Tell Me! Comic book character deaths

[thebitterguy]

What is your favourite story of a comic book character's death? What series and issue did it appear in?

Comments

[vonandmoggy.livejournal.com]

Two stand out for me:

1) Guardian's death in Alpha Flight #12 (first (and best) series)

2) Phoenix's death in Uncanny X-Men #137 (diminished somewhat by the retcon on Jean Grey after the fact).

Von

[anidada.livejournal.com]

*points upward* Ditto to both.

[thebitterguy]

You know, I'm stil angry about Guardian's death. He'd WON! He'd won, and all he had to do was just get the damn power pack out.

Feh. And then the damn cyborgs and robots and stupid stuff. It really messed up the greiving process.

Phoenix was something that affected me strangely (like Gwen Stacy) because I didn't read X-Men utnil after their Rom crossover (which makes me the only person who read X-Men because of Rom, and not the other way around). At that point, Jean was dead and it was in the past.

[vonandmoggy.livejournal.com]

It's weird - I loved Guardian since Mac was such a different type of hero than what I was used to seeing from Marvel or DC. So his death really resonated with me. I wasn't angry about it. It was more like devastation. It also probably cinched me falling in love with comics since I was directly emotionally involved with that title. Then Byrne left at issue 28 and everything since has been pretty much terrible.

Phoenix caught me off-guard. I just wasn't expecting Jean to die at all and her doing it by her own hand (for the good of the universe) was powerful stuff.

Rom: I just never got into it (though I have a few issues when Rom crossed over with Alpha Flight). But I knew people who worshipped that character! :)

Von

[thebitterguy]

Rom met Alpha Flight? Holy carp! I gotta find those issues. My chocolate met my peanut butter!

[waiwode.livejournal.com]

I agree with vonandmoggy.

However, there is one far more recent that struck pretty close to home. The death of Blue Beetle in the recent OMAC Project storyline. The only guy aware the big hoodwink is going down, the only guy in a position to try to stop it. Not that he didn't ask for help, being who he is (and with the results of the investigation having hospitalized Booster Gold) no help was forthcoming. And the splash-page picture of Bats holding him? I found it so frustrating. You insufferable self-obsessed jack-ass! He came to you for help, but the World's Greatest Detective was incapable of doing anything but treating BB as a nuisance. Of course if I was a fictional character in the DCU I'd only say that to him if I was, say, Captain Marvel, and therefore pretty much Bats-proof.

ahem. Not that I have issues about that sort of thing. Nope. Not me.

Doug.

[skaiser.livejournal.com]

Elektra getting killed by Bullseye in Daredevil.

Made even more poignant with the Elektra lives graphic novel.

[thebitterguy]

I had that when I was younger, and it actually hit me fairly hard, for a non reader. Just the fact she got to his doorstep, bleeding out. It was a very strong issue.

[adders.livejournal.com]

Captain Britain being killed by the Fury during Alan Moore's run on the Marvel UK Captain Britain comic. It was brutal and unexpected.

Although he was brought back to life the very next episode, that experience of death continued to have a very real impact on the character, leading to his alcoholism, etc.

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

Lessee. The three that come to mind for me aren't the classic 'big comic book deaths'. One's extremely obscure. One was undone immediately (but she still died). One's reasonably well known I guess, so I'll start with that.

1) The Death of Rorshach, in Watchmen. Never compromise his principles, even though it means his death.
2) Batgirl's death in Batgirl #72. She was brought back to life in the next issue, and her character was ruined when she appeared after the end of her own series. And heck, the death itself wasn't really all that remarkable, but I remember the words of Shiva as she walked off with Cassie's body towards the Lazarus Pit: "She is the hero. I am not. Heroes are forever. The rest of us are just part of the story."
3) The death of Psi-Hawk in Psi-Force #25. Psi-Hawk was an amalgamated entity composed of the psychic energy of the cast of the book plus psychic residue of their dead mentor. It's called up to fight an extremely powerful insane paranormal named Rodstvow ('Kinship'). A fight that rages over Washington DC and destroys landmarks. They telekinetically pick up a television camera so the world can see what they're trying to do. But, in the end, they're beaten. Psi-Hawk is destroyed, and the last words of the gestalt 'We're sorry. We did the best we could.'. And then Rodstvow goes and, just as a spiteful gesture, burns up one of the original copies of the US constitution in the Smithsonian.

[thebitterguy]

Okay, they killed Psi Hawk? Many, I knew I shouldn't have quit reading Psi Force. Was that pre or post Pitt?

