The first super-hero comic story I ever read was "Lex Luthor, Hero." But it will always be known to me by the title of the third part, "The Death of Superman". The story appeared in SUPERMAN #149 in November of 1961. The copy I read was missing its cover, and I don't even know how my step-brother managed to acquire a copy of the comic.
Yes, it was deemed an "imaginary tale", and I have it as part of a trade paperback, DC's GREATEST IMAGINARY STORIES. But that does not matter. Imaginary or not, it read like a real story. It felt like a real story, despite the disclaimer at the end, "The chances are a million to one that it will never happen." Later, of course, as part of a really BIG EVENT, Superman was killed off--for the time being back in the 80's.
When a significant comic book character is killed off, even if temporarily, it's an important event. And the comic book companies take full advantage of that event to publicize it and especially to sell more comics. Marvel took advantage not that long ago by killing off Captain America (Steve Rogers). But nobody believed it was for good, especially not with another Captain America feature film in the offing.
In the imaginary death of Superman, Lex uses green Kryptonite rays to kill him. There's certainly no blood and there's no gore, but Superman does turn green and eventually dies. And to this pre-teen at the time, it was a violent death and it was a prolonged death, even if it was imaginary. (Perhaps the cover made it clear that the tale was imaginary from the start, but remember that the copy I read did not have a cover, so I took it as real up until the very end and the disclaimer.) And the creators took full advantage by killing off Superman and then showing a huge funeral event after his death, with famous and not-so-famous characters walking past his glass coffin from all over the universe as well as from the future (the first Legionnaires Lightning Lad, Cosmic Boy, and Saturn Girl, my initial exposure to these fabulous teens from the future).
Not long after Superman was killed this way, Lightning Lad was killed off by a freeze ray from Zaryan the Conqueror in ADVENTURE COMICS#304. Of course, in AC #312, he was brought back to life, even if another had to sacrifice his life to revive him. The revolving door between life and death was now in full swing.
So, very early on in my own comic book reading, key characters were violently killed, even if the blood and gore were not depicted, and even if their deaths were eventually undone in one way or another. And, I might also add, President Kennedy was assassinated not long after the imaginary death of Superman, though his untimely death could not be undone. Real violence would become a significant part of rest of the decade with civil rights murders, civil mass murders, violent reactions to protests, violent protests, the war in Vietnam, and further political assassinations. One could not easily avoid the inherent blood and gore in real life.
Because comic books were still primarily the entertainment of choice of pre-teens and teenagers, blood and gore would stay banished for some years to come. Bloody violence might wash across the movie screens after BONNIE & CLYDE, but comic books would remain relatively blood and gore free for a few years anyway.
So, what to make of the violent, bloody death of Ares in SIEGE #2?
Frankly, I didn't much give a damn. It may have been quite visceral. But it is on the printed page, and all I could think of was that it reminded me of that plastic model kit that used to be available, also back in the 60's, The Visible Man. His body was clear, but his insides, if you painted them correctly, were quite colorful and realistic. Which is all to say that I have seen the insides of people before (even the faked guts spilling out that was depicted in the movie CATCH 22).
And the problem is that, no matter how graphic, the comic book companies have hedged their bets from almost the very beginning by either not REALLY killing off the character, or bringing back, no matter how impossibly, any famously "dead" character.
Yes, it was deemed an "imaginary tale", and I have it as part of a trade paperback, DC's GREATEST IMAGINARY STORIES. But that does not matter. Imaginary or not, it read like a real story. It felt like a real story, despite the disclaimer at the end, "The chances are a million to one that it will never happen." Later, of course, as part of a really BIG EVENT, Superman was killed off--for the time being back in the 80's.
When a significant comic book character is killed off, even if temporarily, it's an important event. And the comic book companies take full advantage of that event to publicize it and especially to sell more comics. Marvel took advantage not that long ago by killing off Captain America (Steve Rogers). But nobody believed it was for good, especially not with another Captain America feature film in the offing.
