How to Kill Dead Comics Characters

[Alan Smithee]

I've been trying to think of foolproof ways to kill characters in a way that nobody could really undo. Uncle Ben, unlike Pa Kent, can't come back because his death is the engine for Spider-man's existence.

People talk about the great cancer story (yawn) that constituted the death Capitan Mar-vell. I missed that ish somehow and would really like the treacherous Kree back where he belongs, which is basically Steve Rogers with the Sentry's powers. Hell, has Disney realized they own a Captain Marvel?

It's tradition for each departing Daredevil writer to write his successor right into an unsolvable corner.

MY garbled OP is how could you dispose of a character that some comics guy would have a hell of a time bringing back to life. And no voodoo or magic.

[jdviant]

Time travel also brings em back; just ask Captain Marvel.

There's no way to do, someone will either be brilliant and come up with some bat$%^& crazy way they're alive, or they'll pull a Joss Whedon and tell us they were only dead by our standards. Or maybe if you cut off their head like Magneto? Coupla issues later; no that wasn't me. Or heck, they'll just show up one issue without any comment. Villains can do that well.

[XPac]

It's nearly an impossible task.

I thought turning android Human Torch into Vision would basically gurantee that the android Human Torch wouldn't return... but clearly that didn't happen.

[StoneGold]

It's nearly an impossible task.

I thought turning android Human Torch into Vision would basically gurantee that the android Human Torch wouldn't return... but clearly that didn't happen.

Because it has nothing to do with storytelling. It has to do with the character occupying a space where they are better off dead than alive. And even then, you've got Bucky and Barry Allen running around these days.

[Alan Smithee]

Time travel also brings em back; just ask Captain Marvel.

There's no way to do, someone will either be brilliant and come up with some bat$%^& crazy way they're alive, or they'll pull a Joss Whedon and tell us they were only dead by our standards. Maybe cut off their head like Magneto? No that wasn't me. Or heck, they'll just show up one issue without any comment. Villains can do that well.

Yeah, but didn't they decide to make that Cap Marvel into a Skrull? And it killed me in the few books I've read involving Baron von Strucker, he had his head cut off during two separate arcs?

Anyway. If Arthur Conan Barbarian can kill Sherlock Holmes and then bring him back because of angry fans, it's gonna take some serious rocks to kill, say, Colossus or the Thing for-ev-er. There has to be a way.

[Alan Smithee]

It's nearly an impossible task.

I thought turning android Human Torch into Vision would basically gurantee that the android Human Torch wouldn't return... but clearly that didn't happen.

See this is discouraging, but at least your thinking. There has to be a simple and elegant way to bring closure to a character. I thought the initial death of Quasar was integral to the story, even though I knew nothing about Quasar. There has to be some trick, some maze, some Heidigger's cat or something that will scare the hell out of anyone who ever tries to revive the knotted body of Reed Richards/

A trick.

[Joseph C.]

The only way for a character to stay dead is if it was a creator owned book and they made that decision to keep them dead. With a revolving door policy on creative teams, a character can always bring back somebody if they want because they really wanted to use that character. That is to say unless Marvel officially says they want a character to be dead (which seems rare). If I was a writer on a comic that had that revolving door policy, I could say in every way that someone was dead, show their body, cut off their head, what have you, bt if he has permission, the next writer could come along and say "nope, that was [insert ridiculous scenario here]"

[Cthulhudrew]

The only way for a character to stay dead is if it was a creator owned book and they made that decision to keep them dead.

Exactly. As long as characters are owned by the company (whichever it is), they have a stake in them as intellectual properties. If there's a way to make money off of them, they will. If there is a creator who has an interesting story idea and the editors agree with it, they'll come back. Even if it is just to bring the character back periodically so as to keep their copyrights current and legal (which, admittedly, can be a very long period of time with US copyright laws), they'll do it.

Besides, these are comics. People shoot laser beams from their eyes; they fly; they lift trains. In a genre where anything is possible, it's impossible to keep someone dead permanently as long as someone else wants to use them somehow.

Is it really that big a deal, in the end?

[RatFace]

I don't think there's a way to keep any character dead in comics. If a writer gave a good enough pitch to the editors I bet even Uncle Ben could be brought back.

Remember there was a time where this was true: "No one stays dead except Bucky, Jason Todd and Uncle Ben"

[Kirk G]

Osmium,
Capt Marvel's death from cancer was well documented in the startling graphic novel "The Death of Captain Marvel". It has been reprinted about 18 times in various formats.

Also, the seed of that cancer was retroactively cited as a fight in about issue #24 or 26 with that ol' scoundral Nitro.

[Harold Sotomayor]

No worries here. With the way comic book sales are going, soon enough EVERYBODY will be dead (at least in comic form)...

[Wellman]

You have to first have a death that is memorable and defines what the character is about.

Second that character can't have nostalgic fans, writers or editors that would whine that character back into existence like Jean Grey or Barry Allen.


If Brubaker wasn't so talented Bucky would have stayed dead.

[Smoothesuede]

I disagree with Wellman. Whiney fans are the PERFECT trick to keep a character dead.

Jean Grey has been put into a no-win situation; backed into an impossible corner. She can never go back to just Jean Grey. She commit mass genocide. She's currently fusing with a great cosmic being.

Writers haven't figured out a way to touch it. Fans will bitch NO MATTER what her next step is. She's as good as gone. She'll come back once, maybe twice more, but she has a limited shelf-life these days.

You could also go the route of Sentry, and just jumble-f**k the hell out of the character and make him unattractive to his own creator.

[Alan Smithee]

Osmium,
Capt Marvel's death from cancer was well documented in the startling graphic novel "The Death of Captain Marvel". It has been reprinted about 18 times in various formats.

Also, the seed of that cancer was retroactively cited as a fight in about issue #24 or 26 with that ol' scoundral Nitro.

Oops. Still completely missed it. As a kid, a dead cousin's family offered me more than 700 comics, almost all Marvel (couple of Superman races the Flash, maybe).

They ranged from Silvery Age Avengers 24 or something to about the time that Sue Storm consulted www.fashionforsluts.com and invented the Comic Milf. I've sporadically got in and out of comics ever since, so I just remember the awesome Skree-Kull War and the launch of Marv's ongoing: "After a Holocaust, a Hero."

For what it's worth, Marvel's green and white Skree battle wear is the coolest costume this side of Tigra's thong.

Marvel dies of cancer. I bet there was one of those costume party bedside scenes. He'll be back.

[Monty_Cristo]

it's not as hard as it seems. you can...

A) tarnish their reputation so that no other writer will use them

B) reveal them to be a skrull

or

B) replace them with a character popular enough to wipe away the memory of the original; preferably a blood relative