The Issues regarding Comic Book Deaths

There are many characters in the comic book universe that die for various reasons, whether it is because a villain ruthlessly kills them or because the character sacrifices their lives to save the world from destruction. In many cases, a character’s death would do great wonders to the character such as making their deaths the most memorable moments in comic book history since they died for a good cause. But there is also the issue with characters being resurrected after they died which could cause the character’s death to be insignificant to their cause.

A popular example of this would be from the X-Men comics when X-Men character, Colossus, dies when he sacrifices his life to protect all the mutants in the world from the Legacy Virus by injecting himself with the virus. Even though Colossus’ death was very noble, he was later on revived in Joss Whedon’s run of “Astonishing X-Men” and therefore, it implied to the readers that he did not have to die to protect the mutants and it sort of made his death meaningless. Also, the explanation for Colossus’ revival was never made clear and seems awkward when he was brought back to life for no plausible reason.

Another good example of a character dying is Jean Grey’s death in the “Dark Phoenix Saga,” which earned Jean Grey the reputation of dying so many times in the X-Men universe and always coming back to life. Jean Grey sacrificed her life in the “Dark Phoenix Saga” when she realized that her Dark Phoenix powers were very destructive and she ended up saving the universe from her Dark Phoenix powers. Even though Jean Grey committed a noble act in saving the world from her powers, she ended up being a plot device in being the character who has died and been revived a million times more than the other characters. So in this case, when Jean Grey dies every time, does her deaths mean anything or are they just used as plot devices to keep the stories interesting?

While it is natural for characters, especially comic book characters, to die, the whole death scenario in comic books have become somewhat meaningless due to the fact that many characters in the comic book universe are constantly being brought back to life for no clear reason every time they die. Whenever there is a death scene in a comic book, the reader is supposed to feel remorse and sadness for the character who has died, however since the characters are always being brought back to life, this takes out the whole emotional aspect of the character’s death and everything becomes very predictable in the long run. Also, if the character’s death involves the character coming to grips with his or her dark powers, then the character might not grow as a person because instead of showing how the characters have to deal with their negative powers, the characters are sometimes killed off if they had dark powers and once they are revived again, they do not seem to experience growth in their characters once their dark powers are revealed.

In my opinion, I think that either the character should never die if they have to deal with a life threatening situation, or they should die permanently in order for the death to be meaningful to their characters. If the characters had died for a good cause such as sacrificing their lives to protect the people they love, then their deaths should mean something special to everyone involved and it should make the character look very heroic in their deeds. Also, the character’s death would set a good example for other heroes to learn by, that’s not to say that all heroes should die, but all heroes have to know when to make a sacrifice in their lives to protect people they care about. Also, in regarding that characters should not die if they have to deal with a situation that threatens their lives, having the character die constantly means that the character will never have growth in their characters. A good example of this would be of Jean Grey as she is always shown as a person who takes on the Phoenix Force and not as an individual person with her own ideals and strengths. If a character has a dark side that causes them to harm other people, they should not have to die just so the world will be saved, but they should learn how to control their dark sides while facing conflicts within their personalities so that way it would make room for more character development for the characters.

So what do you think about comic book deaths? Do you think that characters should die permanently once they are killed the first time or should the characters avoid death in order to avoid being brought back to life so many times?

Honestly, I'd rather see characters dying for good when they die. It's ridiculous how no popular character in comics can die without being somehow resurrected later. It really does render all the deaths meaningless when the readers can count on the characters returning eventually. Marvel especially tries to end all big events (which I hate) with the dramatic death of a main character only to revive the said character later (Exhibit A: Cable). It's such a cheap way to [sarcasm]add dramatic tension[/sarcasm] to a boring story.

Curiously, though, Jean Grey with her on/off-relationship with death doesn't bother me as much as other frequently dying comic book characters. Her powers are practically and symbolically all about bringing life and taking it away, about destruction and reconstruction, and about death and rebirth. I don't mind her cyclically dying and being brought back to life because it suits the character and makes (comic book) sense, considering the nature of her powers. Still, I'm hoping that she won't instantly die again after her inevitable return because it would be incredibly frustrating.

Her first "rebirth" after the Dark Phoenix saga, however, is probably the dumbest retcon in the history of comics, IMO. I get it that it would have been difficult to present her as a hero after having her destroy a whole solar system, but it would have been so much more interesting to see them tangle that challenge instead of going for the ridiculous excuse they chose.

