropolis as they both went all out; Superman bloodied, defeated with his costume all ripped finally managed to take down the beast but the monster had pierced the Last Son of Krypton's body with it's spiked arms.

The assembled heroes and citizens nearby watched; relief that it was all over but noticed Superman's body on the ground not moving. They watched in despair and disbelief; most trying in vain to wait for him to get up and Lois Lane ran up to him and cradled him in his arms with tears running down her eyes.

The spirit of Superman found himself standing over this sight realising that he wasn't there in his body anymore; he sighed as he realised that he had died. Those who saw him as a god saw that he was indeed mortal and could be killed; even as he sighed with relief that he had managed to save the day and stop the monster... He couldn't help but think of the loved ones who would be mourning him... He wouldn't have a future with Lois now and what would his parents think seeing this on the news...

He turned around and saw that right next to him was a smiling pale goth woman; he raised an eyebrow wondering if the woman was enjoying the sight of date as goths who were extremely into their lifestyle wasn't something that he understood. "Hello Kal... Sorry; it's Clark now, isn't it? Plenty of times that I meet someone again who had been adopted with a new name from what they were born from." the woman greeted him and Clark was taken aback that he knew his earth and Kryptonian names.

Wait...

She could see him...

"We have met before when you were born; I bet this is not what you would have expected me to look like... Not a skeleton with along robe and a scythe..." laughed the woman and Clark understood what was going on...

As unusual as it was to realise; this woman...

Was Death herself...

"Yes... I'm Death... I don't mean it metaphorically or rhetorically or poetically or theoretically or any other fancy way..." Death then said as Clark raised an eyebrow.

"Death has time to watch animated movies?" Clark asked as Death just giggled.

"I make time for the movies; I really love Mary Poppins..." Death told him and they heard snarling and right behind them was the spirit of Doomsday himself. Clark was taken aback but ready if the spirit of this monster was going for a fight.

Doomsday looked at Superman but then saw Death... He then looked at her as if recognising her...

"Hello again... Don't worry; it's all over... Your suffering is over, you don't have to be hurt anymore..." Death greeted the monster as Death came to up to her and Death embraced him like a child; the monster recognising the only friendly face that he ever knew.

Clark was wide eyed at this and Death sighed as she then faced him with her smile falling. "Eons of the job gave me practice of handling many difficult cases from startled souls with horrific deaths, those that were lost to widespread diseases and genocides... Trying times as I have to wait for them to be ready to make their journey once they realise that their suffering has ended... However there was this case... I have dealt with coming to collect someone only to turn back when they have been resuscitated But in this case..." Death sighed and looked sad. "Millions of years ago on the planet that would be known as Krypton; it was a dangerous place filled with monstrous predators... A scientist made an experiment where he placed a child on the planet... Each time it was horrifically killed, he would collect the child's remains and then bring it back to life... A form of evolution where it would end up coming back to life on his own, stronger and able to regenerate, unable to be stopped by what had killed it before... Having to come and collect the poor child from the endless deaths that went on for decades... It was trying, the poor scared child that turned angry and wanting to hurt... I could barely rein myself in when I had to collect his 'father' when the child finally caught up to him..." Death explained and Clark was dumbstruck and horrified.

What would the people of Metropolis and the Justice League think if he they knew that his spirit was there; feeling sympathy for the beast that killed him? This experiment... Not even Lex Luthor or Brainiac would try something like this... The poor being probably never had a chance to be anything than the monster that the creator conditioned it has.

Death then took out a hand to Clark and he accepted it; Death taking them both to the afterlife with Doomsday back with the only friendly face that it ever knew. His suffering finally over...

I had an idea of a story where Death of the Endless deals with superheroes coming back from the death, including infamous cases such as Jean Grey. Funny thing is that sometime ago and the time would be post Avengers V X Men where Jean Grey had been dead for a good while and Cyclops was with Emma Frost; I legit thought that the reputation was overblown and it wasn't that bad. Then Jean got brought back to life for the House of X era and relatively recently; I saw her Death Battle against Raven where I saw that the reputation actually was warranted and it was that bad. So bad that during the breakdown; they had to put up a disclaimer that since the portion had been filmed; Jean had legitimately died and come back for another time...