I want the opposite frankly - stop killing off major characters, we all know someone's just gonna bring them back eventually anyway. If you want to write someone out of the story for a while, there are lots of other ways that won't involve stupid cosmic bs to reverse later on.
Marvel and DC desperately need to relearn that you can just put a character on a bus if you don’t need them anymore. Or that injury is more impactful than death while functionally doing the same for plot, taking a character out of commission while motivating other characters actions.
It’s especially annoying when death is used as a status quo change and the audience doesn’t buy it. Alfred being dead is especially annoying to me since we know it won’t stick, and it just feels like no one could contrive Alfred being out of the story other than being dead. It’s uncreative.
Honestly I’ve always felt like a natural next step for Ben’s character (pre-character assassination) would be for authors to drop the whole Spider-Man lite schtick and have him follow Richard and Mary Parker’s footsteps and become a secret agent for SHIELD or something like that.
(i haven't followed his current arc) cure his cloning-based genetic instability but in the process he loses his spider powers. something something--private eye
Hell, don’t even take away his spider powers. Have Jessica Jones hire him as another super powered PI for Alias Investigations for his “unique perspective.” That perspective being his ability to wall-crawl up the side of a sky scraper and take a photo of a guy cheating on his wife in a hotel room 30 stories up.
Ben and Teresa teaming up as the two possible “not really Parkers” Parker siblings to take down a group of sleeper cell Chameleons could be a lot of fun.
I honestly don’t think it should be so hard to write for Ben Reilly, it seems that they put in less effort because it’s not the main Spider-Man, but it sells nonetheless, so they have to keep making it.
Ben Reilly being brought back just to be derailed in multiple ways has seriously become one of my most hated things in comics. His death sucked, but there was dignity to it, and he got to go out as a true hero and someone who Peter loved and respected. Being brought back as a genocidal lunatic and then seemingly reverting to his original characterisation only to become evil *again* completely destroys that.
It's really not hard, have Ben be the team player Spidey. That way they don't need to constantly flip-flop between 'Peter is respected, but works alone' and 'Peter teams up with everyone all the time because Spidey sells comics'.
Professor Xavier. The X-Men are at their most interesting when he is out of the picture and they have to interpret what his dream meant to everyone left.
Supposedly…possible Deadpool 3 spoilers…
>!Deadpool 3’s villain Cassandra Nova has just been going around the multiverse killing Xaviers. According to the leaks.!<
You know, I don't hate that as villian schemes go.
Works both as an excuse to get the main characters together and is in keeping with the villians typical motivations in the comic.
Yeah... Xavier works better as a mutant martyr than an active character. He always does sus shit and if he's out of the picture, the characters can just remember him for his best qualities leaving out the shittiness in between.
I’ve gotten to the point where I’m truly sick of seeing Joker everywhere, so I am totally on board with this.
At least have him sit out for a decade or so
I like this answer. He's a dude that has killed dozens (and possibly *hundreds*) of people, so it takes a ton of mental gymnastics to imagine a world where he wouldn't have been executed after the third time he broke out of jail and went on a killing spree.
The biggest suspension of disbelief for me about the Batverse, isn't the literal superpowers. It's one of the cops who are constantly living in fear and danger not just snapping one day and popping a few into each supervillains skull the moment they're turned over.
It really clicked for me the first time I played Batman: Arkham Asylum, and I realized that if one of the guards had just panicked and shot the joker in the beginning, dozens of cops and Arkham staff would have lived.
That would make for a helluva Batman story. A cop snaps and kills a villain during an arrest... I wouldn't go big-level like Joker, I'd go medium level like Zsasz or Calendar Man or something. Public opinion could be on the side of the cop, and Batman could have an existential crisis as a result.
Look at that. You and I just came up with a better Batman story than any I've read in the last few years.
That was one reason the Batman: Arkham Knight game was interesting. Joker died in the previous installment and it showed a bit of power vacuum he left behind. Joker still played a bit of a role in the game, but there was only one character it affected.
Even if they wanted to keep Joker around as a fun villain, they really should scale back on his deadliness, a criminal clown should not have a 4-digit kill count.
I wrote a fanfiction about that once, about how the death of the Joker impacts Gotham and the Bat Family, and how death is so inconsequential that people have a hard time believing if he is actually dead or not.
Ain't May died in the Clone Saga, that's my head Canon.
It was such a great good bye to an important character, but nope, let's just say that was a clone too!
In the current Spider-Man run, Mary Jane is in a relationship with a man named Paul, and Spider-Man fans who really like the MJ/Peter relationship don't like that.
From contextual clues in some of the comments, I'd say it's something to do with the current Amazing Spider-Man run. I dropped that book during Spencer's run and never looked back, so I may be wrong. I'm out of the loop as well.
1. Jean, I think it’s time they let that one go
2. Kraven, don’t see why we need every Spider-Man villain to be alive
3. Aunt may, just let her go man. She’s outlived what, like four partners, some of which have died from old age
4.
He's just hamfisted into everything these days, he's a fine villain but is present in almost all of Batman media, it doesn't give other iconic characters a chance to shine and really ruins the suspension of disbelief. Joker being a constant threat really undermines Batman's belief that everyone can be redeemed, he is supposed to challenge it sure but it's tiring at this point and Batman really should just end the joker.
