Topic: They're all dead...

[UncleBob]

What the heck...

I used to read a lot of comics... mostly DC, mostly Batman with a bit here and there... I read comics in the 90's, during the big "boom", through Knightfall, The Death of Superman, Zero Hour, etc., etc...

Anywhoo, I was reading up on Wikipedia and it seems several of the superheros I used to follow have been killed off!

The new Superboy ("clone" of Superman)
Inpulse (Who apparently became Kid Flash, then Flash, then dead)
Spoiler (wtf... she was a Robin for awhile?  And Jason Todd is back from the dead?!?  That's just wrong!)

Dang...  It's a shame comics are so expensive now... I'd like to get back into them, but $3 an issue?  Wow...

[nickmitch]

No body believes me when I say that there have been several Robins including one female.

[UncleBob]

How long was the Spoiler playing Robin?

[Arbok]

You should read Marvel comics then, no one ever stays dead there. I was pretty miffed, in fact, that they brought the Green Goblin back a few years ago, as his death was, during my youth, one of those comic deaths that "would never be undone"...

On the plus, side, though, it's led to awesome stuff like this:

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/4844/thunderbolts1202in1.jpg
http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/5842/thunderbolts1206fe9.jpg

[Caliban]

Actually "someone" did die, Galactus. Haven't seen his revival.
Silver Surfer isn't dead, I think, but they did finish off his comic which is a big negative choice from my point of view.

[Arbok]

Actually "someone" did die, Galactus. Haven't seen his revival.

He was reborn again during the Annihilation Wave. Not only that, but he has his old Herald back again.

Speaking of, here is a awesome shot from that story arc:

[Caliban]

Actually the death that I am referring to is really his last death, it's the one where he sacrifices himself so that the universe is reborn after the big crunch where, Nova was the sole survivor. Unless, of course, Marvel cheapened out yet again.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Actually "someone" did die, Galactus. Haven't seen his revival.

He was reborn again during the Annihilation Wave. Not only that, but he has his old Herald back again.

Speaking of, here is a awesome shot from that story arc:

Galactus is a big cloud, stop trying to deceive people. Geesh.

[Arbok]

Actually the death that I am referring to is really his last death, it's the one where he sacrifices himself so that the universe is reborn after the big crunch where, Nova was the sole survivor. Unless, of course, Marvel cheapened out yet again.

When did that happen? I don't think Galactus has much of a role in Conquest, although I could be wrong... and Annihilation Wave was last year in 2007.

Galactus is a big cloud, stop trying to deceive people. Geesh.

GoldenPhoenix makes me cry...

[Caliban]

Unfortunately I don't have the comic on my computer anymore, but I did manage to find information on it.

From Wikipedia:

"Epic Illustrated
The anthology comics-magazine Epic Illustrated #26-34 (Oct. 1984 - Feb. 1986) published the first nine serialized installments of a projected 10-part tale, "The Last Galactus Story", by writer-penciler John Byrne and inker Terry Austin. Each ran six pages, with the exception of part eight, which ran 12 pages. The magazine was canceled at this point, leaving the story unfinished.

Set 100,000,000 years in the future, Galactus devours a now uninhabited Earth. Accompanied by Nova, Galactus follows the trail of destroyed galaxies to the core of the Milky Way. Byrne wrote on his website that the story's conclusion involved Galactus combating a rogue Watcher until the death of the universe. When only Galactus and his herald, Nova, remain, Galactus cracks open his armor, releasing a new Big Bang. With the end of Galactus and the birth of a new universe, Nova is transformed into the Galactus for the new universe."

I eventually found a site with the comic, http://www.geocities.com/lastgalactusstory, which was working but then it started giving me some server error. Hopefully you are lucky enough to find it through torrents like I once did.

Oh and might I add that the first written ending is the ending I accept. The second ending ends the same way except the surviving character is someone you would least expect to be chosen.

[animecyberrat]

You could read Image Comics, everyone starts out dead there so it's not as big of a shock when they come back.


I thought DC had a bad habit of bringing in new super heroes that looked exactly like the old ones but different secret identities but they always kept things going.

[bustin98]

Oh, John Byrne... how you used to not suck.

[Ian Sane]

I think this sort of thing is just a problem with the nature of the big comics.  We're talking about series that have lasted for decades and have had dozens of writers.  And let's not forget that with Marvel and DC it's not just one series, it's a whole universe.  The "too many cooks" situation comes in where some hack writer on a nothing series can introduce something incredibly stupid to the canon of an entire world.

I really liked the Marvel universe when I first got into it.  I think a lot of that is familiarity so something like Jean Grey being resurected didn't bother me because her death wasn't something I experienced as it happened.  She was already alive again when I started.  In retrospect that actually comes across as a stupid plot development.  Her death being permanent would mean more.  Green Goblin coming back does piss me off because he was dead when I first got into Marvel so from my point of view he's supposed to be.  A younger fan probably doesn't mind.  To him Green Goblin has always been alive.

I like reading the old "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe" from the late 80's as it presents a Marvel universe from around a time when I really liked it.

Marvel and DC is something you come in and like it for a few years or perhaps even a few decades until it eventually changes to a point where you really don't like it anymore.  At that point it's not for you anymore, it's for younger readers who joined in a different time.

