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| Beyond Wolverine: the most memorable superhero deaths in comics | Beyond Wolverine: the most memorable superhero deaths in comics |
| (about 21 hours later) | |
| At the risk of referencing Camus in an article about superheroes, Wolverine died today. His adamantium-laced corpse is the latest to feed the charnel house of comic books, where the prominent heroes and heroines who haven’t met a grim fate are outnumbered by those laid to (a momentary) rest. | At the risk of referencing Camus in an article about superheroes, Wolverine died today. His adamantium-laced corpse is the latest to feed the charnel house of comic books, where the prominent heroes and heroines who haven’t met a grim fate are outnumbered by those laid to (a momentary) rest. |
| As we all must, the superheroes die. Superman. Multiple Captains America. Spider-Man and Batman, sort of. Our deaths, however, are not marketing ploys designed to juice up comics sales ahead of inevitable resurrections. | As we all must, the superheroes die. Superman. Multiple Captains America. Spider-Man and Batman, sort of. Our deaths, however, are not marketing ploys designed to juice up comics sales ahead of inevitable resurrections. |
| Wolverine’s death is distinguished by two things. The first is how poorly it’s been handled. The Death of Wolverinemini-series, which concluded today, is a salad of references to Logan’s past (Madripoor! Kitty Pryde! Ogun! Lady Deathstrike! Weapon X’s Doctor Cornelius!) masquerading as character development. It reveals little about Wolverine’s heroic qualities and adds less to them: the tasks a superhero death tale needs to accomplish. | Wolverine’s death is distinguished by two things. The first is how poorly it’s been handled. The Death of Wolverinemini-series, which concluded today, is a salad of references to Logan’s past (Madripoor! Kitty Pryde! Ogun! Lady Deathstrike! Weapon X’s Doctor Cornelius!) masquerading as character development. It reveals little about Wolverine’s heroic qualities and adds less to them: the tasks a superhero death tale needs to accomplish. |
| The second is more intriguing. | The second is more intriguing. |
| Usually when Marvel or DC Comics kill off their characters, they do so with a promise that this time they really, really mean it, and the hero will not return. The promise is empty, and readers know it, but still the performance persists, since the publisher can’t undermine its allegedly epic event. | Usually when Marvel or DC Comics kill off their characters, they do so with a promise that this time they really, really mean it, and the hero will not return. The promise is empty, and readers know it, but still the performance persists, since the publisher can’t undermine its allegedly epic event. |
| This time Marvel nodded to the emptiness of the promise. The bonus material included in the first Death of Wolverine includes an interview with Len Wein, the character’s creator and a former Marvel editor-in-chief. “Let’s be honest – he’s not staying away,” observed Wein. “He’s the most lucrative character Marvel has these days. There’s no way a major corporation is going to decide, ‘You know, let’s knock off the guy who makes us the most money.’” | This time Marvel nodded to the emptiness of the promise. The bonus material included in the first Death of Wolverine includes an interview with Len Wein, the character’s creator and a former Marvel editor-in-chief. “Let’s be honest – he’s not staying away,” observed Wein. “He’s the most lucrative character Marvel has these days. There’s no way a major corporation is going to decide, ‘You know, let’s knock off the guy who makes us the most money.’” |
| Wein’s interviewer replies that for readers, the gap in the comics world created by a character’s temporary absence is “half the fun sometimes”. Snakt. | |
| The superhero death ritual is so exhausted at this point that the cynicism of Marvel acknowledging Wolverine’s inevitably temporary absence feels refreshing. Previous superhero deaths saw no such acknowledgement. In some far-distant past, when comic books were more innocent, death was even understood to be permanent. But here are some superhero deaths that at least had the virtue of being heroic, epic and moving ways to go out, however temporarily. Maybe the next time Marvel kills Wolverine they’ll get it right. | The superhero death ritual is so exhausted at this point that the cynicism of Marvel acknowledging Wolverine’s inevitably temporary absence feels refreshing. Previous superhero deaths saw no such acknowledgement. In some far-distant past, when comic books were more innocent, death was even understood to be permanent. But here are some superhero deaths that at least had the virtue of being heroic, epic and moving ways to go out, however temporarily. Maybe the next time Marvel kills Wolverine they’ll get it right. |