@MyraMyraMyra said:

Honestly, I'd rather see characters dying for good when they die. It's ridiculous how no popular character in comics can die without being somehow resurrected later. It really does render all the deaths meaningless when the readers can count on the characters returning eventually. Marvel especially tries to end all big events (which I hate) with the dramatic death of a main character only to revive the said character later (Exhibit A: Cable). It's such a cheap way to [sarcasm]add dramatic tension[/sarcasm] to a boring story.

Curiously, though, Jean Grey with her on/off-relationship with death doesn't bother me as much as other frequently dying comic book characters. Her powers are practically and symbolically all about bringing life and taking it away, about destruction and reconstruction, and about death and rebirth. I don't mind her cyclically dying and being brought back to life because it suits the character and makes (comic book) sense, considering the nature of her powers. Still, I'm hoping that she won't instantly die again after her inevitable return because it would be incredibly frustrating.

Her first "rebirth" after the Dark Phoenix saga, however, is probably the dumbest retcon in the history of comics, IMO. I get it that it would have been difficult to present her as a hero after having her destroy a whole solar system, but it would have been so much more interesting to see them tangle that challenge instead of going for the ridiculous excuse they chose.

I agree with everything you said, especially about how Marvel tries to have every event they present have character die for the greater good of the future. It gets frustrating because they are basically saying that the character died for nothing.

Comic Book deaths are just fine unless we're speaking Marvel.

@ReVamp said:

Comic Book deaths are just fine unless we're speaking Marvel.

Jason Todd.

Your argument is now shattered.

@InnerVenom123 said:

@ReVamp said:

Comic Book deaths are just fine unless we're speaking Marvel.

Jason Todd.

Your argument is now shattered.

Jason Todd was good. My argument remains valid. Unless you bring up Lian Harper, then f**ked up, so please don't bring that up.

@ReVamp said:

@InnerVenom123 said:

@ReVamp said:

Comic Book deaths are just fine unless we're speaking Marvel.

Jason Todd.

Your argument is now shattered.

Jason Todd was good. My argument remains valid. Unless you bring up Lian Harper, then f**ked up, so please don't bring that up.

Bwahahahaa.

Lian Harper.

@InnerVenom123 said:

@ReVamp said:

@InnerVenom123 said:

@ReVamp said:

Comic Book deaths are just fine unless we're speaking Marvel.

Jason Todd.

Your argument is now shattered.

Jason Todd was good. My argument remains valid. Unless you bring up Lian Harper, then f**ked up, so please don't bring that up.

Bwahahahaa.

Lian Harper.

:(.

OKAY OKAY. One death. That was all.

Love your blogs, I disagree here though. I think wanting comic characters to stay dead is selfish - understandable, but selfish. The main selling point to me, from an objective perspective is the characters. With a great character you can tell great stories. None of those stories necessarily have to have bearing on each other. You can have great stories without great characters, but if that was the priority, why don't fans by more indie comics? Usually the stories are better, they just don't have the character power of DC and Marvel. Consider your three favorite characters and your five favorite stories with them playing an important part? Now imagine if those five stories came after a story where they died and were resurrected? Now imagine a person in the past advocating that character should stay dead permanently denying you a chance to have those five amazing stories?  
 
Do characters die and revive so often it cheapens the dramatic effect? Sure but thats because uncreative writers tend to use such gimmicks, but why should the creative and good writers be denied using a good character because of a writer who was around 5 years before them? All my favorite characters have died at some point and if they weren't around anymore, I would not be reading comics right now. In my opinion, its better to drop the generalization and focus and advocate on better writing preventing the issues and problems of character deaths and resurrections rather than addressing the problem... well after its dead and buried lol 

@SC said:

Love your blogs, I disagree here though. I think wanting comic characters to stay dead is selfish - understandable, but selfish. The main selling point to me, from an objective perspective is the characters. With a great character you can tell great stories. None of those stories necessarily have to have bearing on each other. You can have great stories without great characters, but if that was the priority, why don't fans by more indie comics? Usually the stories are better, they just don't have the character power of DC and Marvel. Consider your three favorite characters and your five favorite stories with them playing an important part? Now imagine if those five stories came after a story where they died and were resurrected? Now imagine a person in the past advocating that character should stay dead permanently denying you a chance to have those five amazing stories? Do characters die and revive so often it cheapens the dramatic effect? Sure but thats because uncreative writers tend to use such gimmicks, but why should the creative and good writers be denied using a good character because of a writer who was around 5 years before them? All my favorite characters have died at some point and if they weren't around anymore, I would not be reading comics right now. In my opinion, its better to drop the generalization and focus and advocate on better writing preventing the issues and problems of character deaths and resurrections rather than addressing the problem... well after its dead and buried lol

