This is driving me nuts. Few things irk me more than seeing a character I've enjoyed for 15+ years killed at the whim of some fly-by-night writer trying to move a few issues or push whatever crappy event they have going now. It feels cheap, rushed, and generally puts their backs against the wall when they fail to develop a new character people care about to take their place and end up having to revive the deceased later. Worst of all it generally happens with little fanfare and does nothing to truly promote whatever pet project they are pushing that week. Eddie Brock commits suicide on a off panel. Sabretooth gets decapitate in the snow. Thanos has his heart ripped out. Absorbing Man and Carnage are crushed in space. Mr Sinister gets overpowered by Mystique. Punisher gets sliced into a dozen pieces. Now they feed Taskmaster to Rulk as a afterthought. Hasn't the Hulk family ruined enough characters since WWH? So they break their "dead means dead" policy and bring them all back through plot holes, or in some cases without explanation at all. Yes its not a recent development, but writers in the 70s-90s at least seemed to respect, if not love their creations and characters. Now they are just using them to get a very marginal pop in sales that weakens them as a whole.
Death, as I see it, should only come at the end of a character's story. If you aren't done with them, and I mean done, it's ok to shove them aside, retire them, stick them in limbo, or what have you, but it's dumb to kill them.
We follow characters because we like their stories. Death means no more stories from them. Any death must be worth at least that much.
And that cheapens any death that you do and you want to stick.
Also, even a 'death then resurrection' means you're not getting any stories from the character for probably years, maybe a decade, plus it adds what is normally a very weak (and certainly overused) story element into their story anyway.
Thanks KM, for starting a cool thread that still manages to make me sad. I don't even really take exception to killing a character, it should happen occasionally. Its the way they do it that bothers me. I remember when it was a huge deal to kill Magick, a fairly minor character. Now I wonder if they even run these by anyone.
It's ok to kill off characters when it matters. This is why I think Daredevil is still consistently the greatest comic. The deaths of Karen Page and Heather Glenn matter. They aren't coming back and both of them died because of Daredevil's actions. Elektra came back but if you look at the way she and DD interact, it's like a bad break up, they're dead to each other.
The death of a character, especially when it's permanent should be emotional and should serve to move the story when that character was holding things back and repeating story lines. I think that's why so many people are pissed that they brought Quentin Beck back.
__________________ Land of the free, home of the brave...
Do you think we will ever be saved?
In this land of dreams find myself sober...
Wonder when will it'll all be over...
Living in a void when the void grows colder...
Wonder when it'll all be over?
Will you be laughing when it's over?
I didn't care for the death of Damien Wayne. Im still at a loss as how it could be considered a good idea for either story purpose or fan service. Just seemed like a waste of character development
Thinking too much from a closed-story perspective. Morrison is used to people not using his toys whether or not he leaves them in usable position, so he had a complete Damien arc in mind, apparently. Or at least that's my guess.
Overlooking, of course, that you managed to make a character interesting and liked, you can simply keep developing him.
That's where gems like Nightwing and Tim Drake come from.
Which reminds me, a death that was handled well- Ted Kord.
Because after he died, his story importance increased and play a role in countless plotlines. Everyman impersonated him once. Booster Gold tries to save him with time travel in his book. He inspires Jaime Reyes regularly. The Birds of Prey talk about him.
He's dead, but his death is a story seed in a way even most 'dramatic' deaths aren't. Let alone cheap throw-away deaths that are so common.
Ditto with Karen Paige. I love the moment where it's revealed that everything Daredevil's done, From the end of Guardian Devil to nearly beating Bullseye and The Kingpin to death and declaring himself the Kingpin was essentially him dealing with Karen's death by way of a prolonged nervous breakdown. Not the first time, but definitely longest and one of the most well written period of mental illness for the character.
__________________ Land of the free, home of the brave...
Do you think we will ever be saved?
In this land of dreams find myself sober...
Wonder when will it'll all be over...
Living in a void when the void grows colder...
Wonder when it'll all be over?
Will you be laughing when it's over?
Yea, you can do death well, but the death has to become part of the story.
Heck, Barry Allen. Great death. Living up to his memory, dealing with an imposter, and so on. Barry lived large in Wally's life well after he was gone.
Bringing back Barry was such a shame. It was iconic, meaningful, and Wally had lived up to the legacy entirely. People still knew and loved Hal when they pushed Kyle back into the background. But Barry was entirely in the past. There was nothing necessary about what they did.
At least Mar-vell is still intact. When he "returned" it was an alternate reality or some nonsense.
Ted Kord, another good mention. That story did more for his stature than any death ever for a comic character...genuinely made readers care about him.
Earth X Cpt. America is another great example. Though by the end Death is gone as a concept (or something) so it's sorta reversed.
KMC Community Forums
May 26th, 2013 09:05 PM
