Looking at my site you can probably tell but in case you haven’t picked up yet I am a huge comic book fan. But recently something has really started to bug me. The news that Captain America was to return from the dead was probably to the delight of many fans and even myself felt that the star spangled hero should be back (then again I never thought he should have been killed). However, his return annoys me and that is because I honestly believe once a character has been killed that should be the end of them unless their death was in away where at the time of writing, the writers were aware that they were going to bring the character back or if there was an actual chance of the character surviving in real life. The amount of characters that die these days is unbelievable and the reader is aware that the character will return in one shape or another. In most respects I would argue that killing a character is the least imaginative thing a writer can do because either themselves or another writer later in time will bring them back.
A key examples that I am thinking about at the moment are both Captain America and Batman. The first I am going to discuss is Captain America. The death of Cap was a truly shocking event that made newspaper headlines as although Cap was no longer the Marvel Franchise player, in the actual comics he was the icon of hope and liberty. In many ways, Cap’s death saw Marvel as a company lead the characters down a much darker ambiguous path through the Dark Reign plot. But now, yet again, we are about to see him return. The book will no doubt make lots of money and as I said earlier I never think that the character should have died in the first place as the world being in this torrid state that it is at the moment needs a character like Cap to look up to. But the amount of rebirths and survivals etc we see in comics makes the medium feel less realistic. I know that we have to hold our belief as we are accepting a world where people have powers but still I think that once someone dies they should be dead.
Batman
Last year, the great Grant Morrison killed off the DC Franchise player in Batman. Since then, we have seen that the Batman will 
carry on regardless of whether Bruce Wayne is alive or not. At the moment I applaud this move by DC. In my opinion, I think that if a character dies, the best way to keep the book going is to pass the iconic character onto another as Dick Grayson has 
taken the Bat mantle. Furthermore, DC have released some excellent spin off Bat stories such as Red Robin that have taken characters down an incredible path that we may never have seen before. Now again, I am a big Bruce Wayne fan but in many ways would it not ruin things if he suddenly returned. What would happen with Dick now that he is Batman? Would he simply bow down to his teacher and re-emerge as Nightwing? Again, the original story would be good but the fact that us readers would have to accept that another ‘death’ meant little would be annoying.
Now, I would argue as a whole that before the recent story with Batman in DC, Marvel has been better at keeping its characters dead. The areas that I am going to be looking into are The Amazing Spider-man and the Ultimate series.
The Amazing Spider-man
When, Gwen Stacy died in The Amazing Spider-man in the early 70s, we saw the whole basis of Spidey and Peter Parker’s world change. Not just that, Gwen, with her father George, is one of the few characters to have remained dead. She may have come back as a clone but the original Gwen is dead with no sign of her coming back. To me, this is a sign that killing characters forever can actually work. Peter Parker evolved as a character as like when Uncle Ben died (another Spidey character never to return thank goodness), Spidey learnt more that with great power comes great responsibility. What is more, if Gwen had not died it is 
likely that Peter’s social life may have become stagnant because he would never have got together with Mary Jane and as much as I liked the character Gwen, we all know that the feisty red head is the love of his life, who brought an extra dimension to the Spider-man character. So, an example where Marvel was brave, where they killed off a character forever (it would seem) and the character prospered. However, Marvel could have been more brave with having the Green Goblin remain dead instead of bringing him back to life. Do not get me wrong, in my opinion the Green Goblin is one of if not Spidey’s greatest villain. However, surely then the Green Goblin’s legacy would have been greater if he had died in the most iconic battle he had with the webslinger. His return in my view could never live up to the death that he had.
Ultimate
For a long time in the Ultimate series, Marvel took the sentiment that I have echoed in this article: if a character dies in the ultimate universe, they are dead. End of. This was a great thing about the Ultimate universe as it gave the universe a more realistic slant. However, as of late this has changed and in my opinion not for the better. Ultimate X-Men brought the Beast back from the dead when there did not seem to be any realistic way in which the character could have survived. What is more, with the ongoing Ultimatum storyline, can we honestly believe that every character that has died in the Ultimate universe will remain dead? Ultimatum has left the Ultimate universe in a state of flux which will probably be brought back by characters returning from the dead.
Therefore, I close this article by arguing that some writers should have the courage to have their character remain dead if they do kill them off. This will be more of a genuine shock to the reader instead of the collective groan that us readers would make when the huge plot line that apparently was going to change things forever was changed by the character surviving.
