Why does DC like killing off characters so much?

[Dred]

Has anyone been killed off as much as Wally has? He 'dies' all the time. At least in Zero hour, Infinite Crisis and now HiC… he was killed off in Chain Lightning and terminal Velocity.... I know there's a couple of other times I'm not even remembering now....

It seems like every time they need a sales bump Wally gets killed off or lost forever in the Speed Force and 'Things will never be the same again!!!'

Aside from characters whose gimmick is dying (Resurrection Man!) I doubt there is one in DC. Wally's died like 4 times since he came back. At the very least they fake out his death the most because A: he's widely loved and B: he's viewed by the company as largely pointless/expendable/antithetical to their creative agenda. A perfect combo to use for shock deaths.

[married guy]

Aside from characters whose gimmick is dying (Resurrection Man!) I doubt there is one in DC. Wally's died like 4 times since he came back. At the very least they fake out his death the most because A: he's widely loved and B: he's viewed by the company as largely pointless/expendable/antithetical to their creative agenda. A perfect combo to use for shock deaths.

Which pisses me off more than words can express.

[Güicho]

Is it that you're new to this, or that it's only now affecting your favorite characters?

Exactly!

Although the classic versions were brought back first to their own ongoing earth.
"Crisis" just used to mean events where those two generations came TOGETHER.
They were eventually re-merged into the same U, where Golden and Modern characters coexisted, (although now older) they got to keep their powers, names etc...

It's the next generation who decided they were happy to instead see a whole gen "sacrificed" Barry, Ollie blown up so Conner could take over, the Corps slaughtered so Kyle could be the only one, Jordan turned insane, John Stewart and Barbara Gordon crippled, many more de-powered, degraded, and killed etc... while their new fav version took over.
They justified and celebrated those shocking deaths, crippling etc. of the previous gen, building shocking cash-grab events around it.



Feeding the speculator market and huge sales, repeating the mantra- it's the best and most interesting thing that ever happened to that character.

Now DC can't do it again with those, but they still want to milk the same shocking cash grab mentality that fueled the 90's shock and awe market, those happy to see it happen to one Gen. Now just bitching cause it's happening to their favs. LOL!

Nothing new, just not so fun when it's done to your fav.
!


The problem is people are still buying it.

[Mar-Vell]

Might as well be, I'm surprised he didn't tap this story for a re-imagining.
The story although purely plot driven, underlying it all hinges on not the act of Robin dying, but Batman's constant fear of Robin dying.
It's that a clever writer would tap into.


Although, even more interesting the issue debuts DC's Ant-Man, little guy in a red costume, came out about the same (maybe a few months after) Marvel's did. LOL!

Wow! DC'S Ant-Man!

How strange is that?!

Sorry to get off topic, but that really surprised me.

I can't even find any info on him on the internet. Wonder what happened to him?

I guess he just faded away into the sunset.

[Güicho]

Wow! DC'S Ant-Man!

How strange is that?!

Sorry to get off topic, but that really surprised me.

I can't even find any info on him on the internet. Wonder what happened to him?

I guess he just faded away into the sunset.

Yeah he wan't anything special, he debuted soon after Marvel's (coincidence?), he was pretty goofball looking, plus he turned out to be a villain, so not surprised he is a one-off that lapsed into obscurity.
Although I'm sure there is some modern "creator" going, hey now there is a character I can bring back .....so I can kill him!

[Mar-Vell]

Yeah he wan't anything special, he debuted soon after Marvel's (coincidence?), he was pretty goofball looking, plus he turned out to be a villain, so not surprised he is a one-off that lapsed into obscurity.
Although I'm sure there is some modern "creator" going, hey now there is a character I can bring back .....so I can kill him!

Heh, you're probably right.

Anyway, thanks for the info. This was something that highly amused me.

[skyvolt2000]

It's the next generation who decided they were happy to instead see a whole gen "sacrificed" Barry, Ollie blown up so Conner could take over, the Corps slaughtered so Kyle could be the only one, Jordan turned insane, John Stewart and Barbara Gordon crippled, many more de-powered, degraded, and killed etc... while their new fav version took over.
They justified and celebrated those shocking deaths, crippling etc. of the previous gen, building shocking cash-grab events around it.

Feeding the speculator market and huge sales, repeating the mantra- it's the best and most interesting thing that ever happened to that character.

Now DC can't do it again with those, but they still want to milk the same shocking cash grab mentality that fueled the 90's shock and awe market, those happy to see it happen to one Gen. Now just bitching cause it's happening to their favs. LOL!

Nothing new, just not so fun when it's done to your fav.

Not everybody celebrated that stuff.
While folks bought a lot of that stuff-many did not really expect all that to stick. Barry, Hal & Ollie-maybe but not Superman or Batman.

Babs got crippled but we saw her become something ELSE and built up on it.
John Stewart outside of Mosaic-nobody was doing a thing with him.

The major difference between now and then is we see someone with POWER and a DISLIKE for a set of characters-doing whatever he wants.

Remove every single Teen Titan from that HIC and put in say as many obscured guys you want-no one cares but are willing to follow the story.

The problem is people are still buying it.

That is why DC does it. The same complainers are the same ones buying it.

[Dr. Skeleton]

That's a question you'd have to ask Marvel.

$$$ whether we like it or not.

And I'm guessing DC likes New 52 Wally better.

[titanfan]

Yes. Didio has been gunning to kill the third generation since literally day 1.

I do think that there is a chance that the person after Didio would have grown up in the 3rd Generation and will probably restore a lot of those characters (and the expense of offing another group) Comics is cyclical.

[Buried Alien]

I do think that there is a chance that the person after Didio would have grown up in the 3rd Generation and will probably restore a lot of those characters (and the expense of offing another group) Comics is cyclical.

Cyclical, and increasingly cynical.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[The Darknight Detective]

I do think that there is a chance that the person after Didio would have grown up in the 3rd Generation and will probably restore a lot of those characters (and the expense of offing another group) Comics is cyclical.

It will be amusing to see how many anti-Didio DC fans will be lionizing that person from the 3rd generation, while some Didio fans will be castigating him or her for the same things seen posted here.

[byrd156]

Cyclical, and increasingly cynical.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

I wonder why?

(He asks and then looks at the thread title.)

[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.

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

The new picture...

Here is the cover. Sorry about the mark. Got it from google. Edit-if this is a spoiler then please add the picture in a spoiler tag. (I can't get pictures in spoiler tags on this site.) [IMG]

The proposed cover to Heroes in Crisis, if anyone is wondering if they are still feeding the fans who devour this garbage.
Yeah they changed it, yet it's clear what the "event" is exploiting and what they are selling.

This won't stop till the fans stop buying these purely for shock and awe events.

[oasis1313]

Is that Mera or Poison Ivy?

[king81992]

Is that Mera or Poison Ivy?

Poison Ivy