Death, Where Is Thy Sting?

I don't much follow modern comics anymore. That said, I have read that a bunch of DC heroes thought dead have now turned up alive. For some this has happened several times already. I can't imagine why death in comics gets anyone's attention anymore. No one stays dead; the return of Bucky proved that.


When I first started reading comics, death was a part of the mix for sure. But mostly as imaginary tales and once in a while for a side character.


DC was good at knocking off its heroes on the covers, but of course you could count on the fact that the story itself was either merely "imaginary" or the whole thing was a hoax of some sort. It did make for some dramatic covers, but then that was the whole point.


At Marvel it was a bit less rosy. There, the greater sense of reality suggested that death be more real too. My first taste of death was Professor X who had a death announced on the logo of the then failing X-Men comic. By the end of that run he'd returned, but for most of my initial X-comics reading Professor X was dead. It seemed permanent.

Other characters died here and there.


Years before the Professor, Wonder Man had appeared and died in the Avengers, but he'd eventually return after many many years.


In Captain Marvel, it wasn't announced, but his love Medic Una died, and since that was my favorite comic at the time, it really stung me a bit. She's never returned to my knowledge, too meager a character for anyone to care about I guess.


Captain Stacy died in Spider-Man.


Then his daughter famously died a few years later.


Namor's love Dorma was murdered.


Captain Marvel himself died, and that one more than any other has seemed to hold, though they've toyed with it from time to time. This death feels more permanent partly because Mar-vell's identity is really confirmed by the way in which he passed. Starlin created a story that seems to resonate to this day in a rather special way.


And then Jean Grey died. It all changed and the blockbuster death was born of sorts. From the moment of her demise, Jean Grey's death always seemed different, as if it were destined to be undone, but it didn't happen and it didn't happen and it didn't happen. She truly seemed gone. But at last the powers relented and she returned.

That changed the landscape.


Soon death was not uncommon in comics.


Superman of course is the most famous superhero to kick the mortal coil. His seeming demise (one of dozens in his long career) kicked off the speculator war that itself almost killed comics ironically enough. The white-hot nature of the collecting of that benighted era marked the death of comics as we know them in many ways.


The stunt death was upon us, and it's been here ever since. Heroes get killed (not really) then they seemed to show up again (not really) but eventually they at long last return (really this time) and the status quo of that preceded their death is largely returned and the hideous cycle might even start over again.


Captain America and Batman and Thor and dozens of lesser characters die and return and so on and so forth. It's become a parade of pointlessness. Hawkman dies so much it's become part of his modus operandi, he lives merely to die yet again.

It's become tiresome and and worse for a storytelling medium, it's become boring. The sting of death has long since vanished in comics. Alas the real world is not so accommodating.

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