Could the comics pull off something as big as the Snap?

[Zero Hunter]

I was thinking watching Endgame the other day about what it would be like if the comics tried something like that. Just randomly taking half the characters away for a long period of time. It got me thinking about just how interesting that would actually be in the comics seeing the effects. I know five years might be too long comics time, but could you see them doing it for 2 or 3 years? I am not talking like Heroes Reborn where they were all just in a another dimension but actually gone. A full 2 or 3 years with the heroes that are left having to step up and the effects it would have on the Marvel U. It would be good storytelling wise because you could have a huge line wide event when it happens and a huge line wide event when everyone returns. Plus you would get a good few years out of the follow up stories with a characters having to deal with being gone.

Do you think it could work or would it be just too big a blow to the status que?

[Frontier]

I'm thinking at best maybe a year, but knowing Marvel they would probably just make it a 6-8 issue event comic.

I don't think we've had an event as status quo breaking as, say, Civil War was.

[ed2962]

DC actually did something like this several years ago. "52 weekly" was about what happens in the DC Universe when Superman. Batman, and Wonder Woman disappear for a year.

[Zero Hunter]

Not really. While 52 was going on all their normal books were still going on so it was not like they were actually gone. Plus it was just one book all by itself in its own corner of the DCU.

[Huntsman Spider]

Not really. While 52 was going on all their normal books were still going on so it was not like they were actually gone. Plus it was just one book all by itself in its own corner of the DCU.

Technically, the regular line skipped ahead by one year in-universe, with 52 narrating what happened within that year.

[Iron Maiden]

They almost did it back during Heroes Reborn. Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Captain America and The Avengers titles were suspended for a year. To the characters in the still ongoing comics like Spider-Man, the X-Men etc, the characters were considered dead or missing This allowed the Thunderbolts to move into Four Freedoms Plaza. Of course, at the same time Image took over the suspended titles in re-imagined versions of the FF, Captain America, Iron Man and the Avengers. They were the heroes (and one villain, Doom) from the final fight with Onslaught but they had no memories of their other life. All of this was the creation of Franklin.

[Dinosaur Hulk]

It sounds really interesting but I don't think Marvel can afford losing so much money by NOT publishing major heroes such as FF, DD, Captain America, Iron Man, Guardians, Spidey etc etc for 2-3 years. Even if it's just a half of them. People who buy only Iron Man (Tony Stark) books won't start reading Champions just because it has Riri in it. They need THE Iron Man in some shape or form.

Also people will criticise the hell out of Marvel stuff saying things like "look they killed off my favourite heroes just to replace them with young, progressive versions!! Thanks Marvel, I won't buy your books ever again!!"

Does it sound dumb? Of course it is. But there are actually people who think this way. EVEN if heroes always come back few months/years later. No one stays dead except Jason To.. wait, how was that line... no one stays dead except Bucky... no, that's wrong. Okay, Gwen is still technically dead. No one stays dead expect Batman's parents excluding Thomas Wayne from Flashpoint and Gwen Stacy if you don't take into account Spider-Gwen.

[Triniking1234]

So Infinity Gauntlet but dragged out? Don't give Marvel that idea.

[Mike_Murdock]

We had to wait a long time for the Snap to be fixed, but it was half a movie in practical terms.

[John Venus]

Closest thing I can think of is Steve Rogers dying at the end of Civil War and then coming back in Captain America: Reborn followed by Siege and Heroic Age. Jan 'dying' in Secret Invasion and coming back in Heroic Age.

In fact, I think that period starting from Disassembled to Civil War all the way through Secret Invasion, Dark Reign to Siege to Heroes Reborn is the closest to what you're talking about. It's also where the MCU is taking most of their story telling cues from.

[Crimz]

It would be more trouble than it's worth. There is a fan every character and if their fave is one of the unlucky ones, you'll have an angry fan with no incentive to buy the comics of whoever is left. And if it goes on for a few years then that makes it more likely that those fans aren't coming back even if their favorite eventually returns.

[Noek]

Not really. While 52 was going on all their normal books were still going on so it was not like they were actually gone. Plus it was just one book all by itself in its own corner of the DCU.

But 52 was really well liked, something that actually feels like a change to the status quo I am for it.

[king of hybrids]

In theory yes

In practice it would take a lot of careful planning, discretion, patience and commitment to pull off a permenant, radical change to the status quo. One the direct market will not like at all. There’s no where near enough

And that’s without the office politics of who lives, who dies, whose cancelled, whose wholly unaffected and who gets their entire supporting cast wiped out. Does anyone here see the Spider, Cosmic, Marvel or X books not ducking it out to see who doesn’t have to carry water?

[ChrisIII]

Technically it already did, but of course IG's snap-and also the further deaths of many heroes by Thanos-was reversed within a matter of days.


Although I think Marvel's somewhat more experimental era around Secret Wars to Legacy kind of briefly replaced a lot of characters, or tried new things with the old ones.

[Kaijudo]

I think you could maybe pull something like it off if it's presented upfront as a finite story. Like, for example, The Collector decides to gather up every hero who's ever wronged him and put them on ice (similar to the old Avengers storyline, but on a grander scale). That takes a major chunk of the players off the board. Then it falls to the remaining heroes to step up, some stepping into roles like new Avengers line-ups or taking up the mantle of Captain America for a while, while others head off into space to track the Collector down and rescue the captured heroes. Say it takes a year, wraps up in a big "Return of the Heroes" special, and then we go forward with a mixture of what was there before and what stepped in to fill its place. Lesser known characters who became fan favorites during that time get to continue their ascension as they stand next to the returned Big Guns, the ones that didn't take go back to limbo, waiting around for one-off guest shots or large crowd scenes.

That's a rough example, but done well, I totally think it'd work the readers would respond to it.