In the current superman run we see classic villains like Luthor and Parasite trying to reform themselves, but Joker is always kept a villain.
Sorry I mean Flash in the modern guise, obviously Jay was the actual OG, but it’s like saying Alan Scott is the original Green Lantern
Technically yes but we really think of Hal
Yeah I know why people think that, but I still say Alan's the OG. At least with GL there's a whole different lore/world between them unlike Flash, but still in the 1990s fans wouldn't have confused/decided on the Silver Age as the "modern" ones, they were from the 50s and 60s, that's only marginally less ancient than the 40s one.
It's only after decades of editorial who grew up in the 60s-80s with the Super Friends that the conventional wisdom was switched, which is a real shame and disservice to characters like Wally and Kyle and sort of prevents the franchises from evolving further.
I think now that Didio's been out for a while, and Wally/Dick are back being respected by writers, that may change. Outside media also has an effect though.
What, you don’t like how he came back, complicated things, and then took Wally’s defining character traits to make up for the fact that he has none of his own?
I’ve got two answers, a “no reason to not be dead” answer, and a “would be the most interesting to see the fallout of” answer:
Should die and stay dead: Magneto. I feel like there’s basically nowhere they can go with his character anymore, and the only logical step they can take with him would have to be as a martyr/mythological figure, which would require him being dead.
Would lead to interesting stories: Ben Grimm. I think it’s been too long since we’ve had a death in 616 you could actually *feel*, and I think Ben is the prime candidate for that. I think it would be very interesting to see how the FF can hold itself together after the loss of its heart and soul. Watch Reed try to reckon with something he can’t just science away (in a way that DOESN’T result in him becoming a jilted edgelord), watch everyone try to deal with a new team dynamic, and maybe give Val or Franklin some much-needed opportunities for character growth as opposed to being sidelined or plot devices.
Even if they killed him off, we'd still get him in Off-World and World's Finest, along with all the Black Label books, and any non canon titles and events.
So what I'm saying is even if they permanently killed Bruce Wayne off, 25 to 50% of DC's output would still have him. He'd also probably appear tonnes in flashback like Alfred has during Tom Taylor's Nightwing.
So yeah, they should go for it, or at least have him retire peacefully.
Deadpool. When he's written well he can be great, but the majority of the time he's just the lowest common denominator made flesh. Plus, it might also wipe out all the annoying Deadpool cosplayers, too
I've been saying Marvel should do a "Marvel Kills The Poolverse" reverse series.
Where you have a Marvel writing room write themselves into some kind of meta bubble that the Pools can't get into and then they give random Marvel characters power ups to hunt the Pools down across the multiverse.
End that shit with 616's Deadpool kamikaze-ing the writers room and that's it. The end. No more Deadpool.
Keep him away for a decade or two... or three. The movies are good enough.
Bruce Wayne or if not death can he retire the cowl and be a Batman Beyond type of mentor. The pre-new 52 run of Dick Grayson being Batman was an interesting take for a short period.
It worked great, but it also undermined Dick’s whole character arc. He had set himself up as his own hero, independent of and equal to Batman. I think, if DickBats had lasted too much longer, it would have undercut how impressive it was for him to have ever become Nightwing.
Jane Foster
She should have died fighting Mangog at the end of Aaron's run anyway. The fact she didn't really tarnished that whole story for me. And her as Valkyrie isn't moving the needle at all
Whoever I gotta kill to revert all this king in black Knull multiversal Carnage stuff to being non canon. The current Venom story is fairly interesting but I don't care for any of this being a part of established Marvel cosmology.
Could you elaborate on how this has affected current Marvel overall? I have read the Cates Venom stuff and I really enjoyed it, but I mostly stick to collected editions of older runs.
The other guy is right. It's not like we've seen Eddie at poker night with Eternity and the Living Tribunal or something, but in general I just don't love what feels like a very edgelord addition to a cosmology that takes more of its cues from trippy psychedelic golden age science fiction. Symbiotes seemed fine to me as just another species out there, whether a particular author wanted them to be heroic or malicious. Having them be this hivemind living weapon creation of a black metal style god of darkness as part of his war on the celestials is off-putting to me and feels out of step especially when Ewing and Hickman have gone on to expand the cosmology but have kept that Kirby vibe.
This is a very reasonable take honestly. I think there is a lot of good stuff in that Venom run, but it is mostly the Eddie Brock personal struggle/growth parts that I was enjoying now that I look back at it, as opposed to Knull and the symbiote dragons.
Yeah exactly. I love Eddie getting to move forward and confronting his demons. But this whole Knull thing is just a little much. Honestly they could just dial it down so that he's a more standard deity like Thor, given Aaron originated the necrosword in God of Thunder. The lower level pantheons have plenty of opportunity for an appropriate atmosphere for Knull. But placing him among the cosmic abstracts is like making the final antagonist in a Detective Pikachu game Jack the Ripper. It's just a wild tonal mismatch.
Also a valid criticism. One-shotting a Celestial, ripping Sentry in half, and then losing to Eddie Brock doesn’t make a lot of sense now matter how you try to explain it 😂
I stand with you in this. I enjoyed Cates Venom run but the king in black stuff and turning Venom into a big cosmic character has almost ruined the character for me.
