Well, crap.
August 16th, 2009 by Esther Inglis-Arkell | Tags: DC comics, titan booksSolicit for the November issue of Titans under the cut:
TITANS #19
Written by J.T. Krul
Art by Angel Unzueta & Wayne Faucher
Cover by Angel Unzueta
It’s not easy being a dad in the DCU – just ask Roy Harper, who never wants to leave his daughter Lian an orphan. Unfortunately, that choice may not be his to make…Hot off his BLACKEST NIGHT: TITANS miniseries, J.T. Krul returns for another issue!
On sale November 11 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
Well, what can I say, except I’ve found another reason I don’t like deaths. They are no longer surprises, are they? Was anyone surprised that Batman died? Will anybody be surprised if Roy Harper dies?
No. I don’t think so. People will have seen this solicit, and their reaction will be either, “Yep, he died,” or “Oh, so they didn’t kill him after all.” Companies have to play their cards a lot closer to the chest if they want deaths to have an impact.
As it is, all I can see this as is the most predictable of Event conventions. Someone has to die. Throw a dart at a picture of a minor team and go ahead.
Mostly I dislike minor character death because it never evokes a positive response. The people who like the character are naturally saddened at their death. The people who were indifferent to the character feel nothing. I don’t see the benefit.
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I hope that if he does die, he comes back in the next issue with a better codename.
Since Titans is supposed to have several issues centered on a single member of the team, this could just be a deeper exploration of Roy’s perspective and relationship with his daughter. Unless this is actually a Blackest Night tie-in, I doubt he’s going to be killed off here. May get a good scare, though.
@david brothers: You speak wisely.
How does Roy’s death make Lian an orphan? Even if Simone tends to use her as a punching bag, Cheshire was still alive last I heard…
To be fair, old comics did this, too. Heck, Death of Gwen Stacy said ‘one of these characters dies’ or some such on the cover and the next issue had Spidey holding Gwens dead body. In all honesty, a lot of comics show the heroes dead on it and it’s never true. Most should be shocked that they actually kill someone in a comic in comparison to the number of ‘dead hero’ covers there are.
@Kirk Warren: Gwen Stacy died before people had the internet and previews order forms, so it was absolutely a surprise. No one knew it was going to happen before it happened, so that’s a poor example.
Also, is it just me, or is that a really innapropriate tone for the ‘teasing’ of a storyline where a young father is (presumably) murdered, leaving a toddler behind?
@david brothers: He will come back as Dead Arrow. Or possibly Black Lantern/Black Arrow: Hard Traveling Horrors.
(Sorry, not only is that terrible, it took me five minutes to come up with.)
With as far out as companies feel they have to tease these days, this isn’t very surprising. It’s not the first time suspense has been killed by solicits either. The worst part is DC just ignores this phenomenon, Marvel at least will classify solicits when they’ve got something major in the pipes. I suppose this ties into a point the FBB guys made about Blackest Night, how the whole prophecy angle made the whole thing seem like plot beats being churned out with no finesse, and ultimately it’s something that makes it hard not to be ambivalent to the story itself.
@LurkerWithout I agree, everybody should just relax. She’ll be way better off with her mass-murdering psychotic mother. Hell, she’ll even have a little half-brother to play with, thanks to Catman! Say it with me now: Awwwwwwwwwww!
In seriousness, I can’t even muster the enthusiasm to get upset about this, even though I did like Roy back in his Arsenal days. After Zombie Sue Dibny eating hearts and Cry For Justice #2, I think my “outrage at tasteless things from DC” meter just hit TILT and got stuck there.