And pray for a resurrection...

Martian Manhunter

Who he is: A standard of the Justice League for many many years. Never really successfully carried his own series, so that sort of puts him on the top of the B list.

How he died: In the first issue of Final Crisis, Libra, a harbinger of Darkseid stabs Martian Manhunter to death. A funeral is held and everyone is very sad. :(

How long has he been dead: About a year and counting.

Chances of coming back to life: Medium. He was never really all that popular as a stand alone character, and as far as I'm aware there's no cry for him to come back. That said, as a member of Justice League, he should not be counted out completely.

Batman

Who he is: Probably the most popular comic book character, second only to Superman in terms being instantly recognizable.

How he died: Also during Final Crisis, Darkseid shot him with the "Omega Sanction", the death that is life. His body is fried to a crisp and he is buried in the ground. In the last issue of Final Crisis we see him stranded in the past, back in caveman days. This is due to the nature of the Omega Sanction, which traps someone in an endless cycle of death and rebirth, with each life being worse than the last. Basically, a Hell tailored to each individual person that Darkseid shoots out of his eyes. Mr. Miracle escaped from it before, and now it's Batman's turn.

Time spent dead: About a year and counting

Probability of coming back: Certain. Grant Morrison says he was never meant to "die", just be out of the picture for a while as part of an overall story line.

Various people's families and girlfriends

This groups contains the parents of Tim Drake, Hal Jordan, Batman, Captain Marvel, The Question, Dick Grayson, and Superman. Also included are Superman's adopted father, Kyle Rayner's parents and various girl friends, as well Spiderman's Uncle Ben. Those are the big ones, there are others too numerous to mention.

How they usually die: One of two ways. Either as part of the character's origin, in which we never really see them alive. Or, a villain kills them, and in the case of Kyle Rayner's girlfriend Alex, stuffs them in an appliance.

Possibility of coming back: Nil. As characters either created as corpses or killed to provoke an emotional response, their purpose has been served.

The Question

Who he is: An Objectivist superhero created by Steve Ditko. He then got turned into a vaguely Zen inspired introspective fellow by Dennis O'Neil, and then into an urban shaman by Rick Veitch.

How he died: Of cancer. After hand picking and training his replacement, Question expired from lung cancer on the side of a snowy mountain. His last words: "Time to change...like a butterfly..."

Time spent dead: About three years so far.

Possibility of coming back: Low. Rucka, the writer that killed him off, is currently writing his replacement. It was a well written death and his new replacement is a good character. Furthermore, he never really hit the A-list to begin with, so there's no massive outcry for him to come back.

The New Gods

Who are they: Jack Kirby created an entire mythology of Superheroes/Gods that lived in a separate dimension (called the Fourth World) in the DCU. The good Gods of New Genesis battle endlessly against Darkseid, the God of Evil.

How they died: During DC's Countdown series, a spin-off called (appropriately) Death of the New Gods killed them all off. Their creator, the Source, found them to be a failed creation and destroyed them all, in preparation for creating a Fifth World.

The continuity got a bit messy. In Countdown, the planet Apokolips is last seen taken over by Brother Eye and the OMACs. There is no mention of this in the Death of the New Gods series, which was published concurrently. At the end of Death of the New Gods, all of them are dead except Darkseid and Orion, and the story then segue ways into the last few issues of Countdown. Orion rips out Darkseid's heart, and then walks off, severely injured, as the last surviving New God.

Immediately following Countdown starts Final Crisis. We find Orion dead in the first issue, but Darkseid's soul has possessed an avatar of his that lives on Earth, Boss Darkside, whom we saw in Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory. He then, somehow, summons the spirits of his various sidekicks, who all possess Earth inhabitants as well. Darkseid takes over the Earth and defeats goodness, erases free will and just generally makes a mess of things.

In the end, even the God of Evil can't stand against a pissed of Superman and Batman's infinite supply of bad ass. First, Batman shoots him with a bullet that can kill Gods. His body is poisoned. Then both Flashes cause Darkseid to get struck by the Black Racer, a sort of Grim Reaper character. This separates his soul from his body. Wonder Woman lassos his body, breaking the hold he had established over the people of Earth. Last, but not least, Superman completely obliterates his soul by...(wait for it)..singing. ("Darkseid always hated music," Superman quips.)

Possibility of coming back: Certain. It's just a matter of time before someone gets around to it. Grant Morrison seems a likely candidate, but it probably won't happen until, at the very last, DC's current big event Blackest Night finishes up. I would like to thank they'll leave Darkseid dead considering how utterly destroyed he ended up getting, but I guess we'll see.

Alan Moore's trash is another man's treasure?

