Thought Bubble Thursdays #5 - Nobody Stays Dead in the Comics
It's been a while, but Thought Bubble Thursdays is back! It's back!! It's back!! Like any popular comic book character, you can never put it down for long. So, let's make like a zombie and hop to it! Cue the lightning!
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Name any popular comic book character, and you can rest assured that it has died at least once in its illustrious career. Whether its Superman at the hands of Doomsday or Bruce Banner/Hulk at the hands of Hawkeye, they just keep coming back. Magic, time travel, parallel dimensions, cloning, miracle drugs, you name it! Every explanation for a revival that you can think of, comic book writers have already used it.
It's weird to talk about death to start the year, but when we think about it, why should it be? After all, it goes hand in hand with life, creation and renewal. One can't truly know the true value of life if it doesn't have an expiration. If you look at it through the eyes of someone immortal, seconds hold more value for a person that has a limited amount of it, doesn't it?
I dedicate this edition of Thought Bubble Thursdays to my sister from an AWESOME mister's dad who recently passed away, Papa @dreemit. While I didn't have the pleasure to know him while he was alive, he was one half of the spectacular duo that raised one of my favorite people in the world. That in itself already makes him a total winner in my book. I tip my hat to you, sir!
What is it about bringing characters back from the grave that's so alluring? Join me as we take a look at why you can't keep a comic book character down.
Death is Temporary
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Death is a serious subject, one that isn't often discussed lightly, and for good reason. It signifies the end of a life, or at least one's mortal existence. What lies beyond is a mystery, but what we can physically see is the finality of a person that was once among the living.
Unlike us, comic book characters (or any fictional character) have the luxury to defy conventional science. They have their own sense of time, their own physical rules and their own everything. Basically, they don't have to follow anything that applies to us. They're bound by the rules that are set by the writers, which doesn't help in deflating the latter's megalomaniac tendencies.
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Among fans, the term comic book death has been coined as a sort of derogatory term which pertains to the temporary nature of a character's demise. Over the years, death in comics has lost its meaning because everyone expects the character that died to eventually come back. It might take months or years, but they do come back, taking away the sting of their previous death. Some writers even insert meta-jokes in the comics, with characters expecting their fallen peer to come back after a few months.
At the top of my head, some notable deaths that had a tremendous effect include that of Barry Allen (oh shoot, not again), Nightcrawler, Jason Todd and Wolverine. I know I've mentioned it in a previous edition, but I just want to refresh everyone's memory, Barry Allen (aka The Flash) died while saving the Multiverse (not just one universe, as if it wasn't big enough, but every universe imaginable) against the Anti-Monitor. He ran so fast (so fast) that he became pure energy and even went back in time to become the very lightning that gave him his powers. You see, his death needed to stick because he died a hero. He died saving everyone. Every. Living. Thing. How would he be able to top that? If he saved a Primer Minister's wife from certain doom, that wouldn't even begin to measure up to what he had already accomplished. Plus, his death gave Wally West (the real one) the opportunity to step up and fill his shoes. For all intents and purposes, Barry Allen's story had a good bookend. He had, excuse my pun, a good run. And, it did stick for about 20 years, right when he literally outran Death and returned to life. Comics, amirite?
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Death is a State of Mind
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With all that being said, let's explore why characters are constantly getting resurrected. The cause could be any number of reasons really. One of the most prominent ones is the character's popularity. While it's easy to say that creating a new character could fill the void left by a departing character, it's never going to be quite the same. Different backstories, different personalities, and different characters altogether. No wonder movie and TV producers just change the race and gender instead of creating a whole new different character. Every character comes with a baggage, good or bad, and with that cache comes a following that was built over time. The character's death won't automatically result to its fans hopping over to its successor. If anything, a lot of fans would still stick with the deceased character and compare all the others that would seek to replace it.
Another common reason is story purposes. Comic book stories are passed on to different writers. Even though one writer feels like a character's time has passed, the next writer might feel differently and look to bring back the character to tell stories he had in mind. This could either be good or it could mess up the entire continuity. Handling these kinds of situations is a logistical nightmare and it only seeks to further solidify death in comics as a running gag.
