'BatmanDies! - Say It Isn't So!'

[Panther_99FS]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,458725,00.html

[cheezyflier]

robin becomes batman?
WEAK

[Snuffy]

Oh good lord!! Everyone knows the senior Wayne is Dead and has been for countless years.

I actually thought this was a story line about Adam West dying. :redf:

[Trans_23]

Say it isn't so...

[Odie]

Sad, but true.....unfortunately. In the current age of comics, heroes are fighting heroes and every hero has angst and is conflicted...*eck*

I've been collecting comics since I was 5 years old and these past few years have been real downers except for a few bright spots in the superhero world. I don't know whether it's me getting older or the books taking a decidedly dark turn, but I prefer my heroes to be HEROES and fight bad guys, not other heroes!

If this current trend continues (weekly issues of comics that cross-over into monthlies along with Crisis upon Crisis in multiple universes that end and then somehow pop back up) the comic writers of today may be writing themselves out of an audience as it is just about impossible to pick up a single issue and jump right in. A new reader might find themselves bewildered as to "what the heck is going on" by picking up a single issue these days. I buy the issues that I need to keep the collection current, but the interest in the storylines isn't there. I'm reading in online forums of more and more people with the same sentiments.

Peter David wrote a great column on this subject a while back in The Comic Buyer's Guide. Stories that start and end in one issue (done in one) are so very rare that you often need a 4 issue running start just to get your surroundings straight. The latest trend is weekly issues (52 per year) of comics, the events of which branch out into the monthly issues. Get a couple of these going from DC and Marvel and your pocketbook starts to yelp !

While I agree that some of it is great writing and story-telling, I can't help but agree with Mr. David that it comes at the expense of shutting out a younger generation of comic readers that may not grow-up into 50 year-young readers, and giving them a dwindling market base. There's simply too much stuff out there that competes head-to-head with leisure time and our slowly shrinking amount of disposable income.

But, all things said, death in comics is never what it seems and there's always the next big crisis waiting around the corner to bring our favorite heroes back to life!

If you want a stocking stuffer or just to get a glimpse of GREAT story-telling, pick up the collected trade paperback, KINGDOM COME, by Alex Ross and Mark Waid. It's a good read about the final days of DC's big three, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Well worth the price of admission.

[Gdavis101]

They will kill him, someone will fill his shoes and then it will turn out he really wasn't dead!

[deKoven]

There is precedent here; The Phantom was killed when I was young, at least once. And the comics of the time showed his son taking up the job, training himself and finally donning the costume and becoming "The Phantom". There was a tribe of "savages" that was in the know and kept the secret.

Comics, ah yes. Simpler days when they were much more straightforward.:friday:

[Dain Arns]

There is precedent here; The Phantom was killed when I was young, at least once. And the comics of the time showed his son taking up the job, training himself and finally donning the costume and becoming "The Phantom". There was a tribe of "savages" that was in the know and kept the secret.

Comics, ah yes. Simpler days when they were much more straightforward.:friday:

The Flash, Ironman too.

Except, I don't remember anyone ever replacing Aquaman... :icon_lol:

[Snuffy]

The Flash, Ironman too.

Except, I don't remember anyone ever replacing Aquaman... :icon_lol:

That would be this guy ...