In a recent interview comics guru and cranky old grandpa figure Alan Moore said the following:

" It’s the paucity of imagination. I was noticing that DC seems to have based one of its latest crossovers [Blackest Night] in Green Lantern based on a couple of eight-page stories that I did 25 or 30 years ago. I would have thought that would seem kind of desperate and humiliating, When I have said in interviews that it doesn't look like the American comic book industry has had an idea of its own in the past 20 or 30 years, I was just being mean. I didn’t expect the companies concerned to more or less say, “Yeah, he’s right. Let’s see if we can find another one of his stories from 30 years ago to turn into some spectacular saga.” It’s tragic. The comics that I read as a kid that inspired me were full of ideas. They didn’t need some upstart from England to come over there and tell them how to do comics. They’d got plenty of ideas of their own. But these days, I increasingly get a sense of the comics industry going through my trashcan like raccoons in the dead of the night."

So what should be made of this? I submit for evidence two scans, one from an issue of the current ongoing series Green Lantern Corps and one from a short story written by Alan Moore many many years ago called Tygers.

Anyway, this is from Moore's story:

And this is from Green Lantern Corps:

Ok, so the one borrows from the other. How many specific elements from Moore's short story are incorporated into the current ongoing Green Lantern stories?

-Demon Plant Ysmault

-The character Quill

-The group Quill references he is a member of, "The Five Inversions"

-Children of the White Lobe

-Sentient city of Ranx as an enemy of the GL Corps

-Evildoers attempting to detonate blink bombs in the core of Mogo

-The greatest Lantern, Sodam Yat

-The prophecy given to Abin Sur is a major plot point, and is quoted from directly one other occasion other than the above

-A major plot point is that Abin Sur was driven mad by the the prophecy, which we also see in the short story, and that it indirectly lead to his death

So, does that mean that "Blackest Night" is a rip-off of Tygers? I wouldn't say so. But it would be dishonest to say they aren't intentionally borrowing almost every facet of this short story.

No good superhero stays dead.

I love comics. I really do. I believe as a medium "sequential art" has an almost unsurpassed ability to display both information, emotion and ideas with no limit on imagination or ingenuity. That said, almost all of comics is dominated by two companies: DC and Marvel. And the overwhelming majority of their output is part of one genre: superhero comics. And I like superheros. I do. But there are issues with the genre. Case in point: death. Superheroes die, and they have an annoying habit of coming back to life. If you're going to kill someone off, at least let them stay dead. It really stretches suspension of disbelief to the breaking point and beyond. Anyway, here are some thoughts on specific people.

Superman

Who He Is: Probably the most iconic and recognizable super hero of all time.

Death: Beaten to death by newly created villain Doomsday. The world mourns, people crap money buying comics.

Time Spent Dead: About a year.

Resurrection: As Superman is basically a solar battery, judicious application of Kryptonian technology is able to recharge him to life, albeit without most of his power. He later gets his powers back while fighting against Cyborg Superman near the end of the storyline. The Death and Return of Superman story is sort of the classic example of a big marketing gimmick. The same storyline that killed him off in the beginning brought him back at the end.

A number of characters were introduced, however, that are still with us: Steel, Superboy, Doomsday and Cyborg Superman.

Rating: I'd give it a C-. It has had a lasting impact, creating a number of new characters, (which comics sorely needs) both heroes and villains. At the end of the day, it was basically a massive marketing ploy.

Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)

Who He Is: A staple of the DCU, a Justice League member, with hundreds of issues of his own various titles under his belt.

Death: After his home city of Coast City was completely destroyed by Cyborg Superman during the Death of Superman saga, Hal kinda lost his marbles for a while. Determined to undo the murder of 7 million people by any means necessary, he betrays the Green Lantern Corps in an attempt to obtain enough power to rewrite history. Becomes super villian known as Parralax and kills various Green Lanterns and Guardians of the Universe in his new found mania. Later, in a moment of self sacrifice, dies to save the Earth from a creature (a Sun-Eater) that was, as you might imagine from the name, eating the Sun.

Time Spent Dead: Hard to explain. (Basically three years) (But also eight years)

Resurrection: After dying, Hal was chosen to become the new Spectre, a supernatural spirit of vengeance. So, at this point Hal as a person is still dead, but we can consider him alive as he is still an active character. About five years after this, it was retconned that Hal had not gone insane per-se, but had been possessed by an entity known as Parallax. After being purged of this entity Hal is freed from The Spectre and returns to life. Through a second series of retcons we find out that the Green Lanterns he killed are, like, still alive and stuff. And then he rescues them, thereby resolving him of a great deal of moral responsibility. Batman seems to be the only one that remembers Hal trying to blow up the Universe.

Rating: This one is really absurd, even by comic book standards. Well intentioned, but completely all over the place. Johns continued presence in the Green Lantern Universe is great, though, once he got this out of his system. I'll give it a C for good intentions.

Superboy

Who he was: A clone of Superman and Lex Luthor created during the Death of Superman saga. Bounced around in his own series for a while, went through a number of costume changes before settling into the Titans.

Death: Killed by Superboy Prime during the Infinite Crisis storyline. Died a hero fighting against impossible odds. The kind of death Superheroes envy.

