Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site noao.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!astrovax!noao!parks From: parks@noao.UUCP (Jay Parks) Newsgroups: net.comics Subject: no danger / no drama Message-ID: <423@carina.noao.UUCP> Date: Tue, 9-Jul-85 19:26:37 EDT Article-I.D.: carina.423 Posted: Tue Jul 9 19:26:37 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 11-Jul-85 08:19:21 EDT Organization: Natl. Optical Astronomy Observatories, Tucson, AZ USA Lines: 71 Comics will never be dramatic. Mainstream comics, that is. Partly this realization was spurred by the comics journal article on "Dark Clairmont", partly it is my own observation. Mainstreams *can* be humorous, tragic (though rarely), and romantic, but they will never go beyond a sort of cheap melodrama. The problem is, there is no danger in mainstreams. What does a character have to fear? In real life, there is maiming, madness, disease, old age, and death. Comics seem to have the impression that things like that are unpleasant topics and they refuse to deal with them. These subjects are avoided. Sgt. Fury wears an eyepatch, sure, but he never actually lost an eye. He went off-stage, and returned later with a dashing looking patch. What character has even been permanently scarred by one of his life and death battles? And let's not even think about old age. Admittedly, Aunt May is old. She always was, always will be. She never *got* old, though, she always was old. The only danger that a comic character really has to worry about is death. Not only do other dangers hold no threat, they are ignored in the mainstream comic universe (OK, Captain Marvel died of cancer, but that was in a special "look! we can be realistic, too" issue). The only danger that is acknowledged is death. Now, for a minor trivia question: name a major mainstream comic character that irrevocably died. I am defining "death" to be: The character never secretly survived, was never cloned, didn't have an alien shape-changer take his place, won't have his spirit brought back, and wasn't regenerated from beyond the grave. He won't have adventures in the afterlife, and will never communicate to either the living or the readers. He is DEAD AND GONE (just like in real life). I'm not counting the earlier mentioned Capt. Marvel. "The Death of Captain Marvel" was advertised for so many years that even big Jim Shooter would probably blanch at reviving old Mar-Vell. Villains cannot die. The hero's code doesn't permit killing, and even when it does (Wolverine) a good villain is hard to keep dead. Remember the goons old Wolvie killed in the basement of the Hellfire club? They were brought back later with bionic parts. Give me a break! Villains are invulnerable. Heroes are even more invulnerable. They just can't be killed. They will always escape, have the Starjammers arrive in time, be saved by the ancient one, etc. So. What are we left with? There is NO DANGER. This is not necessarily bad, in the 30's all the cheap serials did this (the hero would fall off the cliff and die. Next episode, it would turn out that he had been saved at the last second.) The problem is that this is not dramatic writing -- it is melodrama. The point behind all this raving is that there IS hope for serious comic writing. It isn't in the mainstreams, though, it's in the independents. The only acceptable brought-back-from-the-dead scene I have ever liked was in Elfquest. When One-eye was (almost) brought back, I could have believed it. From the very first, we were told that these people were not human. The rules they lived by were not the same as those governing human beings -- they lived in an immortal, magical world. The next closest scene was CAMELOT 3000, when Guenivere was dying and Lance brought her back by the power of his faith. Both of those scenes showed us a lot about the characters and the world they lived in. The deaths were NOT arranged for a quick thrill, or to give a catchy ending. If you disagree, I would be glad to hear examples of a good dramatic scene in the mainstreams. Jay Parks (decvax!hao!ihnp4!seismo)!noao!parks :uucp P.S. The irrevocably dead character was Spider Man's Uncle Ben.