Death in Comic Books

Death. The big dirt nap.  Worm Food.  Six feet under.  No matter what you call it when your times up, and your ticket is punched, Death comes for you and there’s no escaping it.  It’s an inevitability of life.  That is unless you’re a comic book character.  Then for you death is just a momentary hiatus, which will soon see you resurrected and elevated to new heights of glory and popularity.

The dictionary definition of death is as follows:
Death (deth) n. 1. the act of dying; cessation, esp. of life.  2. (cap.) the personification of the inevitability of death.  3. lack of existence; the state of being dead.  4. a plague; a fatal disease.

In comic books Death means something else entirely, it isn’t the handicap it once used to be.  We all know that comic book characters die frequently within the four colored panels and pages.  There are a myriad number of reasons why a character is killed off in the pages of your favorite comic book.  It may be to create publicity, for dramatic tension or one of hundreds of other reasons.  However, just as frequently as they die it is all too common for them to come back to life.  Via all sorts of elaborate resurrections or alternate realities or hoaxes.  Whatever that might be or however they are returned to the land of the living this creates a very disparaging situation.  Not only is the dramatic impact of the death lost on those reading the comic book, because they know all to well the character will eventually see the light of day again, so why even give it a second thought or worry about it? They’ll be back, and probably even better than ever.  But what message is this sending to those young and impressionable readers?
There have been countless numbers of famous comic book deaths, from DC’s highly publicized demise of Superman in 1993′s Death of Superman, to most recently Marvel Comics Steve Rogers (Captain America) in issue #25 of Captain America Volume #5.  As we all know Superman was brought back to the land of the living, and as seen in recent developments within the pages of Captain America the original shield slinging, good old Star Spangled Avenger has since made a return to the four color world of comic books.  With the live action Captain America movie on the horizon it was a sure bet that he’d be making a triumphant return.

I am sending out a call to address this situation.  From the big two all the way down to the guy or girl publishing comic books out of their respective basements.  Let’s have some accountability.  If you kill off a character, then let that be that.  Don’t just do it to increase sales.  Let there be a point to be made, let there be a reason for it.  We are all interconnected with our favorite heroes and villains, and as such do they not also deserve the same respect that you would give to those who have died.  Like I said earlier let’s not forget about the children reading these books, who witness a death in whatever book and then see the character returned to the land of the living.  What if they are then faced with a death in their real life?  Whose to say that they won’t think “Oh that’s OK…grandma will be back up and running around next week.  It happens all the time in the pages of my comic books.”

Well, what do you think?  Agree, disagree, have another point of view?  Well, than stand up and let your voice be heard!

This is not the last word on this subject; I’ll be revisiting this one sometime again in the future. There is a wealth of subject matter regarding Death in comic books. But for now I leave you with a quote that I feel sums up perfectly what Death in comic books and the all too inevitable resurrection of said characters means:

“If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character…Would you slow down? Or speed up?” – Chuck Palahniuk