Amph Death in Comics: Where is thy sting?

One thing that got me annoyed with Marvel and DC superhero comics, probably to the point why I don't read them anymore, is bringing back dead characters. Now I hear DC has brought back Barry Allen. Can't some characters stay dead?

Maybe it's from going through the deaths of my sister and mother, but I think sometimes the dead should stay dead, even in fiction.

 

Death is a pretty fluid thing in comics. I remember being a little surprised when they brought Jason Todd back, but I can't say I've ever been that bothered by it.

 

It sometimes bothers me that death is not permanent. My issue with it is that it seems to cheapen the ultimate sacrifice a character makes, because we know that sooner or later they will pop up again.

Hopefully that doesn't happen with Steve Rogers (Captain America), but I suspect it will eventually.

 

I got a kick out of Siryn's denial of Banshee's death in X-Factor.

 

Is Barry Allen still dead?

 

I know a "Captain America" movie is planned, so probably around the time that's released, and mark my words on this, we'll see Steve Rogers return SOMEHOW.

I have one absolute moment of frustration with a character coming back from the dead. (Which, again, is not usually a big deal with me, because I KNOW "Death" isn't always quite so permanent in comics.) That being Marvel's "Captain Marvel". Ugh... I remember hearing about his "return" around the whole "Civil War" bowel movement, and that actually triggered an angered response on my part. Why? Because for 20-SOME YEARS, the company kept him dead! I ALWAYS looked to that character as the example of, "You see, people? Not EVERY comic character has a rotating door pass for death."

 

I loved that! "Half the X-men are always dead and the other half are mourning them."

 

Man, I hope they don't bring back Steve. I never really got into Captain America until after his death, but ever since that the comic has been superb....and to my complete surprise I love Bucky as the new Cap.

Did you read the Captain Marvel mini? It was rather good, and had a surprise twist at the end.

Spoiler: Captain Marvel is not Mar-Vell, but was actually a Skrull imposter. The Skrull scientists botched a memory implant procedure on another Skrull named Khn'nr, and ended up causing him to fully believe he was Mar-Vell.

He was supposed to be on Earth waiting for the invasion but instead of doing that he figured out some stuff and ended up deciding to do what Mar-Vell would have done.....which is to protect Earth.

So....you can still cite Mar-Vell as an example of someone who has stayed dead.

I am sure my description fails to capture the excitement of the mini, but it was very interesting IMHO.

 

I'm mixed when it comes to death in comics, like I said I'm not really bothered when they bring someone back. Depending on who it is, I'm usually more annoyed that they killed them in the first place.

 

Steve Rogers will come back to life. The only difference is that Marvel is letting Ed Brubaker tell the story at his own pace. And since there is one Cap book, unlike the four Superman books from the early 90's, this is why it takes a while. But you're a fool if you believe he won't come back.

Long before "Hush" and "Under The Hood", I thought it would be interesting if Jason Todd had come back. Though more of a Batman vs The Crow crossover with Jason as the Crow, seeking to avenge his death and that of his mother's. So seeing Jason's return has never bothered me, because years earlier, I saw the potential there.

No one knows for certain if Barry Allen is back from the dead, permanantly or not. This could be a temporary thing for "Final Crisis". Or he could move on to become a New God of the Fifth World.

The only time a resurrection bothers me is if it seems like there are no more story opportunities for the character. May Parker's story was effectively finished in Amazing Spider-Man #400. She should've gone gracefully and permanantly. Instead, we have her return three years later. Harry Osborn was for about 14 years, before he was brought back at the end of "One More Day". His story ended in the best possible way for the character. J.M. DeMatties was right in this regard. Having the original Hobgobiln doesn't hurt, since it was never supposed to be Ned Leeds. Thus the door was easy to bring back Roderick Kingsley and reveal him as the original.

 

It is one reason why I stopped reading comics. (That, and the fact they are difficult to find over here in the UK, unless you have a dedicated independant speacilist shop that gets them, or a large bookshop which stocks graphic novels.) I used to read a Wolverine/Gambit comic that we could get over here (For the Wolverine stories), and an X-Men one. It was ages ago and I forget the name of the company that Marvel allowed to publish them. I liked reading the Wolverine stories and to some extent the X-Men ones, but eventually I lost interest in the X-Men one because of a character death storyline where he eventually came back from the dead. (I won't say who it was, for spoiler perposes.) Although doing it a few times makes interesting reading, after a while it becomes common place and when a character dies, it doesn't really affect you as a reader because you think "Oh yeah? He or she'll back next week/month (whatever the publishing schedule is), so it doesn't really matter."