Oh yeah! I forgot to point out about what would happen if popular characters were killed permanently. Say for example, Batman or Superman dies permanently, then DC would be losing their heavy hitters in their comics because these two characters are true icons to the DC universe and many fans would be upset if they are killed off permanently, especially in a death that is meaningless. Now, if their deaths were written very well, then yes they would be praised for their heroic deeds, however DC would still lose the two icons that made them big in the first place, so I guess that killing off characters permanently would not work well with very popular characters or characters who are iconic to the comic book industry.

@SC said:

@Rabbitearsblog: *nods* Exactly and that itself sort of presents a problem, because lots of popular and iconic characters had more humble beginnings and a lot of characters are someone's favorite, so getting to decide what characters live and die gets a bit more complicated? Personally, I don't read Marvel or DC for realism, but I also get to read a lot of indie comic book stories, and in those stories death has greater and bigger impact (then again, they are lacking in other ways) so maybe I am just lucky in having a lot of chance to read a lot of different stories.

Yeah, it does get more difficult if an iconic character is the one getting killed, like Thor recently.

I also think that so many kills make "death" in comic books some kind of meaningless. So why are people getting killed if they come back to life after 2 or 3 monhts (just an example). But on the other hand i think it is okay to let people come back, especially if they were very liked by others. But then it should make sense and not just letting them appear in a new story or something. There must be a reason for their "rebirth". then it is possible to let them get back. but not these killing rebirth killing rebirth etc.

As for comic book deaths, it's always cookie-cutter when it comes to marvel, but at least they make it stick in the Ultimate Universe, so that's good enough for me.

@Sir_Deadpool said:

I also think that so many kills make "death" in comic books some kind of meaningless. So why are people getting killed if they come back to life after 2 or 3 monhts (just an example). But on the other hand i think it is okay to let people come back, especially if they were very liked by others. But then it should make sense and not just letting them appear in a new story or something. There must be a reason for their "rebirth". then it is possible to let them get back. but not these killing rebirth killing rebirth etc.

I agree that there needs to be a clearer explanation whenever characters are brought back to life. I mean, I loved the fact that Colossus was revived later on, because I don't think I could read an X-Men comic without Colossus being in it, but the explanation for his resurrection was a bit unclear to me and I wish that they spent more time on explaining about why Colossus had to be brought back to life.

@Rabbitearsblog said:

@Sir_Deadpool said:

I also think that so many kills make "death" in comic books some kind of meaningless. So why are people getting killed if they come back to life after 2 or 3 monhts (just an example). But on the other hand i think it is okay to let people come back, especially if they were very liked by others. But then it should make sense and not just letting them appear in a new story or something. There must be a reason for their "rebirth". then it is possible to let them get back. but not these killing rebirth killing rebirth etc.

I agree that there needs to be a clearer explanation whenever characters are brought back to life. I mean, I loved the fact that Colossus was revived later on, because I don't think I could read an X-Men comic without Colossus being in it, but the explanation for his resurrection was a bit unclear to me and I wish that they spent more time on explaining about why Colossus had to be brought back to life.

exactly. you understood what i wanted to say. You can also let storm die or emma frost whatever return them to life but explain why and how!

@Sir_Deadpool said:

@Rabbitearsblog said:

@Sir_Deadpool said:

I also think that so many kills make "death" in comic books some kind of meaningless. So why are people getting killed if they come back to life after 2 or 3 monhts (just an example). But on the other hand i think it is okay to let people come back, especially if they were very liked by others. But then it should make sense and not just letting them appear in a new story or something. There must be a reason for their "rebirth". then it is possible to let them get back. but not these killing rebirth killing rebirth etc.

I agree that there needs to be a clearer explanation whenever characters are brought back to life. I mean, I loved the fact that Colossus was revived later on, because I don't think I could read an X-Men comic without Colossus being in it, but the explanation for his resurrection was a bit unclear to me and I wish that they spent more time on explaining about why Colossus had to be brought back to life.

exactly. you understood what i wanted to say. You can also let storm die or emma frost whatever return them to life but explain why and how!

Exactly! I think explaining how a character is brought back to life is just as important as bringing them back to life.

