Comics 411: Looking at Marvel’s Latest Comic Book Deaths

 Welcome back! I’m Steve Gustafson and if you enjoy discussing anything comic book related, you’ve come to the right place. Each week we cover something in the industry and I always enjoy your input in the comment section below.

Previously on…

 
Last time we discussed Must Read Comic Books. Here’s what some of you had to say:

Prez Gar: “Crisis on Infinite Earths. Even if so much of it has been undone, it’s stil a key event in the history of the DC Universe.

The original Secret Wars. Much more than the toy tie-in it was intended to be, and unlike it’s counterpart at DC, Super Powers, it’s all still canon.

The Infinity Gauntlet. If you loved Infinity War. read the story that inspired it.

Marvel Saga, A great way learn about the early years of the Marvel Universe.”

D2Kvirus: “Preacher – Garth Ennis
Y: The Last Man – Brian K Vaughan
Murder Me Dead – David Lapham
Fatale – Ed Brubaker
Stumptown – Greg Rucka
Uzumaki – Junji Ito
The Fade Out – Ed Brubaker
Ikigami – Motoro Mase
I Feel Sick – Jhonen Vasquez
A Trail of Blood – Shuzo Ohimi
Saga – Brian K Vaughan
Velvet – Ed Brubaker”

Cruel Angel: “My all time favorites list:
Marvel:
Uncanny X-Men 94-175
Tomb of Dracula
Star Wars 1- 80 (it went downhill rapidly after ROTJ)
Spider Girl
Amazing Spider Man vol 2 30-58/ 500-528 (JMS run before Marvel started to interfere and ruin it all)
Rom Spaceknight 1-46 (for me, it wasn’t the same once the new Wraiths showed up)
DC:
Kingdom Come
Justice
Wonder Woman (Perez run) vol 2 1- 62, War of the Gods
EC Comics:
Tales from the Crypt
Vault of Horror
Haunt of Fear
Other Publishers:
Kabuki (every series: Circle of Blood through Alchemy)”

Ken Wood: “There are certain titles I haven’t read, which I feel are must read and I’m trying to get through, like Infinity Gauntlet, Marvels, Kingdom Come, Infinite Crisis, etc.

I have a list of must read X-titles like God Loves Man Kills, Age of Apocalypse, Messiah Complex, Second Coming. and New X-Men Childhood’s End. Oh, and House/Powers of X.

Might want to add books like Batman Knightfall, Death and Reign of Superman, Green Lantern Rebirth, Venom’s intro and Venom Returns, Carnage’s intro, and Kraven’s Last Hunt, the Wicked and the Divine.

I’m probably missing a ton.”

El Atomico: “A Killing Joke
Squadron Supreme, of course :)”

PMH: “Decent story, great art:
A vs. X
Civil War
Planet Hulk
World War Hulk
Hush
Spider-Verse
Marvels

Great story, decent art:
Dark Knight Returns
Court Of Owls
Secret Wars
Public Enemies
Age of Apocalypse (most of it)

BOTH:
Dark Phoenix Saga
Days of Future Past
Kingdom Come
Kraven’s Last Hunt
The Galactus Trilogy”

Spacecowboy: “GCPD – Ed Brubaker
Uncanny X-Force – Rick Remender
X-Factor – Peter David
The Long Halloween – Jeph Loeb
Batman & Robin/Batman Inc – Grant Morrison
Forever Evil – Geoff Johns
Teen Titans – Geoff Johns”

John: “It really depends on the person and the time period, I’m a Marvel guy so the ten stories I would suggest with 10 different characters…

Planet Hulk by Greg Pak
Next Wave by Warren Ellis
Runaways Vol 1 by Brian K Vaughn
Thunderbolts by Warren Ellis
X-men Masterworks vol 13 (200-209) by Chris Claremont
Doctor Strange Masterwork Vol1 by Stan Lee
Amazing Spider-man Epic Spider-man No More by Stan Lee
Old Man Logan by Mark Millar
Captain America coming of the Falcon by Stan Lee
Avengers Korvac Saga by Roger Stern”

MapleLeafLoveMuscle: “The Courtyard/Neonomicon/Providence
Garth Ennis’ original Crossed
The Boys, full series + assorted sub-series
Brubaker & Phillips’ Criminal stories”

Some awesome comments last week! Thanks for the input and keep it coming!

This week we discuss…

Thoughts on Comic Book Deaths

Besides certain countries currency, there is nothing worth less than a comic book death. It has lost its luster and will only garner groans and moans from the fans as a cheap attempt to draw attention to a character. 

By the way, rumor is Peter Parker is going to die. So is Doctor Strange. And Scarlet Witch. 

Yes, Marvel Comics is attempting to lure readers in with the promise of death. Even though Parker may stop being Spider-Man without dying, that’s besides the point. I covered Strange’s death in a previous column and Scarlet Witch…well, that’s just weird as she received some cool attention thanks to her Disney+ series. In fact, all three of these characters are getting crossover attention so news of their apparent deaths is…odd.

Or maybe it’s what Stan Lee once called “the illusion of change.” 

Which brings us to what we’re supposed to be talking about. A common expression regarding comic book death used to be, “The only people who stay dead in comics are Bucky, Jason Todd, and Uncle Ben.” referring to the seminal importance of those character’s deaths to Captain America, Batman, and Spider-Man respectively. However, after the former two were brought back in 2005, the phrase was changed to only recognize Uncle Ben. These days comic book writers kill off characters to gather publicity or to create dramatic tension. But we know it’s not going to last forever.

We could debate what has been the most well-known “death” in comics but two top candidates would have to be the 1980 “death” of Jean Grey in Marvel’s Dark Phoenix Saga and that of Superman in DC’s highly-publicized 1993 Death of Superman storyline. Of course it was never intended that Superman’s death be permanent, and that he would return to life at the conclusion of the story and Jean’s passing actually was written as a permanent death of the character. We all saw how that turned out.

Remember the death of Captain America which made headlines in early 2007? Steve Rogers returned in Captain America: Reborn in late 2009. Also, the death of the Flash (Barry Allen) shocked readers, as he is considered the start of the Silver Age, but he would remain dead from 1985 until 2008. The deaths of the Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) and Ultimate Spider-Man have also shocked audiences, as have several others. In DC Comics’ Batman: RIP storyline, Batman was apparently killed. It was revealed that he had survived, only for him to disappear into the time stream in the Final Crisis storyline and then come back. Oh, Wolverine died…and then came back. Maybe I should make a list of characters who haven’t died…yet.

Do we care anymore? Because death in comics is often temporary, readers rarely take the death of a character seriously. Why should we? When someone dies, the reader feels very little sense of loss, and simply left wondering how long it will be before they return to life.

Thanks to the new X-Men loophole on Krakoa that has them mastering resurrection, many X-Men have been killed in the line of duty and found their way back into the spotlight. 

Does it mean anything? Is there any death that could happen that would make you put importance in it or has the gimmick been milked and folded dry?

That’s all the time I have. See you next week!