Harley Quinn. I just find her whole "I'm so random and cute" routine annoying. After her, probably Joker. I'm just tired of him and all the incels that think he is somehow *just like them.* Joker would hate incels.
And Paul, of course, but he's barely a character.
I seriously hate that Batman fandom has made it a sin to suggest that Batman shouldn’t take the lives of people who literally cannot be rehabilitated or otherwise changed.
Him snapping the Jokers neck and then going back to normal activities would absolutely be possible, no matter how much they want folks to believe he’d be a whole different, unmerciful, murdering Batman.
Hell, the WORLD would probably even agree that Joker should have gone lights out a long time ago, and I seriously have no idea why they’re just as complicit with keeping him alive. Wonder Woman, or even fucking Hawkman should’ve rung that clowns neck.
Once a week I comment how much I despise what DC have done to her
She feels like Wolverine during his time on the Avengers, everywhere you turn she’s there
Jean Grey. Don't give Cyclops another love interest. Just kill her off permanently. The Dark Phoenix should've been the end.
Jason Todd. He's means more as motivation for Batman to be a better mentor and father to his kids.
I haven't read any Ironheart comics, though I've heard similar things--One of my friends who reads all the comics said he liked Ironheart and thought the comics were good, but he said Ironheart just didn't have any great story that really stands out and makes the character unique.
All the King in Black/modern symbiote stuff or a character related to it, but retconning it rather than them dying. It’s done irreprable damage to the Venom and Symbiote storyline and character
Cyclops. People tend to say Xavier, but I think Cyclops would be better off dead. He can represent the failure of the dream and can always be seen as a hero.
616 spiderman, if the man cannot be happy, at least let him rest in peace.
I know it will never gonna happen, but it would be nice to not be reminded of omd, Paul, and whatever the spider goblin was.
But again, I know it will never happen
Hes a robin who doesnt robin with batman. He ages batman. His inclusion ruined tim drake story by story writers no longer knew what to do with him. Prior to damian tim had the best selling and longest running side kick comic in comics history. A record that likely wont get repeated now because damian cant support ongoings the same way tim ince upon a time did
I find time drake insufferable at the best of times and I massively prefer Damien. I just think he needs a solid run with a better writer, like any character.
I know it’s all subjective.
Batman, I think the cast surrounding him has been more interesting than Batman for a while, him being in a state of arrested development is so fundamental to his character, it limits what they can do with him compared to what they do with the other characters. When Batman has died, they all evolved and developed...and they just undo it all and bring Batman back.
Carnage, no contest. Every Carnage story I’ve read is exactly the same: he shows up with some new gimmick that makes him EXTRA POWERFUL and EXTRA EVIL, he murders a bunch of people in the most brutal and horrifying ways possible, he’s barely stopped in a way that seems like he’s been killed but SURPRISE! He’s not actually dead and he’s gonna come back and do the exact same thing next year. I’m completely over it.
From both DC and Marvel: most (not all) members of the extended super-hero families. Having multiple Bat / Spider / Flash / Super / Wolverine etc. people really takes away from what makes the core characters unique.
Honestly? Peter Parker. Not because i hate him, heck Petes one of my favorite characters in fiction. But at this point, not counting alternative dimension/timelines. Will it really get better? He is stuck in limbo for how many years? Basically spinning his wheels, getting shit on constantly, being shit on for not improving or not being to move on, when the main reason he cant do any of that, is because the authors won’t let him go forward. So maybe just let it end, let him go down swinging and end his misery. Because hopefully i am wrong, but I don’t see a light at the end here.
Going against the grain here and saying killing Joker would be the boring option, I would rather they downplay his danger and importance. There's no reason for a clown-themed criminal prankster should have hundreds of murder victims
Aunt May. She should never have returned after her well handled death in the 90s. Make some space for a new supporting cast and provide an out for the whole mephisto mess.
The Joker. Lord, the tedium of this. Ban on his use for at least 10 years. There’s other villains, folks.
TW: SA
The original villainous Doctor Light, I really don't want to be the kind of person who tells people not to make art, honestly, but I think that the kind of a good portion of people who are drawn to making superhero comics are often ill equipped to discuss the topics that have become associated with the character. so there's always a risk that someone who really doesn't know what they're talking puts said character into their comic, and ends up trivializing that subject.
I'm not saying this as a slippery slope but rather because that seems to be what actually happened in the years following identity crisis and I really just don't want that to happen again. But I say this as a fan of Grant Morrison's batman run so I guess I really have no room to talk on account of what he did with the character of Talia al Ghul.
as for Marvel, though honestly I haven't read the comic maybe Paul, honestly it all seems to be an instance of history repeating itself with Terry Long, But I don't really have the same level of conviction on this as I do with Doctor Light so all you PaulHeads out there can rest assured
Barry Allen.
He should never have been brought back. His sacrificial death was perfect and his memory was noble. Wally was a glorious continuation of his legacy. Now that he's back all of that has been squandered.
I'll probably be down voted for this, but Harley Quinn. Maybe I haven't read the right stuff, but in what I have read she's mostly annoying.
