21Six.net

I keeping with my concept of “constantly referring back to my old posts”¹ I’m going to give you a new thing to read for a few minutes until you decide to stop visiting my website because there’s really nothing but angry ramblings and talks about toilets. What am I gonna talk about? The deaths of characters.

There’s an old saying in comic books: “Nobody stays dead in comic books except for Ben Parker.” and sometimes “Barry Allen” is thrown in. But that’s not true anymore. Ben Parker–Uncle Ben from Spider-Man has been “brought back” in various instances. Most recently being Marvel’s ridiculous House of M–which featured Scarlet Witch doing what she does best: Fucking up reality. Uncle Ben was brought back as part of Peter’s alternate reality, as well as Gwen Stacy [who, in the eyes of many, suffered various indignities to her character during the Clone Saga and Sins Past which those people also feel was a terrible idea. ]

But this is not to say I hate these characters. Some of them I might actually enjoy, but feel their death is drastically cheapened by the instance of “comic book death” they happened to go through.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’m not as well-read in Marvel comics as I am in DC, so the majority of this list will be comprised of people from that company.

Hal Jordan

Hal Jordan, after becoming Parallax and deciding it was a good idea to redo time and prevent everything that made him Parallax from happening but failing miserably, decided that the best thing to do after that is simply to redeem himself to slaughtering the GL Corps and a bunch of other people.

How did he redeem himself? Well. He didn’t. His “redemption” took place with Geoff Johns’ massive Green Lantern: Rebirth retcon punch.² This turned him back into the hero and all but absolved him of the actions he committed as Parallax.

Anyway. He died during the event Final Night in which a Sun Eater did was Sun Eaters do, he started eating the sun. Hal did some time-travel stuff, and learned that he was going to die during this event, and went along with it. With what remained of what wasn’t Parallax, Hal brought himself to the sun, and re-ignited it. Expelled a giant wad of power (which later gave birth to Ion) and killed himself in the process. For all intents and purposes, he died a hero. He saved everyone on Earth with that one action, though some people (namely Batman) felt that his actions still could not redeem him for the murders he committed, and frequently pointed out how he didn’t forgive Hal and how Hal ate babies was easily one of the worst people he’d encountered since Hitler.

But he couldn’t stay dead. He was Hal Jordan, the GL of the Silver Age of comics books and a fan favorite among DC people. The introduction of Kyle Rayner only served to aggravate the situation and the desire for Hal–the “true” Green Lantern if you disregard everything that occurred twenty years prior in the Golden Age–to return to the spotlight and reclaim himself as a major player in the DC Game.

He didn’t however, stay did. Geoff Johns³ and some others got together and made Day of Judgment which brought him back as The Spectre and eventually lead to everything I’ve already written about.

So, why should he stay dead? Which is actually what the purpose of this is. Simply put: he died a hero. In the end, he did redeem himself. Using all the power that was originally intended to BEND TIME AND SPACE for easily one of the most selfless reasons should at least assist in the redemption, as I doubt that Hal actually killed several billion people in his role as Parallax. The reaction of the Parallax entity, while an impress and delightful story, drastically cheapens Hal’s death and makes Hal out of be less of the brave, fearless man who he was. Yes, Parallax is fear, so he’s going to have that effect, but explaining away everything occurred to Hal during that time period–from his hair turning white at the temples to changing the core reason why The Spectre and Hal were bound together (originally, The Spectre joined with Hal because he felt it would be a good punishment for him. The man did not fell he deserved anything but punishment for what he had done, but the two came together for reasons that would eventually be summed as “burning the yellow bug out of your soul”)–just sits wrong with me.

Keeping him dead (and as The Spectre) would also allow for Kyle to develop more as a character, as the fellow who is trying to live beyond the shadow of Hal Jordan who died a hero saving The Earth and any other planet in the solar system. That is, instead of the guy who, while living under Hal’s shadow, also has had to deal with Hal’s constant looming and “don’t do what I did.”

Oliver Queen

Oliver Queen was the first Green Arrow, and a popular character to many people. He was often teams with Hal Jordan, and the two were seen as close friends despite their often conflicting views on everything from “the black skins” to just how much spice is an ungodly amount in a pot of chili. However, Ollie was a guy whose morals were torn all to little bits and pieces following the events of Zero Hour which I’ve said many times.

However, Ollie finally died after trying to dismantle a bomb rather than living with missing an arm as a result of Superman intervening to assist in the situation. This led to Connor Hawke, his son, stepping in and taking the mantel of Green Arrow until such a time that Kevin Smith (another guy I like) felt it a good idea to go ahead and bring Ollie back and suggest that Hal reformed his body and other stuff just before he went to go off himself during Final Night. Following Kevin’s run, Ollie was plagued by bad writing and the idea that he should run for mayor of Star City as well as several other bad ideas. The series later ended and has turned into the Judd Winick Obviously Hates Fans hour.

So, why shouldn’t Ollie come back? He’s a good character, a solid character, and other “a [x] character” statements like that.

Well, there’s no need for him to be back. He died. He has his son carrying on his legacy and was doing a fine job. Some may argue that it was part of some trend to disregard old heroes, but these people may seem to ignore the fact that Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, and several others came into existence to replace Alan Scot, Jay Garrick, et al. (despite them still being around today)⁴. It is the nature of comics to have legacy characters and there is nothing wrong with the concept–provided the characters are strong.