One other possible reason is escapism. Death is inevitable, and writers may want to exercise their power to rid of it in the universe of their making. Comic book characters have been known to outlast their creators, so why not make them live forever?
Personally, I prefer it when art imitates life in this regard. Giving death permanence also gives more weight to the character's death. It gives a whole new impact when a character makes a heroic sacrifice, and it could make character's think twice about giving up one's life. Sure, they really never expect to be resurrected when they make the decision, but we readers surely do.
I think this won't be that big of a problem in movies and TV. Apart from cloning and time travel (or resurrection via Kryptonian genesis chamber * cough * I'm looking at you Supes), actors wouldn't want to come back to life time and again even when the character's arc has run its course. It would be like a guest that has overstayed his welcome. I bring this up because I feel like the MCU is due for a number of major deaths with Infinity War. I'm calling it right now, Captain America's days are numbered :D
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But, enough of my thoughts, what do you guys think? Should dead characters stay dead? Does resurrection lessen the impact of their demise? Should I order a burrito for lunch? Let's discuss.
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Another reason that many of them come back to life... too many fans have tattoos of their favourite hero! Easier to bring them back than cut off a limb!
Hahaha!! Couldn't those tattoos serve as a memorial instead? I think those tributes have more meaning for characters that have passed. It's always awkward to see a tattoo of someone that's still alive haha! The character can still go off the rails and make themselves unworthy of the tribute. Dead ones would have their legacy intact until new information about seedy activities come to light haha!
Great point. It is weird seeing a tattoo of someone who is still alive....
So I'm just throwing it out there in case you ever decide to get one of your son if you ever go through midlife crisis when you reach that point. Daryl, don't.
Wow, those are some SERIOUSLY EPIC deaths.
I read the fantasy series Malazan, which had about 30 billion characters and names to remember in its 10,000 pages (which means 3 million new characters a page, what a feat!). At first when a character died, I would feel a twisted sense of relief because I wouldn't have to keep track of them anymore. But then they would somehow come back from the dead or appear as a ghost or something and I would be so confused. And then I stopped caring if a character died at all. I would rather be able to grieve and move on in my own time.
Except for my character in video games. I hate the ones where my death means I have to start again!
Would you hate me if I said I haven't heard of Malazan before? When I searched for it, it seems pretty epic! Might have to carve up some time to delve into that world. But yeah... right!? Death should mean something. If characters get resurrected based on a writer's whim, then they shouldn't have just died in the first place. Removes all the stakes in the world. Death should bring some finality to something, and not leave possibilities of a return open.
You know, I've often thought that there was some deep philosophical lesson from games that force you to start the whole thing again. What if everything we build in our lives just come crashing down in one fell swoop? Why do we even try if anything we do, doesn't mean something? Aren't save spots just another way of removing the stakes brought by death?
Spot on - video games are full of those lessons. As participants instead of audience members, resurrection sounds a lot nicer. If I die right now I'd love for the Great Author in the Sky to give me another chance!
Oh definitely! No matter my stance, I would love to have as many tries at this thing we call life. Preferrably with the save state though instead of starting over from scratch haha!
You got me hooked from the VERY begginning with those creative caps. :)
My first comic book "death" (That sounds about right...) was the superman's death. I don't know if it was the first he had, but it was certainly the first i read. The one with Doomsday.
It was such a MASSIVE event! Befor that, i barely read any comic books. I got all the numbers related to it, then the next, then the next... it seem so important!!! An event that we all SHOULD witness!
And then he got back. With longer hair.
I felt so dissapointed (About him being alive, not the hair). But anyway, i got hooked up with the comics world since then, for decades now, and i will certainly stay here. I even write them now.
So, it was not all bad. :)
BANG! I guess those fishing lessons worked out! I don't know why it is, but I've always had fun writing openings. I don't have tons of luck drawing people in, so I'm grateful whenever I do.
It was Superman's first death. Every other death from him pales in comparison. I like how they set up the Battle of the Supermen, as if one other character would succeed him. I was very disappointed when mullet Supes won out. I was disappointed with him being alive and the hair. Well, mostly because they didn't stick with it. If they wanted to go long hair, they should've at least committed to it long-term.
