Why does DC like killing off characters so much?

[brandnewfan]

Wally West
Roy Harper
Damian Wayne
Bart Allen
Conner Kent

The list goes on and on and on and on. Nearly every character created has been killed one time or another. Some have been killed more than once. Why? Can’t creators and editorial craft good stories without having to kill somebody? Why does that seem to be their main go-to when they have a big story to tell? Just give us a big story without sticking to anybody. Because when you kill off characters, you’re killing off interest in your brand by the fans of that character.

I’m quickly losing interest in DC.

[HAN9000]

Damian was killed because his creator Morrison didn’t want other writers use him.
Bart Allen was killed because Didio wanted him to replace Wally, hold the place for Barry until they brought Barry back. Obviously that failed and Bart’s book sold so bad. So they had no other ways but to kill him and bring back Wally.

[The Darknight Detective]

Why? Because it sells comics, that's why. Any other reason, real or imagined, doesn't even come close to that.

When killing off a character, either for a brief time or longer, starts hurting the Big 2, then you won't see it any more. Simple as that.

[Tazirai]

The issue DC has it that with CERTAIN characters, they recognize how dangerous Superpowers would really be in reality. But also DC tries new characters, and the failed ones die, often.

[Restingvoice]

because they're freaking lazy and people actually buy books featuring character death. It worked with Superman and Jason because it was their first, I have no idea why people keep buying it now when we know they're gonna be back in a year.

[Güicho]

Cause of the 90's Dark-Age/Tinfoil-Age/Shock & Awe era, it's what sold the most creating the Speculator market boon: People not buying for characters, but for events, and particularly around "Death-Events".

Mid 80's Bronze Age ended with Crisis (death of Allen) 1985, and the Bronze-Age "Relevancy" taken to it's dramatic end - Watchmen, Dark Knight, where comics were now commentary on Superhero themselves, vs. Vigilantism.

What followed was the Dark Age or Shock & Awe age, the most shallow aping of those ^ books, with none of the "Relevance".
Instead replaced by banal, shallow, cynical glorification of violence, mindlessly aping those two books with eXtreme deaths! And events.
Death of Todd (complete with torture, a gruesome 1-(1900 #money generating number, so the "fans" could participate, and vote in the Death), Death of Superman (where it was solidified as a money generating Event), Breaking Batman, blowing up Green Arrow so Conner can take over, crippling Batgirl, Insane Jordan Killing the Corps etc... drove the industry and the creation of the speculator or tinfoil-age, as speculators started buying for supposed "key-issues" meaning anything with shocking crippling, character heal-turns, deaths, and events, they bought multiple of copies of.







Pitched marketed and sold as "Key-Issues" = "in this issue _____ is Crippled, goes Insane, Dies! ...etc! " The character or their history didn't mater, what mattered was now any mindless shocking violent, easy hook, which they bought in droves.
As long as the same people still buzz and buy into the same crap, they will continue try to market to that same mentality, whenever they can.

[MajorHoy]

Damian was killed because his creator Morrison didn’t want other writers use him.

Not exactly correct.

Morrison had a long-term story in mind that ended with Damian's death.
And his killing off Damian was no guarantee that other writers wouldn't use him; Morrison didn't own the character, and he would have known damn well that other writers could easily bring Damian back to life whenever they (or DC) wanted to.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

A mix of cleaning house and an easy way to get high stakes.

[Vordan]

Because it’s a way of getting people invested. People don’t buy stories “just because” unless the character is Batman or Spider-Man. Everyone else needs a hook to get people’s attention. Killing characters off is an easy way to do so, and means the event “matters”. Both DC and Marvel do this because people reward them by buying the story that does it.

[Dr. Ellingham]

Why? Can’t creators and editorial craft good stories without having to kill somebody?

They can. But there are no rules to fiction, so death is on the table. As it should be. Death is an important part of life, and fiction too.

Death happens to those we care about, those we revere, and eventually all of us as well. And it happens to fictional characters that don't have feelings, other than the ones they inspire.

We have to take the good where we can, and temper our expectations according to the sentence prior.

[Adekis]

Man, that picture alone basically says it all, doesn't it?

[Buried Alien]

I'm not going to take this topic seriously until it's acknowledged that Marvel does this as well. Saying that DC overindulges in killing characters: true. Suggesting that this problem is somehow exclusive to DC: slanderous.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Buried Alien]

Man, that picture alone basically says it all, doesn't it?

It's also, ironically, a product of the halcyon DC 1990s that people seem to long for as a lost age of innocence these days.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[mrbrklyn]

It's also, ironically, a product of the halcyon DC 1990s that people seem to long for as a lost age of innocence these days.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

The 1990s? WHo is paining for the return of the 1990's?


Anyway, it really started with the death of Jason Todd. and the Dark Knight Returns.

[Buried Alien]

The 1990s? WHo is paining for the return of the 1990's?


Anyway, it really started with the death of Jason Todd. and the Dark Knight Returns.

I would say COIE. Even setting aside such high-profile deaths as Supergirl and Flash, the body count was ginormous in COIE.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)