Oliver’s resurrection, like with Hal, lessens the value of those who had taken the legacy, and is a cheap cop out. Connor is no longer as special because he has his dad right there, alive. He no longer has a need to take the name “Green Arrow”, but he continues to carry it out of respect for his father and his desire to shoot green arrows and people.

Jason Todd

Who really didn’t see this coming?

Jason Todd was the second character to claim the name “Robin” and be the sidekick of Batman in DC comics. He was also a snot-nosed little punk who was smug and needed to be taken down a few pegs, something which Batman noticed pretty quickly and decided it would be a good idea to train the kid to fight well.

Jason died in the epic story arc Batman: A Death in the Family that is considered by many to now be a giant waste of $1 that they want back. In summation, the arc is: Jason learns that the mother he knew all of his life wasn’t his real mother, and starts scouring various countries looking for her despite the fact that he’s been placed on a type of “probation” by Batman because he’s turning into an even more smug snot-nosed little punk and becoming reckless in what he’s doing. In the end, Jason finds his mother, but she’s been working with The Joker. The Joker beats the hell out of Jason and then blows up the building that Jason and his mother are both in.

The big thing about this was that the outcome relied on the readers of the comic itself. There was a 1-900 number that one could call that would result in Jason either living or dying. Turns out Jason died. People wanted Jason to die, so he did. Batman found him amidst the rubble, without a pulse. In the end, he was memorialized with a glass case in the Batcave. This effected Batman profoundly, to the point that he became dangerously reckless and required the assistance of a new Robin (Tim Drake).

But he didn’t stay dead, because no one stays dead.

An interesting thing to note, on the back of the trade paperback for Batman: A Death in the Family there are some quotes memorializing the event. One in particular amuses me, and is rather fitting considering the circumstances:

“It would be a really sleazy stunt to bring him back.”
-Dennis O’Neil

O’Neil, for the 5 people out there who don’t pay that much attention, is one of the top 10 greatest people in all of comicbook-dom. He was also the editor for Batman comics, specifically during the run of A Death in the Family.

Anyway, as I was saying, he didn’t stay dead. During Batman: Hush, which I’m not going to bother elaborating on because the story gets kind of weird, a man claiming to be Jason Todd appears dressed in a really funky Robin outfit to mess with Batman. In the end, the character is determined to be Clayface, but Batman still still shaken by the event. As such, he gets appropriately upset.

And Under the Hood happens to cement everything. Not only was Jason back, but he was doing what Batman wouldn’t: Jason was killing people. Not just in a “Ooh, look at me killing.” manner. He decided to just start BLOWING SHIT UP to send a message to Batman. And it worked. Batman and Todd shared a moment, which ended in an explosion (like they do).

But how did he come back? Two words. Recton. Punch.

As I explained in the footnote, Superboy-Prime got SO PISSED OFF about the things he was seeing in the new reality that he started punching his crystal habitat dealy, which started fucking up reality. One of the things he fucked up happen to be Jason’s death. Jason wasn’t supposed to die. But he was buried, so he dug himself out of his grave and all that. He eventually made his way out, was taken in by Talia Head, and thrown into a Lazarus Pit where he recovered all of his memories and set out creating the events of Hush and everything afterward–mostly being pissed that Batman hadn’t killed The Joker after everything that had happened.

Obviously he shouldn’t be alive. Why? Because people wanted him to die. His death also prompted Tim Drake becoming Robin, and a multitude of other things that occurred. I understand the whole “Multiverse” thing, but I hate the Multiverse. Jason’s death changed Batman, it was obvious from all the comics that took place afterward. The death haunted him. Hell, he STILL has the case for the Robin outfit, despite Jason being back. This is a MASSIVE event that is really cheapened and almost defecated on by Jason coming back. Batman’s mourning and everything is for nothing, because he’s back. He’s Jason.

At the same time, I like Jason. I have nothing against the character. Under the Hood is a great arc. Given the option of seeing the character dead or alive, I would rather him be dead. To me, there’s far more emotion in place with him having actually died and staying dead than being killed and thrown back into reality by a character who was all but forgotten for 20 years.

And to think this is only the beginning.

1. and needless footnotes [↩]
2. For those with a brain, and avoid various less-than-moral places on the Internet, “retcon punch” is both a meme and an obvious reference to the events of Batman Annual #25 wherein it’s revealed that Superboy-Prime got so upset by the events that transpired following Crisis on Infinite Earths that he thought it a good idea to start punching the crystal thing that Alexander Luthor, Jr. provided for Prime, Kal-L and his Lois, and Alex. Such punching starting disrupting various aspects of reality. The term “retcon punch” is used by people to generally express dislike of a retcon or inanity of a retcon. [↩]
3. Okay, I know it looks like I’m giving Johns a really hard time in these things. In all honestly I like the fellow. I own Green Lantern: Rebirth and think it’s easily one of the best Green Lantern stories I’ve read. I also own several of the current Green Lantern series and I have no intention to discontinue reading them. My main complain with it all is the use of The Spectre. Johns is a brilliant man, regardless of how bitchy I am about all of this. [↩]
4. And, yes they were designed to replace them. The Golden Age stories had stopped selling, and new characters were created in the Silver Age to replace the old ones. That they were in separate universes for 20 years does not change the fact that they existed to replace the previous incarnations. [↩]