I was just reading about what a big event the impending death of “Ultimate Spider-Man” is going to be. All I can say is “yawn.”
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/03/07/ultimate-spider-man-160-to-be-polybagged/
When I was a little-kid comic reader, nobody signifigant died in comics unless it was during the origin story, and that was to give motiviation to the hero to don a batsuit or otherwise pick up the mantle of great responsibility that came with great power….Â
Nowadays, it seems like EVERYBODY is on the dead/reborn list. Spider-man, the Human Torch, Captain America, Superman, Batman, Robin, Green Lantern, Flash…. And they all come back as good as new. It’s like killing Kenny in South Park, but with a collector’s edition poly-bagged release version….
It just feels like a lot of  cheap exploitation and bad writing to me. Need some drama? Need to generate some excitement for a fading character? Kill him/her! Then bring them back for an even more dramatic resurrection! It’ll draw attention and sell a lot of copies.
But to all those comic readers who complain that nobody outside of fandom takes capes and powers seriously, killing characters with no consequence is just another reason for mainstream readers to snicker at comics and treat it as a juvenile medium.
