The Death and Return of Superman

[annissamazing]

I stumbled across this video at Nerdist.com today. You may find its point relevant to your interests because even though it is about Superman, it's also about the importance of death in storytelling and how fake-outs ultimately cheapen - and even destroy - your story.

Comments

I used to read a lot of comics when I was young...

[redcirce]

I thought this video was really funny and well done (even if the narrator guy is hella annoying), but I think he exaggerated a lot to make his point- death/resurrection is pretty much a constant for every comic book character, and there are so many running jokes about it. I don't think Superman's fake death (Healing coma? What is he, a Time Lord? ;)) was particularly novel- I mean, Jean Gray did pretty much the exact same thing years before, complete with confusing clones. From what I remember, pretty much all of the X-Men spent pretty much all of the 80s dying and coming back to life.

However, I do think there's some truth in it in that DC was the first to try to make the death a big "event" solely to make money. And sealing the comic in that black sleeve (so you can't even read it without losing your "investment") was a particularly shitty thing to do- I lump that in with metallic covers/holograms/other gimmicks that DC and Marvel pulled in the late '90s to make people pay more for a single issue. (Which really sucked if you were a middle schooler with no money, as I was.)

Re: I used to read a lot of comics when I was young...

[annissamazing]

I think both your points are absolutely correct. I think I simplified it way too much in my summary. The death/not really trope has been going for a long time before this ("Dallas" springs immediately to mind). As you pointed out, the fact that they made it such a big deal is the real problem. I think this video resonated with me so much because it seems like this is what was pulled in the last season of Doctor Who. The Doctor dies because he must, because it's a fixed point, only not really. Worse, nobody actually believed he would actually die so there was no real reason to get excited or invested in the story. I remember being extremely jealous of my friend Jason who had a poster of all the superheroes carrying Superman's casket even though I wasn't really into comics. I believed this iconic character really was dead. Knowing that a dead character can come back (and probably will) cheapens death. The audience won't sit on the edge of their seats, biting their fingernails waiting for that horrible, inevitable moment. They'll just sit back wondering how the writers will undo it.

I didn't follow the X-Men comic, but I did watch the cartoon. I thought Jean really did die and was replaced (like Illyria and Fred in "Angel") with Phoenix. That must not be the case?

Re: I used to read a lot of comics when I was young...

[redcirce]

I used to watch Dallas with my mom when I was really, really young!

seems like this is what was pulled in the last season of Doctor Who
I really think I dodged a bullet by not watching Moffat Who. The things I heard about this past season were really unfavorable.

Knowing that a dead character can come back (and probably will) cheapens death.
It especially bugged me that it retrospect, it was so obviously a stunt not meant to have any lasting effects. And then, a few years later, they did the same thing with Batman- an unstoppable supervillian broke his back, and a new Batman had to take over, blah blah blah. I guess everyone is running out of ideas. :/

They'll just sit back wondering how the writers will undo it.
I've been out of the comics loop for a while, but I remember that it got to a point in X-Men where they lampshaded it, with so and so character making a comment about another character having been dead long enough.

I thought Jean really did die and was replaced
Jean Gray is one of the most convoluted comic stories ever. Let's see: So, the X-Men were in a damaged spaceship and for plot reasons only Jean Gray could pilot it and thus be killed by cosmic radiation in the damaged portion, but while she was dying a godlike entity called the Phoenix force offered to help her and merged with her and triggered the highest levels of her mutant powers. So she sort of died (they show her all poisoned and withered) and comes back to life. Then, with her new godlike capabilities, she gets drunk with power and eats a few planets, then feels bad that she just killed millions of people and commits suicide in penance. Then, the editors wanted to bring her back but wanted to retcon the whole genocide thing, so they decided that during the landing of the spaceship, the real, dying of radiation Jean Gray was jettisoned off in a special pod by the Phoenix force, which then proceeded to pretend to be her. So the "real" Jean Gray returned. And then about 10 years ago they killed her again, and she hasn't been resurrected since, I don't think.

Oh, and she had an unwitting clone that Cyclops (Jean's ex) was a real ass to while Jean was dead, and Madelyne (the clone) retaliated by making a deal with a demon from a hell dimension and turning New York City into Dante's Inferno this one time. And then when she died Jean Gray was back and absorbed her into her mind.

(And in the 80s while Jean was dead her daughter from an alternate, dystopian future, who also was possessed by the Phoenix force, showed up.)