Another Superhero gets "killed"
 

SPOILER WARNING: Don't click on the link unless you want to know:



To generate some general discussion, this isn't the first time a superhero has been "killed". Note that I put that word in quotes, because in comics, the death of a character never seems to be permanent, and if the character was popular enough, the publishers will figure out some way to bring them back to life (Superman probably being the best example of this).



Do you think by "killing" off a character, the character's image is being hurt or helped? What about if they later get brought back to life? And don't say it won't happen, comic book characters never really disappear (the sole exceptions being because they're not a popular character, and/or their comic isn't selling well).

Of course, I'm not a hardcore comics reader. I know enough about most superheroes and their backstory, but if I'm wrong here, do you know of any major characters that were really killed off and never brought back?

Use spoiler tags if you do have an answer, so that you don't ruin it for other people. type spoiler in between brackets [ and ] (they're above the Enter key and slightly to the left), and when you're done, type /spoiler in brackets behind the last word.

I dunno if it applies to the entire Batman Comicss but....



I am also not a hardcore comic reader. I just read whatever I can afford. Or whats on sale. You can get lucky sometimes.

One thing I can say for sure with all these killed-then-suddenly-revived heroes. It confuses the hell out of me. Also not to mention the what ifs..

Personaly, it's just the full stop to that horrid series.

(Runaways spoiler

you know just above this is a comic subforum where you could post this

Personally i think it's great he got killed, i didnt like him one bit.

Doesn't mean shit. There's been 20 Robins and 40 The Flashes, it's just a ploy to get people to buy more comics.

Those are both DC characters. We're talking about a marvel character.

Oh wow, I just heard about this on the radio a couple hours and went to pick up the issue (just released this week, heh, I can't wait to reap the benefits of this investment). Man, that's was quite a surprise. I'm surprised that it's even getting media attention outside of the internet (which I'm sure everyone will know who it is by the end of the today, if not the week).

Anyway, a character with this big of a name in comics, I've no doubt they'll be revived. Just a matter of time. And with the timing they chose for the character to go down, I think it'll probably help the character's image more than it'll hurt it (heh, as company is only going to get more sales).

You know, for the longest time I was comforted by the fact that no matter how many times someone died and then "Oh wait it was a clone" or "Oh well he was healed by ancient chinese monks" etc., that some character just STAYED. DEAD.

Then, they revived Bucky.

So I don't care if they 'killed' Captain America, because its inevitable that he will return. In fact the only way that Marvel could make his death mean something, and the ideals he stands for, is to KEEP him dead, and play off everyone's expectation that he's only "semi-dead". Marvel doesn't have the balls to do that, just like how everyone is going to magically forget that Peter Parker is Spider-man in 2 years.

This is racism. America can't die!

Drat. This thread spoiled me. Why did I expand those infernal spoiler boxes :(

i for one think that the killing of a superhero hurts the image.

but reading further in that article [yesterday] i noticed something very funny.

"
The character's death came as a blow to co-creator Simon, the Associated Press reported.

"We really need him now," Simon, 93, told The AP.

"

hah.

He'll be back by the end of the story arc. Either that or Bucky will take up the mantle.

They briefly touched upon this in Civil War: Initiative. It seems you shouldn't write off the man yet.

Firstly, I had no idea that this was about to happen. I went and picked my books up Wednesday morning and everyone at the store was telling me to read the new issue of Cap. Since it's on my list anyway, it was already in my pulled books, so I took it home and read through it before anything else.



I've no doubts that they'll bring him back, but so far, there are already two confirmed people that'll be taking up the Captain American mantle while Steve is down and out. The most obvious being The Winter Soldier, aka Bucky. The second, Frank Castle, aka The Punisher. That alone will keep me reading both Cap and Punisher: War Journal.

Just my two cents.

There's also a third person you haven't considered, and that is Nick Fury. Wasn't he also a recipient of the Super Soldier Serum? And he's been in "hiding" for a lot of the Civil War thing. I can see him coming back under the Captain America mantle now that Shield isn't his. The question then becomes will he change the mantle to suit him, or will the mantle of Captain America change his views to be more in line with the man that died is it.

They won't kill off Captain America. Marvel wouldn't have the ball to do that. They will, most likely, re-vamp Capt. America with a "darker, grittier" image. Wasn't Bucky dead for about 40 years and I hear that now he is back? Pathetic. I used to be a hard-core comic fan. I mean, I was the biggest comic book geek in my school; but story lines like this disgust me. It was the whole "Spider-man is really a clone" story line that ended my romance with the comic book.

HightopNinja... try marking your spoilers like this:

Regarding Civil War: Initiative



And why is this still not in the Comic Book Subforum? ...

What a bunch of commie pinko liberal bullshit. DA GUBBAMINT IS KILLING AMERIKKKA

Maybe the next time Marvel wants to kill off a character to make ham-fisted political statements, they won't. I told you all that Civil War was retarded.

I agree, Civil War was fucking awful. I said it from the beginning, and I'll say it again. Also, aren't you a commie pinko libertarian?

Yeah, but I'm not about to subvert cultural icons into doing something out-of-character to push an agenda.

The most hilarious thing about all this is that they cite 9/11 and the Patriot Act as political inspiration for the Civil War split, but a superhero registry is more akin to gun control.

They can't even provide a consistant message, so the end result is a dumb one. The only one. The government is killing America = Captain America.

Yeah, this whole run has been pretty goddamn shoddy. I fully agree.

I thought it was decent, if crappily paced. Then the climax to this piece of shit is that Captain America goes "oops time to be arrested" and the fighting suddenly stops. Then he gets quizzed on Internet shit to determine the validity of his arguments. I reread everything and realized that Civil War is just a tumor filled with every dumb idea Marvel came up with and the overarching debate was already overdone by X-Men for forty years.

I hate Civil War.

I read the first two issues of Civil War and stopped because I couldn't stand how bad it is.

I just read the Capt. America Epilogue, and however anyone feels about the character or whether or not the character is truly dead doesn't stop me from thinking this is an incredibly shitty way to kill the guy.

I also just read The Confession, to which I reply: Fuck you, Iron Man.