You write comics? Wow! As in, you're published professionally? Writing comics has always been a dream of mine! Good on you for sticking with it from that time on. I didn't pursue it as much back then, but now I'm back on the path.
Thanks for stopping by to leave your thoughts, man! I appreciate it :D
Thank you! I write them, yeah, and i plan to getting them published on the long term. I have one of my projects (Shadow Games) on my steemit account. This is a dream i am building up slowly, but strategically (I am strategic storyteller, as a profession, by the way) solid.
By the way, "I was disappointed with him being alive and the hair."... you made my day with this one. :D
Strategic storyteller is such a fascinating job title! That's awesome :D I wish you the best of luck with that, and I hope to see you in the conventions. We're both going to be in the panels of course ;)
Glad to have made your day!
Stay dead. I remember shedding a tear for the blue boy scout back when he "died" i think i was 14 or 15 then, only to be revived after a short while. Lol.
Shawarma rice over burrito.
Unfortunately, I opted for burrito at the time. Shawarma rice is always a top option though!
I didn't include Superman's death in detail because I feel like it's up there among the most well-known deaths. It was a moment that made him feel most connected with us, what with him not being the invincible being he always comes across as. When he was resurrected, it removed almost any stake of him ever dying again. Every battle after came off as "meh" since we know he would never suffer anything worse.
First of all, thank you for the beautiful words love. And this was an amazingly appropriate piece for sure.
Wow, I did not know about many of those deaths, and I do think that it steals the impact. Especially for those like the Flash who could not possibly top that death, anything else would be anti-climactlic.
But because they are comic book characters generated from cartoons, I suppose I can accept the constant revivals.
And the universe may have just used you to give me a sign about something I've been wrestling with. I'll let you know when I make a concrete decision one way or another.
Lastly, that comment I left you last night was overdone I think. I can blame the super strong muscle relaxers given to me by a friend for my back I suppose, they did make me feel a bit odd and really chatty. I left an entire post to @tonyr!
I hope what I said didn't bother you. I think I left off the most important part, which is that it hurts me when you get down on yourself or think the world is stacking its chips against you. You are so precious, i don't think you realize it.
Exactly! Everything that comes after would come off flat. I mean, how could you top saving the whole multiverse! Their deaths need to mean something, otherwise why kill them off in the first place. I feel like the writers are just doing it for the shock value. But, there's only so many times one can shock the reader with the same old thing.
Do let me know what that concrete decision may be. Definitely interested to hear what it is.
It didn't come across as overdone. I truly appreciated it! Admittedly, I do often get down on myself. I don't know why it is, but I was always wired that way. Definitely something I'm trying to work on getting rid off this year.
I think they should stay dead. It's always irked me, the furore over them dying then two minutes later, hey I'm back!
I think there is one more reason for the killing off of them which is far less noble than any others you have mentioned... Ratings/popularity. The sales for a conic when the main hero gets whacked go through the roof when they do it. What better way to reignite interest in a series.
Stay dead!!
Makes me want to kill them again and make it stick. I guess that's why the rule in killing zombies is to double tap. And yeah, I do agree that ratings play a huge factor. I don't know why I didn't mention that. Perhaps, I left it off in hopes that it would be mentioned by a Scottish gentleman in the comments section ha! There can only be so many times they could whack a character and make it come across as believable. After the 10th death, only the most foolish of readers would believe that it would stick.
I think in a few circumstances some sort of resurrection makes sense; but I think it is far and few between and I would much rather the character stay dead. It isn't like we won't still have comics or whatever from that character, they can essentially reboot the franchise with the same hero but a new story. For instance, once the first MCU arc actually comes to a close and RDJ is done with Iron Man, they are going to make new Iron Man movies, just with a different actor and new stories. In general I always feel permanent death of characters brings much more emotional weight to a story and I think that is almost always a good thing.
When that eventually happens, I do wish that they use a different character instead of recasting the role of Tony Stark. Retire him when RDJ retires. That's something that I'm actually currently writing for tomorrow's episode, so way to get ahead of it, brother! For DC though, I'm almost certain they're going to be recasting a lot of characters after their Flashpoint movie. It feels like they plan to reboot their whole universe and start from the ground up.