| Phoenix | Phoenix |
| The gold standard for all superhero departures. An original X-Woman, Jean Grey obtained the power of a god and it drove her insane. Out of control, the Phoenix ecstatically destroyed a star, killing billions of people who populated an orbiting planet. Never before had a hero committed genocide. The X-Men opted for a trial by combat to protect their team-mate from intergalactic justice, but, during a moment of clarity, Jean nobly committed suicide as her penance. Uncanny X-Men#137, the 1980 denouement of the story, is among the best comic books ever published. A sanitised version of the Dark Phoenix Saga appears in the 2006 cinematic disaster X-Men: The Last Stand. | |
| Phoenix is also the gold standard for how to ruin your own amazing story. Six years later, Marvel expanded the X-Men franchise with a comic called X-Factor, featuring the original X-Men. To resurrect Jean, Marvel decided that she was never actually the Phoenix: the godlike power of the Phoenix created a simulacrum of Jean, and that was the being that died so nobly. Jean was in a cryogenic cocoon at the bottom of New York’s Jamaica Bay, and many comic book readers like myself are still mad at this. | Phoenix is also the gold standard for how to ruin your own amazing story. Six years later, Marvel expanded the X-Men franchise with a comic called X-Factor, featuring the original X-Men. To resurrect Jean, Marvel decided that she was never actually the Phoenix: the godlike power of the Phoenix created a simulacrum of Jean, and that was the being that died so nobly. Jean was in a cryogenic cocoon at the bottom of New York’s Jamaica Bay, and many comic book readers like myself are still mad at this. |
| The Flash | The Flash |
| Barry Allen, the guy in the red leather jumpsuit on the CW television show, died the perfect Barry Allen death in 1985’s epic crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths. From the 1950s through the 1980s, Barry Allen’s Flash was the rare superhero who was as good, noble and selfless as he seemed, using his scientist’s curiosity (and a lot of dubious, comicbook-y pseudoscience) to expand the heroic applications of superspeed. So when Barry encountered the antimatter cannon of a being that threatened to destroy all of existence, the Flash ran “faster than I ever have before, running against the flow of antimatter, forcing its energies back into the machine …” The Flash knew from the start that the effort would kill him, but he pushed himself past his limit, his body disintegrating into an empty red uniform. | Barry Allen, the guy in the red leather jumpsuit on the CW television show, died the perfect Barry Allen death in 1985’s epic crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths. From the 1950s through the 1980s, Barry Allen’s Flash was the rare superhero who was as good, noble and selfless as he seemed, using his scientist’s curiosity (and a lot of dubious, comicbook-y pseudoscience) to expand the heroic applications of superspeed. So when Barry encountered the antimatter cannon of a being that threatened to destroy all of existence, the Flash ran “faster than I ever have before, running against the flow of antimatter, forcing its energies back into the machine …” The Flash knew from the start that the effort would kill him, but he pushed himself past his limit, his body disintegrating into an empty red uniform. |
| It would take about 20 years to resurrect Barry Allen, but a teaser story from the early 90s provided a sly comment on the death/revival superhero dialectic. Allen’s protege Wally West becomes the Flash after Barry’s death, and is plagued with doubt that he can’t live up to his mentor’s legacy. When someone the reader thinks is Barry returns, Wally’s joy at having the iconic Flash alongside him disintegrates when Barry leaves Wally to die – so he doesn’t have to share the Flash mantle. The ensuing story is a potent reflection on legacy and maturity, all while subtly demonstrating how much richer comics can be by abandoning the crutch of resetting the status quo. | It would take about 20 years to resurrect Barry Allen, but a teaser story from the early 90s provided a sly comment on the death/revival superhero dialectic. Allen’s protege Wally West becomes the Flash after Barry’s death, and is plagued with doubt that he can’t live up to his mentor’s legacy. When someone the reader thinks is Barry returns, Wally’s joy at having the iconic Flash alongside him disintegrates when Barry leaves Wally to die – so he doesn’t have to share the Flash mantle. The ensuing story is a potent reflection on legacy and maturity, all while subtly demonstrating how much richer comics can be by abandoning the crutch of resetting the status quo. |
