Dear Mr. Silver Age:
Did any team members, super or otherwise, ever die during the Silver Age?
Simon W.
Hollywood
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Dear Mr. Silver Age:
Did any team members, super or otherwise, ever die during the Silver Age?
Simon W.
Hollywood
You need to be a member of Captain Comics to add comments!
Replies
Other notable deaths were the Ancient One's in "Dr. Strange" (temporarily), Batman's butler Alfred's (temporarily), Steve Trevor's in Wonder Woman (he eventually came back, but he was dead as a dodo for several years), Pamela Hawley's in Sgt. Fury (she was Fury's girlfriend), Sue's and Johnny's father's in Fantastic Four, and Black Canary's husband's (he died in a JLA/JSA crossover, motivating her migration to Earth 1). Also Bucky's (declared dead when Captain America was revived), the original Human Torch's (killed off in the Fantastic Four Annual that bought him back), and Toro's (killed off in the issue of Sub-Mariner that bought him back as an adult).
The temporarily killed-off Challenger was Red. In the Legion's series Lightning Lad was killed temporarily and Ferro Lad permanently. Chameleon Boy's pet Proty was killed bringing Lightning Lad back to life, but he was quickly replaced by the identical Proty II. Beast Boy of the heroes of Lallor was killed off with his second appearance.
If it's not clear, most or all of the temporary deaths above were supposed to be permanent, including Red's and Alfred's.
I missed seeing this thread yesterday or I'd have replied faster. Obviously, even in the SA, "death" was a day-to-day thing, although certainly not as negligible as it's become today, where it's virtually meaningless.
Back in CBG #1381 (May 5, 2000), I did a humongous article about death in the SA and included the below timeline. I'm not going to try to update it, since it's all Earth-1 heroes and we haven't seen any of them since 1986. Maybe someone can add anybody I missed, and I'm sure I missed some:
Great Moments In Death, 1956-1973
This timeline lists the deaths of key characters during the Silver Age. Just to avoid quibbles, I continued it through Gwen Stacy’s death. After all, it isn’t going to kill me to run a few extra deaths. The list is based in part on a compilation prepared by Beppe Sabitini with input from Murray Ward and Cat Yronwode that ran in The Comic Reader #178 (Mar 80).
Each character's ultimate fate (to my knowledge) is noted: SD (Still Dead), RV (Revived) RP (Replaced) or RB (Rebooted).
"Revealed" deaths indicate the month in which we learned of an earlier death, while "Imaginary" Deaths are real deaths occurring in Imaginary Stories, if you know what I mean and I think you do. I decided against listing villains’ deaths, because they never, ever die for good. Just ask the Rogues Gallery or Norman Osborn.
Sep 59 Abin Sur crash-lands on Earth and gives his power ring to Hal Jordan before dying. (Showcase
#22) [SD]
Nov 60 (Revealed) Lyla Lerrol, Superman’s girlfriend during his visit to Krypton’s past, perishes when the planet explodes. (Superman #141) [SD]
Jun 61 (Revealed) Ice Cream Soldier is killed during World War II. (Our Army At War #107) [RB]
Nov 61 (Imaginary) Lex Luthor kills Superman in a kryptonite trap as his friends watch. (Superman #149)
Sep 62 Ben Parker is shot by burglar (Amazing Fantasy #15)[SD]
Jan 63 Lightning Lad is murdered by Zaryan's freeze ray (Adventure #304) [RV]
Jun 63 Robin dies at dawn on an alien world, but only in Batman’s mind during an experiment for a
astronaut- medical team. (Batman #156).
Sep 63 Proty sacrifices itself to revive Lightning Lad (Adventure #312). [SD]
Nov 63 (Revealed) Junior Juniper is killed in battle during World War II (Sgt. Fury #4) [SD]
Mar 64 (Revealed) Bucky is shown to have died trying to stop the Red Skull's missile in World War II
(Avengers #4) [SD]
Apr 64 (Revealed) Battling Murdock is shown being killed by hoods controlled by the Fixer (Daredevil #1)
[SD]
May 63 (Revealed) Ma and Pa Kent die of Fever Plague. (Superman #161) [RB]
Jun 64 Alfred the butler is crushed under a falling boulder meant for Batman and Robin (Detective #328)
[RV]
Aug 64 (Imaginary) Superman marries Lois Lane, Lana Lang and Lori Lemaris in succession, but each dies (by super-serum side effect, Lex Luthor and Phantom Zone villains, respectively). Yow. (Lois
Lane #51)
Oct 64 Simon (Wonder Man) Williams dies after double-crossing his boss Baron Zemo and helping the
Avengers (Avengers #9) [RV, sorta]
Nov 64 Franklin Storm triggers a bomb strapped to his body by Skrulls so he can save the Fantastic Four from the booby trap. (Fantastic Four #32) [SD]
Feb 65 (Imaginary) Evil Pete Ross and Clark’s heroic brother Lex Kent both die in battle after Ross captures
Lois as bait in a death trap for her husband Superman. (Superman #175)
May 65 (Revealed) Lady Pamela Hawley, Sgt. Fury's girlfriend, is killed in a World War II bombing in London. (Sgt.Fury #18) [SD]
Jul 65 Mark Merlin's body merges with Prince Ra-Man. (House of Secrets #73) [SD]
Nov 65 (Imaginary) Batman is killed by his partner, Lex Luthor, after Batman turns against Luthor while they are killing Superman. (World’s Finest #153)
Jan 66 Triplicate Girl (Luorno Durgo) has one of her bodies annihilated by Computo, turning her into Duplicate Girl…er, I mean Duo Damsel. (Adventure Comics #340) [RB]
Jan 66 (Imaginary) Gardner Fox presents an alternative ending showing what would have happened if The
Bouncer’s gun had killed Batman. (Detective #347).