With all of the fantastic elements in their world, I think death is what tethers them and connects them with our reality. It's the most "human" thing that they could do, so removing that from the equation almost detaches their reality from ours completely.
I could kinda understand Barry Allen's comeback.... because he really didn't die, just became a puff of energy in the speed-force... but as I was a huge Wally West fan, I felt a bit disappointed Barry was brought back (and he wasn't that nice a guy, from memory). Ironically, that's about the time I stopped reading The Flash.
I started reading X-Men when Professor X came back from the dead... except he hadn't been dead, he'd been in the Shiar Empire. That was cool.
I was SOOOO glad they killed Superman. I still have that issue in the original black plastic sealed sleeve. I can't stand him. But they brought him back... WTAF?!?
AND - I also couldn't believe they brought Jason Todd back. That was shite. And I'm sure The Joker has been resurrected several times - remember Batman shot him several times as his chopper crashed into the water....
I was bummed to hear they killed off Logan...
And don't forget Jean Grey/Phoenix..... that's gotta be the resurrection to end all resurrections.
Great article.
Oh man, we share the same sentiment! I grew up with Wally West, so having Barry back was a bittersweet moment for me. On one hand, I thought he was going to play more of a mentor role, but considering he hasn't aged a day when he returned, he's still under the mindset that he's The Flash. Even though Barry is almost synonymous with the Speed Force, I feel like Wally has always had a greater connection to it.
Haha! Have you heard about Professor X's latest resurrection? Man oh man, for a symbol that mutants rally behind, he just doesn't know when to quit.
I'm on the same boat with regard to Superman! I really hate him as a character. Dying was the best thing that happened to him IMO. But then they backtracked and had him live out to this day. Not only that, they pushed the reset button on his character after Flashpoint, but when people couldn't stand the new character, they killed it off and brought back the previous Superman.
Jason Todd, I don't mind so much, to be honest. He had quite the long absence, and his return made for a compelling dynamic. He's mostly on the outskirts now, but when he came back to prominence, he really had his uses. As for the Joker, there's no definitive explanation yet, but... SPOILER ALERT there are three Jokers roaming around. And, at least one of them drinks from a pool of pure Dionesium (which is an even more pure version of the Lazarus Pit) to revive himself. I'm interested to see how they would go about with that revelation.
Turn that frown upside down, because that ol' Canucklehead is back from the dead, with the Space Infinity Gem to boot! As to how, we have yet to know. As to why, most probably sales.
You know, I was supposed to do the whole section on Jean Grey/Phoenix, but I found it ironic that they kept her shelved for so long, considering the Phoenix is a symbol for resurrection. I have yet to finish reading her latest return so the jury's still out. I've heard from the grapevine that she's bringing every dead mutant back with her! Well, maybe not all of them, but she's rumored to be bringing back the more prominent ones.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving those wonderful thoughts! Sorry I got back to it so late, as I've been catching up on a lot of things I've missed.
That's part of the reason I don't think I can go back to reading these titles.... so much has changed since then, I think I would get very very confused.
They've been introducing initiatives to help new readers get caught up with everything, so that even though the number of issues are already high, it feels like they're reading fresh stories without needing to go back to the archives. But yeah, I get how you feel.
I think they should stay dead. Though having said that, I do kinda like the alternate universe way of getting them back. As long as they have some personality differences, as they would have in an alternate universe.
If you want a burrito, I say go for it.
I did go for that burrito :D Oh yeah, the alternate universe doppelganger is fine with me. They're essentially different characters, so the personality difference would inevitably add to the dynamic. The character themselves have peers that are counterparts of the ones in their home universe, so how they react to the doppelgangers will always be interesting.
Ya, go for the burrito, but hold the onions because they can kill you, and you know, once your dead your dead. And the resurrection of superhero’s, nah, they’re hero’s not God.
What's up with holding the onions? I went for a breakfast burrito, so there was no onions, but for those that do, I usually order it with everything. Some heroes are considered gods, so I guess that counts for something. But, I'm with you there man. The dead should stay dead. Death has to mean something.