RANT!
Now do you see? You see why I left Marvel for DC? I am so glad I made the decision when I did otherwise this would have really upset me…
Most people are being optimistic about his imminent return, how it will be the same as when Superman died, yada yada yada. But they are talking about someone else taking over and being in the costume. I am a little worried it may be long time. Cardinal rule used to be you couldn’t bring back dead characters, the longest standing being Bucky Barnes, the now deceased Captain America’s sidekick during dubya-dubya two. He has been brought back, in my mind making the statement that no one is ever really and truly dead. Civil War brought back another taboo-supposed-to-be-dead-for-good character, Captain Marvel and used him to… um… do… nothing?!? Idiocy, but I digress.
For a long time now fans of comics have been very cynical about “death” in comics. He (or she in the Marvel U.) seems to play fast and loose with the whole being dead thing, allowing characters once thought long gone to return from the grave in shockingly revelatory ways in major storylines, but now most of us just wait until the character comes back. Personally I believe the reason for this has nothing to do with the characters dying and more to do with who you kill. You can’t just kill certain characters and not expect people to go, “yeah right”. Goliath died during Civil War, how much harping was there about bringing him back? Zero, none, zilch. Sure people were choked they killed off an African-American character of all people, but there were no sentiments about bringing him back but Cap gets killed (by a sniper and * gasp * a woman he was close too no less, which bugs the crap out me but whatever) and immediately people are saying, “When is he coming back?” before anything else.
When Superman died the same thing happened. The press got word of it and freaked out, meanwhile all the fans waited patiently for him to return, knowing the powers that be would not kill a character who was the flagship character who had, at the time, four monthly books that were selling well. He was gone all of three months or something when all was said and done, but I have a different feeling about Cap and I would be very angry if I still collected Marvel books and didn’t just read em. Captain America is Marvel’s Superman, he is one of their oldest characters and most respected. And to kill him is, in my mind, a stupid thing to do because you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. If he stays dead, you have killed a noble, heroic, wise, and iconic character who knows what war really is. If he doesn’t it is a cheap and stupid plot device designed to give your comics notice in the public eye (actually that is true either way.) Normally I wouldn’t say anything but Marvel is so mired in their own hype it drives me crazy, I would rather read DC, who are doing big things but not being so gimmicky and crazy hyped about it. To me they are saying, “Hey, we’ve got a story to tell, and we think you’d like to read it.” Meanwhile Marvel is going, “Hey MOM! Look at me! Watch this! MOM!MOM! Look, I’m going to break the internet in half! MOM!” and I can’t get behind that.
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