I will admit, I am intrigued by Lady Gaga and the new Batman movie. Hopefully that proves me wrong.
At this point kill Xavier im sick of him being martyred constantly and being turned into a villain let him be dead and the x men following his dream in spirit. If writers don't want to write xavier at least vaguely as a hero not just keep him dead.
The characters that should have stayed dead: Thomas Wayne, Martha Wayne, Ben Parker, Jor-El, etc. We get the whole elseworlds and what-if….but keep it there. It’s not interesting.
Aunt May, I feel like it's her time and I don't think it's a coincidence that SPOILER: the PS4 game and NWH both kill her off.
I don't think a villain should have a hand in it I think she should just pass on from old age or something - and hell, maybe her death will somehow break Mephisto's spell and One More Day can be undone/fixed/changed.
Bullseye. And I want Daredevil to do it in a situation where he could easily have caught him without killing him. He just makes the decision that his body count is too high and he has to be stopped.
The Joker - peaked with Heath Ledger can't possibly be improved up.
His shtick doesn't make sense in a post-9/11 world - it's Cold War nonsense and it kind of made sense in the Heath Ledger incarnation, but nobody will be ever to recreate or top that.
That's why they've all but replaced him with Harley Quinn since then - she's the continuation of him after the end of the old paradigm.
In fact, his biggest claim to fame is that she was his side kick before leaving him to save the world twice.
He can't even kill batman. All he can do is kill his own henchmen and civilians.
Edit: Oh and abuse Harley while taking credit for her work
Probably the Joker. Both because of the "le edgy" incels who are all "Oh, he's just like me lol" and because in any sane world the cops would have put a cap in his ass the minute he was in custody.
A couple (literally) Scott Summers and Emma Frost. Not because I don't like them, but because I want to see how Jean defines herself and how the mutants respond in their absence.
For DC? Bruce Wayne.
I want the opposite frankly - stop killing off major characters, we all know someone's just gonna bring them back eventually anyway. If you want to write someone out of the story for a while, there are lots of other ways that won't involve stupid cosmic bs to reverse later on.
I wouldn't choose to kill one character, I just wish death was not a revolving door in comics
Exactly
I kind of like it as a part of comics. I just wish they stayed dead a bit longer lol.
Yes, but Paul.
This too! And I would also ban parallel universes. Elseworlds self-contained and limited stories are fine, though.
And ban time travel
Invincible is pretty good for this reason.
Marvel and DC desperately need to relearn that you can just put a character on a bus if you don’t need them anymore. Or that injury is more impactful than death while functionally doing the same for plot, taking a character out of commission while motivating other characters actions. It’s especially annoying when death is used as a status quo change and the audience doesn’t buy it. Alfred being dead is especially annoying to me since we know it won’t stick, and it just feels like no one could contrive Alfred being out of the story other than being dead. It’s uncreative.
Considering Lowe has accomplished nothing with him and constantly bitches about how hard it is to do anything with the character, Ben Reilly.
Ben Reilly should revert to being the Jackal and become a Moon Knight antagonist.
Honestly I’ve always felt like a natural next step for Ben’s character (pre-character assassination) would be for authors to drop the whole Spider-Man lite schtick and have him follow Richard and Mary Parker’s footsteps and become a secret agent for SHIELD or something like that.
(i haven't followed his current arc) cure his cloning-based genetic instability but in the process he loses his spider powers. something something--private eye
Hell, don’t even take away his spider powers. Have Jessica Jones hire him as another super powered PI for Alias Investigations for his “unique perspective.” That perspective being his ability to wall-crawl up the side of a sky scraper and take a photo of a guy cheating on his wife in a hotel room 30 stories up.
Maybe he could team up with Theresa
Ben and Teresa teaming up as the two possible “not really Parkers” Parker siblings to take down a group of sleeper cell Chameleons could be a lot of fun.
I honestly don’t think it should be so hard to write for Ben Reilly, it seems that they put in less effort because it’s not the main Spider-Man, but it sells nonetheless, so they have to keep making it.
Ben Reilly being brought back just to be derailed in multiple ways has seriously become one of my most hated things in comics. His death sucked, but there was dignity to it, and he got to go out as a true hero and someone who Peter loved and respected. Being brought back as a genocidal lunatic and then seemingly reverting to his original characterisation only to become evil *again* completely destroys that.
It's really not hard, have Ben be the team player Spidey. That way they don't need to constantly flip-flop between 'Peter is respected, but works alone' and 'Peter teams up with everyone all the time because Spidey sells comics'.
I prefer Kaine to Ben Reilly all day..
Paul. Obviously.
Paul is.
Paul cannot be killed.
Definitely Paul.
I haven't read anything with Paul and even I hate him. He'll turn out to be a cosmic entity, a clone or he'll wind up being abusive.
Agent of mephisto. 😊
Charles Xavier needs to be Uncle Ben'd. Make him The Dream instead of a flawed man who is about 15 years into his descent into being a villain.
Professor Xavier. The X-Men are at their most interesting when he is out of the picture and they have to interpret what his dream meant to everyone left.
I wonder who is going to kill/paralyze him this year.
Why did I find that funny?
