The Introduction of Death In Comics
Character death in comic books mean very little to the readers of today, but there was a time where the shock value of a major character death shook us to our very core.
In comics these days, the death of a beloved character seems more of an inconvenience than a tragedy. Though we all feel a little put out when our favorite character meets a tragic end, in the back of our minds we know they’re only a few months or a major arc away from coming back in grandiose fashion. I’ve lost a few of my favorite X-characters over the past 5 years – Nightcrawler and villain Sabretooth, but I did not fret and, sure enough, I’ve seen them again since. One has been brought back from an alternate universe and another is back from the dead all together, as if nothing ever happened. With a genre full of clones, alternate realities, magic, Lazarus pits and reality warping, it’s hard to take it too seriously when someone loses a life, but that ambivalent take on major character death is not how it has always been.
Before the 1980s, the only earth-shattering death we’d seen in comics was Gwen Stacy’s demise in the Amazing Spider-Man, circa 1973. A superhero falling just didn’t seem like an option. The good guys always win. This was the case until 1980, when we were introduced to a storyline that would become one of the biggest events of X-Men history, The Dark Phoenix Saga.
Jean Grey became more of a force to be reckoned with after the X-Men’s relaunch in the 1970s. After her manifestation of the Phoenix and the repair of the M’Kraan Crystal, Jean’s embodiment of the Phoenix became corrupt and the Dark Phoenix was born. After some time of the Phoenix being a complete and utter jerk, Jean had a moment of clarity and let herself be murdered by a Shi’ar weapon to prevent the Phoenix’s escape. The original ending to this story was to have Jean depowered to prevent her from being inhabited by the Phoenix force, leaving both Jean and the Phoenix around for future plot lines, but Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter rebuked the cushy ending and demanded that the Phoenix and Jean Grey fully pay for the horror and genocide that she caused. The writers and Shooter finally compromised on Jean committing suicide and sacrificing herself for the safety of the world. This ending shocked readers and turned the Dark Phoenix Saga into a classic – one of the first of its kind in killing off a major character. Little did we know at the time, that the writers were already planning Jean’s return, which would come to fruition a mere 5 years later.
Marvel was not the only publisher to rock readers by killing off a mainstream character in the 80s, DC did this as well, and with the added bite of killing off a minor. Batman’s second Robin, Jason Todd, was easily one of the most disliked characters in Batman comics. A hardened kid from the streets, Todd was the opposite of Dick Grayson’s Robin that fans knew and loved. After some very vocal outrage over the character, DC comics decided to let the fans decide the fate of young Jason Todd who was in the clutches of the Joker. They set up a 900 number to let readers vote on Jason Todd’s survival and after what many believe to be a rigged vote, Jason Todd was brutally beaten with a crowbar at the hands of the Joker before being rigged to a bomb and blown to smithereens. The decision to kill Jason Todd was one of the most controversial events in comic book history. Though Jason Todd would have a presence in the later arc, Hush, he would not return to comics for almost 20 years. In 2005, Jason Todd returned as a new version of a former Joker alter-ego, The Red Hood.
Even the once common expression, “The only people who stay dead in comics, are Bucky, Jason Todd and Uncle Ben,” no longer applies except for the latter
(unless you’re including alternate universe, in which case all things go out the window). While major character deaths such as Barry Allen, Hal Jordan and Spider-Man have shocked readers over the years, we’ve become jaded in the face of a hero or villain’s demise. It’s become a double-edged sword. No one wants to see a classic super hero leave the genre forever, but we’ve begun to roll our eyes at “shocking” event announcements promising the departure of a beloved protagonist.
Most of us have raised our fists in protest of publishers recycling deceased characters over and over again, but I can’t say that the same lot of us wouldn’t raise our fists in protest of a favorite hero being gone forever. As readers we must decide what bothers us most, the unrealistic portrayal of leads constantly rising from the dead, or the possibility that we may lose some classic heroes and villains for good that do not have a worthy replacement on deck.
Death will always be a part of comic book story-telling, but it’s possible for us to get to a place where the event is taken more seriously if that is truly what we want, but the real question is just that – is permanent character death something we truly want?