Death in Comics

Yesterday my father's only brother passed away, hardly three weeks after we lost their sister, my aunt, and one of the most giving people I've ever known. While my family restarts the healing process I've been thinking about how death is dealt with in superhero comics.

Usually, if a big name character dies they don't stay dead for long. Captain America, Human Torch, Spiderman, Hawkeye, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, the first Flash, the second Robin, Superboy, and Superman all died in canon storylines, only to come back in one way or another. In some cases a successor took up the mantle, but each eventually returned as the character we readers knew and loved. While this cheapens the impact of a character's loss, I think in some way, this is why comics can be a comforting fantasy. Our favorite heroes have such fortitude they can overcome death.

But, death in comics isn't always a temporary state. When a supporting cast member is lost, the hero has to deal with it as we do. Think Spiderman. When Uncle Ben, Capt. Stacy, and Gwen Stacy were each subsequently killed Peter Parker felt terrible grief, blaming himself. He refuses to accept that he can't save everybody, so like Sisyphus, Spiderman has to repeat his torture.

In the D.C. mini-series Identity Crisis, the death of Sue Dibny, wife of Ralph Dibny, and longtime friend of the Justice League, uncovers a secret in the League's past that I won't spoil here. As the Elongated Man, Ralph is a detective with super-stretching powers, so we're used to seeing Sue and him in more lighthearted stories. When Ralph finds her he cradles her in his arms and his face stretches in anguish. There's another poignant scene that I feel reflects how anybody might feel when a loved is lost. Ralph steps to the podium to give his wife's eulogy. His friends watch as he struggles for words. Losing control, he has to hold up his chin with his hand because his emotional state is again uncontrollably expressed by his stretching powers.

Comics as a medium allows for interesting representations of death. Death can been personified literally as a walking, talking character. In Marvel Comics Death sometimes takes the form of a woman in purple robes. Thanos, the mad tyrant from space sees himself as Death's perfect suitor. He relishes in the opportunity to get her attention (like we got to see in the Avengers film). Unfortunately for Thanos, another Marvel character holds Death's affection: Wade Wilson, Deadpool. Before he had any powers, he was a mercenary dying of cancer. An experimental treatment gives him rapid-regeneration and makes him basically immortal. So, as much as he loves her they can't be together because he can't die.

In Neil Gaiman's Sandman, we meet another version of Death. She's one of seven Endless Ones, siblings that embody Destiny, Dream, Delirium, Desire, Despair, Destruction, and Death. They oversee the functions of their corresponding realm. For Death, its quite beautiful. When anything in the universe dies, she appears to them in a comforting form (we usually see her as a pale, young lady with Gothic dress, this was the 90's). She welcomes you with a smile and walks you to the afterlife that you believe you deserve. No matter how much you beg and plead to stay, she'd reply "You got what everybody gets: a lifetime."

Why Cyclops Makes Sense as a Villain

I thought I knew Scott Summers. Since the X-Men cartoon of the 90's I saw Cyclops as a kind of  "boy scout" character, the "good son" of the X-Men family. As a character, he was always trustworthy and stoic, but was hardly given much to do besides uphold Xavier's vision and lead the team on missions. Where many would see a one dimensional yes-man, I now see a villain stew on a slow boil.

A few years ago the X-Men split up. In the wake of M-Day the mutant population was reduced to around two-hundred globally. Cyclops took half the team to Asteroid M which had fallen into the ocean and turned Magneto's old base into a mutant haven called Utopia. Among those with him are Emma Frost, Namor, Storm, Magneto, Magik and Colossus who by the way has added the power of the Juggernaut. He sits down with some of the most powerful mutants in the world and tells them they're his "Extinction Team." Explaining that they'll still do super-team stuff like saving the world sometimes but if there's any threat to the mutant race, they are the final answer. He intends them to be a walking nuclear deterrent. If hanging out with Magneto, the White Queen, and Juggernaut on Asteroid M wasn't enough to be a villain how about threatening mass destruction from a rogue island nation?

Correction: After reading X-Men: Schism, I realize I got the order of certain events wrong. After M-Day, nearly all mutants looked to Scott for leadership, including the likes of Wolverine and Magneto. Wolverine left after Cyclops tried to justify using untrained children to defend Utopia against a sentinel attack. This was part of a massive attack on the mutants on multiple fronts, so the X-Men's resources were spread thin.