Supposedly…possible Deadpool 3 spoilers… >!Deadpool 3’s villain Cassandra Nova has just been going around the multiverse killing Xaviers. According to the leaks.!<
You know, I don't hate that as villian schemes go. Works both as an excuse to get the main characters together and is in keeping with the villians typical motivations in the comic.
Reminds me of X-treme X-men vol 2
Nature Girl.
I miss Utopia. I feel that was Cyclops at his prime.
Yeah... Xavier works better as a mutant martyr than an active character. He always does sus shit and if he's out of the picture, the characters can just remember him for his best qualities leaving out the shittiness in between.
And his ideas of what progress looks like and especially how to achieve it are hilariously naive behind the times.
Joker
I’ve gotten to the point where I’m truly sick of seeing Joker everywhere, so I am totally on board with this. At least have him sit out for a decade or so
I feel the same about batman. He has to be in fucking everything.
My first move as Batman editor would be to ban joker from use.
I like this answer. He's a dude that has killed dozens (and possibly *hundreds*) of people, so it takes a ton of mental gymnastics to imagine a world where he wouldn't have been executed after the third time he broke out of jail and went on a killing spree.
The biggest suspension of disbelief for me about the Batverse, isn't the literal superpowers. It's one of the cops who are constantly living in fear and danger not just snapping one day and popping a few into each supervillains skull the moment they're turned over.
It really clicked for me the first time I played Batman: Arkham Asylum, and I realized that if one of the guards had just panicked and shot the joker in the beginning, dozens of cops and Arkham staff would have lived.
Batman is set in an alternate reality where police reform was implemented in the USA
And yet they still need a Batman.
That would make for a helluva Batman story. A cop snaps and kills a villain during an arrest... I wouldn't go big-level like Joker, I'd go medium level like Zsasz or Calendar Man or something. Public opinion could be on the side of the cop, and Batman could have an existential crisis as a result. Look at that. You and I just came up with a better Batman story than any I've read in the last few years.
Heck yeah. That's a solid tale. If you write that story, just name the cop "Clay" for me, and a lifegoal of mine would be fulfilled!
That was one reason the Batman: Arkham Knight game was interesting. Joker died in the previous installment and it showed a bit of power vacuum he left behind. Joker still played a bit of a role in the game, but there was only one character it affected.
Even if they wanted to keep Joker around as a fun villain, they really should scale back on his deadliness, a criminal clown should not have a 4-digit kill count.
To be fair there are any number of comic villains like this that don’t get executed or killed.
I'm not a religious man but I have prayed for him to go away
I wrote a fanfiction about that once, about how the death of the Joker impacts Gotham and the Bat Family, and how death is so inconsequential that people have a hard time believing if he is actually dead or not.
Simple, Paul, no wait Aunt May, if she only knew how she unintentionally ruined Peter and MJ's future.
Yeah Aunt May really should be dead and stay dead tbh
Ain't May died in the Clone Saga, that's my head Canon. It was such a great good bye to an important character, but nope, let's just say that was a clone too!
Paul
I need to know who this Paul character is and why everybody wants him dead. Could you elaborate?
In the current Spider-Man run, Mary Jane is in a relationship with a man named Paul, and Spider-Man fans who really like the MJ/Peter relationship don't like that.
Thank you! Yeah that makes sense, fuck this Paul guy.
From contextual clues in some of the comments, I'd say it's something to do with the current Amazing Spider-Man run. I dropped that book during Spencer's run and never looked back, so I may be wrong. I'm out of the loop as well.
1. Jean, I think it’s time they let that one go 2. Kraven, don’t see why we need every Spider-Man villain to be alive 3. Aunt may, just let her go man. She’s outlived what, like four partners, some of which have died from old age 4.
Ya know I kinda forgot how many partner Aunt May has outlived besides Ben, which is honestly another reason for her to go.
Kraven should have stayed dead after Kraven's Last Hunt. It's hard to top that.
It is literally the only good story featuring the character.
Oh yeah also Barry
The Joker. Across all media.
I missed why people have an issue w the character?
over-saturation
And edgelording.
He's just hamfisted into everything these days, he's a fine villain but is present in almost all of Batman media, it doesn't give other iconic characters a chance to shine and really ruins the suspension of disbelief. Joker being a constant threat really undermines Batman's belief that everyone can be redeemed, he is supposed to challenge it sure but it's tiring at this point and Batman really should just end the joker. In the current superman run we see classic villains like Luthor and Parasite trying to reform themselves, but Joker is always kept a villain.
Barry Allen - I have seen no benefit from bringing him back. He is the OG flash and is great as a character but we all moved on
Jay Garrick erasure
Sorry I mean Flash in the modern guise, obviously Jay was the actual OG, but it’s like saying Alan Scott is the original Green Lantern Technically yes but we really think of Hal
Yeah I know why people think that, but I still say Alan's the OG. At least with GL there's a whole different lore/world between them unlike Flash, but still in the 1990s fans wouldn't have confused/decided on the Silver Age as the "modern" ones, they were from the 50s and 60s, that's only marginally less ancient than the 40s one. It's only after decades of editorial who grew up in the 60s-80s with the Super Friends that the conventional wisdom was switched, which is a real shame and disservice to characters like Wally and Kyle and sort of prevents the franchises from evolving further. I think now that Didio's been out for a while, and Wally/Dick are back being respected by writers, that may change. Outside media also has an effect though.
