Random Death

[SC41]

I was reading the Ultimatum argument in another thread, and someone mentioned the death rate being far too high for one event. This got me to thinking about how they could have had the same end results and pulled it off more convincingly.

I personally think they should have let some of the lesser characters (and an important one or two) live so that they could kill them off in Avengers and Ultimate Comics: X-Men.

I feel like if the government hunted down and killed, say, Nightcrawler and Angel, it would have given them a more fitting death, and would further cement the threat of the government for mutants.

I also feel like Gregory Stark could have killed Giant Man or someone of that caliber.

Maybe Toad could be killed by Quicksilver for his betrayal.

I just think that the fear of death is absent, despite all of the past victims. I feel like we know when someone is going to die before they die, and unless someone says they're going to die beforehand, we can assume that they are safe.

When Beast got crushed by the debris in Ultimate X-Men, that was a great death. It's a shame they even brought him back, honestly.

I just feel like if maybe the X-Men or Avengers lost members on a more constant basis, the status quo could be achieved in a more believable, fitting, and exciting way.

And I don't think it's too late for that. We could still kill an important character or two in the early issues of X-Men, perhaps Storm or Firestar. I feel like if the question of "Who's going to make it out alive?" was posed more consistently, we'd have a reason to care about these threats to the characters more.

Thoughts?

[MagSeven]

I was reading the Ultimatum argument in another thread, and someone mentioned the death rate being far too high for one event. This got me to thinking about how they could have had the same end results and pulled it off more convincingly.

I personally think they should have let some of the lesser characters (and an important one or two) live so that they could kill them off in Avengers and Ultimate Comics: X-Men.

I feel like if the government hunted down and killed, say, Nightcrawler and Angel, it would have given them a more fitting death, and would further cement the threat of the government for mutants.

I also feel like Gregory Stark could have killed Giant Man or someone of that caliber.

Maybe Toad could be killed by Quicksilver for his betrayal.

I just think that the fear of death is absent, despite all of the past victims. I feel like we know when someone is going to die before they die, and unless someone says they're going to die beforehand, we can assume that they are safe.

When Beast got crushed by the debris in Ultimate X-Men, that was a great death. It's a shame they even brought him back, honestly.

I just feel like if maybe the X-Men or Avengers lost members on a more constant basis, the status quo could be achieved in a more believable, fitting, and exciting way.

And I don't think it's too late for that. We could still kill an important character or two in the early issues of X-Men, perhaps Storm or Firestar. I feel like if the question of "Who's going to make it out alive?" was posed more consistently, we'd have a reason to care about these threats to the characters more.

Thoughts?

My only problem with a lot of the deaths in Ultimatum is that many of them didn't make sense. For example, it should be next to impossible for Nightcrawle to drown. Guys like Captain Britain and Cannonball should be able to survive an explosion with their powers. The Wolverine cell thing was a bit ridiculous. I just think if there were better causes of death for some characters, I would have accepted Ultimatum as a better story.

I will say that Ultimatum and Death of Spider-Man did show that no one is truly safe. The Ultimate universe has never been predictable in who was going to die. That's a good thing for avoiding ruts. But I do hope they keep people around for a little development before going kill crazy again.

[VRaptorX]

Yeah....I'll say that is a good idea. Makes it more personal, more time to develop the tragedy....although you'd probably need to use someone bigger for that spot because if a D lister dies post Ultimatum.....they never had a role to begin with so it isn't a big deal.

But you are right, it would be a lot better than "half the cast dies off panel in ways that make no sense." It would have opened up some more room for character development.

Killing one character every year for 10 years is better than killing 10 characters in 1 year. Although you do run into the problem of, "oh, it's the end of the plot arc, time for the mandatory death scene"....which is a problem plaguing 616 right now.

Really I'd go back to the 1 death every decade rule. If you don't use a character, just say they are on the away team, or they retired, went into hiding, now have a desk job on the team, etc.

[SC41]

Here's a thought. What if they hadn't killed Daredevil in Ultimatum, and had instead killed him in Avengers 3. They could have eliminated Ray Conner and Stick from the comic, and maybe even had Daredevil lead the clan rather than Nerd Hulk.