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Off My Mind: Are Civilian Deaths Necessary for Realism in Comic Books?

Comics are meant to be fun and full of fantasy. Do mass killings enhance the stories?

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Comic books are mainly about superheroes fighting supervillains. There is a threat against innocent lives and it's up to the heroes to save the day. Heroes clash against their enemies, a battle is fought and the good guys win. It's almost a sort of brightly colored dance they do.

When superhero comics started gaining popularity, it was all fun and games. Did anyone really ever get hurt? Sometimes a hero would. Heroes even paid the ultimate price at times with their lives. But because they're superheroes, there usually is a way for them to come back from the dead.

Over time, the stakes got higher. The threats got bigger. Soon, it wasn't just superheroes or the occasional supervillain dying. More and more, innocent civilians started getting caught in the crossfire. Innocent humans were dying. The deaths started happening more often until the numbers were off the charts. Does the death of innocents add to the nature of superhero comics?

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One example that comes to mind is in the first volume of The Ultimates. Bruce Banner turned into Hulk and went on a rampage. The Ultimates fought him to contain him but there was only so much they could do. During the battle, the Hulk's rage caused an immense amount of destruction. The death count was over three hundred. Three hundred lives gone just like that. It might not have been completely Banner's fault since the Hulk was uncontrollable but those deaths seemed insignificant. Banner stayed locked up in luxury while the PR department put a spin on the battle. Hulk was later released and used to fight off an alien invasion.

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What about Ultimatum? Over a million New Yorkers were killed when a tidal wave hit the city. That's a lot of people. It was meant to be an insane amount to drive the point across to us. This was a new age. Villains didn't play nicely anymore. Throughout the rest of the series, there really wasn't a whole lot of attention given to the dead. In the end, the villain was punished and mutants were hated even more. The real focus was put on the dead heroes. They were the ones that mattered. The one million New Yorkers were just a simple statistic.

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It could be that the Ultimate Universe has different rules. Things are more extreme. In the regular Marvel Universe, Hulk went on a rampage in Las Vegas. Twenty-six people, two kids and a dog were killed. This may not seem like a huge number compared to the other examples but these deaths, while not even seen, were the catalyst that started Planet Hulk and World War Hulk. It was questioned why Hulk was allowed to go on rampages and where would the death toll end? So he was shot out into space.

The death of innocents was also a big part of the current Wolverine arc, Wolverine's Revenge (in issues #'s 10-14). Wolverine has killed many people over the years. It turns out he's also killed many innocents at different points in his life. Of course the deaths at Stamford kicked off the Super-Human Registration Act and Civil War.

I remember when an innocent dying was a big deal. Remember when Captain George Stacy died saving a kid while Spider-Man and Doc Ock were fighting on a rooftop? Or even Gwen Stacy's death. Those deaths meant something. It was a shock and had a profound effect on Spider-Man. Hulk kills a bunch of innocent people (well, maybe they were up to some naughty things in Vegas...) but did he show remorse over the deaths?

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When the death toll starts getting higher and higher, the impact of innocent deaths is insignificant. The other thing to consider is comic books are meant to be fun and entertaining. There is way too much death in the news. Do we really need to read about them in comics? Of course if civilians were never threatened or harmed, it would make things too easy for the heroes. There wouldn't be any seriousness to the superhero game. The possibility of innocents suffering is what drives most heroes. You can't have epic superhero/supervillain battles without casualties. It's just when the deaths go into the hundreds, thousands or higher, it becomes just a number without a lot of meaning.

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SupermanJohnathanKentJr

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True. Too many is too many. I do welcome civilian casualties here and there though. But I hate it when heroes accidently or when in rage, kill civilians. It's usually a long depression period that goes on and then they just go around and pretend that they never did anything. It's annoying. Heroes killing civilians is unbearable just for that reason.

I would like to see more casualties caused by villains though. For New York, people sure do know who to disappear once superhero/villain fights start. I want to see things like battles where villains take out civilians on a populated street/sidewalk because they were recklessly trying to defeat or escape from hero(es). I think that would be a good extra element to use here and there.

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NixonV3

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Edited By NixonV3

lol that picture of magneto and his daughter make him look like an incest pedophile
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PhoenixoftheTides

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Deaths of weak or stupid heroes would make things more realistic. "Invincible" does this right. There is little plot armor protecting the minor characters even if they are considered very powerful.. More heroes should be dying considering the heavy firepower they go up against. Doctor Doom swatting aside The Wasp, for example, should kill her, while a swing from the Hulk should be enough to disintegrate a less powerful hero like Hawkeye.