In the imaginary death of Superman, Lex uses green Kryptonite rays to kill him. There's certainly no blood and there's no gore, but Superman does turn green and eventually dies. And to this pre-teen at the time, it was a violent death and it was a prolonged death, even if it was imaginary. (Perhaps the cover made it clear that the tale was imaginary from the start, but remember that the copy I read did not have a cover, so I took it as real up until the very end and the disclaimer.) And the creators took full advantage by killing off Superman and then showing a huge funeral event after his death, with famous and not-so-famous characters walking past his glass coffin from all over the universe as well as from the future (the first Legionnaires Lightning Lad, Cosmic Boy, and Saturn Girl, my initial exposure to these fabulous teens from the future).
Not long after Superman was killed this way, Lightning Lad was killed off by a freeze ray from Zaryan the Conqueror in ADVENTURE COMICS#304. Of course, in AC #312, he was brought back to life, even if another had to sacrifice his life to revive him. The revolving door between life and death was now in full swing.
So, very early on in my own comic book reading, key characters were violently killed, even if the blood and gore were not depicted, and even if their deaths were eventually undone in one way or another. And, I might also add, President Kennedy was assassinated not long after the imaginary death of Superman, though his untimely death could not be undone. Real violence would become a significant part of rest of the decade with civil rights murders, civil mass murders, violent reactions to protests, violent protests, the war in Vietnam, and further political assassinations. One could not easily avoid the inherent blood and gore in real life.
Because comic books were still primarily the entertainment of choice of pre-teens and teenagers, blood and gore would stay banished for some years to come. Bloody violence might wash across the movie screens after BONNIE & CLYDE, but comic books would remain relatively blood and gore free for a few years anyway.
So, what to make of the violent, bloody death of Ares in SIEGE #2?
Frankly, I didn't much give a damn. It may have been quite visceral. But it is on the printed page, and all I could think of was that it reminded me of that plastic model kit that used to be available, also back in the 60's, The Visible Man. His body was clear, but his insides, if you painted them correctly, were quite colorful and realistic. Which is all to say that I have seen the insides of people before (even the faked guts spilling out that was depicted in the movie CATCH 22).
And the problem is that, no matter how graphic, the comic book companies have hedged their bets from almost the very beginning by either not REALLY killing off the character, or bringing back, no matter how impossibly, any famously "dead" character.
If Bendis and Company wanted to kill off Ares graphically, to prove that he was really, truly, totally dead, it doesn't actually work. Any future writer can resurrect Ares and it won't have mattered how graphically his death was once depicted. Hippolyta was killed off very graphically in the OUR WORLDS AT WAR series from DC several years ago. But like the Barry Allen Flash and Supergirl being killed in CRISIS, everyone can eventually make it back to life. So any depiction of comic book character deaths, no matter how violent or graphic, is simply an exercise and little more. (Wolverine gets hacked up and burned off and he still has the ability to reconstitute himself--and that has been shown more graphically than was Ares dismemberment.)
As I have implied, of all the deaths of all the heroes over all the years, none impacted me as much as my first, The Death of Superman, or the senseless killing of the little kitten, tossed against a wall in BAST. Everything else may be interesting in its own way, but it does not impact me at all. The deaths may be realistic, but those killed off can be, and are, resurrected almost all the time. As others have proclaimed, it's a turnstile or revolving door to the underworld and, therefore, has no real or lasting impact. Unfortunately.
As I have implied, of all the deaths of all the heroes over all the years, none impacted me as much as my first, The Death of Superman, or the senseless killing of the little kitten, tossed against a wall in BAST. Everything else may be interesting in its own way, but it does not impact me at all. The deaths may be realistic, but those killed off can be, and are, resurrected almost all the time. As others have proclaimed, it's a turnstile or revolving door to the underworld and, therefore, has no real or lasting impact. Unfortunately.
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