"Aquaman" Hero's Introduction, Death Sparks Open Letters to DC, Geoff Johns

[back seat astronaut]

The sad thing about this is that the person making this complaint is apparently a writer. It's one thing when people who aren't creative, who can only think in political/propaganda terms and don't understand imagination and creativity, seem to think that all storytelling should be sterilized to fit their social agenda. But a writer should know better.

[Schnitzy Pretzelpants]

It's not all about you guys. Seriously.

Well there goes centuries of self-entitlement.

With a few key-strokes, you've undone what events like Vietnam and Little Big Horn failed to accomplish.

While I joke, I have to wholeheartedly agree with you, but that's because I am white, and am self-absorbed in the opposite direction from the rest of knee-jerk reactionaries in this thread.

[Kid Kamikaze10]

So the question is not why did you kill her off, the question is why haven't you created characters in other books who haven't been killed off?

This is pretty much the gist of it. Like, why make a character that is unique to the point where people can identify with the character, only to waste them away in a few panels? And then, haven't created similarly unique characters that aren't going to die as quickly?

Sure, there's more the story, but there's an definitive end point to that character's involvement.

[WhiteEyedWonder]

Agreed it's comics, only Uncle Ben, The Waynes & Gwen Stacy stay dead. Nothing to see here.

I'm pretty sure even Gwen Stacy came back...

[back seat astronaut]

One writer can't be responsible for all the characters all the other writers didn't write.

[Schnitzy Pretzelpants]

This is pretty much the gist of it. Like, why make a character that is unique to the point where people can identify with the character, only to waste them away in a few panels? And then, haven't created similarly unique characters that aren't going to die as quickly?

Sure, there's more the story, but there's an definitive end point to that character's involvement.

Yeah, the point of a knife.

This is my other 'issue' with this issue, and in general with deaths right now, of minority characters or otherwise.

Namely, why the hell can't a character just be simply killed or murdered these days? Why does it always have to be that they are killed so savagely, and brutally?

[Dr.wonderful]

The sad thing about this is that the person making this complaint is apparently a writer. It's one thing when people who aren't creative, who can only think in political/propaganda terms and don't understand imagination and creativity, seem to think that all storytelling should be sterilized to fit their social agenda. But a writer should know better.

A writer DOES know better, but power is a serious issue.

[Theozilla]

I don't think "you don't have enough characters of x minority" is an invalid complaint, but I think the message gets distorted when the focus is put on the quick death of the character.

There was never ever going to be a scenario where that character wasn't going to die in the first few pages of that story. That's the entire reason that the character exists. It doesn't matter what race creed or color that character is, they are going to die. So the question is not why did you kill her off, the question is why haven't you created characters in other books who haven't been killed off?

It's rather like when people say "If you're going to make (insert revamped super-hero name here) so different, why didn't you just create a new character?" Because the situation was not that they wanted to create a character with certain traits and decided to make that character the new "whoever"; they decided to bring back "whoever" and then decided to assign them certain traits.

I am reminded of when Hickman created that openly gay character, and then that character died within a couple of issues because he didn't know how to control his powers. I read an interview where apparently the writer was being roasted for suggesting that an openly gay character would screw up and kill himself with his own powers. His response was that he wanted to do each individual thing and didn't make the connection that people would assume the two things were related.

Yeah, very well stated.

This is pretty much the gist of it. Like, why make a character that is unique to the point where people can identify with the character, only to waste them away in a few panels? And then, haven't created similarly unique characters that aren't going to die as quickly?

Sure, there's more the story, but there's an definitive end point to that character's involvement.

But are you saying that the death is worse because she is non-white, and that if she had been white it would not been as bad? Because I don't agree with that sentiment. I don't think you're trying to imply that, but your post sounds like it.

It sounds like Johns and Reis designed an intended throwaway character too well.

[Kid Kamikaze10]

But are you saying that the death is worse because she is non-white, and that if she had been white it would not been as bad? Because I don't agree with that sentiment. I don't think you're trying to imply that, but your post sounds like it.

It sounds like Johns and Reis designed an intended throwaway character too well.

I essentially mean what you said in the end.

[Reginleif]

If we brought back the Comic Code this would not happen

[Zeeguy91]

Or a sign of you know, the opposite.

Oh...trust me, it was good writing. Are you just tryin' to troll right now?

[Zeeguy91]

If we brought back the Comic Code this would not happen

Look. Its a bird; its a plane....NO! Its a troll!

[Reginleif]

Look. Its a bird; its a plane....NO! Its a troll!

It was a good code, dont see what is wrong with that

[ascended]

It was a good code, dont see what is wrong with that

Well, Im not really a fan of the code. It limited a creator's ability to tell a story and if you want to take it to an extreme, it (sorta) limited free speech. It also enforced a viewpoint that comics are for kids, which is something the industry has struggled against for decades and will still require several decades to get over, assuming the industry even survives that long. But thats a socio-political debate for another thread.

As for this guy and his race issues....I have to agree that had this been a white character, no one would have said a thing. Now, I am all for diversity in comics. And Im glad to see DC attempt to branch out in this regard with characters like Batwoman, Batwing, Bunker, Solstice, ect. But this whole thing reminds me of when Wolfman and Perez killed off Terra. She was made to be a horrible person, she was designed to betray the Titans from the get-go, yet people freaked out over it anyway.

Should comics in general have more minority characters? Absolutely. Should people get their panties in a bunch because *one* throwaway character happened to be something other than white? No. Get over yourselves. Racism is so last century.

[MajorHoy]

Agreed it's comics, only Uncle Ben, The Waynes & Gwen Stacy stay dead. Nothing to see here.

I'm pretty sure even Gwen Stacy came back...

Well, . . . she seemed to come back, but then it was revealed that she was suppose to be a clone . . . and then they made it look like she was really another woman who was made to think she was Gwen, then . . . but I don't they ever really brought the "real" Gwen Stacy back on the main Marvel Earth.

And, coincidentally, I saw a link to this article elsewhere recently: http://goodcomics.comicbookresources...-gwen-or-what/