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suuperman

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Edited By suuperman

The more realism the better I say. I dont really care for Canon Fodder characters but the Gwen Staceys of the comic book world are needed.

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Black_Kn1ght

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Edited By Black_Kn1ght

Of course deaths are needed in comics. Not all comic are "fun let's fight bad guys bam bam" they need to connect with the reader. Why else would there be Teen and Mature rated comics.

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Peteparker

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Edited By Peteparker

I think they're important, and done improperly.   
 
You bring up a lot of instances where there were civilian deaths and they were breezed over, making the point that we don't need them because there's no effect. 
 
So instead of removing them, I say focus on them.  Tell us stories about what it's like to be a typical civilian in NYC. Tell us the stories where the hero is utterly destroyed because of the loss of life surrounding an event he was involved in.  Drive alcoholics to drink and catholics to seek out their priests.  These deaths, which in fact aren't even MENTIONED all that much, should be the reason these heroes do their heroing.   
 
The problem with this?  How can anyone truly like a bad guy who actually killed someone?  If Electro suddenly fried a ten-year-old, even by accident or by proxy, no one would ever like Electro again.  And you can't keep coming up with new interesting bad guys who are actually bad, can you?   
 
I'd personally love to read the universe where civilian deaths have actual weight.  Not all of them would be Uncle Ben type weight, but certainly enough of them would weigh on any plucky little spider-hero.

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SeanNOLA

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Edited By SeanNOLA

I think mass deaths in comics meter detachment, which is fine when they take place entirely in the land of make believe, like the DC Universe, but when they take place in real brick-and-mortar locations, like NYC, and try to deal with real events, the way they deal with those massive events always rings false.  
 
Look at how the Marvel Universe dealt with 9-11 or Hurricane Katrina: In the real world, those were devastating, generation-defining events, so they wrote about them as if they had the same impact on the Marvel Universe - a universe where mega storms and collapsing buildings are commonplace. I could buy the "Millions dead, but we're focusing on these important ones" dichotomy before - I simply chalk it up to a universe wherein superheroes have become a new social class, even surpassing our own upper class within that society (Check out Fear Itself: Secret Avengers #15 - they actually deal with this idea in a really interesting way). It made it interesting and alien, if perhaps a little unsettling - a world where just being normal made you comparatively invalid. What I can't fathom is why the twin towers coming down would have more of an impact within that universe than, say, a plant monster destroying an entire city block, or the Hulk tearing through a populated town, or Asgard falling from the sky, or instantaneous world-wide climate change etc. etc. etc. 
 
Oh, post-disclaimer, obviously no disrespect to anyone involved in 9-11 or Katrina.

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abeyance

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Edited By abeyance

civilian deaths in comics don't matter to me. Sure the heroes get impacted but the fact that it's a piece of fiction doesn't escape my mind. There's nothing a writer can do in comics to make me relate to the real world. They should focus on trying to be more original and dare to risk change. Have a random civilian shoot and kill one of the villains during a major fight.  Do a story about a civilian that dwells on finding a superhero's secret identity and how they want to express the information.

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Planewalker

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Edited By Planewalker

Occasionally just don't overuse the concept besides we are all suckers for happy endings and genocide really doesn't help... 

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Emperor Gonzo Noir

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Well think about it this way. If a giant superstrong monsterman is rampaging through the city, what are the chances that no one will be harmed at all?

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owie

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Edited By owie  Moderator
@ferpuerto17 said:
I say it makes a bigeger impact. Loved the Civil War storyline and it would have not been the same without Stamford
This is a good point--the Stamford deaths actually meant something--they had a specific impact that led to societal change in-universe, that affected superhero characters and recurring nonsuperhero chracters, to the degree that stories about it are still being derived from it today.  So Stamford is a good example of civilian deaths in a comic, as opposed to the regular trashing of Washington and NYC that I mentioned before.
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JonesDeini

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Edited By JonesDeini
@Owie said:
The problem for me is that the mass deaths happen, but then have no long-term effects.  In War of the Hulks, they trashed Washington DC.  After that, it's not like any other comics mentioned it in any way.  I mean we have seen in real life the drastic nationwide effects of real devastating acts in this country, from 9/11 to Katrina--it destroys the economy, slows down government services, etc.  In the comics, they have these dramatic thinsg happen where cities are destroyed, tons of people are killed, but there are no real effects from all that. Then, in Fear Itself, only a year after War of the Hulks, Sin and her army trash Washington again, just as if it had never happened. 
Tabernacle, preach!!! I've never had a problem with death/violence in comics. But the fact that it's so cavalier and flippant sickness me to know end. When deaths occur it should have lasting and massive impact. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Either go full on escapist or realistic. 
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nbradsher

