it seems that today, CNN and bloggers are all talking about how a member of the Fantastic Four will be killed this month. As someone who reads four or five comic books a night to fall asleep, (Ah, single life…) I feel qualified to comment on this “story.”
First, it’s likely to be Sue, the Invisible Woman. She’s rogue from the group right now, trying to broker a peace treaty in Atlantis that just went sour and bloody. Second, she’ll be dead for like 4 issues. Whoever it is, they’ll be dead for about that long. Shorter than the average superhero death ritual, before they come back.
There used to be a saying in comics, that they all come back from the dead, except for Bucky. (Captain America’s WW2 sidekick) But we don’t use that saying anymore, because they brought Bucky back from the dead too a few years ago. (Actually, he’s currently Captain America.)
See, Marvel has a big cross-title jam coming up, and you better believe all four of Marvel’s first family will be there for it. So it’s just not news. Marvel keeps saying they’ll kill off Spiderman in early 2011 too, but he’s also in the leaked art for the big summer event. So, he won’t be dead long either.
DC recently did this with former Batgirl, Barbara Gordon. They did this whole run-up to “The Death of Oracle.” (Her current super-name) It culminated in her faking her death. Basically she’s just going to end up with a new super-name. Yawn. But at least it was better than this year’s Death of Batman saga which ended with him being trapped in the time stream, ala Quantum Leap.
Meanwhile, also at DC, they’ll be bringing Doomsday back to Metropolis. This is the beast that actually bested and killed Superman (dying at the same time) nearly 20 years ago. Nobody stays dead in the funny pages.
I read all of the titles referenced here each month, (Well, Amazing Spiderman is weekly) but to be honest, only out of habit. If you’re looking for comics that actually interesting story lines are occuring in right now, check out my blog from last month running down the best in current comics:
http://michaelsalamone.blogspot.com/2010/11/sometimes-i-lose-myself-in-funny-pages.html
Thanks for indulging my nerdiness.