[gamescribe.livejournal.com]

Eh, I don't know about my absolute favorite, but I really liked what DC did with the Death and Return of Superman Arc. Though it was a bit unsatisfying to have Supes die at the hands of an all-new, mindless brute, I thought it was a GREAT twist to have his inevitable resurrection come in the form of FOUR Superman-types. I mean, everyone knew he'd be back, but no one expected to have four contenders to the throne.

[sixteenbynine.livejournal.com]

Every time Hyatt dies in Excel Saga, only to come back to life several pages later.

...you never said they had to be PERMANENTLY dead.

[tfbretz.livejournal.com]

The Executioner's last stand on the Rainbow Bridge in one of the later Simonson issues of Thor.

[rpriske.livejournal.com]

That was soooo good. Good call.

[vonandmoggy.livejournal.com]

I forgot about that one. Good choice.

Von

[normanrafferty.livejournal.com]

My favorite would have to be in Halo Jones, Book 2, where the woman who no one can remember dies while saving our hero's life ... and no one remembers her.

If I had to pick a superhero comic, then it's totally Rorschach, all the way.

[eviltofu.livejournal.com]

The death of Captain Marvel.

[uhlrik.livejournal.com]

Rorschach's death in that Watchmen was one of those that deeply affected me as a young comic-book reader. I'll agree that's an important one.

Others that come to mind as really compelling:

Gary Lester's horrible demise in Hellblazer's first story arc (http://www.dccomics.com/media/excerpts/1618_x.pdf), bricked up in a prison cell and devoured from the inside by Mnemoth after the demon was bound into his flesh by his best friend John Constantine (effectively forcing the demon to commit suicide). He foolishly freed the demon, loosed it on New York and then ran to John for help, only to recieve poetic justice. "What, did you think we'd do it to somebody else?" John tells him after Gary realizes that he's doomed. That death firmly established the tone and themes of the entire series in its very first issue, as well as John's sheer ruthlessness. Plus, the shot of John realizing that it was Lester's spirit, not John, that the ghosts of the Newcastle crew were greeting outside Papa Midnite's nightclub... that was incredibly poignant.

Then there was Beroul's death in the Hellblazer graphic novel All His Engines. That was just incredibly cool.

[zatara2000.livejournal.com]

You may think I'm being a smart ass but for me it was the death of Vibe. No. Seriously. It gets explained at http://www.popcultureaddict.com/comicbooks/bluebeetle.htm

[gopower.livejournal.com]

I'd say Robin II/Jason Todd in "A Death in the Family." I remember it as being a pretty good story (and a great marketing gimmick with the public gettting to vote on his fate). More importantly, his death added a lot of texture to Batman and was a springboard for many great stories. Up until his recent retconned resurrection, that is.

Plus I hated the character, so it was win-win.

[creativedv8tion.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I voted for his death.

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

May be biased somewhat because Jean-Paul Beaubier is one of my favourite characters ever, but Northstar of the X-men. He was killed off in the Wolverine series (by Wolverine), but I really love how it was handled in the New X-men book, the one that focusses on the students. The death wasn't shown... but he went off to protect the students, and they found him dead. Later, they went to his flying class even though he was dead... because 'Mr. Beaubier would have wanted us to fly.'

It was good.

[thebitterguy]

Wait. Northstar got killed by Wolverine? Man, I missed that one.

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Wolverine lost his mind and went on a Murderous Rampage Of Death And Violence (tm).

JP hasn't been resurrected yet, which is odd for a Marvel character.

[kynn.livejournal.com]

I hate comic book deaths.

Death.. where is thy sting?

[hico.livejournal.com]

How about the original death of Gwen Stacy? That was pretty darn out of left field, and given the circumstances.. pretty shattering. I guess that makes me old ;) .

Otherwise, I have to agree with those who mentioned Rorschach's demise.

Re: Death.. where is thy sting?

[thebitterguy]

Gwen Stacy's death is one of the iconic ones. Had they killed any major comic characters before that?

It's never affected me as strongly as it might had I been reading (or, in fact, eating solid foods) at that point. For me, he's always been with Mary Jane.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

1) Jenny Sparks death, in The Authority #12

2) Brian Li Sung's death in Grendel #15. Of course, this is on the list primarily because IMHO Issues 13-15 (The Devil Inside arc) are one of the finest things ever produced in comics (sadly, better than all of the later Grendel material).

3) Rorshach's death, in the last issue of Watchmen

[pretentiousfool.livejournal.com]

Having only just recently read the story, I would have to say the death ot Tob Thumb in Squadron Supreme #9 was quite moving.