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Edited By nbradsher

Honestly, it's disrespectful. Super hero deaths are reversed like that and the faceless masses are left broken, vaporized, or unburied. If you aren't going to let the immortal heroes save the human race, let them have an honorable death and the same for hero deaths

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thanobomb1124

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Edited By thanobomb1124

I aggre@Burnstar1230

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-Vigil-

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Edited By -Vigil-

Comics are always going to be unrealistic in many ways (otherwise how would you have a flying, heat-beam-shooting, alien from outer space as a character?), and civilian deaths are usually just depressing. Plus, you'd think there wouldn't be any civilians left by this point, so it's actually less realistic.

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Nerx

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Edited By Nerx

Obviously yes, unless if they fight in a PG universe 

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B'Town

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Edited By B'Town

When it comes to the Walking Dead and zombies, then YES by all means we need more killing.

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armylife1124

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Edited By armylife1124

I think it can enhance the story like it did for the Civil War story line, but if it is just to show how tough/evil an enemy is so the hero beating him means that much more....that is not necassary.  I think it just has to be done the right way and in the right situation......

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impureascetic

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Edited By impureascetic

The older I get the more I find it hard to read comics or watch superhero films/animations without considering the catastrophic consequences to the economy in the aftermath of any Summer Event. The property destruction would wreak havoc on the insurance industry, and almost certainly cause states and/or countries to default or be unable to pay their employees. The President's response to Katrina was a scandal,and the loss of life and property damage was minimal compared to some of the events in any super-universe.  
 
Obviously, this would make for a terrible storyline. There's a reason Damage, Inc. didn't last. Nonetheless, in a world where some people can fly and others can throw houses, there is still someone else taking out the trash or trading stocks, and their lives would be impacted immensely by any of the events, especially the larger scale ones, in a super-universe.  
 
Death needs to happen because, well, look at George RR Martin's books. We need to know the stakes. No one ever thought Captain America or Superman would stay dead, but the prospect of doom raises the stakes for readers. If the publishers had the balls (or lack of business sense) to actually kill off a character, it would demand that much more investment by the readers. If civilians die, and their deaths are not treated as an afterthought (does anyone even  talk about Stamford in the Marvel U in the same way we would today, the way September 11 is a phantasm for all lawmakers who discuss security after 2001?) it tells us what's at stake. One of the reasons comics suffer the stigma of being an adolescent art form is because they refuse to accept mortality and its consequences. 

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cmaprice

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Edited By cmaprice
Der Tod eines Menschen: das ist eine Katastrophe. Hunderttausend Tote: das ist eine Statistik!
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CATPANEXE

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Edited By CATPANEXE

I'm divided just looking at the rules in storytelling with this. 

On one hand, if it doesn't happen in frame, it doesn't exist. So it's hard to claim that " X " villain is the nasty comer that's claimed to be and justify 
the heroes often unforgiving parry against them without any tangible proof that they are all that. Somewhat of a steer away from when comic supervillians
would be running from a bank with sacks that had green $'s on them. I recall when Ultron killed an entire country, and a big deal was made of that, the
motion being that he had " one-upped " many other comic villains with his true viciousness.
 
One the second, I think it's bad form to do anything in storytelling that doesn't have a strong purpose in telling the story itself, and I see that a lot with this subject.
Bad form being that it is when in any form of fiction things " happen for the most part just to have happened " ie;= " because it looks cool ". If the civilians are faceless
and nameless background and/or props for example, there's no real attachment to these unknowns anyways, and it may have just as well been a twig getting snapped
in frame. So in a sense the number could have just been said in writing and left at that.

