A fairly common line thrown around in comics and their associated media, basically the idea that nobody stays dead, especially common with stuff where a major character like Superman dies. The thing is, and this does only apply to competently written stuff, generally the purpose isn't to ask "what will happen now that this character is dead" but rather "What would all the other characters do if this character did die?" I think there's a good episode in the Justice League cartoon that summarizes this, where Superman dies. They spare no time in making it clear that he's not actually dead, because that's not the pont, the point is to show what the cast, and the world at large, would do directly following his death. ... or it can just be used for cheap shock value with no actual repercussions it depends
There's definitely marketing behind it. Death of Superman was a comics juggernaut that, while it made tons of money, almost killed the industry. Though despite that, writers have made good cases for there being a narrative reason to do this. Like you said, their death itself isn't often the point. A lot of people (myself included sometimes) don't like that basically no one ever stays dead in comics, but... you kinda can't keep them dead. A company can't just kill some of their biggest icons and move on. They lose money that way. And it's a lot easier to just contrive them back into life than it is to, say, give someone else the superhero's name. I think one thing that hurts the big two is the need to keep a continuity running. If they would end it and start over every few years, characters could die and not come back. I get that this is kinda what they've done, like with DC and it's Crises, but it's not done to the greatest extent imo. And then there are stories completely separate from the continuity, I think we need more of these and less of a mainstream continuity that builds and builds and builds until no one understands anything.
You know. Uatu is about to be murdered in Marvel and it's literally gonna have a huge affect on every Marvel story. And since you know his eyes were stolen too I don't think he's coming back. Also when Sabretooth killed Copycat Deadpool couldn't heal her in time and she died. I actually hope she comes back though. I liked her :(
I never liked D.C. I'll miss a character when they die but I think I would be more upset if they were brought back.
unless you are a minor character, in which case writers will not hesitate to [permanently] kill you off for the sake of progressing the plot. I would argue this is a worse scenario, as it often leads to circular development. See: Batman, and the number of Robins who have died in order to further his grief. It is an extremely boring gimmick.
I can only think of one Robin who has died and that's Jason Todd. And he was brought back to life and DC totally wastes him. What other Robins have died? BOY WONDER!! GET IN HERE!! You're the comic expert of the forum, where are you?!
What about Gwen Stacy? She was killed off for keeps. That had a huge impact on Spider-Man, and it made him grow as a character, in my opinion. It actually helped the comic.
I think Marvel handles their deaths better than D.C. and when Marvel does bring a character back they do it in a way that's more accepted.
Damian Wayne @LARiA Yeah, but I would argue that each Robin serves a different purpose affecting Bruce in different ways. And since the dynamic of the Bat-family has changed big-time over the years, Damian's death dealt with much more than Bruce's reaction. And I would also say, for Characters like Batman, we're usually dealing more with exploration than development. Batman hasn't been developing since the 30s, but rather we've been exploring the psychology of Batman in countless stories dealing with countless issues.
And let's not forget Uncle Ben. Bucky Barnes was also one of the untouchable "can never be brought back to life" characters for a very long time as well and relatively recently brought back to life as the Winter Soldier in 2005. And now I know. Has he been brought back to life yet?
Not to my knowledge. Though he did get a 4-issue mini series outside of the continuity. I haven't read it. He'll be back though.
Assuming his death wasn't retconned during the New 52 when that happened. Honestly, since that has happen I have no idea what is in continuity anymore.
