Death and the American Comic Book

Death is nothing but a joke in comic books. Well, there are moments when there is a poignant death scene as a supporting character dies to inspire the hero, but for the most point, villains go back and forth through the revolving door of death faster than you can say, "Super-hero Stereotypes!" Of course, it's hard to keep a good superhero down as well, especially if you're an mutant. Magneto'll be back somehow, even after New X-Scribe, Grant Morrison had Wolverine beheaded ol' Magers, just after the fiend had killed resident resurrectionist, Phoenix. (Of course, Phoenix's coming back to life in a new mini-series coming out in a couple months.) I suppose it's ironic that I use that as my example, since that the whole message of that story was about bring people back to life. Grant had killed Magers off in his second issue. Magneto reappears in the one of his last "story-arcs" as he sheds his Xorn disguise. As the X-Men defeated him physically, Professor X informs Maggie that he has already lost, since he was more effective dead, as a martyr. Which I assume was a message Grant was trying to tell the comic industry. Or I could be reading into it too much; it is just a comic book.

Anyway, death is now used as hype, a selling point. Both Marvel's 500th issue of The Avengers and DC's Identity Crisis advertised that a member of the team will die. (Which one? Buy the issue to find out!) Skimming the issues and the Internet, it seems that Ant-Man of the Avengers, though Vision wasn't looking too hot either, and a wife of one of more obscure Justice Leaguers are on the death count. The two companies must figure that if they kill off less significant characters, then they'll get their cheap "ratings" ploy and have a smaller chance that someone will bring the character back.

Part of it is that the companies seem to never stick up for their choices. Take example the infamous Hal Jordan debacle. Becoming middle-aged in the middle 90s, Hal's sales as Green Lantern were dropping, so they replace him with a hip, young Kyle Rayner, who's about average in every sort of way, with no real vices or virtues. Hal, meanwhile, was written crazy and became a villain, in which all the Jordan fans in the world cried "Foul Play!" So, they gave him an honorable death, rekindling the DC's sun, only to be revived years later as the Spectre. And after the highly intellectual and spiritual series got canceled, and I had started liking Hal as the Spectre, DC is now bring back Hal as Green Lantern, in a mini-series that will no doubt lead to a new GL series.

So, what is all this ranting really mean? I think that if a company wants to kill a character, big or small, they should keep them dead. Bringing them back only lesses whatever impact their death has to the reader. Grant was right when saying sometimes it's better to leave a character dead no matter how popular they were. Death just shouldn't be some PR stunt to increase sales either. That's something they'd do for a television show, and comic books are much better than that. Usually. So, stick to your guns when you next make a decision, Marvel and DC, and if you have to kill someone off, making it meaningful. Oh, and stay away from my favorite characters.