I know a lot of people get tired of characters who get bumped off in comics coming back to life. Me, I just don't care. It has seemingly always been this way. It was happening well before I was born, and will continue (if comics are still going I guess) after I am gone.

Case in point I was reading a back issue and the beginning of this letter caught my eye:

"Dear Editor:

    If you kill off any more Legion members, make sure they stay dead. Man seems a little too omniscient when he can retrieve the fallen."

And the letter continues.

This is from a comic from 1966. Nearly 50 years ago. I read the first Batman archives not too long ago, and the Joker "died" in one of those issues.

It just brings to mind the old clichè,"The more things change. The more they stay the same."

The revolving door has always been there, and it will remain so.

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  • I was going through the last few DCnU Aquamans and was "shocked" to see a character named TULA AKA Aquagirl, one of the few heroes that died in the Crisis that Captain Comics used as an example of someone who wouldn't come back!

  • Perhaps I wouldn't mind if they didn't treat it as such a big deal in the comics.

  • I'd love this as well, but I'd also love it if they just stopped killing characters for shock value. Why not figure out a way to just tell good stories instead? It used to work, and I don't see why it won't work now.

    Of course, I am trying to be optimistic and naive.

  • "killing characters for shock value"

    I recall in the early 70's, it seemed Gerry Conway was in the habit of regularly killing ALMOST all the villains he ever used!

    Then of course, the next writer would bring them back, making you wonder, what the heck was THAT all about?



  • Philip Portelli said:

    I was going through the last few DCnU Aquamans and was "shocked" to see a character named TULA AKA Aquagirl, one of the few heroes that died in the Crisis that Captain Comics used as an example of someone who wouldn't come back!

    By my lights, if they've hit the cosmic reset button, there's NO reason why any character who was killed in the old continuity shouldn't appear in the new one. 

    Discuss. 

  • I agree with Mark. Killing a character doesn't really shock anyone who's read comics for long--which is most of the audience, I think. Yet they act like it's such a big deal. So they're hyping things we don't believe, which can't be good.

    I felt kind of bad for Joe Simon when reporters sought him out to get his reaction to the death of Captain America, and he seemed upset by the news. I wanted to call him up and say, "Don't worry about it."

    OTOH, there are a fair number of creators who actually seem to believe they are killing a character who they don't intend to bring back or think never will return, and it never works. Killing a character and expecting us to care is a hard sell.

    By my lights, if they've hit the cosmic reset button, there's NO reason why any character who was killed in the old continuity shouldn't appear in the new one. 

    That's true. Tula was one of the few changes that actually stuck, making it clear that Crisis was not quite as dramatic as they wanted us to think. Changing the guy in the Flash suit doesn't seem like enough reason for a 12-part series. But by the time Barry Allen returned, he was "returning" to a universe that had changes several times since he left, so it's hard to say he actually returned.

    It does seem they hit the cosmic reset button faster these days, but maybe it's just a matter of being around long enough. The notion that fans were clamoring for the return of Barry Allen, after 25 years of being dead, says a lot about comics.

    -- MSA

     

  • I'm not 100% sure that it was the fans who were clamoring for the return of Barry Allen (or Hal Jordan or Oliver Queen for that matter) as it was the writers and artists. DC's position was that Wally West was THE Flash which was cemented by his involvement with both JLA and Justice League The Animated Series.

    Also they never let Barry fade away for long anyway. There were always flashbacks and series set in the past. Maybe the fans would have moved on from Barry but DC apparently couldn't.

  • Why, exactly, is it thought to be a bad thing that "the fans" didn't "move on" from Barry? ... as opposed to it being a bad thing that a character the fans liked was killed off?

  • Why is it thought to be a bad thing that "the fans" didn't "move on" from Barry? ... as opposed to it being a bad thing that a character the fans liked was killed off?

    I don't think it's a bad thing that fans didn't move on, but it shows how long-term the audience is if bringing back a character who's been dead for 25 years is a a major event. The biggest problem is they want readers to care about what they tell us to care about and to ignore what they find inconvenient, and it doesn't work like that.

    As I've said before, I find it bizarre that we were supposed to get all worked up over the death of Captain America, when the person killing him had recently been dead, and the partner who'd been so dead he had his own term for being so dead he'd never be revived was alive.

    I frankly think Barry was a better character dead, because he made it clear there was a risk, and there was an obvious gap in the generations of Flashes, which wouldn't be so obvious with most other superheroes. But they still felt reviving Barry Allen was a better way to go, replacing the guy everyone actually knew. That makes no sense even to me, and I'd read Barry's stories since he first appeared. 

    I think the JLA Animated guys understand DC's heroes better than DC's editors and writers. Their Batman was an excellent combination of dark and light, and their JLA took the best variations of each character, gave them interesting personalities and made them work well together. That might be easier as an ensemble cast than as a headliner in their own books, but they were way more interesting than the guys in the comics.

    -- MSA

  • What always made me crazy was all the Spider-Man creative teams who kept whining about how being married made Peter Parker seem "old", while they couldn't stop putting in references to Gwen Stacy, who'd been dead for decades!  Exactly what younger audience, that couldn't relate to creepy old married guys as super-heroes, would want to read anything about Gwen, who with her go-go boots and mini-skirts was more of an artifact by that point than a character?

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