Why do comic heroes do the time-warp so often?
Time travel is used in many of our favorite stories. Classics such as Back To The Future, leading right up to modern hits such as the new Star Trek movie all include time travel as huge parts of the story. With this, temporal displacement is not far from the comic book realm either. Everyone from Bishop to the Time Trapper have jumped backwards and forwards through history.
**Minor spoilers ahead if you haven’t read Marvel’s “Captain America: Reborn” arc. The Batman stuff is still in the works, not released.**
The concern here is not time travel, but how it is being used in some recent and huge story arcs in both Marvel and DC’s universes. Batman and Captain America (Steve Rogers, duh) have met their demise. These heroes finally met their matches in their own respective ways, and their allies had no choice but to watch in horror as it all happened. Captain America’s death even made page 1 of New York newspapers (yes, real ones) – it caused quite a buzz. Batman’s death sparked a new story arc that helped decide who’d wear his cowl moving forward. I’d be foolish to let myself believe that these guys would stay dead forever; they make too much money for their respective owners. However, I do expect some kind of creativity for their revival. Not one, but both of these characters’ revival involves some weird inconsistency with time travel. As if there was a glitch in the time stream? I don’t want to think about it too much, it gives me a headache. Did Marvel and DC jump the shark here? How do you feel about how Marvel and DC’s heavy-hitters have been revived?
I don’t think it is necessary for them to bring back Bruce Wayne, Batman. Either through a faked death, or time-travel to bring him back. Introduce Batman: Untold Stories, or something to that effect. Thus allowing writers to continue to tell that we can assume were skipped over. I think seeing the ex-Robin’s fight for the right to assume the necessary role of Batman in Gotham city only makes sense in progressing the story. I don’t know how I feel about Damian Wayne, child of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul, being Robin though.
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I haven’t read comics in a long while but The Batman is my favorite superhero to the point I am planning a massive tattoo. When I heard he died I had a shit fit, until I heard how. After reading the storyline, I feel they should keep Bruce Wayne dead everyone dies. The whole reason he took on a partner was to have someone take over the mantle, when he inevitably died. Davy is right, “The Batman: Untold Stories” would be awesome and you would still be able to continue the current awesome storyline.
I like the word awesome…it’s AWESOME
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Dan Reply:
February 24th, 2010 at 11:30 am
Is the tattoo gonna be awesome!?
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Captain America is one of my favorites. I was actually pissed off when I heard the rumors of Steve Rogers coming back last year. I felt it was way too soon for a revival. To me, Ed Brubaker did a tremendous job making Bucky a more than suitable Captain America, and Bucky was JUST starting to get a little more comfortable with his new title. Then the rumors became the reality and we got Reborn. I liked the series, but the way they brought Rogers back didn’t feel special. I was finally warming up to the idea of the original Cap coming back, but it wasn’t as good as it should have been when it happened. The time warp stuff worked better in previous comic book ages. It’s a very old school sci fi approach. It doesn’t work as well anymore. And overall, Rogers’ return felt rushed.
The Batman RIP arc was wacky, and the Final Crisis stuff didn’t help. Battle of the Cowl wasn’t as memorable as it should have been, also because it felt rushed. The new Batman And Robin series has been pretty good though. Dick Grayson as Batman and Damian Wayne as Robin works for me just like Bucky Barnes did as Captain America. But I knew it was only temporary before Bruce Wayne came back. I’m still catching up on the main Batman story arc so I can’t really comment on how he’s being brought back, but I have the feeling I’ll be disappointed. As you said, from a business standpoint, killing off main characters, especially icons like Captain America and Batman isn’t the best idea. But man, I wish they would stop rushing their revivals. Even the timewarp bullshit would work out better if they build it up better.
I know this is TL:DR status, but whatever.
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Dan Reply:
February 24th, 2010 at 11:31 am
I agree dude, I feel like it takes away from some of the validity of character depth – y’know? Steve Rogers and Bruce Wayne have a legendary thing going for themselves and in death they would fully become legends. It sucks that the publisher never sees this through. As readers, we’re guilty also. We long to see these dudes in action.
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I’m not very familiar with Captain America but I do try and follow Batman.
I think they should wait until people can fully feel the impact of the loss first. Instead of having someone become the new hero right away, why can’t we hear about how messed up everything is becoming because of their absence. Show how these characters are so significant that they can’t be replaced and then revive them.
I just looked into Batman’s story a little more I think they’re handling it really well for the most part. He was never really killed in the first place, just transported through time. So he wasn’t able to do his normal thing but that isn’t the same as dying, it just gives the appearance of death. With “Batman and Robin” supposedly they’re going to show how only Bruce Wayne can be Batman. The only problem is that they didn’t wait long enough to bring him back. Instead they should’ve waited another 6 months or so and introduce a Batman: Untold Stories comic that could run until they bring him back. Between that and Batman and Robin, as well as the other comics I think Batman would be ready to be brought back at that point. The timing for this is simply too soon.
I don’t know about Captain America’s situation but if it’s some sort of cheap “oh, well.. ____ happened and now he’s back” situation I would be annoyed.
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