I keep tabs on Marvel but don't waste my money like I used to on their comics. This talk has brought up another cliche' that appears in both western comics and manga= "he dead! boohooo for a time then BAM! he's (or she) is not dead!" Either the death was faked or there was a resurrection. Marvel has used the "He's dead! No, he's alive!" card so much its pathethic. I guess a few mangas are able to handle this card (some can't) as plot devise but a few use it as a gimmick and Comics uses it as a gain more money gimmick - "Hey, this character was popular! Lets bring 'em back and we'll sell more comics!"
In Yu Yu Hakusho, Yusuke's deaths (well the two offical ones) were used for changing his nature. His first death was used as humorous way to awaken his powers- he saves a toddle from a speeding car but dies in accident. The funny thing is that the kid was suppose to live anyway, his ball was going to act like a bumper and save him. But the death allowed Yusuke to change, both as a person (showing more concern for others) and awaken his reiki. His second death was weirder, it caused his demon blood to awaken and he was no longer considered human (lest by fans).
But comics rarely explore the transformative side of a character's death. Juat a few of the ones from Marvel that really irk me:
-Captain America = just how the H377 did they revive him?? He was shot in the head at end of the Registatration mess, and no mask so we saw it was Steve Rogers. did they excuse this away with the Skrulls???
-Jean Grey = the first time had a solid theory behind it and was believable (even if we don't like it and I didn't like Jean too much) but after the first time… now she's dead ...again... and they introduce some plot with the phoenix that COULD allow Jean to return at some point - WTF
-Colossus = Sure they finnaly reveal that Ord's people have the means to revive peopel but there is a serious flaw there= Peter Rasputin's body was cremated and then the ashes was spread over the collective farm in Russia he grew up on. So how could they do the resuresction without his body?
Those are just some of the most recent ones... lets not forget this mass revival thing that I'm still not clear on how or when it happened but characters like Northstar (didn't he die in X-Men comics?) and Doug are said to be alive.
Marvel Comics= Death is cheap but their books are not!
@RobbyBevard:
Her entire school of student Hellions were killed due to her methods and being evil. After that she started seeing things closer to Xavier's way and moved over to help run Generation-X. (And that was nearly 20 years ago, real time.) And in the time since the entire mutant population has been cut down to less than 200, so even more so.
Also, she and Cyclops hooked up later at some point for… some reason. But they're a far more interesting couple than Scott and Jean ever were. She's been on the card carrying goodside (while totally flirting with bad) for about two decades now. She's earned it by now.
Besides, Phoenix destroyed entire galaxies and blah blah blah.
I still don't like Frost. I guess its because I grew up with the character of Kitty Pryde, who is still at odds with Frost. Even so long after the mind-rape so long ago.
Are you comparing Frost to the the Phoenix Force (also be the first 'Jean' called Phoenix)? If so, we really can't compare them against each other. Phoenix is a force of nature, a cosmic enitity, the very embodiment of Life and Death. The being called Dark Phoenix (ohh its another clove gone evil- gimmick!) was revealed to be so inexperienced with human emotions and it helped for her/it to be vulnerable to Mastermind's manipulations. Frost is human and fully aware of human emotion.
I am not totally against Frost though, the early part of Astonishing was enjoyable. I did feel for Frost when it was discovered that Cassandra Nova was influencing Frost.
They pretty much wiped the slate clean with "Skrulls did it" and "He had good intentions and Norman Osborn was way worse."
Besides, Spiderman made a deal with the devil to mindwipe the entire world, abort his baby and divorce his wife since then.
Which was then retconned into something else almost immediately because no one liked that story.
I never uderstood the mass of recent Skrull impersonation. Yeah I didnt' like the whole thing of why/how marvel ended Spiderman's marriage. IT was handled worse (5x) than when they ended the first bout of Kitty Pryde/Poitr(Peter) Rasputin relationship - he falls for an alien whose healign powers makes guys fall for her, so Poitr returns to Earth and dumps Kitty. Reason it ws done at all was head honcho didn't like the 4 year age difference betweent them …. even though Reed & Susan are further apart. But the difference is that Kitty was nearly 15, Peter was nearly 19 so very
touchy and Marvel ended it.
So I can understand why they did it if not how they broke Kitty & Piotr. But never got why they broke up Peter & Mary Jane. I was one of those fans that grew up wanting them to get together, so wasn't happy at break up.