Aug 66 Menthor is shot while warning the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents of a trap. (T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #7) [SD]
Feb 67 Ferro Lad dies saving the universe from the Sun Eater. (Adventure #353) [RB]
Feb 67 (Imaginary) Lois Kent dies in a car accident in a Lex Luthor scheme, and her husband Clark later kills Lex.(Superman #194)
Mar 67 (Revealed) Superman learns that Legionnaires Chemical King, Shadow Woman, Quantum Queen,
Reflecto and others will die in battle sometime after he leaves the Legion as Superboy.
(Adventure #354) [RB]
Sep 67 Frederick Foswell is shot protecting J. Jonah Jameson from crooks working for the Kingpin. (Amazing Spider-Man #52) [SD]
Sep 67 Thirteen Green Lanterns, including Davo of Pharma (but not Hal Jordan of Earth as targeted) are
assassinated by a band of super criminals. (Green Lantern #55)
Oct 67 Boston Brand is shot by The Hook while performing his high-wire act..(Strange Adventures #205) [SD]
Mar 68 The Changeling, disguised as Professor X, is killed by Grotesk.(Uncanny X-Men #42) [SD]
Sep 68 The Doom Patrol (The Chief [RV], Robotman [RV], Negative Man [RV] and Elasti-Girl [SD]) is blown
up by Madame Rouge. (Doom Patrol #121)
Jan 69 Steve Trevor is tommy-gunned by Cyber’s mob (Wonder Woman #180) [RV]
Mar 69 Medic Una is killed in battle against the dreaded Aakon (Captain Marvel #11) [SD]
Apr 69 (Imaginary) Lois Lane is killed by the Dimension Master, leaving Superman to bring up their daughter
Laney.(Superman #215)
May 69 Captain America apparently dies in a hail of Hydra bullets, with only his bullet-riddled costume and a lifelike Steve Rogers mask recovered. (Captain America #113). [RV]
Jun 69 Toro dies while destroying the Mad Thinker’s escape rocket after a battle with the Sub-Mariner. (Sub- Mariner #11). [SD]
Oct 69 Earth-Two’s Larry Lance, wife of Black Canary, is killed fighting Aquarius. (Justice League of America #74) [SD]
Jan 70 Lord Seth, Namor's naval commander, dies after returning from exile.(Sub-Mariner #21) [SD]
Feb 70 Janice Cord, Tony Stark's girlfriend, dies from an electric beam from The Titanium Man. (Iron Man#22). [SD]
Nov 70 Capt. George Stacy is crushed beneath a falling wall saving a child during a battle between Dr. Octopus and Spider-Man. (Amazing Spider-Man #90)[SD]
May 71 Lady Dorma is killed by her rival Llyra shortly after her wedding to Prince Namor. (Sub-Mariner #37). [SD]
May 72 The Guardsman (Kevin O'Brian) dies in a fuel explosion during a battle with Iron Man. (Iron Man #46) [RP]
Oct 72 (Revealed) Wing is revealed by the Crimson Avenger to have died defeating the Nebula-Man. (Justice League of America #102) [SD]
Oct 72 The Red Tornado is blown up while defeating the Nebuloid Hand. (Justice League of America #102) [RV]
Feb 73 Warlock’s friend Eddie Roberts is killed. (Warlock #4) [SD]
Feb 73 I Ching, Wonder Woman's mentor, is shot by a random sniper. (Wonder Woman #204). [SD]
Mar 73 Mimic commits suicide when he loses control of his powers. (Incredible Hulk #161). [SD]
Jun 73 Gwen Stacy breaks her neck while being saved by Spider-Man after being thrown off a bridge by the Green Goblin. (Amazing Spider-Man #121) [SD]
-- MSA
If we're listing characters who died and stayed dead during the Silver Age ;-), it would include:
1) Wonder Man--a repentent villain mentioned several times
2) Ferro Lad-- a watermark in both Legion and comic book history
3) Triplicate Girl--counts because the third body died, leaving her as Duo Damsel
4) Menthor--see Commander Benson's always informative blog
5) Various supporting characters like Green Lantern Abin Sur, Superman's Kandorian friend Nor-Kann and Captain George Stacy.