Sue was probably one of the most innovative female characters created by Stan Lee in 1961 when she appeared in ‘The Fantastic Four’ Issue One. For the first time (at least in my knowledge), Sue Storm’s role was not just to be the damsel in the distress. She was actually a member of the team and an integral one at that. However, still in 1961, Sue Storm was often portrayed as the character that the rest of the Four had to save. Furthermore, although innovative at the time, the original Fantastic Four books seem quite dated with their opinions and the like. This is interesting as just a year later, Lee’s writing was more with today’s views with ‘The Incredible Hulk’. Sue Storm as a character has evolved to a greater extent in the recent films that were made recently. Jessica Alba was chosen to play Storm and was automatically the most well known actor to play any of the Four or Door. Alba’s Storm is portrayed as a woman that is strong minded as well as being able to cope easily in social situations unlike the socially inept Reed Richards. Furthermore, in both films, Alba was centre of the publicity campaign as well as being integral to helping the Silver Surfer in the sequel. Alba 
being centre could be argued because of her sex appeal however this is still a huge step forward as the film depicts her as the central reason to go watch the film. Do we see Mary Jane central in the Spiderman film posters? Is Jean Grey the character you remember or Wolverine in the X-Men films? So, I would argue that the character of Sue Storm has yet again evolved and being more innovative. Lee’s revolution of creating women that were as integral to the plot as the male character continued with ‘The Incredible Hulk’. Betty Ross is Bruce Banner(the antagonist)’s girl friend. However, yet again, Betty is not the pretty girl that needs saving who listens to her man’s every thought. No, Betty is very much the equal and if anything the stronger of the two as she has to survive through Bruce’s transformation into the Hulk. In my opinion, Betty Ross was the first in many of Lee’s female creations who was the stronger out of the two mentally. Yes she may not have any super powers, but without Betty Ross, Bruce would be a bigger wreck than he already is. Lee continued to revolutionize with possibly his most successful character Spiderman. All of the women in Peter Parker’s life are strong minded, capable women from Betty Brant to Aunt May. Firstly I am going to focus on the two main women in Peter’s life for the majority of the Spiderman series: Aunt May and Mary Jane. 
Both characters are further examples of the main character being physically strong but relying upon the mental strength of the women around him. Aunt May, although frail and ill has always been the rock that Peter could rely upon. It is arguable whether Peter could cope with loosing May especially as he has lost his parents and Uncle Ben in tragic ways. Moreover, the recent Back in Black story proved that Peter could not cope with the loss of May especially if he feared that he was the reason that she was put into danger. In Back In Black, after revealing his identity in the civil war, someone shoots Aunt May causing her to go to hospital in a critical state. Peter cannot cope and goes into a rage doing everything he can to find the gunmen. He eventually finds Kingpin and attacks him in a way that we would not expect of Spidey. Peter even makes the supreme sacrifice by giving up Mary Jane in One More Day in order to be sure that Aunt May was safe. Therefore, May is an example where the superhero is so dependant on this character that he would give up everything else in his life as long as he did not loose her. Next I will discuss Mary Jane. From before we even saw Mary Jane, we were aware that she was going to be a special character. She got an introduction greater than most heroes or villains do. Lee and Romita went months, teasing the reader by showing something covering MJ’s face or Pete being in the wrong place at the wrong time and therefore never getting to go on the blind date that their aunts had arranged. It was not till Amazing Spiderman Number 42 in 1966 that we first saw her as she uttered the iconic phrase ‘face it tiger, you’ve just hit the jackpot’. This phrase utterly told us everything about MJ that we wanted to know. This phrase is almost as iconic in 
the Spiderman mythos as ‘with great power come great responsibility’. Mary Jane was like no other character we had ever met in Peter’s universe and we all like him fell head over heels in love with her. She was feisty, outgoing, exciting. She spoke differently to anyone else. She was the woman that all the men wanted to be with and all the women wanted to be. She was confident and assure of herself. She was intelligent and could easily hold her own with Peter. In fact, she did not wait for Peter as she had the choice of the men. Later, she became a character that like Aunt May was a rock for Peter that he desperately needed. The Mary Jane character was a product of the time as she was created in the midst of the women’s movement and was exactly in my opinion the kind of thing that the movement was trying to do. Gwen Stacey was another strong female character that was introduced into Spidey’s life who like Mary jane was a strong and had her own mind. Liz Allan is a further example of this as Spidey does not feel that he would have been able to cope with the knowledge that his brother was Molten Man the way Liz does. Spiderman The Black Cat was introduced in 1979 and like other Spidey women was strong, confident and sexy. Even more so than other characters, Black Cat could not just go toe to toe with Spidey mentally but also physically as she started as a villain. Spidergirl is an alternative universe where Peter and Mary Jane’s daughter May Day Parker has become Spidergirl. This book has broken many boundaries for surviving. It is the longest running female centric superhero book and although Marvel have tried to cancel it, the fans just keep wanting more and more. Again, May Day is strong willed, confident and knows who she is. she portrays all of her parents best qualities, notably MJ’s mental prowess and Peter’s spider powers. Now, I am going to discuss Frank Miller’s contribution to women in comic books: he has had both a positive and negative effect. With his ground breaking work on Daredevil and Batman, Miller created some very strong willed women such as Elektra and Commissioner 
Ellen Yindel. Elektra, like the Black Cat in Spiderman is the equal of Matt Murdock in every way from intelligence, to her skill as a fighter. Commissioner Yindel shows her dominance by not following Gordon’s take on Batman. She believes that the Bat needs to be stopped and will not listen to what he has to say. So, Yindel and Elektra both are characters who are strong minded and are not the yes sir no sir women. Furthermore, neither of these women are damsels in distress. Now Miller’s negative contribution: Sin City. I enjoy Sin City, however every single woman in the book is portrayed as a prostitute, lap dancer and the like. Now some of these women are strong willed but again these jobs that they are assigned to, smells of going backwards not forwards. So, as a whole, I would argue that comic books have moved forward in the right direction with the evolution of the female characters.
LJ Writing 