The Four Color Media Monitor: Probably in an attempt to stave off criticism, Marvel's resurrecting a character too

Apparently, Marvel's coming up with a strategy to resurrect a currently dead character as an attempt to deflect criticism of their lugubrious custom of killing off other characters in "event" stories. But again, they're keeping it all a big secret till it actually comes out:

Marvel provided no further information. It's unclear if "Dead No More" is the name of an upcoming book, a story arc in an existing book or just a promo tag for another event entirely. [...]

Fan speculation is all over the place, with names being thrown around including Mar-Vell (a.k.a. the original Captain Marvel), Spider-Man's old love interest Gwen Stacey and even Spider-Man's plot motivation for his heroics, Uncle Ben. Others have pointed to the recently-killed Wolverine or even Jean Grey, the X-Men's Phoenix, who has a whole superpower based around returning from the dead but has, astoundingly, stayed in the ground for over a decade now.

Sort of. There's a time-traveling young Jean Grey who's still around and ... listen, comic books are weird.

It's also weird how the mainstream superhero publishers of today rely so heavily on company wide crossovers that bring any existing character drama and storylines to a halt (not that there's anything convincing these days), and keep relaunching volume after volume of a series till we lose count.

I wouldn't be surprised if Uncle Ben Parker or another character whose death was handled in good taste turned out to be the resurrectee. But no matter who it is they intend to revive from the afterlife, you can be sure it won't be worth spending money on, let alone reading, and no talented stories will follow afterwards. Marvel lost coherency long ago, thanks in part to dreadful editors like Bob Harras. And no chance the Spider-Marriage will be restored.

Still, maybe DC should take a good look at what they're up and ponder just how dumb they've made themselves look with a policy that stipulates the dead must remain dead, whether superhero or civilian. Whether they like it or not, resurrection is part and parcel of science-fiction, and if there's various fantasy novelists who've done it, then superhero comics can't be any exception.

Labels: crossoverloading, golden calf of death, marvel comics, msm propaganda, Spider-Man, X-Men

I haven't been keeping up with newer comics, and I didn't even know that Jean Grey/Phoenix was dead again.

I doubt if they will bring back Ben Parker. The character really only existed in the first place to get murdered, so as to provide a revenge and/or guilt motivation for Peter Parker. That's true of several other characters: Bruce Wayne's parents, Matt Murdock's father, Frank Castle's wife and children, and so on.

My guess would be that Wolverine will come back, one way or another. Like Superman, he is too popular (and marketable) to stay gone permanently.

But resurrections are just as much a cynical marketing ploy as killing off characters.

Posted by Anonymous | 10:14 AM

Just to let you know, in today's issue of Captain America, Spencer reveals that the new Falcon is an illegal alien and uses a page dedicated to the plight of illegal bordercrossers who are being victimized.

Posted by Anonymous | 12:37 PM

Spencer also killed off Constrictor in today's issue and brought back Diamondback, but to make ends meet, she's now a stripper and is becoming convinced to re-join the Serpent Society, or something. It's like Spencer is trying to hit all those nerd rage buttons.

Whatever, I give up, Marvel.

Posted by Killer Moth | 2:47 PM

I'll try to write a post about that story later on.

Posted by Avi Green | 12:45 PM