[Professor S]

Originally Posted by BreakABone

Whoa whoa...

Time out... Flag on the play.

DC nor Morrison ever declared that Batman RIP would see the actual death of Batman, if I remember correctly they stated at the end that Bruce Wayne would no longer be Batman.

Yes, but that is NOT the message they wanted to expose to the media. Even Moriison constantly played with the concept of the story, trying to gain attention.

And they delivered.

And two, they didn't fake kill off Batman, they used a plot device to remove the character. Everyone knows his faith, its not like he will magically re-appear and then have to explain where he has been.

I didn't say they actually killed Batman and brought him back, I said they "fake" killed him and did so on a giant splash page

Exhibit "A":

And you can not be serious about DC doing, and Marvel being better at it.
I won't even touch Jean Grey.
But look at how they friggin mangled the whole Spiderman unmasking thing to create one of the greatest clustermesses in all of comic-dom. Not only did they do all of that, the comic has been a lot worse for it.

Spiderman didn't die in that storyline.

The Captain America death was better than anything DC has ever done with the same type of plot. Why? Because they kept him DEAD. At least for now... Marvel could always make me eat my hat once they start pushing for the damn Captain America and Avengers movies. Now thinking of it, I'm calling his miraculous return to coincide with those movies.

But still, they've handled it expertly so far, and my main pount was "lately" and Jean Grey's death was never pimped to the extent of Superman's or Batman' fake death, but I will concede they have abused the property to the point of meaninglessness.

I mean maybe I'm not a long time reader, but I don't remember Superman or Batman dying too often.

No, but when they killed them it was for essentially the reason of furthering pocket books, and not storylines (t-minus 5 seconds until Bruce Wayne is back as Batman once sales start slumping). They created massive events, with little substance or continuing impact (unless you consider Steel a good addition). Captain America was done right.

Sure they bought back Hal Jordan and Green Arrow, and even now it is used as a punchline in most comics since most everyone comes back, but that is part of the fun of it. And usually death has a consequence and the return has a reason.

But thats not my point. My point is that the constant returns deminish any reason to emotionally invest in these characters, as I never fully emotionally invested in Jean Grey once they started offing her every decade or so. And with the entire multi-verse abortion, they have built in an automatic do-over button where they can simply erase any previous continuity any time they feel like it. Its a device for LAZY writers and creators, not a genuine way to build a universe, IMO. Say what you will about Marvel, but they didn't go in such a intellectually corrupt and confusing direction.

Can you tell I hate the multi-verse? It's garbage. Utter, complete, bankrupt garbage.

But thats just my opinion, I could be wrong...