Time Spent Dead: Four years

Resurrection: Superheroes from the future, the Legion of Super-Heroes, are locked in a struggle against Superboy Prime, who is basically unstoppable. At this point he has survived a release of energy equivalent to the Big Bang and an explosion capable of destroying the entire Milky Way galaxy. They send one of their number back in time, who then retrieves Superboy's body and places him in the same chamber that was able to recharge Superman back to life. Back in the future, after being recharged for 1,000 years, Superboy pops back up and keeps on fighting Superboy Prime. After Superboy Prime is (finally?) defeated, Superboy Regular is then sent back in time to a year after he died.

Rating: Considering the same author killed him, and then later brought him back, the phrase "cheap stunt" comes to mind. And time travel is kind of the ultimate escape hatch for a comic book writer. I'll give it another C-.

Green Arrow (Oliver Queen)

Who he was: A staple of the DCU, he kinda fluctuated in purpose. His first big break was as a costar of Green Lantern. He later joined the "grim and gritty" trend with his own Mature Audiences ongoing series. Green Arrow transitioned away from that and become more of a standard superhero. One of the most socially conscious characters in mainstream comics, he routinely rails against "fat cats" and "The Man."

Death: Blown up by a group of eco-terrorists while aboard an airplane.

Time Spent dead: About six years.

Resurrection: Hoo boy...His old friend Hal Jordan, who had gone insane and become almost God like in power, before sacrificing himself to save the Earth, resurrected Green Arrow. To make things more complicated, he did not bring him back to life from when he died, but from an earlier time in his life when they were both at the height of their friendship. He then later had to re-unite with his soul to become a whole person, and is now a mainstay of the DCU.

Rating: Preposterous levels are very high. It was, however, very well written by Kevin Smith. The time he spent dead showed it wasn't just a cheap stunt. I'll give Green Arrow's resurrection a B.

The Spoiler (Stephanie Brown)

Who She Was: A sort of C-grade Batman supporting character. Her big claim to fame was that she was Robin's (Tim Drake) girlfriend.

Death: Murdered by Black Mask, a twisted, sadistic, nihilist gangster.

Time spent dead: about four years (sort of)

Resurrection: Pulled the whole "I wasn't really dead" trick. She was nursed back to health by a friend, cruelly let all her former loved ones believe she was dead for reasons best known to herself. She just recently premiered as the new Batgirl. Oddly, she had been seen as a ghost during the time period she was thought to be dead.

Rating: Considering how much of a minor character she was, bringing her back seems rather pointless in comparison for just creating a new character to fill whatever her role as the new Batgirl is going to be. D.

Jason Todd (aka Red Hood, aka Robin 2 aka "Batman")

Who he was: After the first Robin grew up and became Nightwing, Jason Todd become the new Robin. He was a fairly unpopular character, and when DC later held a poll to decide whether he would live or die, the fans gave him the thumbs down. This paved the way for the new/popular Robin of Tim Drake.

Death: The Joker beat him to a pulp with a crowbar, and then tied him up and set off a bomb. Batman rushed to the scene only to find Jason's lifeless body.

Resurrection: During the Hush storyline, where all of the A list Batman villains united with new villain Hush to (totally) get rid of Batman once and for all (we swear it will work this time), Batman fights what appears to be an adult Jason Todd. In the next issue we find this was just shape shifting Clayface trying to mess with Batman's head.

It was then retconned that it was Jason Todd the first time, and subsequent encounters were actually Clayface. How did Jason come back? Well, after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superboy Prime is trapped in a pocket dimension. Everytime he beats agains the walls of his pocket dimension, ripples cause disturbances and shifts throughout the universe. One of these disturbances brought Jason Todd back to life, albeit without most of his faculties. A quick bath in a Lazarus Pit brought him back to 100%. He then became a villian known as Red Hood, had extra-dimensional adventures, tried to become the new Batman and then became Red Hood again.

Rating: The "Superboy Prime punching reality in the face" trick is now derivesly called a "retcon punch." With good reason, the words "really super fucking lazy writing" come to mind. F.

Bucky

Who he was: Captain America's sidekick. Cap's origin story introducing him to post WW2 comics includes Bucky dying whereupon immidaetely after Cap is frozen in ice for twenty years.

Death: In the final days of WW2, a super secret Nazi unmanned plane carrying explosives is launched from an airfield with both Captain America and Bucky hanging on for the ride. Cap falls off into the Arctic ocean as the plan detonates, killing Bucky.

Time Spent Dead: Almost 40 years

Resurrection: Turns out he wasn't really dead. He was frozen in the ice similar to Cap, where the Russians found him and brainwashed him into a living weapon called the Winter Soldier. As the Winter Soldier, Bucky would perform assassinations and secret missions, and then get frozen between missions, causing him to have aged very little in the intervening years. Cap helps free up his mind from the evil Russians' influence and he becomes the new Captain America when Steve Rogers bites the bullet.

Rating: I'll be honest, I haven't been following this one real closely. But bringing Bucky back seems about as necessary as bringing Uncle Ben back. I'm leaving this one rating-less, but my initial thoughts are not good.