Wonder Man didn't really stay dead during the SA, since his brain patterns were used to create the Vision. And he's been revived a number of times since then. So putting him on the same list as those others is a little misleading.
I think Ice Cream Soldier died in one story, but then he was just brought back again in another story without an explanation--or at least his nickname was. Since they never explained how he came back, I'm not sure how to count that, since maybe he was just real injured in the story. My Rock history is a bit fuzzy.
Capt. Stacy is pretty dead. OTOH, he died in virtually the same way that Alfred did, so you never know. Maybe they put his body in a refrigerated coffin like they did Alfie...
I'm actually surprised that Abin Sur never showed up again. As an alien, there could've been all kinds of ways to bring him back and have him demand his ring back. It would at least make a cool cover. There was way more opportunity to abuse his dead body than they've ever used. I hope they aren't reading this.
-- MSA
WOAH! Red came back from the dead? You'd better explain this one, mr. S.A. or anyone else?
I thought part of the point of the recent retro Challengers/Superman team-up was that Supes made a decision not to tell any of them of Red's impending death...that it would be too cruel, and might mess the time-stream up. (You BETCHA!)
PS: It wasn't the Red Skull's missle that killed bucky in the Avengers #4 flashback (and confirmed in Avengers #56...) but it was a test drone plane supposedly being stollen or highjacked by Zemo that did the deed. We all knew that Stan really meant a Buzz-bomb V-1 or V-2 Rocket... but we let it go at the time. Plus, why the heck would he have boobie trapped his own test rocket fired at England???
"WHOA! Red came back from the dead? You'd better explain this one, Mr. S.A. or anyone else?"
I'm not Mr. Silver Age, but I do qualify as "anyone else". I addressed the death of Red Ryan and his subsequent return in both a post on the old Captain Comics board and in a triptych of articles in my Deck Log column that appeared on the old board.
I don't have the time to burnish up the old Deck Log articles right now, but I still have that old post, which I've reprinted below. That should answer your question about Red's resurrection.
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For my money, the all-time lamest excuse for a character surviving certain death goes to Red Ryan, of the Challengers of the Unknown. To add insult to injury, Red's resurrection undermined one of the most dramatic and realistic arcs ever to occur in a comic book.
As I have mentioned, Challengers of the Unknown was one of the few---perhaps the only of---DC's titles to actually improve when the "camp" fad infected the company's issue. Unlike the other titles, which suddenly bristled with affected dialogue and heavy-handed humour (for an idea of how bad it got, take a gander at Superman # 184 [Feb., 1966] and read the Man of Steel's dialogue--if you can stand it), the Challengers scripts improved greatly, especially in terms of dialogue and characterisation.
This improvement was gradual and began roughly about issue # 46 (Oct.-Nov., 1965). By this time, Arnold Drake had begun to phase out long-time Challs writer France Herron as the series' scripter.
The most obvious changes were the superficial trappings of the series: three issues before, the Challs had acquired their yellow-and-crimson outfits and adopted their hour-glass insignia. In issue # 53 (Dec., 1966-Jan., 1967), they changed their headquarters to an undersea base after Challengers Mountain had been destroyed three issues before; and they picked up a signature form of transportation---the modular aircraft dubbed the Gallopin' Gizmo.
The excess baggage of the series was discarded. No more space pet Cosmo, and honorary Challenger June Robbins had made her last appearance in the Silver Age back in # 46, the same issue in which Ace Morgan was officially named leader of the Challs. (There was an attempt to add the Challenger Corps---a group of airline passengers who had also cheated death when the Challs saved their jet from destruction in a previous adventure. They were intended to serve in a support function for the heroes, but the idea didn't find favour with the readers and died of neglect.)
But behind the new gift-wrapping, a subtle change had come over the characters themselves, thanks to the skill of Arnold Drake. The dialogue had become sharper, wittier, with a wry humour which, years later, was evoked in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. And the Challengers themselves began to demonstrate distinctive personalities---Ace became the stern, no-nonsense honcho; Prof, the wily scientific genius; Rocky, an overaged hipster; and Red---well, to be honest, Red pretty much stayed the same. Notably, these new personalities weren't set into the characters with a sledgehammer, but developed subtlely, with minor snatches of dialogue.