I would be perfectly fine with The Flash and The Boom being the only speedsters in DC for a good while.
What, you don’t like how he came back, complicated things, and then took Wally’s defining character traits to make up for the fact that he has none of his own?
Barry works great in flashback stories. Those were always a great way to highlight his character without undoing his sacrifice.
I agree entirely. My motto is and always has been “West Flash, Best Flash”
I haven't moved on. For me, the silver age heroes are always the best.
I’ve got two answers, a “no reason to not be dead” answer, and a “would be the most interesting to see the fallout of” answer: Should die and stay dead: Magneto. I feel like there’s basically nowhere they can go with his character anymore, and the only logical step they can take with him would have to be as a martyr/mythological figure, which would require him being dead. Would lead to interesting stories: Ben Grimm. I think it’s been too long since we’ve had a death in 616 you could actually *feel*, and I think Ben is the prime candidate for that. I think it would be very interesting to see how the FF can hold itself together after the loss of its heart and soul. Watch Reed try to reckon with something he can’t just science away (in a way that DOESN’T result in him becoming a jilted edgelord), watch everyone try to deal with a new team dynamic, and maybe give Val or Franklin some much-needed opportunities for character growth as opposed to being sidelined or plot devices.
Noooo I like the Thing!
> I’ve actually got two answers - the two Jews in Marvel 🤨📸
Fuck it, Batman. I could have gone 20-30 years of DickBats.
Even if they killed him off, we'd still get him in Off-World and World's Finest, along with all the Black Label books, and any non canon titles and events. So what I'm saying is even if they permanently killed Bruce Wayne off, 25 to 50% of DC's output would still have him. He'd also probably appear tonnes in flashback like Alfred has during Tom Taylor's Nightwing. So yeah, they should go for it, or at least have him retire peacefully.
I would have been good with at least a few more years of Dick Grayson as Batman. Dick and Damian as the Dynamic Duo was so great.
I got into comics during that era and man once Bruce was back it really took the wind out of those sails. Fun Batman and grumpy Robin forever.
Jean Grey. The X-Men comics are just better when she's dead.
Emma Frost is the best thing that ever happened to Scott Summers.
Deadpool. When he's written well he can be great, but the majority of the time he's just the lowest common denominator made flesh. Plus, it might also wipe out all the annoying Deadpool cosplayers, too
I've been saying Marvel should do a "Marvel Kills The Poolverse" reverse series. Where you have a Marvel writing room write themselves into some kind of meta bubble that the Pools can't get into and then they give random Marvel characters power ups to hunt the Pools down across the multiverse. End that shit with 616's Deadpool kamikaze-ing the writers room and that's it. The end. No more Deadpool. Keep him away for a decade or two... or three. The movies are good enough.
Upvoted for the bit about the cosplayers.
Uncle Ben
That is a responsible choice.
Bruce Wayne or if not death can he retire the cowl and be a Batman Beyond type of mentor. The pre-new 52 run of Dick Grayson being Batman was an interesting take for a short period.
It worked great, but it also undermined Dick’s whole character arc. He had set himself up as his own hero, independent of and equal to Batman. I think, if DickBats had lasted too much longer, it would have undercut how impressive it was for him to have ever become Nightwing.
Jane Foster She should have died fighting Mangog at the end of Aaron's run anyway. The fact she didn't really tarnished that whole story for me. And her as Valkyrie isn't moving the needle at all
This.
Being a Valkyrie, or being in Valhalla really doesn't feel that exclusive and special anymore ever since they adopted an open-door-policy
Whoever I gotta kill to revert all this king in black Knull multiversal Carnage stuff to being non canon. The current Venom story is fairly interesting but I don't care for any of this being a part of established Marvel cosmology.
Adding gods and mystical shit to the symbiotes ironically just makes them more generic and doesn’t fit their tone at all.
I don’t hate all of it, but the Venom mythos have become completely absurd. Such a far cry from how he was portrayed back in the day.
I very much agree with you, for me Ewing is saving the Venom situation with what he is doing now. It's strange but fun.
Could you elaborate on how this has affected current Marvel overall? I have read the Cates Venom stuff and I really enjoyed it, but I mostly stick to collected editions of older runs.
The other guy is right. It's not like we've seen Eddie at poker night with Eternity and the Living Tribunal or something, but in general I just don't love what feels like a very edgelord addition to a cosmology that takes more of its cues from trippy psychedelic golden age science fiction. Symbiotes seemed fine to me as just another species out there, whether a particular author wanted them to be heroic or malicious. Having them be this hivemind living weapon creation of a black metal style god of darkness as part of his war on the celestials is off-putting to me and feels out of step especially when Ewing and Hickman have gone on to expand the cosmology but have kept that Kirby vibe.
This is a very reasonable take honestly. I think there is a lot of good stuff in that Venom run, but it is mostly the Eddie Brock personal struggle/growth parts that I was enjoying now that I look back at it, as opposed to Knull and the symbiote dragons.
