The infinite lives of superheroes

... and the death of innocence of the comic book reader.

OF course, I watched Avengers: Infinity War. I like movies and I like comics and I have watched all 18 previous Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films up to this point.

I think I enjoyed it as much as most people did. But I also noticed many complained about the film’s ending. And to them, I say “What did you expect?”.

Before I carry on, beware there are **SPOILERS** coming up, not just for the movie, but for an array of comic book titles. So if you haven’t seen the film, or like to catch up on comics (some of which are literally decades old), read no further.

So, there has been criticism that we see some of the heroes die, although we know they must live again to appear in sequels scheduled for next year.

Which means, as the criticism goes, their deaths mean nothing. Or at least, something cheap and tawdry. It’s not drama, it’s a fake-out.

I agree. I don’t like fake-outs. I don’t like deaths that don’t matter. Remember Bobby Ewing who “died” for a whole season on Dallas, and then reappeared from the shower as if nothing had happened? “It was just a dream”.

Well, think about this: Comic books kill their characters all the time, and then resuscitate them, and people still buy comics.

I blame this all on Superman. Once upon a time, he died.

This was in 1992 when DC Comics shocked the world by announcing they would kill off arguably their most well-known character. There was a lot of anticipation and debate whether they would really go through with it.

Finally, when issue #75 of Superman arrived, the question was answered. It really happened. Superman is pummelled to death by a villain named Doomsday, and the whole world – both fictional and real – go into mourning.

There was intense media coverage, and DC let fans believe Supe’s death was permanent. Issue #75 made US$30mil worth of sales on the first day alone and continued to sell six million issues in total.

Except Superman wasn’t dead. Less than a year later, he magically came back to life. And with his rebirth was the death of innocence of the comic book reader.

You see, because Superman’s death sold lots of comics, the thinking was “more is better”. You began to see other heroes die, and then come back to life. Batman and the Flash just to name two out of very, very many.

What this has developed is the knowing reader who know deaths of comic book heroes aren’t actually permanent. And instead of bemoaning the development, you can play with expectations to tell new stories.

I think that’s what writer Dan Slott did on the “Dying Wish” storyline, where Peter Parker (SpiderMan) died. He put in a few red herrings to make people speculate how he could come back, just to toy with the audience by shutting them down one by one. Still, Peter Parker did eventually reappear after being dead for most of two years and 30-something issues of Superior Spider-Man .Buta Spider-Man series with no Peter but instead we find out his greatest enemy has taken his place? That’s ambition to be lauded.

The thing is, I can think of at least one comic-book character who I would say practically, if not technically, died permanently. This was Supergirl, in the series Crisis On Infinite Earths.

The thing is, the Crisis series was DC’s attempt to streamline their universe. By 1985, there were so many characters and so many versions of individual characters, it was becoming a mess. So the series was meant to be a way to streamline everything by reducing the number of characters.

Which meant deaths by and large were real deaths. Kara aka Supergirl died in the series, and remained so for some time. Along the way, other characters adopted the identity, but none of them were Kara.

It wasn’t until 2004 that Kara reappeared again, and now you can see her as Supergirl on TV in a weekly series.

So, what is the upshot of all this? Characters dying are a plot device to tell a dramatic story. As I mentioned in a previous article already (bit.ly/2IcGrCI), deaths are not the end-all, but an opportunity to say something important about peoples’ lives either before or after a death.

And what it means to have characters die can change as audiences grow with a series. The first hero to “die” in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was Bucky Barnes, Captain America’s friend. That started off a great chain of movies as he’s brought back from the other side, as it were.

So, you should view the deaths in Avengers: Infinity War not as the end, but the chance of a new beginning, new stories, and new ways of looking at familiar characters. Just as long as they don’t walk out of the shower saying it was just a dream.

Their deaths mean nothing. Or at least, something cheap and tawdry. It’s not drama, it’s a fake-out.