 

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Am I doing this right?

 

Yeah, those are all the figures of death in DC and Marvel. I cannot recall if Marvel has any others, but DC does have three. One for everyone in general, one for the New Gods and one for the Flashes.

 

I wonder what's going to happen in batman RIP.

 

My guess is that the villain will use one of the Ten-Eyed Men to remove the Batman persona completely from Bruce Wayne, thus effectively killing Batman. While Nightwing, Robin and Jason Todd try to figure out what to do, Bruce will have to undergo a journey to become Batman again.

 

I'm still behind on the bat books, but i think you're theory is good.

 

In the DCU, people may see different things before meeting Death, they may see Death in different ways, but at the end of the day there's only one Death in the DCU. And she loves you.

 

The reason characters come back is because of the fluid nature of a comic book audience.

When a character is killed...it has a dramatic and meaningful impact on folks who have been following the character in that period (perhaps a the story arc...or couple years...maybe a decade.)

Usually, when a character is brought back, some time has passed, and the audience has mutated into a conjunction of the die hard fans who persist in the series, and new fans who only know "of" the character in question...thus allowing a "return" of the "heard of" character to be almost the impact on new readership as the death did on the old.

Tie in the gimmicky nature to "recapture" some old readers, who are drawn in by "they brought him/her back!?" and whammo...

Is it artful in a realistic narrative form where they attempt to mimic everyday life with only super-human tendencies? Perhaps...perhaps not...but what cannot be ignored is the fiscal success of such moves...even if their artist meritic is suspect.

As long as "resurrection" can excite the new readers and draw back old readers and increase an issue count...this will happen.

Not to mention that comic book universes in general have a broken realism in terms of continuity and "modernizing"...this already cheapens death...because we all know Batman should be dead and Spiderman should be a balding fat guy.

 

Most comic deaths I don't care too much about. Yes, having Kon or Bart back would be nice, but I wasn't broken hearted when they died. And Jason's one of my favorite characters, so I was thrilled that he was brought back. There was one death that I was thrilled to see, and now am incredibly annoyed that they live again. (Don't highlight unless you've read Robin 174) Why, oh why did they have to bring back Stephanie? She was a selfish, annoying character, who had nothing heroic about her, and she nearly destroyed Gotham because she was acting bratty. I honestly felt she deserved to die for all the deaths she caused by starting War Games. And they [i[brought her back[/i]?

Besides that death, I don't mind too much. Most of the time they come back. It really makes me wonder if any of the heroes even care about dying anymore, with the rate of how many people die and then end up alive again.

 

You're in the minority. Many Robin fans liked Spoiler and were upset by the poor writing of the Bat books during "War Games" and how Spoiler was treated. That is why when Dixon returned to Robin, he wanted to bring her back.

 

It's the unwritten rule for comics: Everyone comes back from the dead except uncle Ben, the Waynes and Gwen Stacey.

 

Technically, Gwen did come back. Granted, it was a clone of her. But she was still resurrected in a sense.

 

Speaking of Gwen Stacey...does anyone know if the Original Clone Saga with "Gwen Stacey" was a good read? Old back issues of Amazing Spiderman?

Barry Allen's still dead?

 

If you want to be that technical, Uncle Ben has come back as well. Dr. Strange brought him back momentarily for Peter's Birthday in ASM 500. Not to mention the Alternate Universe version of him that has popped up.

 

It frustrates me too, but then I go out and buy the return comics to see how it happens and the repercussions. *shrug*

The late 80's/early 90's were pretty bad though, especially with the X-men. How many times did we loose Jean Grey and Magneto? At least Barry and Jason were dead for an extended period of time. Jason's return actually caught me off guard.

This reminds me, I wonder if this is cannon. There's some special or annual that has a Flash story. It recaps Flash's sacrifice during the Crisis, he goes so fast that he turns into lightning, bends time in the process, and actually becomes the lighting bolt that turned him into Flash. I have the issue, I can dig it out.