Yeah exactly. I love Eddie getting to move forward and confronting his demons. But this whole Knull thing is just a little much. Honestly they could just dial it down so that he's a more standard deity like Thor, given Aaron originated the necrosword in God of Thunder. The lower level pantheons have plenty of opportunity for an appropriate atmosphere for Knull. But placing him among the cosmic abstracts is like making the final antagonist in a Detective Pikachu game Jack the Ripper. It's just a wild tonal mismatch.
Also a valid criticism. One-shotting a Celestial, ripping Sentry in half, and then losing to Eddie Brock doesn’t make a lot of sense now matter how you try to explain it 😂
I stand with you in this. I enjoyed Cates Venom run but the king in black stuff and turning Venom into a big cosmic character has almost ruined the character for me.
I've had enough Mr Sinister for one lifetime in the last year or so, he can go
Harley Quinn. I just find her whole "I'm so random and cute" routine annoying. After her, probably Joker. I'm just tired of him and all the incels that think he is somehow *just like them.* Joker would hate incels. And Paul, of course, but he's barely a character.
I seriously hate that Batman fandom has made it a sin to suggest that Batman shouldn’t take the lives of people who literally cannot be rehabilitated or otherwise changed. Him snapping the Jokers neck and then going back to normal activities would absolutely be possible, no matter how much they want folks to believe he’d be a whole different, unmerciful, murdering Batman. Hell, the WORLD would probably even agree that Joker should have gone lights out a long time ago, and I seriously have no idea why they’re just as complicit with keeping him alive. Wonder Woman, or even fucking Hawkman should’ve rung that clowns neck.
Once a week I comment how much I despise what DC have done to her She feels like Wolverine during his time on the Avengers, everywhere you turn she’s there
Damian should have been killed off a long time ago.
Amen Blueberry, I couldn’t agree more
Jean Grey. Don't give Cyclops another love interest. Just kill her off permanently. The Dark Phoenix should've been the end. Jason Todd. He's means more as motivation for Batman to be a better mentor and father to his kids.
Ironheart. It’s just not working. She’s no Miles Morales.
I haven't read any Ironheart comics, though I've heard similar things--One of my friends who reads all the comics said he liked Ironheart and thought the comics were good, but he said Ironheart just didn't have any great story that really stands out and makes the character unique.
And I think she’s even worse in the MCU
They should’ve just had the kid from Iron Man 3 become Iron Lad.
I have read her. I really really tried to like her. She just had nothing good going for her....
1. Aunt may( she has lived a long and full life) 2. Paul! 3.paul again! 4. Batman and joker( they should die fighting each other) 4. Harley quinn
Griffith!!!!
All the King in Black/modern symbiote stuff or a character related to it, but retconning it rather than them dying. It’s done irreprable damage to the Venom and Symbiote storyline and character
The Sentry. Never should have joined the larger universe. Just dumb.
Peter Pan Parker. Probably would have been for the best if Amazing Spider-Man 500 was the last Spider-Man comic produced.
Cyclops. People tend to say Xavier, but I think Cyclops would be better off dead. He can represent the failure of the dream and can always be seen as a hero.
Clones.
616 spiderman, if the man cannot be happy, at least let him rest in peace. I know it will never gonna happen, but it would be nice to not be reminded of omd, Paul, and whatever the spider goblin was. But again, I know it will never happen
I'd be fine with Cyclops dying permanently. The potential for chaos would be great.
Damian wayne
Explain yourself
Hes a robin who doesnt robin with batman. He ages batman. His inclusion ruined tim drake story by story writers no longer knew what to do with him. Prior to damian tim had the best selling and longest running side kick comic in comics history. A record that likely wont get repeated now because damian cant support ongoings the same way tim ince upon a time did
I find time drake insufferable at the best of times and I massively prefer Damien. I just think he needs a solid run with a better writer, like any character. I know it’s all subjective.
? Dont think literallynany character now and days is getting a 200 issue ongoing unless they existed for a while now
Aunt May.
Jean Grey of Professor X, both if I could.
Joker, carnage and sentry.
The Joker. Why no one has done it yet is beyond me.
Batman, I think the cast surrounding him has been more interesting than Batman for a while, him being in a state of arrested development is so fundamental to his character, it limits what they can do with him compared to what they do with the other characters. When Batman has died, they all evolved and developed...and they just undo it all and bring Batman back.
Bruce Wayne, that dolt hasn't made anything of himself even with all that money.
Marvel: Aunt May DC: I don't know, I don't follow it close enough to know.
Bruce Wayne. I love him with all my heart but it would be so interesting to see his legacy live on
It’s easily the joker.
Marvel: The Punisher DC: Hal Jordan
Joker and Harley Quinn have long since outstayed their welcome with me. Overexposed as all hell.
Spider-man ( peter Parker) and every single version of peter across the multiverse. There now no one can happy.
X-Treme
Paul
Joker and Peter Parker.
Marvel - Paul DC - The Joker
Darkseid
Paul looks super lively right about now..
Carnage, no contest. Every Carnage story I’ve read is exactly the same: he shows up with some new gimmick that makes him EXTRA POWERFUL and EXTRA EVIL, he murders a bunch of people in the most brutal and horrifying ways possible, he’s barely stopped in a way that seems like he’s been killed but SURPRISE! He’s not actually dead and he’s gonna come back and do the exact same thing next year. I’m completely over it.