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Stompa

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Edited By Stompa
@AmoralBatman said:
@Stompa said:
it really makes me sick if we know start to have more concerns about the deaths of fictional civilians, instead of the countless deaths of real innocents in africa and the middle east that die of hunger and war. comics are a fictional thing and they should stay that what and if a writer thinks a million deaths is needed for a story so be it and if they would spend 0,5 usd of every sold comic to the red cross i would raise my glass......
Amen to that!  Just to add to that, if you're going to argue about deaths in comic books where you're dealing with immensely powerful beings who in reality do so little damage compared to what they are capable of I think you've lost the plot. Maybe the deaths shouldn't be focused on as much, instead just hint at them instead of the generic news flash.   Or perhaps the deaths should be made significant, I'm thinking The Dark Knight Rises where Joker kills the entire live audience as his 'Im back' announcement.   But basically like any form of literature, the deaths should be totally in the hand of the writer and not in some overarching policy.
thanks i totally agree with you on that one.
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AmoralBatman

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Edited By AmoralBatman
@Stompa said:
it really makes me sick if we know start to have more concerns about the deaths of fictional civilians, instead of the countless deaths of real innocents in africa and the middle east that die of hunger and war. comics are a fictional thing and they should stay that what and if a writer thinks a million deaths is needed for a story so be it and if they would spend 0,5 usd of every sold comic to the red cross i would raise my glass......
Amen to that! 
 
Just to add to that, if you're going to argue about deaths in comic books where you're dealing with immensely powerful beings who in reality do so little damage compared to what they are capable of I think you've lost the plot. 
Maybe the deaths shouldn't be focused on as much, instead just hint at them instead of the generic news flash.   
Or perhaps the deaths should be made significant, I'm thinking The Dark Knight Rises where Joker kills the entire live audience as his 'Im back' announcement.  
 
But basically like any form of literature, the deaths should be totally in the hand of the writer and not in some overarching policy.
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ALdragon17

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Edited By ALdragon17

I think villains are punks and deserve to die, man in real life. Super criminals like Joker, will automatically serve on death row; not at asylum. Cause they know how to manipulate the system and get away with it. If I see that mofo, I'll give him two rounds in the head. Villains just love human shields to mask their weakness.  Some people (in the real world) like villains equal people who are bullys. Usually guys like me love to fight, not weak prey, but the strongest. I take easy on the weak. Most likely, I like it when two bad guys fight each other. No body care about them, people more likely want them die anyways. Anyways, comics are suppose to be to get anyway from it all; take a break from reality  I say this, people in that dimension, see allot of death and probably are use to it, also pay high taxes on everything.

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KasadyCarnage

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Edited By KasadyCarnage

Yes 
 
 
 
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Stompa

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Edited By Stompa

it really makes me sick if we now start to have more concerns about the deaths of fictional civilians, instead of the countless deaths of real innocents in africa and the middle east that die of hunger and war. comics are a fictional thing and they should stay that way and if a writer thinks a million deaths is needed for a story so be it and if they would spend 0,5 usd of every sold comic to the red cross i would raise my glass......

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Maki_P

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Edited By Maki_P
@difficlus said:
@The Stegman said:
i say yes, yes they are needed
this  
 
If you think ultimates is bad check out the authority and wildstorm as a whole where entire cities get bulldozed every other issue.  
Also during invincible war and invincible comics as a whole have millions dying and all major cities nearly razed to the ground. In issue 80 las Vegas got glassed.  
This
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Maki_P

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Edited By Maki_P

This makes me think of Invincible. Lots of innocent people die in Invincible. The Invincible War and the Viltrumites and stuff like that. They flatten cities, kill thousands of people. But then again, the proper authorities make a big deal out of civilian casualties; they are statistics true, but their serious statistics. 
Anyway, in my opinion civilian-death in Invincible is one of the things that make the comics more believable, actions have consequences. If you destroy a building there's gonna be people inside.

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Lovingdamnation

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Edited By Lovingdamnation

yes

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SpidermanWins

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Edited By SpidermanWins

I believe it is necessary for realism but that there should overall be more rescued civillians than skeletons in the ashes. That's what heroes are for. That's the point of the book. It's not NECESSARILY about mass murder, but it is supposed to be the ever looming threat that is prevented. I believe it to be more enjoyable to read a graphic novel with an amazing last minute save and close call ending in a relieving sense of excited epicness but still with the looming suspicsion of a terrible plot. I don't really LOVE the book when it ends in mass murder. I could say it was well written, but never actually enjoyed it all too much. More rescue, less death.
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DemonicBlade

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Edited By DemonicBlade

You can not make an omelet without breaks a few eggs...that's the lives cannot be saved all the time....just like here in the real world....