| Superboy | Superboy |
| Superman’s death was gimmicky. Superboy’s was sublime. | Superman’s death was gimmicky. Superboy’s was sublime. |
| In the inevitable sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths, two Superboys fought to the death, each representing an era of comic books. One was the corny Superboy, the one from the 50s and 60s, a teenaged version of Superman. The other was an attempt at shaking the dross off the Superboy franchise: Conner Kent, a clone made from bits of Lex Luthor and Superman. The “original” Superboy, known as Superboy-Prime and coexisting with Conner thanks to a tear in the fabric of reality, was disgusted by the morally ambiguous heroes of the early 00s and went nuts, threatening (of course) all of existence in the process. Conner, previously beaten by Superboy-Prime, ignores his feelings of inadequacy and sacrifices himself. The twist: Conner-Superboy doesn’t even stop Superboy-Prime. | |
| The Death of the New Gods | The Death of the New Gods |
| It’s a story that’s long and unfairly forgotten. The New Gods were a space opera created by Jack Kirby, the most important American comic book artist/creator, as a weird, baroque and grand meditation on the endless struggle between good and evil. Kirby never got to finish his epic, and in 2007, DC gave the task to Jim Starlin, another legendary creator who excels at big space stories. Starlin set out to extinguish the New Gods, avatars of good and evil both, in a story that suggested divinity itself can be subverted and betrayed. | It’s a story that’s long and unfairly forgotten. The New Gods were a space opera created by Jack Kirby, the most important American comic book artist/creator, as a weird, baroque and grand meditation on the endless struggle between good and evil. Kirby never got to finish his epic, and in 2007, DC gave the task to Jim Starlin, another legendary creator who excels at big space stories. Starlin set out to extinguish the New Gods, avatars of good and evil both, in a story that suggested divinity itself can be subverted and betrayed. |
| All that is well and good. But the Death of the New Gods is worth the cover price to see one of them, the effervescent Mister Miracle, plunged into irredeemable despair over the loss of his beloved wife, Big Barda. While the Justice League investigates their home and plots next steps, an inconsolable Mister Miracle has an anguished interior moment of reflection on how lost and alone he is now. (“Never going to hear her voice again. Touch her. See her. Speak to her.”) Readers who have lost a loved one will find it immediately familiar: nothing anyone says matters as much as the magnitude of the loss. Having a god feel the same way is somehow comforting. | All that is well and good. But the Death of the New Gods is worth the cover price to see one of them, the effervescent Mister Miracle, plunged into irredeemable despair over the loss of his beloved wife, Big Barda. While the Justice League investigates their home and plots next steps, an inconsolable Mister Miracle has an anguished interior moment of reflection on how lost and alone he is now. (“Never going to hear her voice again. Touch her. See her. Speak to her.”) Readers who have lost a loved one will find it immediately familiar: nothing anyone says matters as much as the magnitude of the loss. Having a god feel the same way is somehow comforting. |
| Robin (the second one) | Robin (the second one) |
| Finally the Joker won, assisted by the bloodthirsty horde of comic fandom. | Finally the Joker won, assisted by the bloodthirsty horde of comic fandom. |
| Interpretations of Batman differ as to whether the Dark Knight would actually take on a lighthearted teenage boy as a squire, especially since the comics never really brought home how dangerous Batman had made life for Robin. The late-1980s storyline A Death in the Family changed that forever, as a giggling Joker used a tyre iron to beat the second Robin, Jason Todd, to an inch of his life. Right as it seemed like Robin might survive, a bomb blast set by the Joker killed Robin and his long-lost mother. Yet that wasn’t the sick part. | |
| DC Comics ran a strange gimmick: a telephone hotline readers could call to vote for Robin’s fate. Batfans, by a thin but disturbing margin, voted in favour of watching a malevolent clown brutally murder a teenager. Decades later, DC would unravel A Death in the Family and bring Jason Todd back. But retroactive continuity is unable to save comics fandom from its own violent voyeurism. |