@Rabbitearsblog said:

@Sir_Deadpool said:

@Rabbitearsblog said:

@Sir_Deadpool said:

I also think that so many kills make "death" in comic books some kind of meaningless. So why are people getting killed if they come back to life after 2 or 3 monhts (just an example). But on the other hand i think it is okay to let people come back, especially if they were very liked by others. But then it should make sense and not just letting them appear in a new story or something. There must be a reason for their "rebirth". then it is possible to let them get back. but not these killing rebirth killing rebirth etc.

I agree that there needs to be a clearer explanation whenever characters are brought back to life. I mean, I loved the fact that Colossus was revived later on, because I don't think I could read an X-Men comic without Colossus being in it, but the explanation for his resurrection was a bit unclear to me and I wish that they spent more time on explaining about why Colossus had to be brought back to life.

exactly. you understood what i wanted to say. You can also let storm die or emma frost whatever return them to life but explain why and how!

Exactly! I think explaining how a character is brought back to life is just as important as bringing them back to life.

maybe even more important

@Sir_Deadpool said:

@Rabbitearsblog said:

@Sir_Deadpool said:

@Rabbitearsblog said:

@Sir_Deadpool said:

I also think that so many kills make "death" in comic books some kind of meaningless. So why are people getting killed if they come back to life after 2 or 3 monhts (just an example). But on the other hand i think it is okay to let people come back, especially if they were very liked by others. But then it should make sense and not just letting them appear in a new story or something. There must be a reason for their "rebirth". then it is possible to let them get back. but not these killing rebirth killing rebirth etc.

I agree that there needs to be a clearer explanation whenever characters are brought back to life. I mean, I loved the fact that Colossus was revived later on, because I don't think I could read an X-Men comic without Colossus being in it, but the explanation for his resurrection was a bit unclear to me and I wish that they spent more time on explaining about why Colossus had to be brought back to life.

exactly. you understood what i wanted to say. You can also let storm die or emma frost whatever return them to life but explain why and how!

Exactly! I think explaining how a character is brought back to life is just as important as bringing them back to life.

maybe even more important

Yep!

Bump.

Death to me has to have impact. If you keep reviving the characters that you just killed it makes the impact less and less powerful. I have recently read a story where one of the side characters was killed off. It was moving in the way that the protagonist has growth in their character learning that the life they live is one that could get their friends or relatives killed. To keep on reviving the characters makes the growth on the protagonists seem cheap. Sure people have favorites but for the sake of the story if someone has to die have them stay dead, give the characters that remain alive more of a reason to fight the good fight.

The only real problem with deaths is that we know they are coming back. Still, whenever they happen I still have an emotional response to them.

@blackwolf0925 said:

Death to me has to have impact. If you keep reviving the characters that you just killed it makes the impact less and less powerful. I have recently read a story where one of the side characters was killed off. It was moving in the way that the protagonist has growth in their character learning that the life they live is one that could get their friends or relatives killed. To keep on reviving the characters makes the growth on the protagonists seem cheap. Sure people have favorites but for the sake of the story if someone has to die have them stay dead, give the characters that remain alive more of a reason to fight the good fight.

This is like the best comment I have ever read! :D I definitely agree that if reviving the character prevents the other character that is affected from growing as a character, then it should not have to be done so often.

I believe you have to die at least once to be a senior member of the Xmen

@joshmightbe said:

I believe you have to die at least once to be a senior member of the Xmen

Yeah, that's so true. Has almost every member of the X-Men died?

@Rabbitearsblog: I know that all the originals except for Iceman have died or at least looked like they did until later retconed

@joshmightbe said:

@Rabbitearsblog: I know that all the originals except for Iceman have died or at least looked like they did until later retconed

Oh yeah! Iceman's the only one who hasn't died yet.

It depends on who are they going to kill. That's just my opinion. If Phoenix died I still want her to come back eventhough I'm not really a big fan of hers. Maybe they could kill off the nonpopular or the less relevant ones. If they're going to kill somebody to make some news, then they really have to kill an important character and then bring him/her back to life again. But I don't want my favorite character to get killed eventhough they'll bring her back.

Among who got killed recently, I think I'm fine if Falcon from Avengers won't come back, if he really died which I'm not sure yet. As for Thor, he really should come back. Same goes to Phoenix. WHat I really want them to give us back is Jubilee. I hope she lives again as Jubilee and not as a vampire.

