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death comes to the title character |
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| 6/13/01 | |
The
death of DC's "Hitman" has made me thoughtful, because
it is that so rare a death in comics; the actual, glory-less, ugly
death. At least I hope so- and I loved him, I really did. It seems
cruel to wish that he stays dead. But the sort of myth he is based
on, the myth (and I fall for it every time) of "The Good, the
Bad and the Ugly," of John Woo's "The Killer," of "Where
Eagles Dare," of "The Dirty Dozen" and "Kelly's
Heroes" is a brutal and abrupt one. Life is cheap and short,
and death is abundant. The better world is forever closed to the
assassin, the dishonored soldier, and the best he can hope for
is to die well. And there is nothing after that death; no redemption,
no revival. |
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Not
for killers, anyway. It's not the same for heroes. |
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The
Hitman may have died as he lived, like a Reservoir Dog, but
most of the rest of the superhero community have had more comebacks
than
Jaws. As an issue of Mike Allred's Atomics (#7, actually) had
on it's cover the slogan "One will die!! But Who? And for
how long?!" |
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There
is no faith in death in the comics industry. |
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Starting
with the obvious; Take Elektra. There's a woman who won't stay
dead. Introduced in Daredevil as an old girlfriend gone bad
(happens to
us all, right?) and subsequently killed, only to be brought
back by Frank Miller, Peter Milligan, and (so I've heard) soon
to be
reanimated yet again, this time by Brian Michael Bendis (truly
a god among men, but still....) How much is there to her that
she
has to be kept alive this way? Sure, she's beautiful and deadly,
but is she ultimately that interesting? And what is most interesting
about her, is that she has been dead and returned. She could
be the bridge between life and death, and have returned to tell
us
of the secrets she gained on the other side. But that is not
what she will be. She will be the same petty killer she was
before she
died. I have to admit I like Frank Miller's "Elektra Lives
Again" because of the silent beauty of it, because it leaves
the newly risen Elektra's thoughts a mystery- how can the living
understand the thoughts of the dead, after all? While in Milligan's
version (the little I've read of it, I may not be the best judge
of this) Elektra narrates her adventures and seems a normal
ninja/assassin, who just happens to have been dead. |
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And
then there's the X-Men: I don't even know where to start. |
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But
the thing is, with the X-Books, as I suppose with Batman, Superman,
etc. (I wouldn't know, I don't really keep up (or keep up at all)
with the mainstream superheroes), the writers seem to change every
8 issues or so, and at some point you're just going to end up with
a writer
who wants to work with Jean Grey and will rewrite heaven and hell
to bring her home. |
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And
thus is her legacy secured. |
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And
they regrew Professor X from a sample of his DNA once... hell, they
lose that old man more often than I lose my train of thought. |
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Where
was I? |
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I
was just thinking though, in comics the death of your enemy is
never just taken from you, and reduced to nothing before you,
as if you're
rushing headlong into the confrontation only to have him dying
in a car accident on the way to the fight. (Actually this does
happen,
in books written by writers who play on the post-modern; Grant
Morrison's run on "Doom Patrol" and "Animal Man," Kurt
Busiek's "Astro City," Brian Michael Bendis' "Powers," almost
anything by Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Warren Ellis). God, that
is so me, make a general statement then cite 15 examples that
refute it... But these men are the exception rather than the rule,
and
that is the point. |
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No
matter how fitting and well done the death of Jenny Sparks (Warren
Ellis "The Authority") is, and it was well done, as
focused, meaningful and unsentimental as the woman's life- they're
always
going to bring back Superman, because Superman sells books. |
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The
other problem is, as anyone who ever met John Constantine learned,
that horror comics need cannon fodder. You can't keep the same
core group of people alive through endlessly dangerous adventures.
Something
has to give sometime. And Garth Ennis's "Hitman" was
true to that; and didn't flinch as the core group of (depending
how you
count) maybe seven was whittled slowly down to two. |
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What's
the fun of heroes who can't die? Wolverine, as much as he symbolizes
the masculine ideal that I have tied my fate into, has become in
practice a series of the same story retold. He cannot die. He is
almost tragic because of it, but still, he fights, he wins, his
heart is broken, he kills a lot of people, he fights... But his
continued existence take the power out of his story. |
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Just
like Superman. He can't be beaten. What's the point of that? What
do we, the ordinary people, take away from that? He doesn't win
because he's got integrity or brains, but because he's really strong,
really fast and HE CAN'T FUCKING DIE. |
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Not
that there aren't interesting immortals out there- it's rare,
but it does happen, and it seems to happen in DC comics; Cassidy
from "Preacher," Jason
Blood from "The Demon" (the Alan Moore "Swamp Thing" era
revival of him anyway, which Garth Ennis took up so brilliantly),
The Shade
from
Robinson's "Starman." All
of these are, I note, ambiguously slanted characters. Cassidy
is a hell-raising vampire, Jason Blood is cursed; shackled to
a demon
(and such the babe! totally on my list of fuckable old men), the
Shade is a not-entirely reformed supervillian. So as long as they're
evil, I guess, then long life is not such a snooze. |
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There
was a letter published in Alan Moore's "Top Ten" where
the letter-writer stated that they should "kill the lame supporting
characters instead of the interesting character with the cool superpowers." (Top
Ten #11) But that is missing the point. Death isn't just for the
extras. The best writers in the business know this. Death comes
for everyone, and when you're writing a comic, you shouldn't be
afraid to kill off the characters you love, or even more so, the
ones your audience love. No one can win all the time. And if you
continue to shamelessly pander to an audience who is afraid of
change, you are failing your audience and your characters. They
deserve
better. They deserve the chance to grow, to change, and to die.
How can they reflect humanity if they are denied the essence of
it? |
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the
trouble with me is that i'm trouble... |
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I got an email about this article- which I did not save- or reply to (sorry!) that was mostly complementary about this article- but the boy questioned my use of the word "glory" that Tommy's death had no glory- and he wrote something along the lines of "what could be more glorious than dying to save a friend?" Well, Mr. Guy Who Wrote to me- I have given the matter a lot of thought in the last two years and I agree with you- Glory was the wrong word. I only meant that heroic as Tommy's death was- it wasn't played up the way that comic book deaths are- that whole "The World Holds Its Breath" "There was no joy in Mudville" melodrama of the comic book death... |
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| And as much as I clamor that the dead stay dead- how happy was I when they brought back Green Arrow? | |
