Saber Forum

I love superheroes. You love superheroes. We all love superheroes. Which means we are devastated when a writer or company gets the brilliant idea to kill them off. Fortunately, you can't keep a good hero down for long, and they eventually come back. Comic Book Death (CBD) is now a troupe of the genre and has even seeped into the movies. However, it is possible to overlook CBD if the hero is brought back in a fun/interesting/compelling way.

However, sometimes...sometimes a hero's return is silly. Check out this list from those fine sexy Brits over at WhatCulture.

! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxLztxF28U4&t=122s#)

I remember reading about Franken-Castle..... It was a weird series and not one of my favorites for the Punisher.  The Nick Fury deaths were really lazy writing, I remember just about all of his deaths.... Just to find out about the robot doubles... So lazy and it's just a cop out.  I'm surprised that Wolverine wasn't in the mix even though he had multiple deaths and even in the "Death of Wolverine", in the future, Kat brings his body out of the Adamantium that suffocated him, not stating that he's alive but setting up for his return.

That Spiderman "death" one at the end (1st place), was a really weird one.  That one takes the cake

Hi All,

Just watched this video and I agree about the Spiderman death at No.1. As a kid I found it strange that Parker, after being bitten developed wall crawling abilities but then had to build web-shooting wrist bands! I guess I brushed it off because the wristbands were cool gadgets (I think you could actually buy replica ones from a back cover advert - like the ones for "X-Ray Specs")

But to mutate Parker by the "Queen's Kiss" to turn him into a Man-Spider that dies and in death "gives birth" to a fully humanoid Parker who could shoot webs organically.....now I know why I don't read that many comics!

(and yes I watched the Nicholas Hammond 1977 live action series - all 13 episodes)

So did I. It was great (as I was a kid. And it was the 80s).

To be fair, not EVERY comic is like that. And not ALL the time. Everyone's allowed a crazy moment now and then.

Hi Knox,

I can't really complain about Spidey. He inspired my fancy dress costume I wore to a school party and won first prize! It must have been my paper party streamer webs and the fact my mask had the lenses in it (I wore prescription spectacles and they had clip-on sunglasses lenses perfect for a Spidey mask)

I'll have to dig out my Spidey books again.

point given.

Superhero deaths serve one function: sell comics. They're mostly publicity stunts. Though, this actually wasn't true in the Death of Superman. Superman actually died to delay his wedding. Yup. The show Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman was on and wanted to do the wedding of Lois and Clark first, leaving the comic people with a gaping hole in stories that needed a plot. Enter Doomsday. They decided to create a super villain capable of killing Superman to fill that gap. It was viewed as a publicity stunt at the time, and some people still believe it is, but it was actually created to give Clark a good reason to not marry Lois just yet. The whole being mostly dead bit. Though, it also gave birth to some cool characters, such as John Henry Irons, The Man of Steel, and Kon-El, aka Superboy (the clone Superman.) But, it wasn't exactly a publicity stunt.

Every other superhero "death" has been one. It's actually a shame that Superman's alleged demise opened the floodgates to do some weird stuff in the comics. Yes, there were "deaths" before that, but not like since. I didn't even know of some of those before watching that video.

Also, on a side note: Jason Todd should have stayed dead, in my opinion. My favorite story arc with him is "A Death in the Family" because he died.

You could say that for most things in comic books. That's how they continue the story for all these years. Some stories are better/more effective than others. Or stand the test of time and/or are groundbreaking. Unfortunately the death/resurrection thing has become a troupe of comicdom. Especially when long dead characters come back (Barry Allen, Hal Jordan, Jason Todd for example).

But every so often, they come up with something really really stupid, such as this list.

I also wonder how many "returns" are due to backlash from fans as well.

Backlash from killing the character in the first place? I think some of the returns end up causing more backlash than the deaths do.

Touche.  Although, I would like a character like Wolverine to return from the dead, I just like the character to want to see him gone.

Well good news. I believe Wolverine is back. But in true comic book fashion, it's a long and complicated tale.

Which is still unfolding...not to mention X-23 is currently using the Mantle of Wolverine....then of Course Old Man Logan is around as well.

Yes, going to start reading the new series

Like I said, complicated.

All true, of course. That's why they have those big story arcs in the comics, to get you to keep buying issues.

That's why comics are still around, they have the best content and continuous stories