A Rant About Comic Book Death

Okay, so, I figure I'll give it one more day for the meme. So if you'd like to hop in to ask more questions, please do!

Meanwhile, I've been catching up on comic book gossip. And I've discovered a bit of a pet peeve.

Can we put a moratorium on asking if, after INSERT COMIC BOOK HERE, killing off characters is entirely meaningless?

Because, dude. This ALWAYS comes up. This time it's Fear Itself's fault. But before Fear Itself, people were saying the EXACT SAME THING after Flash Rebirth, Captain America's return, Green Lantern Rebirth, the Black Lantern storyline, Bucky Barnes's return, Jason Todd's return, Death/Return of Superman, and so on and so forth.

Hell, Bruce Wayne died TWICE to pave the way for Dick Grayson's Batman, just in case the first time didn't stick.

Guys. Character death in comics IS meaningless. It has always been meaningless. It will always BE meaningless. It's like character death in a soap opera. Ultimately, it will only last until someone has a "better" idea.

So someone died in Fear Itself. That someone turned out not to be dead. Someone else dies in Children's Crusade. That character may or may not come back by the end of the arc.

Well...of course. This is a series about the Scarlet Witch! Are we really supposed to believe this is the end of the story?

Killing a character (or seeming to) in act one and bringing that character back in act four is not a new literary device. It's not a new comic book device. Off the top of my head, we saw it in Blackest Night. We saw it in JLA Obsidian Age. I'm pretty sure it's happened to the Avengers and X-Men more than once.

Now, I agree, it is a problem when the reader isn't engaged enough in the storyline. Spacing fake deaths, or undo-able deaths out is probably a better option.

But ultimately, a death in comics is like any other event in comics. It's about the execution of the story. If you're emotionally involved in the death scene, even knowing the odds that the character will be back by the end of the arc. Or the end of the year. Or the next main crossover event. Or the next main "let's restore comics to our childhood memories!" nostalgia crisis. Then it's a win. If you're emotionally involved in the resurrection/return, whether you feel relief, anger, joy, or whatever. It's a win.

If you feel apathetic toward either the death or the resurrection? It's a failure, but what the hell, it's not like they can't kill the character off again (and resurrect him/her later.)

It's comics. Death is never permanent except for Barry Allen, Bucky Barnes, Jason Todd, Uncle Ben or Thomas Wayne!*

And honestly, I'm fine with that.

(*Until someone with enough clout has a "better" idea. :-P)