@jhazzroucher said:

It depends on who are they going to kill. That's just my opinion. If Phoenix died I still want her to come back eventhough I'm not really a big fan of hers. Maybe they could kill off the nonpopular or the less relevant ones. If they're going to kill somebody to make some news, then they really have to kill an important character and then bring him/her back to life again. But I don't want my favorite character to get killed eventhough they'll bring her back.

Among who got killed recently, I think I'm fine if Falcon from Avengers won't come back, if he really died which I'm not sure yet. As for Thor, he really should come back. Same goes to Phoenix. WHat I really want them to give us back is Jubilee. I hope she lives again as Jubilee and not as a vampire.

I agree that they should kill off the least important characters so that way we wouldn't have to worry about any important characters being brought back to life again.

First of all nice blog. The way deaths are handled in comics is definately an issue. To answer your question i think they should generally avoid deaths. Especially the hastily constructed ones that are designed to create a 'shocking' ending like

For me their's not a lot worse than have a character undergo a well written death that improves the story, only to have it retconned or marginalised months later. I mean good deaths have been done before. Barry Allen's was the perfect example of a good superhero death, and he was succesfully replaced for something like twenty years. Only to be brought back in a poor event just to ramp up sales.

So yes i think deaths should generally be avoided since they're almost always made insignificant later on.

P.S. In the spirit of fairness however i'll at least acknowledge the permanent deaths that i think were done well. Ted Kord (Blue Beetle), the first Question, Elongated Man and Nigtcrawler

P.P.S Jason Todd's death and rebirth hasn't been bad either since, he actually changed as a result of it. Instead of just returning to the status quo.

@Afro_Warrior said:

First of all nice blog. The way deaths are handled in comics is definately an issue. To answer your question i think they should generally avoid deaths. Especially the hastily constructed ones that are designed to create a 'shocking' ending like

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Thor's death in Fear Itself

For me their's not a lot worse than have a character undergo a well written death that improves the story, only to have it retconned or marginalised months later. I mean good deaths have been done before. Barry Allen's was the perfect example of a good superhero death, and he was succesfully replaced for something like twenty years. Only to be brought back in a poor event just to ramp up sales.

So yes i think deaths should generally be avoided since they're almost always made insignificant later on.

P.S. In the spirit of fairness however i'll at least acknowledge the permanent deaths that i think were done well. Ted Kord (Blue Beetle), the first Question, Elongated Man and Nigtcrawler

P.P.S Jason Todd's death and rebirth hasn't been bad either since, he actually changed as a result of it. Instead of just returning to the status quo.

Thanks!!! I agree with everything you said about how deaths should be avoided if a character needs to grow. I think that killing off characters for no reason would actually cause great harm to the character development that the character was going through.

If you die...Stay dead please.

Since we are talking about deaths and having characters come back, I would have to say that making them undead and being controlled could be one way of reviving a character without having look like a cheap way just to bring back said characters. Have protagonists shown the emotional tides to said character has affected them with them gone and is affecting them fighting said character. Having them fight to be put to rest would be a good way to bring back characters that have died and still give growth to the protagonists. It is at least one way to go that I think could work for good story telling, but not done to often I might add.

@blackwolf0925 said:

Since we are talking about deaths and having characters come back, I would have to say that making them undead and being controlled could be one way of reviving a character without having look like a cheap way just to bring back said characters. Have protagonists shown the emotional tides to said character has affected them with them gone and is affecting them fighting said character. Having them fight to be put to rest would be a good way to bring back characters that have died and still give growth to the protagonists. It is at least one way to go that I think could work for good story telling, but not done to often I might add.

That's a good idea! It would be better if the character who was killed off would be pronounced undead instead of bringing them back completely alive and having no clear reason to bring them back in the first place. Maybe if the protagonist fights the undead character, then either the undead character could be brought back completely to life or be killed and it wouldn't seem too awkward if the character was brought back from the dead that way. It sounds gross, but it would make more sense.

I mean you hear about how popular the undead are now a days that giving them a good reason to be there might work for good storytelling. I admit I am a little tired of hearing zombies having no purpose other then to be a walking dead corpse with an appetite for human flesh. Give it a little more thought a have integrated into the story. Heck give the zombie his heart back let him fight against his undead brethren. Sorry my imagination got the better of me with that one. I mean there is still so much that could be explored with the undead, I tend to forget that authors don't what to take risks in storytelling anymore.

