What's the best death issue?

[ubiquiti]

How about the death of Colossus issue? I read it but thew he book away in disgust.

What issue number wasthat? I can't for the life of me remember.

[fiendish]

My vote for "best death" is that of the Comedian in Watchmen #1 by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Two big reasons:

 

1. No Comedian death, no investigation by Rorschach, which sets in motion the events of the entire 12-issue series.

 

2. The Comedian (we come to find out later) was a sociopath and a jerk. (Yes, Rorschach is a sociopath as well, but he somehow retains our sympathy.)

 

Thanks for reading,

[Ariamus]

That was Uncanny X-men #390.

 

Why did you throw the book away in disgust?

[ubiquiti]

colossus was my favorite x-man.

why not kill wolverine?

I mean, think of the hype with the "Wolverine clone" issues and the "he wasn't really dead but in a type of stasis" explanation when he comes back.

Oh, the possibilities.

Colossus was one of the few really well rounded out X-men.

[supapimp]

remember when deathbird nailed colossus with those death spears? i was pretty upset about it at the time, chris claremont was hittiing the pipe pretty heavily at the time.

[ubiquiti]

yeah - or when pyro heated him up - then Avalanche dropped the liquid nitrogen on him...

I guess it was only a matter of time - he was the X-Man that almost got killed like every 25 issues or so. Claremeont must have really hated him.

[supapimp]

after his little sister, it was a matter of time....wasn't the cold war over by then?

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

James, I agree with you 100%, ASM 121 is the best (my personal favorite) death issue. IMO, ASM 122 is a close second though, as the death of Norman Osborn a.k.a. the first Green Goblin was dramatic if not a surprise.

 

I'm a little shocked that nobody has brought up this, but the death of Superman was dramatic at the time even though we all knew DC would bring him back...somehow. I agree with some of the critics though, that the story could/should have been better, and for Superman to die in hand to hand combat is a bit lame, but I then again Doomsday has grown on me as a villian. Maybe because to me pitting Doomsday against Superman is somewhat like pitting Superman against the Hulk. Even so, IMO, DC should have had one of Superman's more established enemies such as Luthor or Brainiac to do the dastardly deed. To me, the actual event of killing Superman overshadowed the shortcomings of the story.

 

 

A couple of my other favorite death issues are Crisis On Infinite Earths issue 7; the death of Supergirl, and Crisis On Infinite Earths issue 8; the death of the first Flash. Marv Wolfman and George Perez did an excellent job with both issues. The cover of issue 7 with Superman holding a lifeless Supergirl coveys a great deal of emotion. The honorable and selfless way in which both Supergirl and Flash died really hit home with me.

 

How about the Batman "death in the family" storyline? Anyone? Dam60?

[Zonker]

How about the Batman "death in the family" storyline? Anyone?

 

I'm a huge fan of Denny O'Neil as a writer, but that storyline is one of his great mistakes (as an editor). This seemed to play to the worst in human nature (I'm talking about the fans, here) during the grim & gritty phase of comics in the mid to late 1980s. The 1-800-helives/hedies stunt really turned me off comics for a while.

 

Z.

[dam60]

Yes, MOS, sorry for the delayed response (was in Orlando this past weekend) but Batman 426-429 "A Death in the Family" is by far the strongest Death story line ever. How great was that - the Boy Wonder's mom is rubbing elbows with the Joker before he snuffs them both out while Batman is busy stopping a truck loaded with the lethal laughing gas. Talk about choices. Wow. I know this is lame, but I get teary eyed every time I talk about it. To each their own, but for me Batman 426-429 is top notch and the best comic storyline of all time. Yes, of all time.

 

Another distinguishing factor of this storyline is that Jason Todd is still dead. How many times has a character come back from the dead (eg Superman) or what not? Now I will tell you, for it's magnitude at the time Superman 75 was the biggest comic book ever. Sure Action 1 really started the age of comic books as we know it, but I will bet that it didn't have the impact on society as a whole that Superman 75 had in '93. Everybody - including thousands of non collectors wanted a copy of that book.

 

ASM 121-122 is another great story line, but I never really got all that into Spidey. I hadn't even realized that Colossus was killed off in Uncanny 390 but that makes me mad. He is an awesome X-Men and my personal favorite too. He was always so cool and so under rated.

 

BTW - if anyone has a Batman 427 cgc graded 9.6 that wants to sell, please PM me.

 

DAM