Superheros that should be/should have been Killed Off like Robin in Batman

[Deleted User] · 09-12-2019 9:42pm #1

Robin had had his day, and had a wonderfully violent death thanks to Joker. A beautiful death.

There are other superheros out there like Robin that could do with killing off?

CastorTroy · 11-12-2019 6:48pm

I've said before but I remember reading a quote along the lines of
"The only people who stay dead in comics are Bucky, Jason Todd, and Uncle Ben"
Now that's only a third true.

As for who should die, I'm trying to think who would be expendable and make an impact.
But there was a recent big death in the DC comics when

Alfred

died. Though we'll see if that sticks.

I think at least 1 2814 Green Lantern could be killed to set something up. Kyle is the likely one.
I was trying to think of one of the teams, but since they're all fairly recently rebooted, it's hard to say.

I don't read much Marvel but there are too many characters in the Spider-verse. It could be time for May to go

Fysh · 14-12-2019 2:20pm

Death in superhero comics isn't allowed to carry any weight because conservative writing/editing practices mean that no character with a long enough "history" can be killed off without being subsequently brought back (repeatedly). So absent any IMO unlikely combination of a writer with a strong concept and an editorial team willing to support it longterm, I don't think this will change any time soon.

CastorTroy · 14-12-2019 2:40pm

That's just it. Who was the last big in-continuity death and how long did it last? Wolverine? Xavier? Are any still dead?

[Deleted User] · 14-12-2019 2:54pm

Well, Robin actually resurrected in the comic canon but not as Robin. A very embittered guy - Cannot find the link now, will edit this post.

CastorTroy · 14-12-2019 11:28pm

Yep. He came back as Red Hood

Ridley · 15-12-2019 5:35am

Hate the revolving door of death for comic characters but it allows for the creation of Winter Soldier and The Return of Barry Allen. Enjoyed Under the Hood too.

Fysh · 18-12-2019 9:48pm

Ridley wrote: »

Hate the revolving door of death for comic characters but it allows for the creation of Winter Soldier and The Return of Barry Allen. Enjoyed Under the Hood too.

Yeah, but the flipside of that is that it's so common you get both jokes like "X-men come back from the dead more than Jesus" (and, rather more awkwardly, the likes of Morrison trying to bring it up in-universe with things like the eulogy for Martian Manhunter's funeral explicitly saying "and we're all hoping for a resurrection").

Like, I'm all in favour of doing something if you've got a good story for it, but I would argue strongly that almost all stories featuring a long-standing superhero comic character dying are bad, generally because they get wrenched out of the ground about five minutes after the body's finished cooling, so to speak. I mean, any given protagonist in a superhero comic from Marvel or DC knows or knows of at least one person who's come back from the dead - and in that context, readers are still expected to treat death as significant every time around. It's daft, and made worse by the all-too-often cack-handed execution (the Death of Wolverine was a particularly well-milked example of arsegravy from a writer we all know is capable of much better and thus presumably working to pretty strict editorial instructions).

All of the above is IMO, obviously, but feeds into why I have pretty much zero interest in any corporately-owned superhero comics any more.

Ridley · 19-12-2019 12:47am

Sure. If we're going by the Jason Todd example, I think that resurrection only works in comic form because it has the history in between the death and return. The adaptations fail because they don't have the emotional weight and have to explain who Jason Todd is to the audience.

I knew when my favourite superhero was coming back from the dead cause an important issue number was approaching.

Superheros that should be/should have been Killed Off like Robin in Batman

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