I'm convinced that Jarella was killed off so that the Hulk could have his
own "Gwen Stacy" story. But I digress...

++++++++

But she died in the same way that George Stacy did, so it's different, right?

I'm convinced that Jarella was killed off so that the Hulk could have his
own "Gwen Stacy" story. But I digress...

***********

I seem to remember reading somewhere in the last year or two that Len Wein didn't mean for Jarella's death to be permanent but he left the book before he could finish her story.

M***** comics, and hell, even DC, are becoming like Russian novels.  They are long, complicated, usually boring, and the characters that you start off with at the beginning of the novel are NOT the ones you end up with at the end of the novel.

YIKES!

MPH

I agree with Glenn Greenberg about the dead characters.

Readers say "death is normal in the realworld". Aw, sure. In the real world. But in a comic book? In comics, authors have the "power" to keep what's good. And, talkingabout Spider-Man, one of the good elements was the presence of a great supporting cast. Kill them... and you kill part of the Spider-Man mythos.

Ditto for the villains. The death of Doctor Octopus was a very sad moment for me, he was my favorite villain (being the current Green Goblin one of the good guys), and I couldn't imagine any replacement. Indeed, I never cared for Carolyn Trainer.

JB, just today I was wondering about how the American comic book (which I remembered as OPTIMISTIC books when I was a child) became so often grim and gritty. That could be an answer....!

When I was a bit younger (in my Golden Age), I read Spider-Man stories produced in the '70s and '90s. I liked them both, but I preferred the first. There was no hype, no deaths, no shocking events. Just solid stories. I often complained about this, in those years... Spider-Man was such a great character, so why couldn't they write stories without hype, deaths and shocking events?

I'll repeat it, I LIKED was they were doing in the '90s. The stories were good, I really respected authors like Michelinie or DeMatteis. But, even if only a kid, I couldn't help but think "something's wrong". Harry Osborn as the Green Goblin again, his death, the Rambo-like Betty Brant, the robot parents, Spider-Man calling himself "the Spider", the death of Octopus, the death of aunt May, the whole "I'm the original Peter - No, I am - No' I said I am" thing... Sure, well written and well drawn stories, but If I wanted to read a real Spider-Man comic book I searched it into our Italian chronological reprint on sale in those years. No wonder I loved so much the post clone saga and the relaunch by JB and Howard Mackie! 

Glenn Greenberg:

QUOTE: I fully agree, JB. In the issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN where Nathan Lubensky died, it said right on the cover: "In this issue: Somebody Dies!" As if that was the selling point. And in the end, Nate's death was completely unecessary to the story. As I recall, he was little more than cannon fodder. I remember being kind of repulsed by how it was done, and how it was marketed.

And, if I recall correctly, the cover was a sort of remake of the ASM #90 cover. Spider-Man takes away the "shadowed victim" just like in that famous image by Gil Kane.

"Over the years, comic book writers went on a killing spree. Supporting casts were whittled down to the barest bones. Death was running rampant in Marvel
comics, and most books never recovered from it."

 
The parallel occurance was the taking of long-established villians or minor heroes and turning them into pathetic losers and laughable bums.

Mike

QUOTE: There's something to be said for that. I mean, let's face it: Over the years, comic book writers went on a killing spree. Supporting casts were whittled down to the barest bones. Death was running rampant in Marvel comics, and most books never recovered from it.

I see your point, but I don't think rampant resurrections are the way to fix it.  For the more "soap opera oriented" characters (most of the Marvel folks), emotional involvement in the character comes from sharing their triumphs AND their tragedies.  Undo all of the tragedies and you cut off a great deal of the emotional involvement. 

If there's too much death in comics, all that needs to be done is to stop killing off characters unless there's no other way to serve the story properly.  (While there have been many lame death stories, there have also been those who are long time favorites of my mine so I wouldn't want to put a moratorium on them altogether.)  Something like that should be a Big Deal, not a checklist item ("okay, major crossover here... who gets bumped off?").

If supporting casts are getting depleted, hire writers who are interested in replenishing them.  Let Peter make new friends.  While I like the old cast members as much as anyone, lets get some characters in where the relationships aren't established and start building from scratch.  Let the dead rest and try bringing some new toys to the sandbox.  And if incoming writers could be encouraged to use the newer supporting cast members rather than dumping any and all of them created since 1965, that would probably help too...

"And if incoming writers could be encouraged to use the newer supporting cast members rather than dumping any and all of them created since 1965, that would probably help too."

That's a really big issue.  Very few creators seem interested in using anything created by a contemporary.

Mike