Comics are just like how we read novels and books. We read comics because we love the action, the characters and the interesting plots that the writers throw at us. So, what makes a really good comic book story and what makes us interested in these stories? Here are some tips in making a good comic book story:

1. Make the Character’s death meaningful.Probably the most used up concept in comic books is the death of many characters. Deaths in any kind of genre are meant to be sad and meaningful and they should not be used as an overused plot device to cause tension in the stories. Take the deaths of Superman and Colossus for examples. The death of Colossus during the Legacy Virus was meaningful because Colossus was willing to sacrifice his life to save the people he loved and to prevent his friends from suffering the same fate that his sister, Magik had suffered. Also, the death of Superman was the same because he was willing to sacrifice his life to save people he loved. If the deaths of characters are used in the plots, then their deaths must be meaningful, in other words, death should be used in the stories if the characters are willing to sacrifice their lives to save the people they love or if the death is unintentional.
2. Focus on the characters.We as readers read comics and any other kind of genre so we could invest ourselves into the characters. In order to make the characters interesting to the reader, there must be a good amount of developing the characters and focusing the stories on them so that way the readers will enjoy what the characters bring to the stories. If the character is never focused enough on, then they could become “background” characters, which are characters who are in the story, but they contribute nothing to the story and that is one of the worst ways to use a character. If the character has nothing to do with the story, then they should not be featured in that story just so they would be rendered useless in the end. Characters should always have something to do in the story or at least, have their point of views on what happened in the events told so that way, the readers will see that the character had some significance to the story at hand. Another bad example of using characters is to make them into “Mary Sue” characters and “Mary Sue” characters are characters who are so perfect that they almost never do anything wrong. There is nothing wrong with a character always doing the right thing, since that is what heroes do. However, in order to make the character be more relatable to the readers, they need to have moments of weakness or self-doubt to ensure the readers that they are like normal people also and that even though they have superpowers or are constantly saving the world, they have moments where they doubt themselves also about their goals in life. Another important aspect in developing the characters is if a terrible situation happens to the character, then the writers need to show how that situation affects the character and not skim over that event like it never happened to the characters at all. The situation could affect the character in a negative way like make them evil or the situation could affect the character in a positive way, like make them grown as characters or realize what they really want in life.

1. Show more relationships between the characters.

Relationships are truly important to any storyline and to the characters as they truly make the characters’ personalities stand out. The relationship could be between loving couples or between groups of friends and it’s always these relationships between the characters that make the characters truly relatable to the readers and also provide some humor and heartwarming moments in the comics. Without relationships in comics, the characters would seem a bit flat and dull since you would not know how they can cope being around other people. Also, the writers should not have to continually mess with the relationships started between the characters. Yes, there should be some tensions between the characters to test how strong their relationships are to each other and the writers should show that love and friendship is more powerful than any kind of turmoil that the characters go through. Take Kitty and Colossus’ relationship during Joss Whedon’s run on “Astonishing X-Men.” They suffered through so much during that run, but their love for each other proved to outweigh all the turmoil they went through.

1. Have thought-provoking plots.

Plots are essential to making the stories extremely interesting and the plot doesn’t have to be so action oriented all the time. The plots could focus on the characters and their battles either within themselves or with villains. The plots need to have a balance between action and character moments in order for the readers to get interested into the story. One of the best examples of good plot development was the “Dark Phoenix Saga” where we not only have really good action scenes of Jean Grey going destructive as the Dark Phoenix, but we also get a good glimpse at Jean Grey’s character and her struggles with trying to control such a dark and destructive power. You want to have plenty of action to keep the reader interested, but you also want to show how the characters are affected by the events so that way, the event could affect the character in many ways.

So, that’s my suggestions on making a good comic book story. What do you think about this list? Do you like this list or is there more to be added to this list?