Since their birth in the summer of 1938, superhero comics have enchanted fanboys the world over with their classic tales of good vs evil. But as the stories of the characters we've all come to love continue to evolve, one topic still evokes the rage of die hard fans everywhere: death. Killing off characters has been a common plot device injected into a story to bring about drastic change, but these changes are not always necessary and their negative reception has lead to the implication of another literary tool that the comic book industry is becoming infamous for: resurrection.
Bucky, Green Arrow, Barry Allen, Hal Jordan, Jason Todd and even Superman himself have all fallen victim to this nefarious scheme by comic book editors everywhere to create "change" and produce bigger sales figures. However, death and resurrection have often lead to retcon and temporary loss of sales, but more importantly...they forever leave a blemish in the character's world on and on the character's fanbase.
After their graduation from comic strip to art book, writers and artists have worked themselves to the bone doing their best to make these worlds believable only to have their work undone when a hero overcomes the one obstacle they really shouldn't. Once the stuff of an eight year old's dreams, comics have over the years ground themselves in science and realism in an effort to reach a more mature audience but this approach has also put limits on the writers who further develop these worlds.
When a hero finally bites the dust with a heroic end readers are stunned and whether or not they admit it, emotionally dented as well. It's the symbolic sacrifice of a hero that further adds to his legend and briefly creates an opening for greater plot development, but these opportunities are usually wasted as death no longer holds her sway over superheroes anymore. Killed in glory and resurrected with a seemingly improbable storyline, readers are left scratching their heads and subconsciously become distanced from their heroes.
Using death as a plot device destroys a hero's greatest ability; their humanity. When a hero is facing his end he should be granted a heroic death and allowed to take his place alongside his fallen comrades. This now opens the door for a new hero to take center stage and allow his tale to begin as a possible successor or a new hero driven to greatness in honor of his fallen idol. With the release of Green Lantern:Rebirth however, DC Comics damaged the heroic legacy of one of their most famous characters, Hal Jordan, who began his run as the silver age Green Lantern and was eventually developed into THE Green Lantern above all else and later evolved into the ultimate villain: Parallax. Jordan later returned to his heroic roots to reignite the sun to save all of planet earth, he died a hero. His heroism further added to his legend and Jordan continued to inspire generations of heroes who followed in his footsteps, as well as his successor Kyle Rayner. Though outraged at his fall from grace, Hal Jordan's legacy was that of the ultimate hero and his death allowed him to redeem himself in the eyes of his peers. His resurrection however, allowed writers to chip away at Hal's legacy and moral character, displaying Jordan as a man whose willpower, a point of pride was overcome and destroyed.
Even more outrageous was the resurrection of the silver age Green Arrow, Oliver Queen. Resurrected through a STILL unknown means, Queen's resurrected literally destroyed his son's run at Green Arrow and has almost erased his existence from the DC Universe. For what?? To bring back a character who had a diminishing fan base?
But the ultimate example of a character who did not need to return from the grave has to be former boy wonder Jason Todd. Jason met his end in 1988's Batman: A Death In The Family, after having the holy snot beaten out of him by Batman's ultimate arch enemy The Joker, Jason's fate was left in the hands of readers who were instructed to call in and vote for life or death. The votes were cast and Jason was killed and in one of the more creative plot devices used in Batman lore, Jason's legacy was emotionally evoked during Bruce Wayne's most trying times forcing The Dark Knight to face his ultimate failure as well as guiding new Robin Tim Drake to greater heights. Jason's death served added an additional driving force to Batman's character while allowing Jason's legacy to live on. His resurrection as a murderous anti hero destroyed Jason's legacy and has really served no true purpose in Batman's universe.
Now I'm not saying death should be removed from comics, but the point and hold death has characters is removed once the character is brought back from the death. Instead of killing characters off...why not create new ones? New villains and new heroes alike to further a characters odyssey and create new stories for fans and new creative outlets for writers. Expanding a character's universe instead of keeping in tightly in hand seems like a better solution instead of resurrecting characters that once killed should stay dead. If you think that a character still has plenty of life in them, and if they serve a higher purpose...let them live.
Alienating your audience for sales is a horrible thing to do and since your readers have such an emotional attachment to these characters killing them should be only with the mindset of introducing a new character or continuing the character's legacy in a new way. Not to mention the fact that you completely waste the hard work of your writers and artists.
Whether or not the death and resurrection are done well or not is a moot point. Death should be reserved for only the most pivotal moments of a character's story.
So please DC, Marvel and anyone else..stop destroying the world's you have worked so hard to create!
Caboose Out!