Should Marvel have an event that kills off a lot of dead wood?

[leokearon]

Like a new Acts of Vengeance and they can kill of a bunch of heroes and villains that have no real future?

Keep in mind this is coming from a guy who believes there are no bad characters....just writers who don't want to put in the effort.

That was Scourge in the 80's and Mark Gruenwald regretted killing all those losers.

[ChrisIII]

Marvel seemed to "kind of" do this a while back-Cho as Hulk, Iron Man in a coma, the Richards missing, a good chunk of the X-men regulars dead etc. until "Legacy" pretty much returned to the status quo.

[strathcona]

Think about all the characters that have had a long hiatus and then came back to become fan favourites... even if only for a few years. The aforementioned Squirrel Girl is probably the poster girl for this type of character. Jamie Madrox, Starlord, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Mantis, Songbird, Atlas, MACH VI (or whatever number he's up to), Fixer, Moonstone, Nova (heck, it's happened to him twice), even Captain America, Namor and Bucky can be considered in this category. All iy takes is the right writer with the right story. No one should be considered dead wood.

[H-E-D]

absolutely pointless when they left morts like Eye Boy, Glob Herman, Hellion, etc. there's a reason why all of these early era x-characters are returning. it's because some actual creativity spawned them.


to answer the thread topic: sure, wholesale slaughter might be beneficial. but i don't trust anyone in Marvel to do it. they've made a lot of stupid choices (like letting Bendis do whatever he wanted to).

I mean, Eye Boy was created post-AvX. Writers seem to like Glob for some unfathomable reason. I won't have you **** talking Julian, Hellion is a good character.

[Snoop Dogg]

I mean, Eye Boy was created post-AvX. Writers seem to like Glob for some unfathomable reason. I won't have you **** talking Julian, Hellion is a good character.

Glob's design is so good it can carry him through hell.

[Michael Watkins]

I mean, Eye Boy was created post-AvX. Writers seem to like Glob for some unfathomable reason. I won't have you **** talking Julian, Hellion is a good character.

eh. i tried. i really tried with that New Mutants run. but it was so derivative. overall, it'd seemed like a less mature less intelligent version of Generation X. and Julian was a watered down version of Empath w/ Vance Astrovik's powers and no hands. the weakest of motivations. no back story. total stock character. he was completely undeserving of the name 'Hellion.' Dust was more of a bada$$. but i will say one good thing for him. he's not that obnoxious try-hard, Kid Omega.

[Michael Watkins]

Glob's design is so good it can carry him through hell.

he ripped if off Sack (Gene Nation).

[DrNewGod]

That was Scourge in the 80's and Mark Gruenwald regretted killing all those losers.

My thoughts exactly. Out of sight is sufficient. Slaughter for shock's sake usually begets trouble down the road.

ETA: The one place I could see it is if Marvel tried something like an All-Star Squadron with it's golden age properties (and I don't just mean The Invaders), and showed many of them falling over the course of the war.

[TheRay]

I disagree with you about the writers, so I think I am going to have to say no here.

[PCN24454]

In addition to what literally everyone else is saying, there’s no point in killing off a character that no one cares about. If they didn’t care about the character’s life, then they won’t care about the character’s death. Not only that, it limits their potential for any writer that actually planned on using them.

Not to mention only keeping A-List characters stagnates the comics.

[GeekSmark]

DC did it not too long ago in "Heroes in Crisis" and I don't think that whole event ended up being very well received.

[Sutekh]

In addition to what literally everyone else is saying, there’s no point in killing off a character that no one cares about. If they didn’t care about the character’s life, then they won’t care about the character’s death.

And that's another decent point. Let's assume that somewhere, there's a character that *everyone* hates, and nobody cares about. Does anyone want to read an issue about that characters death? Not likely. They'd rather the character never be seen or mentioned ever again. Are they gonna be super-impressed by whatever bad-guy manages to gank this utter loser? Again, not so much.

How impressed were we with Scourge back in the day for killing mostly a bunch of losers that nobody cared about, with his amazing super-power of 'has a bunch of guns' and his brilliant 'tactics' of 'get a bunch of people, some armored, some with super-powers, some paranoid, all dangerous, together and spray the room with bullets, hoping every bullet hits and causes an immediately fatal wound, so nobody can retaliate against my t-shirt wearing powerless unarmored idiot self with their vastly deadlier powers and / or weapons!' Ugh. Unsurprisingly, here it is, decades later, and Scourge remains a nobody that went nowhere, despite this big pile of bodies thrown at his feet to make him look badass.

Thank goodness horrible loser Screaming Mimi didn't show up to the Bar With No Name and eat a bullet. We'd have been cheated out of Songbird (and getting to see what a writer with actual talent does with a 'worthless' loser villain, instead of using them as event fodder to pump up the cred of a newbie villain).

[Agent Z]

How impressed were we with Scourge back in the day for killing mostly a bunch of losers that nobody cared about, with his amazing super-power of 'has a bunch of guns' and his brilliant 'tactics' of 'get a bunch of people, some armored, some with super-powers, some paranoid, all dangerous, together and spray the room with bullets, hoping every bullet hits and causes an immediately fatal wound, so nobody can retaliate against my t-shirt wearing powerless unarmored idiot self with their vastly deadlier powers and / or weapons!' Ugh. Unsurprisingly, here it is, decades later, and Scourge remains a nobody that went nowhere, despite this big pile of bodies thrown at his feet to make him look badass.

Writer/editor Mark Gruenwald originally created the Scourge in 1985 as a plot device intended to thin the criminal population of the Marvel Universe, in particular eliminating those supervillain characters he deemed to be too minor, redundant, or ill-conceived. Numerous other characters have used the name, often with differing motives and loyalties.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scourge_of_the_Underworld

Seriously, someone actually created a character for this type of thing?

[DrNewGod]

In addition to what literally everyone else is saying, there’s no point in killing off a character that no one cares about. If they didn’t care about the character’s life, then they won’t care about the character’s death. Not only that, it limits their potential for any writer that actually planned on using them.

Not to mention only keeping A-List characters stagnates the comics.

Exhibit A: Jack Monroe (alias Bucky. alias Nomad.)

[Snoop Dogg]

The Scourge story was one of the GOAT. Like deadass.