Return of the Living Dead

One of the most enduring sticking points about comic books, as long-term readers such as myself might tell you, is that death never really counts for anything. Dead is never dead in comic books. They always come back. There is the obvious need for dramatic tension, and what's more dramatic than killing off a villain or an important sidekick or love interest or even the main character. But rest assured, they'll be back- because dead is never dead in comic books.

Notably, Batman and Captain America are in the current stages of returning from the dead, having been killed off in the last 5 years. This hasn't stopped their friends assuming their costumes to carry on their work, but the stories have been notably lacking in a Bruce Wayne or Steve Rogers. Impressively, DC Comics allowed Grant Morrison, a Scottish comic book magi in the style of Alan Moore, to kill off Bruce Wayne in a lengthy and gritty tale called Batman RIP. The impressive thing is that this happened just as The Dark Knight film came out- meaning any new readers to the comic might immediately find themselves on shaky territory. But despite the ominous arc name - Batman RIP - we all knew Bruce Wayne, currently lost in a temporal timeline at the beginning of time, would eventually return.

Captain America was killed off in a massive Marvel crossover called Civil War, a metaphor for America's current civil liberties issues in an age of terrorism and paranoia where Cap sided with the superheroes who refused to be registered by the government, while Iron Man decided that registration was for the greater good. Captain America lost the civil war and was shot on the court steps as he was ushered into a police car. It was a heroic death, made all the more poignant by his sidekick and friend Bucky assuming the shield and winged cowl of one of America's most patriotic superheroes. His return is probably due to fiscal reasons. Marvel's film studio is currently on its way towards an Avengers film starring Iron Man, Thor and Captain America. But first they need an origin film about him to set the character up. Time to bring Steve Rogers back from the dead.

Comic book death has always been a joke as writers often cave to fan pressures, drops in sales or even their own whims to crowbar in reasons to bring favourite characters back. Everyone is ultimately safe. Except in the case of poor Spider-man whose entire ethos: 'With great power comes great responsibility' lies squarely in his trauma following his Uncle Ben's death and then further reinforced when the love of his life, Gwen Stacey plummeted to her death in front of him, at the hands of the villainous Gwen Stacey. These two have always remained dead, because bringing them back would completely derail the Spider-man mythology to the point where without their traumas, he'd hang up the mask and perhaps get a proper job and conduct a functioning relationship with his friends, family and loves. That's not to say that alternate universes, hallucinations, impersonations, different timelines, love-children and zombies haven't all brought them back in some way or another, but Spidey has always remained Spidey because of those deaths. So for him, dead may in fact be dead. This hasn't, I might add, stopped many of his villains returning from the dead. In the current storyline, Spidey is about to meet old enemy Kraven the hunter who committed suicide having successfully 'hunted' Spidey and given him a slow-acting poison to make him think he was dead before going on to impersonate him and defeat the evil Vermin. His wife and daughter are trying to ressurect him using ancient magic.

I bring this up because death in books tends to really count for something, either being the catalyst for a journey of discovery and adventure or the end of a long road. Death in books is usually the beginning or the end, so for someone currently reading a book about a brutal death and its horrific consequences (This is How byM J Hyland) and the Siege arc of Marvel's latest crossover, where Steve Rogers, regeneration and resurrection complete is hankering for a good ol' fashioned brawl on the ancient Nordic city of Asgard means that my experiences of final chapters are being tampered with. 

But oh- what fun.