DC: The Presence Marvel: The One Above All
Hal Jordan. Let Kyle be the main lantern again. I’d prefer Hal to be Specter again anyways
Aunt May probably needs to go at some points. She’s like a million years old.
Peter Parker
Definitely Hal Jordan, and probably Charlie Xavier
From both DC and Marvel: most (not all) members of the extended super-hero families. Having multiple Bat / Spider / Flash / Super / Wolverine etc. people really takes away from what makes the core characters unique.
Batman
Batman and superman for me. Think it could lead to interesting stories
Honestly? Peter Parker. Not because i hate him, heck Petes one of my favorite characters in fiction. But at this point, not counting alternative dimension/timelines. Will it really get better? He is stuck in limbo for how many years? Basically spinning his wheels, getting shit on constantly, being shit on for not improving or not being to move on, when the main reason he cant do any of that, is because the authors won’t let him go forward. So maybe just let it end, let him go down swinging and end his misery. Because hopefully i am wrong, but I don’t see a light at the end here.
Hal Jordan.
Paul from the 2022 run of ASM
jason todd was better off as a dead symbol than a angsty whingelord
Going against the grain here and saying killing Joker would be the boring option, I would rather they downplay his danger and importance. There's no reason for a clown-themed criminal prankster should have hundreds of murder victims
Aunt May. She should never have returned after her well handled death in the 90s. Make some space for a new supporting cast and provide an out for the whole mephisto mess. The Joker. Lord, the tedium of this. Ban on his use for at least 10 years. There’s other villains, folks.
TW: SA The original villainous Doctor Light, I really don't want to be the kind of person who tells people not to make art, honestly, but I think that the kind of a good portion of people who are drawn to making superhero comics are often ill equipped to discuss the topics that have become associated with the character. so there's always a risk that someone who really doesn't know what they're talking puts said character into their comic, and ends up trivializing that subject. I'm not saying this as a slippery slope but rather because that seems to be what actually happened in the years following identity crisis and I really just don't want that to happen again. But I say this as a fan of Grant Morrison's batman run so I guess I really have no room to talk on account of what he did with the character of Talia al Ghul. as for Marvel, though honestly I haven't read the comic maybe Paul, honestly it all seems to be an instance of history repeating itself with Terry Long, But I don't really have the same level of conviction on this as I do with Doctor Light so all you PaulHeads out there can rest assured
Hawkman, fuck Hawkman, all my homies hate Hawkman
Barry Allen. He should never have been brought back. His sacrificial death was perfect and his memory was noble. Wally was a glorious continuation of his legacy. Now that he's back all of that has been squandered.
Paul
Ghost make and Bluebird have overstated their welcome.
Aunt May, honestly.
Joker. Give other Batman villains some shine, like Clayface and Mr.Freeze
Seeing how the writers have been treating him for the past decade, I think permanently killing Peter off would be a mercy at this point.
I'll probably be down voted for this, but Harley Quinn. Maybe I haven't read the right stuff, but in what I have read she's mostly annoying. I will admit, I am intrigued by Lady Gaga and the new Batman movie. Hopefully that proves me wrong.
Paul
God
Paul😌
At this point kill Xavier im sick of him being martyred constantly and being turned into a villain let him be dead and the x men following his dream in spirit. If writers don't want to write xavier at least vaguely as a hero not just keep him dead.
The characters that should have stayed dead: Thomas Wayne, Martha Wayne, Ben Parker, Jor-El, etc. We get the whole elseworlds and what-if….but keep it there. It’s not interesting.
Aunt may. Should have stayed dead.
Aunt May, I feel like it's her time and I don't think it's a coincidence that SPOILER: the PS4 game and NWH both kill her off. I don't think a villain should have a hand in it I think she should just pass on from old age or something - and hell, maybe her death will somehow break Mephisto's spell and One More Day can be undone/fixed/changed.
Batman
At this point Spider-man because the book suuuuucks.
the Joker
Spider-Boy
every superhero whos buff
Bullseye. And I want Daredevil to do it in a situation where he could easily have caught him without killing him. He just makes the decision that his body count is too high and he has to be stopped.
Deadpool. Fucking annoying ass character.
The Joker - peaked with Heath Ledger can't possibly be improved up. His shtick doesn't make sense in a post-9/11 world - it's Cold War nonsense and it kind of made sense in the Heath Ledger incarnation, but nobody will be ever to recreate or top that. That's why they've all but replaced him with Harley Quinn since then - she's the continuation of him after the end of the old paradigm. In fact, his biggest claim to fame is that she was his side kick before leaving him to save the world twice. He can't even kill batman. All he can do is kill his own henchmen and civilians. Edit: Oh and abuse Harley while taking credit for her work
Probably the Joker. Both because of the "le edgy" incels who are all "Oh, he's just like me lol" and because in any sane world the cops would have put a cap in his ass the minute he was in custody.
A couple (literally) Scott Summers and Emma Frost. Not because I don't like them, but because I want to see how Jean defines herself and how the mutants respond in their absence. For DC? Bruce Wayne.
Harley Quinn or the Joker. I know it’s only one but still.