Not Dead Yet
So, Marvel shouts “DEAD!!” and the ‘Interfret’ just sort of sighs and goes, “Well, he’ll be back.”
Really, what else have we been taught? Where once Joe Quesada himself declared that ‘dead means dead‘ and the cliche would be put to rest (or was it back in the bottle?), he has since rescinded that belief and said that you have to be able to change your mind in the entertainment world.
Does that change include a book not a few issues down from it on the stands? As the media is told with blaring sirens and bang-on-pots attention grabbing theatrics, Civil War: Inititiative featured a conversation between the rogue Spider-Woman and Iron Man’s right hand woman Ms. Marvel.
So… what the hell is going on? Is death really that meaningless? I thought Brubaker really pulled out all the stops on #25 and now you’re telling me that all of it might have been for nothing? Or is Ms. Marvel lying and confusing the reader as well as Spider-Woman? Should I take this death to heart and know that the Marvel Universe as I knew it is gone or should I just ignore the significance of the murder knowing that it’s all going to change next week anyways?
I mean, we’ve been waiting for them to put back the Marvel Universe for awhile now. Announcing Spider-Man’s identity had more than just a few customers at my store thinking ahead to when everyone would all forget it. Daredevil was announced as Matt Murdock and now he’s back to relative anonymity. Mind you, it’s a rumor because Brubaker has some respect for the reader’s intelligence (and we don’t have the right kind of Spectre, I hear), but this could very well be the pre-identity reveal days. SHIELD was scrambling at the stroke of midnight to put unregistered heroes away, and now we learn that Tony only built the prison so he cold house the real criminals? I mean, I’m all for change but this much so quick and so much of a 180 from the other, this is getting difficult to have an attachment to.
Because why bother? “Don’t like the weather, just wait a couple hours”, some say and it seems that’s what I feel trained to do Marvel. Cap’s dead? Well, it’s probably an LMD so why bother being really touched by an awesome and well-written story? Won’t all these heroes look stupid when the reader is so cynical by this point that a picture of Spider-Man crying in the rain seems overdramatic for a man who’ll just be back a few months down the line?
Joe Quesada admits to ‘disinformation‘ in order to keep secrets about story lines, but shouldn’t there be some truth in fiction?
