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Mark Haslett
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 6106
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| Posted: 13 April 2024 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | 1
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Matt: I don't see how any of the characters fear death... if for trademark concerns alone,
**
LUTHOR: "What do you say now, Superman? I've stripped you of your powers and lashed you to this kryptonite rocket aimed at the heart of a red sun! What? No witty final remarks?"
SUPERMAN: "You really expect me to believe Warner Brothers is going to let you give away their licensing? You must really think I'm dumb, Luthor."
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 13 April 2024 at 5:51pm | IP Logged | 2
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And yet, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people fell for the “Death of Superman”.As I said at the time, I’d already killed him once. ‘Course, I brought him back in the same issue!
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Doug Centers
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 February 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 5476
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| Posted: 13 April 2024 at 6:18pm | IP Logged | 3
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The Doom Patrol deaths have fascinated me to no end. Murray Boltinoff and Bruno Premiani directly placed themselves in that issue to hawk sales to save the team. Obviously it didn't work but I would've like to see if there was at least a spike in sales for that last issue.
Other than Robotman, who reappeared about a decade later, DC kept the rest of the original team dead, at least thru my initial run reading.
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Matt Hawes
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 16430
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| Posted: 13 April 2024 at 7:38pm | IP Logged | 4
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There's no question there are gullible readers. My point isn't that killing off characters doesn't generate sales, or that readers won't believe it, but that such tactics cheapen the concept of death, robs future stories of any real drama about a character dying once they are inevitably resurrected, and is a lazy marketing gimmick in place of clever writing. And it's such a tired ploy... So very tired.
But, yes, many of the readers are gullible. When the death of Superman comic was first published, I was working at a comic shop (this was a few years before I opened my own shop), and the customers asked me if I thought that DC would keep Superman dead. I replied, as I stated here, that, no, the character was worth to much too the publisher to truly kill him off.
Edited by Matt Hawes on 13 April 2024 at 7:39pm
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132303
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| Posted: 13 April 2024 at 7:55pm | IP Logged | 5
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When I announced online that Mark Gruenwald had died the first response was “Hope he recovers!”Gruenie would have loved that!
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Mark Haslett
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 6106
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| Posted: 15 April 2024 at 6:20pm | IP Logged | 6
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Matt: ...customers asked me if I thought that DC would keep Superman dead.
**
If I were 9 years old at the time, I would have believed it was possible that Superman would stay dead. At 10, I would have known no company would actually stop selling comics about their most valuable character.
How old were the customers who asked you this question? What was your sense of how much they really, truly didn't know the answer?
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Robert Walter Auberger
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 11 April 2014
Location: Austria
Posts: 22
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| Posted: 15 April 2024 at 9:12pm | IP Logged | 7
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John Byrne:
"And yet, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people fell for the ""Death of Superman"".As I said at the time, I’d already killed him once. ‘Course, I brought him back in the same issue!"
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I think all those people fell for the Death of Superman storyline, because at that time (early 90s) Superman was considered a hero out of his time.
Old fashioned, values , that seemed out of touch, a property that has run its course...Popular heroes than were Wolverine, Punisher, Lobo , Venom, Carnage, Spawn etc.
So there was a slight chance , that they quit publishing Superman books, because all the prior efforts to make him relevant again have failed!
Edited by Robert Walter Auberger on 16 April 2024 at 9:00am
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Robert Walter Auberger
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 11 April 2014
Location: Austria
Posts: 22
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| Posted: 15 April 2024 at 9:21pm | IP Logged | 8
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I am a big Superman fan since when I could read (about 1979) and followed Superman on every book I could get my hands on in Germany.
There was a publishing gap shortly before Crisis, there was a restart with John's reboot that lasted a year and a half, and some issues from HETHKE. Finally thru a friend I got access to american imports, which I devoured. I also read a lot of WIZARD at the time. So with the climate in 1992 , it seemed that Superman could not compete with what was trending.
From very far away, it seemed possible that they kill Superman and stop making new Superman comics!
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Rebecca Jansen
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 February 2018
Location: Canada
Posts: 4531
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| Posted: 15 April 2024 at 9:33pm | IP Logged | 9
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The best thing was a video around that time by The Crash Test Dummies, Superman's Song, which showed various costumed people at a funeral. "Supes had a straight job", was one line to the song, and "never made any money for saving the world from Solomon Grundy", and "changing clothes in dirty old phone booths"... I really felt for the guy! :^)
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Bill Collins
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 26 May 2005
Location: England
Posts: 11250
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| Posted: 16 April 2024 at 6:40am | IP Logged | 10
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I think a lot fell for it out of curiosity, plus it was
hyped to the max, with all media outlets running with the
story, so "civilians" were exposed to it and bought into
it.
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Matt Hawes
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 16430
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| Posted: 16 April 2024 at 6:05pm | IP Logged | 11
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Mark Haslett: "...How old were the customers who asked you this question? What was your sense of how much they really, truly didn't know the answer?..."
In their 20s, or older. I would expect children to not grasp, or even consider the trademark situation.
My sense they didn't truly know the answer? Pretty good. They asked me sincerely about it.
Edited by Matt Hawes on 16 April 2024 at 6:06pm
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Brian Floyd
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 07 July 2006
Location: United States
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| Posted: 17 April 2024 at 2:03am | IP Logged | 12
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Regarding characters not fearing death.....
A good chunk of the X-Men are now clones. Sadly, this includes Kitty.
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