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RedheadedAtrocitus

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I agree with you on that point, that significant numbers with regard to casualty rates in comics limits their significance.  Unfortunately statistics are something that is hard to gauge upon the painted and printed page with regard to numbers that grow and grow.  After all, three hundred dead from Ultimate Hulk's rampage.  Unless someone would go to the trouble to show mass graves or blood and gore to the point that we literally hurl our black lil weasley guts out, 300 or more just remains a number.  Perhaps the same would go for 26 dead from 616-Hulk's tango in Vegas.  And in the end is it necessary?  Well, I think from the standpoint of wanting to make things real..then its tricky.  After all, in life there has been nothing on level of cataclysmic genocide level death since at least the Somalian Genocide and the Yugoslavian conflicts int he early to mid-1990s. We as human beings aren't exposed to constant biblical level deaths unless perhaps it is a terrible event of Mother Nature, and even then it is almost to be expected as part of the tragedy (:;coughs:: Katrina, Haitian Earthquake, etc. ::coughs:: ) So would it really matter for us to read it in comics? Probably not...but from a standpoint of entertainment it may be a good plot device sure.  Its probably no different than debating the level of violence in your average comic nowadays. Necessary? No. Fun? Of course!

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Aldie_N

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Edited By Aldie_N

If no civilians died the heroes would have nothing to fight for, they all started by saving civilians, that is their main goal. If there was no death of civilians there would be no heroes.

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Mumbles

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Edited By Mumbles

doesn't really matter much

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yo_yo_fun

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Edited By yo_yo_fun

For example, when I watch the animated series Justice League, and that episode where Superman and Captain Marvel have this big fight and they are punching each other and throwing each other and they land on big buildings, which causes them to crumble down. I always think, there are people there, most likely. Or people might be standing near that building. 
I'm sure innocent civilians get hurt or die when the heroes and villains are fighting.
But I've never thought about the deep meaning in which you've pointed out. 
But my response to that is: Hey, superheroes can't even stay married in the "comic book universe", kind of like real life, don't u think..?

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ferpuerto17

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Edited By ferpuerto17

I say it makes a bigeger impact. Loved the Civil War storyline and it would have not been the same without Stamford
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RazzaTazz

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Edited By RazzaTazz

Death is kind of a weird subjective concept.  At this moment in the Congo there are warlords who would give megalomaniacal supervillains a run for their money in terms of being scary.  No one really knows about it though it is just ignored.  I think this is the same case as in comics but on a different scale, as here we know these deaths are not real.  I am not sure if it makes it more realistic, just like a romance between Magneto and Rogue is unrealistic based on what has come before, this forms a kind of desensitization in terms of what we are supposed to expect.  Entire cities have been destroyed, so how do you one up that - destroying a continent?  I think it is a case also that writers take the easy out and instead of getting paid for what they are supposed to do they resort to cheap tricks, civilian death being one of those.  That most of the best stories ever involve no civilian death I would say its not very necessary.  

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huser

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Edited By huser

11 Million mutants on Genosha during the Mega Sentinel attack also I guess kinda goes crazy.

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AtteraTotusSanctus

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To me, it adds more of a dramatic feel to the comics. If villains and hero's clashed in New York city or if the Hulk were to rampage in Vegas in real life, there would obviously be some damage and maybe even casualties.  And personally, I enjoy this realism.   But I can understand where some might not.

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Neuron

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Edited By Neuron

Necessary overall?  Of course not.  But comics are a medium like any other and shouldn't be restricted to what people think they should contain. Comics have panels, characters, and a story.  That's the bare bones of what we can expect.  Saying that comics should all be pure escapist fantasy and they should all be predictable is very limiting.
 
Necessary for realism?  Of course.  People die in reality.  There are no greater stakes than lives, but ensuring that every story ends with the good guys winning and saving everyone is... well, boring.  Sometimes they should lose, if only to illustrate why evil is evil and why there's a need for people to step forward and ensure evil is stopped.  If a story featuring civilian deaths (or any deaths, including superheroes) feels overblown or ridiculous or cliché, then it's a badly written story.  Simple enough.
 
Personally, I feel something when I see civilian deaths.  Pain, anger.  It is heavier subject matter, but it also makes the heroes successes that much more exhilarating to me, an adult.  It also makes things more complex and more real, which I find more entertaining.

