do you think it's time for characters to die/retire and stay that way

I feel like some characters need to hang up the cape and make way for successors. Thoughts?

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Yeah Barry Allen shouldve stayed that way

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If it makes sense for the character I would say so. But there are some characters, like Batman for instance, who even after 80 years of comics still have more things to explore and develop. Might just be me, but I think Hal should have stayed dead. There’s of course a lot more to discover about the Lantern Corps, but I think the Green Lantern legacy characters are so strong that they can explore the Lantern Corps without Hal. But maybe it’s weird to kill and resurrect a character, just to kill him again.

The thing is, we had this in the eighties all the way to the mid-naughts. Wally was The Flash, Kyle became the new Green Lantern, Connor Hawke took over as Green Arrow, we had Courtney Whitmore becoming the new Star-Spangled Kid, there was Jakeem Thunder, Sandy the Golden Boy became the new Sandman, Jack Knight took over his father’s role as Starman, and so on.

For a while, DC was passing on the mantle and we got a new generation of heroes. And for a while, it was good. But then you had writers and artists who wanted to put their own personal preferences back into continuity (Hal and Barry returning as Green Lantern and Flash, whatever the hell Jeph Loeb was trying to do with Krypton during his Superman run, Kara Zor-El back as Supergirl, etc) and it felt like we regressed. For every step we took forward, we got torpedoed two steps back because the writer or artist decided they wanted the Silver and Bronze age versions of the characters back.

Case in point…look what happened with Wally West.

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Deathstroke, who just died. One of my favorite characters, but this was long overdue. He’s just got the perfect death in my opinion. The bastard spent 40 years of comics torturing, raping, and tormenting a bunch of teenagers over something (Grant’s death) that he knows they’re innocent of. He’s drugged his daughter into stabbing her own eye out. And DC writers keep trying to push him as an almost-hero when he’s a scumbag who breaks every rule in his supposed code. Basically DC heroes give him a pass since he looks cool. I mean freaking Beast Boy saw him as a Father figure after the All that Judas Contract sick crap.

If Deadshot or Red Hood killed him it would be an occupational hazzard to him. If Damian Wayne shot him it’d be a victory. Instead Slade’s preying on kids finally backfired . Perfect comeuppance 40 years in the making.

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Well said @Superby1. It definitely felt like a huge step backwards. I thought the whole DC Universe was elevated by having legends that had died on the job as heroes. Jason Todd’s death was the best piece of character development Batman ever had, imo. Their eventual return retroactively cheapens everything.

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Jason Todd and Wally West

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I would like them to bring back my boy Bwana Beast I know he gave it up but he needs to come back. Same with the Creeper

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I think now that there is a multiverse to explore and DC could 3 weeks without another “Crisis” event. Take those 80-00’s characters and put them on a multiverse of their own. Certainly some characters, even pre-COIE, are canonical.

In my life I’ve seen far too many Bruce waynes, Clark kents, Hal Jordans, and Barry allens in my life.

My dad stopped reading comics because according to him, “my Batman shouldn’t be your Batman”

I’ve heard the arguments that sales suffer if you make big changes to the characters and the universe, too that I say that scared money don’t make money

I’d rather see a Terry McGinnis’ Batman try and fail than another Bruce Wayne.

Take note, Marvel won an Oscar with Miles Morales not Peter Parker.

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Comic books are all either first acts or second acts you can never have true third acts for characters where they die or retire with no chance of coming back at least not if you want to continue to make money with your characters another big problem is writers don’t want to create new characters for DC or marvel because if they do they are owned by DC or marvel so DC and marvel are making all the money off the character you created so creators reserve their ideas for new characters for creators owned projects at image or other companies like image because that is where the creator has the highest chance of making real money off of their creations if there creations get optioned for say a movie or TV show this is great for the creator but not so great for the fans of DC and marvel superhero titles I believe this is why creators keep going back to the same well at the big 2 so every time you see a character die don’t be surprised to see them come back they have to keep making money so when they get bored or they think readers are bored they will do this over and over but who could blame either side they both want to make money

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I’d personally love if superhero comics followed real-world logic. I wanna see characters get old, die, and suffer permanent events.

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There are a while lot of legacy characters I’d like to see killed off.

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YES! Let them age and die and the next gen can take over. Regeneration of characters without a total revamp that confuses me.

No comics are for escapism not a reference to the inevitability of aging and death… that’s just depressing. I don’t mind if they choose someone to dawn the cowl like Dick Grayson or Terry Mcguines, but real world logic is not why I read comics.

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Plenty of characters “die off” when the company reboots itself…then they just “reimagine” them and hope they sell better a second (or third) time round cause there’s to much money invested to really change anything. That’s why we still see Dick Grayson as Robin when he should have left that behind him long ago. ( know he actually did that and is now Nightwing but DC’s continuity is so mish-mash and convoluted you can see multiple conflicting “histories” and characters all over the place. Like, how can Teen Titans (or even just Titans) co-exist in the same reality as Young Justice?

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We the fans need to remember…these are characters yes, they are also consumer products. No sane publisher will let a copyright lapse due to lack of use. Its why EVERY CHARACTER makes a guest appearance SOMEWHERE every 7 years. None of them are ever going to Die, die, because tomorrow’s generation deserve to be fans too.

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Kind of. I think some characters should and some shouldn’t. And for those who should, their death doesn’t have to mean we never see them in comics again. We could still spotlight them in stories that take place before their death in continuity, and of course there’s else world stories, and plenty of other creative ways to get our fix of that character.

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Yes, even if they are still in the backround like Bruce in Batman beyond. This is a great idea.

Depends on the characters! Because you have those with the actually ability live almost eternal and for those just yes! But those just human should have children to take their place with some modified changes depending on who there parents are!