Comics in 2014: Death and Rebirth

Click here for our look at Part 1: Equality in Comics

Cycle of Death and Rebirth

When looking at where the big money in comics was made in 2014, the top selling books this year involved killing off major characters, or bringing them back to life. This year we had the massively successful, The Amazing Spiderman #1, the first new version of the title by the same name since its inception in the 60’s. It sold more than any comic in the past 20 years. It also came after a year of Spiderman being “technically” dead in a title called Superior Spiderman. The publicity of Spiderman’s death and new number one were very well handled and for those issues, the sales reflected people’s excitement about the story and Peter Parker’s return.

Over 532,586 Sold!

The other best selling series was called The Death of Wolverine. Now this title was years in the making, and there was a year of publicity that Wolverine, arguably Marvels most popular character was going to die. It cultivated in a four issue miniseries that reaped the benefits of very high sales, and a mixed critical reaction.  People were not buying the issues to see if the hero would die, but how he would die.

The other high selling titles of the year were new number one issues of preexisting characters. So while a character did not die, they were changed to a point where they could justify a new issue 1 for that tittle. Thor is a good example, having sold very well when they replaced Thor with a female character selling high on that issue, and in the future, gives them a chance to sell another Thor number 1 when the male Thor returns to power.

Archie Comics even killed Archie Andrews this year in their adult themed comic Life With Archie. It helped end that title on a high note, but shows that even Archie comics, which in the past has stayed away from the “revolving door” of comic book deaths has given in to an obvious sales strategy.

Already a year early, Marvel has announced that they are killing the character Deadpool in hopes of replicating the sales success of their Wolverine story this year. The numbers do show that fans come out to buy books where characters dies and come back to life more than any other event or storyline, so it makes sense in the short term for Marvel and other comic book companies

While any sales trend in comics are good, there are two things to reflect on with this trend of constant death and rebirth. The most obvious and technical problem is that the gimmicks can only last Marvel and other publishers so long before all of their high profile characters have been killed. After getting rid of Spiderman and Wolverine, Marvel is running out of high value victims for their sales events and I can imagine will see diminishing returns each time they do it. I cannot see the death of Deadpool outselling Wolverine, and past that, they will soon be out of their high profile characters that have not already “died”, leaving them with a backlog of stories that do not hold up well knowing that the characters will survive in their relaunched books. Once we get to the death of Rocket Raccoon we know that Marvel is in real trouble.

The other, less commercial concern I have is that by building the advertising and publicity around these deaths and rebirths, the marketing of these comics is surpassing the actual storytelling these comics are supposed to be telling. I understand the desire to kill and resurrect the characters the way they have been doing, after all the numbers do show an instant gratification for the company. But comics used to use the death of major characters as a way to enhance their stories, and in that build better fan loyalty for future issues of the series. If any character can die than the stories become far more immediate, and any issue can feel like an event people should buy.

In that way, we knew that Wolverine would die, but those excited to buy that story waited almost two years knowing that there was no way he would die, and it took away the impact of those tales. It feels more satisfying when a comic can prove that it surprises the reader every issue using any trick they have. I think there is obvious value in exploring every type of comic book story, but we are seeing that those interested in comic collections, and paying big bucks for Walking Dead and Saga trades, are looking for stories that encompass a wide range of emotions and events, rather than serve on concept the fans enjoy.

My hope is that in the coming years, the publicity for the comics get better at supporting the stories and their intensity, rather than forcing stories to be told that the fans know the outcome a year before they are put out.

And for the record, if I could pick the next big Marvel Death, I would pay big money for The Death of Man-Thing.  Dude has it coming for ripping off the real Green Goliath.

Click here for the next topic in ourretrospective:  DC Comics- Heading West.

Dov Smiley

Dov Smiley is an independent comic book publisher and founder of the Smiley Spot. His current works can be found at jonahcomic.com, as well as amazon under the same name. His full portfolio can be found at dovsmiley.blogspot.com