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SC

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Well I don't think deaths are there for realism, they are there for drama. Drama, people love, and drama and realism can often clash. Then there is also focus. Not just fictional focus, but real life focus? There is something like 26 million slaves in modern day use, 26 people you know, with no freedom, whipped and beat to make things that advantage other people. Except people can't really grasp that number... I mean, its just evolution, our brains can't process it in a way our brains can function a little girl attacked by a dog and getting scarred. We can't grasp it because if we did we couldn't function. So similar processes occur in real life. In fiction, writers have control over such numbers and us readers tend to tell them one thing, comic readers especially. We want significance. We want stories and characters to matter, so one consequence is the upping of ante and relying on also knowing how the human condition works. Sort of exploiting that... human condition suggests that peoples sympathies have limits... in years where there are lots of natural disasters, the incidents near the end after a few people donate less and devote less time caring or getting incensed. A period of normality is needed, a resting period and then people switch back to being more relatively sympathetic and generous. Excitement, drama, risk and all that works the same way. Not only that a good story teller will be able to get your focus wound up around things where quantity is not a big a factor as other circumstance.  
 
Has anyone read that short story with Spider-man and there is this little homeless girl who collects newspaper clippings of him and is all excited the time he swings by and fights Dr Ock? Oh man that story gets me every single time... it was designed to get me, story really really focused on her. Other comics can have 300 people killed in some whatever... as we all are aware its not real, its just comics, and no focus is given to any of those characters (they are not really even just characters, just a number reflective of characters we never knew or would never met) that died and so its not that we don't care, its just like the 26 million slaves in real life, we just don't know the details and there is not so much focus on the factors/specifics. Comics though, unlike real life, we sort of know and count on that justice will be served, and there will be some sort of victory and so from the lowest lows will come higher highs, but we can't have those higher highs unless we first sink to those lows and so... how do you explain to the reader that Fear Itself matters more and is more intense a situation than Civil War? Well... more people died... (and then writers know that you can't just do that and you get actual stories, designed to focus on smaller named characters to sort of give you two things? Scale and scope of the drama, but also the very powerful individual human angle (like the tie in Home Front and stories like the lil girl I spoke of, except those types of stories don't need big events, and sometimes they can get lost in big events, but yeah. They tug at your heart strings in a different way. This is also why of course why we use to have adopt a child programs for countries with children starving. People aren't insensitive but when you tell them 20 million kids are starving and dying... I mean it can't really register? You put a single face and name and tell people that kid will die but you can save them.. well they can understand that a bit better, and so can take more action.  
 
So comics like news organizations will try and balance the big numbers, with the smaller numbers and focus can and will shift. Remember Fear Itself started off actually focusing on a man and family losing their home? Then a month later mass casualties... so yes, a good writer will know how to ground the story when giving the big numbers and drama, because people generally respond to a bit of that both, but if they balance is off, they can also respond relatively negatively.  
 
So they aren't necessary and I think a lot of the time, they aren't there for realism, but fans respond to such things in various complex ways and so its attempted to harness. More than that, people also love what happens after the bad, the good. Like a see saw. In order to get sweeter highs, writers have to put in the bitter lows as well. People today are also a lot less patient and jaded and cynical. So the writing reflects this hyper sensitivity as well. 

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Thor's hammmer

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Yes. without any doubt. Yes.
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ThanosIsMad

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" The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic."
 
Typically, when one or two bystanders die, they're characters of note.  They have names, hence there's an emotional connection to it.  When scores of people die, unless you're directly in the middle of it, it's not going to have as big of an impact.  Not to mention, stories are told from the perspectives of heroes and their allies.  The death of innocents won't be the focus of the book just like it wouldn't be the focus of their lives, unless they were directly responsible for it.

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If civilians were not dying, I am sure we would be reading an article about "How is it that nukes go off and only superheroes die?".  
 
And a lot more than a million New Yorkers died in Ultimatum. 

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Ston3face

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Short answer....YES! Its unrealistic to think that there would not be civilian deaths when say the hulk and thor duke it out.

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BarelyAverage

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Why are all of the examples for Civilian Deaths only from Marvel? 
 
Anyways It totally adds to the realism. I love the darker story lines such as this one Wolverine Annual that I have. Wolverine is taking the form of an avenging demon and it takes place from the bad guy's perspective.

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spidershamrock

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Deaths in comics enhance the stories because they show how that affects the hero and shows some of their emotions and we get an insight into their mind. It builds charater development. Also can you imagine how bad Civil War would have been if they had nearly killed 500 people

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I rmeber in the runaways tehre was a quote " One death is a tragedy, a thousand deaths is a statistic" karolina said this to Xavin when theyw ere mourning Gert and Xavin compaline dthat abck at hoem thousands of boteh ther epeople were dying. I couldnt stop thinking about that while I read this