@blackwolf0925 said:

I mean you hear about how popular the undead are now a days that giving them a good reason to be there might work for good storytelling. I admit I am a little tired of hearing zombies having no purpose other then to be a walking dead corpse with an appetite for human flesh. Give it a little more thought a have integrated into the story. Heck give the zombie his heart back let him fight against his undead brethren. Sorry my imagination got the better of me with that one. I mean there is still so much that could be explored with the undead, I tend to forget that authors don't what to take risks in storytelling anymore.

That's even better! I usually don't like the idea that zombies are shown as just lifeless dead people. It would be nice if there was a zombie who has feelings and would do anything to protect their loved ones.

Yeah I just want to read something that is a little fresh and has some depth to it. I am turning to comic books for a whole new reading experience. But hearing about the remakes/reboots turns me off a little. It is like whatever happen to the stories that came before don't matter anymore. Characters death has no meaning anymore because they have been undone and restarted. And to a person like me who is just trying to get into comics it gives me a second thought of two into whether or not it is worth getting into.

@blackwolf0925 said:

Yeah I just want to read something that is a little fresh and has some depth to it. I am turning to comic books for a whole new reading experience. But hearing about the remakes/reboots turns me off a little. It is like whatever happen to the stories that came before don't matter anymore. Characters death has no meaning anymore because they have been undone and restarted. And to a person like me who is just trying to get into comics it gives me a second thought of two into whether or not it is worth getting into.

I agree. I just got into comic books also and it is a bit disappointing that they would do reboots instead of keeping up with the original history. It's alright if the reboot is a separate continuity, but maybe they should just continue with the original comics so that way the characters' histories would not have to be erased during the reboot.

@Afro_Warrior said:

First of all nice blog. The way deaths are handled in comics is definately an issue. To answer your question i think they should generally avoid deaths. Especially the hastily constructed ones that are designed to create a 'shocking' ending like

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Thor's death in Fear Itself

For me their's not a lot worse than have a character undergo a well written death that improves the story, only to have it retconned or marginalised months later. I mean good deaths have been done before. Barry Allen's was the perfect example of a good superhero death, and he was succesfully replaced for something like twenty years. Only to be brought back in a poor event just to ramp up sales.

So yes i think deaths should generally be avoided since they're almost always made insignificant later on.

P.S. In the spirit of fairness however i'll at least acknowledge the permanent deaths that i think were done well. Ted Kord (Blue Beetle), the first Question, Elongated Man and Nigtcrawler

P.P.S Jason Todd's death and rebirth hasn't been bad either since, he actually changed as a result of it. Instead of just returning to the status quo.

Good point. No matter how great the story was, the death really becomes insignificant when they are being brought back to life.

@Primmaster64 said:

If you die...Stay dead please.

This. And if they still want to bring them back, they could at least wait for a couple of years. I mean we see people dying and almost right away we see hints about their returns.

I think death of comic characters has become a far to often used marketing gimmick.

@PowerHerc said:

I think death of comic characters has become a far to often used marketing gimmick.

I can see that, just like in manga where cute characters have been use a lot now a days. But still I find deaths for me have to have a meaning and impact to a story rather than just be a marketing tool.

Now my question is to long time comic fans is this. If one of your favorite characters was killed off and was never allowed to be revived would you guys still keep on reading the comics regardless of said character not being there anymore.

@blackwolf0925 said:

Now my question is to long time comic fans is this. If one of your favorite characters was killed off and was never allowed to be revived would you guys still keep on reading the comics regardless of said character not being there anymore.

I don't know if I would read a comic without Colossus, Kitty, Storm or Nightcrawler being in it if they were killed off permanently. Probably the best solution is to have a least popular character die off permanently instead of a popular character since it would be less controversial.

Yeah that is understandable, The reason I asked this is I want to know if you could still get a good story out of important characters being killed off. I'm not saying that for example not saying Batman getting axe since he is the main character but what about Robin or maybe Batgirl. An important character that was part of main cast getting killed can show that people are not always invincible and no matter how much preparation you have certain circumstances could get you killed.

@blackwolf0925 said:

Yeah that is understandable, The reason I asked this is I want to know if you could still get a good story out of important characters being killed off. I'm not saying that for example not saying Batman getting axe since he is the main character but what about Robin or maybe Batgirl. An important character that was part of main cast getting killed can show that people are not always invincible and no matter how much preparation you have certain circumstances could get you killed.

Oh yeah! It's like if the main character has a sidekick or a best friend of some sort being killed off, that could help mature their characters as they realize that they can't take their superhero business for granted and they would have to learn to move on in a sense.