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."