It makes sense if you look at his history. In the plane crash that made him and his brother, Alex, orphans, their mother pushed them to safety with the only parachute. Her last words to him were "Don't let go" or something to that effect, making Alex the first mutant life he was responsible for. They survived but Scott fell into a coma. He comes out with a little brain damage, and when his eye-beam powers develop he can only stop them by closing his eyes. He's fifteen years old and he has this burden of causing destruction if he opens his eyes just a little. Charles Xavier finds out about him and takes him on as his first student. By his late teens, Cyclops is pretty much leading the X-Men. He falls in love with Jean Grey, the first X-Woman. After the Phoenix Saga, when everyone thought Jean was dead Scott meets Madelyne Pryor who looks eerily like Jean. So he goes ahead and has a child with the exact lookalike of his dead ex-lover (I almost typed X-Lover). Baby Nathan gets kidnapped by Apocalypse who infects the infant with a techno-organic virus. They had to use some crazy Celestial technology to keep him alive. Then Cyclops meets Rachel Summers from two millennia in the future. She tells him that Nathan grows up to be a mutant savior. Since he's too important to die, she has to take him to the future. He finds out Nathan turns out to be Cable, a time traveler he had already met and leader of the future resistance against Apocalypse. Somewhere along the way he finds out that Madelyne was a clone created by Mr. Sinister who'd been interested in the Summers/Grey bloodline since he encountered the time traveling Cyclops and Phoenix in the 1800's. Sinister witnessed the couple battle Apocalypse, who later cursed him with immortality. Sinister has taken advantage of his longevity performing genetic experiments, studying mutants, and manipulating the Summers'/ Grey bloodline. So, all his life he's had responsibility thrust on his shoulders, and a parade of people from past, present and future telling him how important he is. All of these events either fed or confirmed his ego, until he took on the responsibility of ensuring survival of the entire mutant race.

The tipping point occurred in, Avengers vs. X-Men. Both the Avengers and the X-Men had discovered that the Phoenix, a cosmic living embodiment of creation and destruction, was on its way to earth. Conflict arose because the X-Men thought the Phoenix would help the mutant cause, while the Avengers feared its destructive potential. Scott was possessed by the Phoenix, and even though he initially tried to be a savior-figure for the whole planet, Cyclops, corrupted absolutely, became the Dark Phoenix. He stood against the Avengers and eventually the X-Men as well. With the immense power boost from the Phoenix he caused massive destruction and even killed Charles Xavier. He claims he wasn't in control but he has to live with the fact that he killed his main father figure.

Cyclops took his name for how he looks with his visor, which is a great symbol in itself. It allows him precision control of his concussive eye blasts. All he could do to cope with his power was to restrain it. Unlike Iceman or Wolverine he couldn't fully embrace his power. Unlike any of the telepaths or flyers it didn't change his perspective or gain him any freedom. He could only choose between holding back or destruction. He's always been all about control. As the Dark Phoenix he abandoned this self-imposed limitation, leading to the death of his mentor.

What makes Cyclops a good villain is the fact that he feels his actions are completely justified. Like Magneto he is acting only protect the mutant species. Their backgrounds have twisted their perspectives such that even as wanted terrorists, they believe everything they do is in the right. You could have an extended conversation with them, agree with their every point, and then they'd say "That's why we need to revolt against the humans."

First Issue!

Hello, Internet.

Recently I've found I've been kinda going through the motions in life, all but neglecting some of my passions  such as writing, drawing and keeping up with current comic books to name a few.  There was a time when I made weekly trips to some beautiful St. Louis comic shops, picking up four to six titles at a time; if there was a mega-crossover event such as Infinite Crisis, or House of M it would jump up to eight or more.  After I lost my job in early 2010 I couldn't really sustain dropping forty bucks a week on comics. Around that time DC's New 52 launched, I decided was as good a time as any to cut the weekly ritual and eventually catch up with trade paperbacks. I guess writing and drawing slowly lost out to World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Minecraft, YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, as well as my current full time retail job.

This blog is my attempt at reclaiming some of those passions.  Its main purpose is to share my love for the comic as a medium, the modern superhero as a genre, and the accompanying fan culture.  I'll chronicle myself catching up with characters that I love, how some are being handled by new talent, discuss my favorite writers and artists at length, and maybe dig up a classic title every now and again to nerd-out over.  You'll find I like to talk about character arcs, Joseph Campbell's hero's journey, multiverse theory, and how comics are represented in mainstream media.

Can't wait to talk about the changes over the years to the X-Men and Spiderman. Though Superior Spiderman is over now I recently got through #16 and decided I should go back and check out writer, Dan Slott's run on Amazing. I'll eventually delve into  New 52 but I feel I have a lot to say about Marvel's current state aptly titled Marvel Now. I hope the faithful will forgive me for falling behind.