It's just the nature of the business model.  To maintain a high quality with no "jump the shark" moments something really has to be someone's baby the whole time.  It has to be the creator's work and because people only live so long, that means it has to be finite.  That just isn't the way Marvel and DC do it.  If they did most of us are not old enough to ever get into Batman or Superman.  Those series would have ended years before we were born.  So in a way it's beneficial that the model is that way it is.

[animecyberrat]

I always wondered about that though, because to me I started reading in the early 90's but it seamed like I was more into the Classic X-Men and stuff liek that than reading what was happening int he current time frame. I stopped reading altogether sometime after the whole Onslaught ordeal. Then came back in sometime just before the New Age of Apocalypse and gave up entirely at that point.


As for Spider-Man, I stopped reading because of the whole god damn clone saga bull ****. After that nothing seamed right, making Doc Oc a woman was just dumb, I don't care her origin it was just stupid.



As for DC, I never took them seriously, I love Batman to death and I also like a few other characters but I never read them enough to get what was going on. I watched the cartoons/movies and went with that for the longest time. Then there was Image, which I hated right off the bat because they were traitors to Marvel and I was boycotting them. Latter on I got into their stuff cuz it was actually pretty good but by then I was already reading less and less comics so never kept up.


I think a lot of it is how you say, but I don't know about some of it. I think I am more into the characters than the story behind them nowadays anyways. I don' care what Wolverine is doing just as long as he has his metal claws and is kicking someones ass. Same with Batman, I don't really care what is going on with Joker,Two-Face, Gotham, Robin, just as long as Batman is doing his thing.

[vudu]

I am proud to say I haven't heard of any of these characters except for Super Man, the Flast, Green Goblin and Robin (assuming it's Batman's Robin).

[EasyCure]

who the hell is the Flast?

at first i thought you wrote Flask and i said to myself "now thats a comic i can get into"

[vudu]

Damnit ... Flash.  You knew what I meant.

[EasyCure]

thats what i thought but since i don't know many comic characters outside of the usual (bat/super/spider/x mans etc.) i second guessed myself. Hell i didnt know anything about Iron Man going in to see that movie.

[Arbok]

Set 100,000,000 years in the future....

Oh, well there ya go... then yes, Galactus is still dead... if we are referencing events that far in the future.

I think a lot of that is familiarity so something like Jean Grey being resurected didn't bother me because her death wasn't something I experienced as it happened.  She was already alive again when I started.  In retrospect that actually comes across as a stupid plot development.

Due to the Phoenix Force and the whole Madelyne Pryor thing with Sinister, I never had much of a problem with Jean coming back in the 1980's... even though it's damn confusing how it all plays together even today.

Anyway, interestingly enough, Jean is "dead" again. Once again related to the Phoenix, who returned thanks once again to a plea from the Shi'ar, although this time she avoided becoming the inevitably Dark part of the entity by asking to see Cyclops' real eyes, therefore blasting herself (which was all the more tragic given his infidelity with the White Queen).

I agree with you Ian, though, that it is the nature of the beast more or less. New writers and administration comes on with their own ideas, and stuff is bound to change. Everyone has their own ideas. Hell, for example, it took almost a decade for them to revert Archangel back to Angel through various changes... yet all it took was one book and one writer a few months ago for him to have his wings ripped off and once more revert to his Apocalypse altered self again (can't say I complain, but like Ian it's because when I was reading that's how he was for me).

[animecyberrat]

even though it's damn confusing how it all plays together even today.

Not as bad as the whole damn clone saga. Spider-Man was dead to me after that clear until the first movie came out, and the whole time I had this awful feeling that somehow they damn clones would make their way into the movie.

[ThePerm]

i thought it was weird after not reading venom for so long that when i picked it up a couple years back Eddie Brock was out of the picture and they were just chasing the alien around the country incredible hulk style. Its hard to get into a comic and then come back years later

[Caterkiller]

I started to get so sick of Marvel when I realized no one stayed dead except for first issue tragic deaths that make the super hero. I remember when Captain America died, I had no feelings toward it, because I knew in a few years he would be back. And sure enough...

Then my friends get so caught up in it like its the greatest thing ever. He aint dead dummy! give it a few issues he'll be back, lamer than ever!

Can't stand that crap it cheapens everything! Thats a reason why I love One Piece! No one dies! so they can't cheaply come back over and over. Well they do die in flash backs, and when they do they stay dead!

[BlackNMild2k1]

I hear they just killed of The Punisher, murdered by Wolverines son (whoever that is and whatever his name is).

But they are bringing The Punisher back as Franken-Castle.

[EasyCure]

I hear they just killed of The Punisher, murdered by Wolverines son (whoever that is and whatever his name is).

But they are bringing The Punisher back as Franken-Castle.

lol you can't be serious...

[BlackNMild2k1]

I hear they just killed of The Punisher, murdered by Wolverines son (whoever that is and whatever his name is).

But they are bringing The Punisher back as Franken-Castle.

lol you can't be serious...

Here is the whole explanation with the comics that lead up to it if you really want to know
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=18275174&postcount=1

for those that just want to get to the point
Punisher: Franken-Castle