[Spoiler] Batman 77 Preview and Discussion thread

[Tzigone]

Is he dead though? And if he is, do we seriously believe he won't be resurrected? This kind of shock attic is now so tiring and frankly doesn't carry the impact it use to have, especially after we now had a spate of them.

Very much agree. Even if it does turn out to be a real Alfred really dead and not resurrected for year or even ever - it'll take at least two years for me to believe it, so this story is still without ooph in that regard to me.

#77 has only shifted units because of 'said' event and will probably sustain as folk want to know outcome.

I agree, but I guess from DC's perspective shifting units for that reason is better than not shifting units at all. Long-term impact, I can't say I think it's more than a drop-in-bucket of meaningless/shock value deaths that don't take (if that's what it is). Might be the straw that breaks the camel's back for some, but for most who buy regularly after previous deaths of this sort, they aren't likely to stop now.

I think that fan outrage over Alfred dying is much better for DC than fan boredom - more discussion and more people hear about it and more people buy. Me, I'm the bored fan. A bit irritated, but mostly just "meh." Character assassination gets me more riled up than actual assassination of comic book characters these days. And, frankly, there's been enough of that that I'm kinda getting bored with my recreational outrage over it now. I mean, reading someone else's fun and pointed reviews/complaints on HiC (or older works like Identity Crisis) is fun and all, but that's more based on the skill and content (or humorous turn of phrase) of the reviewer. The actual stories themselves don't really make an impact with me much anymore. I tend to just hope it's swept under the rug and moved on from quickly. Which is a horrible thing to hope for, because good writing would be following it up and integrating it into characters. But sometimes it was so out-of-character or nonsensical in the first place that I wouldn't enjoy any follow up for it.