In the first issue alone, more once-beloved characters are brought back to life than can be shown reasonably in the pages of the book, earning only brief mentions as the book focuses on those Geoff Johns has chosen to share with us thus far. A single splash page featuring all the deceased Green Lantern Corps members illustrates the mind-boggling losses this one small section of the DC Universe has experienced. Indeed, readers might have noticed a lot of deaths during the Sinistero Corps War, but now that they're all in one place, illustrated in all their gory detail does it become obvious how many recognizable characters were lost over just a single year.
Halfway through the issue, Hal Jordan shows the recently returned Flash, Barry Allen, just how many people have died since he himself departed the world of the living. It takes two pages just to show them all, and even then some are left for later in the issue to illustrate. The number of characters who have died and remained dead since Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity reboot is almost without measure.
The number of deaths in the past decade have been on the raise, as well. The disappointing Infinite Crisis featured Superboy Prime casually killing half of the Titan's reserve membership during a battle with Conner Kent (soon to be deceased himself). Major events in the DC Universe have become a house cleaning for unwanted characters (along with a few big boys to add some shock value to the events).
Marvel Comics is certainly the grittier of the two major publishers, featuring more real world cities, politics, and stories featuring social upheaval. In contrast, the DCU is a sunny place where heroes are venerated, the JSA has bake sales, and Superman is there to save the day. Why, then, are DC events a slaughter house while Marvel's most recent event brought more people back to life than it killed?
Perhaps it is just because of that dichotomy: Marvel has nothing to prove because their real world is slightly more plausible. Comic book readers skew older than they did twenty-five years ago and they expect more realistic and mature stories. In a world where Ma Hunkel can regularly put on a stove pot to fight local street toughs, a war without a major deathcount might not seem realistic.
These frequent deaths lead to both fan excitement and fan frustration. Frequent "shock" deaths or the casual killing of scores of characters can leave those more interested in characters than books bitter. As someone who likes Batman's side-cast (Nightwing, Catwoman, Spoiler, Jim Gordon and the rest) more than the man himself, I'm always terrified of who will end up being the next sacrificial lamb on the altar of entertainment. As Stan Lee famously said, "every character is someone's favorite."
In spite of my own annoyance and fear for my favorite characters, the fact is the less "real" DC Universe has the right of it - in their line of work, superheroes should be dying left and right. They fight the worst evil in the world daily and it should be no shock when someone dies. And let there be no mistakes - randomly killing off characters is more realistic than letting then continue to live just because they have a fanbase. Life is short, cruel and often unfair and deaths are rarely heroic or timed just right to finish off all the "story arcs" left on the white board. All of us are more likely to be popped open by Superboy than to have a perfect moment with our lover before taking down twenty thousand space aliens with us.
Simply put, DC manages to be cynical and realistic at the same time. Through some occasionally cheap writing tactics and an eye towards keeping the stakes high the easy way, they've managed to hit on the reality of life. We will all die and we will all lose the people we love. And it will rarely happen when we expect it and certainly can't be avoided just because we love them.
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