All of this led to the most dramatic change of all---the death of a Challenger! In Challs # 55 (Aug.-Sep., 1967), the bill came due on one of the heroes' borrowed time---Red Ryan.
First, this was a sensible development. The key selling point of the Challs was the idea that these were four supremely skilled, but normal men, tackling fantastic dangers. It was eminently logical that eventually death would catch up to one or more of them.
Second, the death, as scripted by Drake, was handled well. As the plot described, the Challengers responded to a threat by Volcano Man to destroy the world by sending three shock waves across the globe, aimed at passing through the major faults in the Earth's crust. When the shock waves converged, the resultant disruption of all the faults would result in massive groundquakes that would shake the Earth to pieces.
Prof devised a plan. Ace, Rocky, and Red were dispatched to the paths of each of the shock waves. They would place tremendous explosive charges in front of the waves and detonate the explosives by radio remote control just as the waves would pass over the bombs. This would divert the shock waves from the faults and dissipate their force.
Ace and Rocky were able to detonate their explosives from long range without a hitch, but Red ran into a problem. His remote-control detonator was defective. He had a spare explosive charge, but there was only one way to set it off. By hand. Without hesitation, he did so.
As the caption to that fateful panel read: "Alone, without another hand to comfort him, the brave Challenger meets his final challenge! May we each go as well when our time comes!"
As memorable as Red Ryan's death was, even more so was the deft way with which Arnold Drake handled its aftermath.
Once the initial moment of shock and rage had passed, the surviving Challengers responded professionally by capturing Volcano Man and the rest of the Challenger-Haters before they could depart Earth, bound for another world located for them by the alien robot Kra.
But it was the next couple of issues which really told the tale. In lesser hands, Ace and Prof and Rocky would have undergone endless bouts of hand-wringing angst and guilty recrimination. That would be the way modern writers would have played it; it's the way Marvel would have played it, then. (For all of my admiration for the way the character of Captain America was depicted, his continual moaning over Bucky's death got old real fast.)
No, instead Drake handled it in his typical fashion---subtlely. The next issue showed the Challengers withdrawing to themselves, finding their own ways of coping with the loss of Red. No grief-ridden speeches. No emotional soliloquies. Just three men going about their business, but more subdued than usual. When their next assignment came their way, they leapt into it professionally, and gradually their adventurous spirits and humour returned. By careful underplaying, Drake showed the remaining Challengers going through the stages of dealing with the death of someone close: denial, anger, depression, and finally, acceptance. Without drawing attention to it, Drake had raised the maturity of the comic story a notch.
It was one of the best-handled comics deaths. The pity was, it was all for naught.
In the letter column which carried the first readers' comments on Red's death, editor Murray Boltinoff assured the fans that Red's death was genuine. The death of a Challenger had been planned for months and Red had drawn the Ace of Spades because, as Boltinoff put it bluntly, he had the least distinctive personality and "just wasn't pulling his weight" with the Challengers.
And Red, indeed, remained KIA for almost a year, or five issues of the bi-monthly series. Then, in a two-part story which culminated in Challs # 60 (Feb.-Mar., 1968), Red Ryan returned. An accidental overdose of old Challenger foe Multi-Man's "liquid light" had addled Red's brain and turned him into the stone idol-cum-world conqueror called Seekeenakee. It was only after the Challengers brought Seekeenakee down with Prof's antidote to liquid light that they discovered that their stoney foe was Red.
(In the letter column of # 60, editor Boltinoff admitted that he had caved in to readers' demands to bring Red back.)
The next pair of issues carried a two-part back-up tale, explaining how Red stumbled across the liquid-light formula and wound up as a native stone idol. However, the biggest question---how did Red survive blowing himself to smithereens?---was given the shortest shrift one could imagine. The explanation was reduced to one ridiculous line of dialogue: "Maybe it was because I was at the very eye of the explosion that I wasn't destroyed--just blown sky-high!"
Completely, totally, incontrovertably absurd! People caught at ground zero in explosions don't survive. They become "pieces parts" One doesn't have to look any further than the fates of the two terrorists who steered a boatful of explosives into USS Cole in October, 2000. They were literally vapourised at the point of impact. A definite "Do not try this at home, kiddies."
Ludicrous explanations aside, the return of Red Ryan erased the dimension and depth which had been added to the series. Much in the same way the death of Junior Juniper, over in Marvel's Sgt. Fury, added a needed cachet of seriousness to its team of wisecracking adventurers, Red's death had informed Challengers fans that there were no guarantees. Bringing him back with such a dubious explanation punched a hole in that attempt at realism.
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Hope this helps.
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