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AJ Jorge February 9th, 2006

When I started reading comics again last 2004, I had a lot of storylines to catch up with. There were a lot of stories that are still being referenced in today’s current storylines.

The casual reader may know that Superman died but was resurrected after sometime. But do you know that there are other superheroes that ‘died’ but was resurrected later on? That the original Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, died and was recently re-introduced. That Flash is already on it’s third generation, so is Robin. Spider-Man was recently dead and then brought back to life. Bruce Wayne almost gave up his Batman persona but decided against it.

Let me start with the Man of Steel. Superman died on the hands of Doomsday. He was literally beaten to a pulp. He died. Had his funeral. And there was a world without Superman. There were 4 pseudo Superman who wants to take his place - Steel, Eradicator, Superboy and Cyborg during his three months of absence. Superman came to life again when Eradicator stole Superman’s body and put it in a regeneration matrix in the Fortress of Solitude. And thus began the dead and birth of the current Superman. Currently on the Superman comics, Lex Luthor is the President of USA, still married to Lois Lane, Lana Lang is married to Pete Ross who is the VP of Lex.

Batman’s Story. Bruce Wayne wanted to retire Batman since his body is very broken when he faced Bane in one of their encounters. He asked a certain Jean-Paul Valley to take his place as the Dark Knight. Jean-Paul was Batman for some time. Nobody knew the switch took place aside from Bruce, Tim, Jean-Paul and Alfred. I have that issue when Jean-Paul first assumed the Batman costume. Unfortunately, I don’t know how it came to be that Bruce Wayne returned as the Dark Knight. Robin on the other hand is currently Tim Drake. Dick Grayson was the first Robin who is now known as Nightwing. The second Robin was Jason Todd who died in the hands of the Joker. Late last year, Tim Drake ‘resigned’ as the Robin and there were some issues where a certain girl assumed the Robin role (the name escapes me as of the moment). But now, Tim is back as Robin and Bruce Wayne is still Batman.

Green Lantern. This is a bit tough. Hal Jordan was the first Green Lantern on Earth. He died when a certain bad thing consumed him. Before he died, he became Parallax - much like a dark Green Lantern. Because Parallax was so strong all DC superheroes had to fight him. When Parallax died, Green Lantern died and so is Hal Jordan. Hal Jordan became some sort of a ’spirit’ known as the Spectre. Other Green Lanterns are: Guy Gardner, John Stewart and Kyle Rayner. A Green Lantern is not exclusive. In fact, the 4 of them are co-existing in the current story. Hal Jordan was brought back to life late last year when he was freed from the curse of the Spectre.

Flash is another tricky story to monitor. Currently, Wally West is the Flash. Before him there was Jay Garrick and Barry Allen respectively. Barry Allen is the Flash depicted on the short lived TV Series The Flash during the 80’s. The Smallville Flash was actually Bart Allen - the grandson of Barry Allen. I haven’t read how it came to be that Wally West became the Flash.

Spider-Man. I recently finished a storyline where Spider-Man/Peter Parker died. He really died. But was (sic) resurrected towards the end of that same arc. The explanation was rather simple, there are certain species of spiders that shed off their skins once in their life time and during a crucial time. In the story, Spiderman was badly beaten, bruised, broken, eyes sucked out by an enemy known as Morlun. He was established as dead in I think 3 issues out of the 12 in the storyline. He shed off his skin and became some sort of a cocoon for some time. Then re-emerged as a new and improved Spider-Man.

And there are a lot of other known superheroes that died (sometimes resurrected, sometimes not). Green Arrow died and resurrected. Jean Gray/Phoenix died. Beast died in the Ultimate Marvel World. Captain America is alive and kicking despite the fact that he is a WWII hero. Colossus died and resurrected. Etc. etc.

It has been an ongoing discussion in various message boards that if the publications kill a superhero, make it permanent. Others wanted their superheros back or else they will stop buying comics altogether. Personally, I don’t give a damn. I just want to read a good comic and be entertained even for a short time.

Sorry for the lengthy post. I just want to pour these informations I have in my mind.

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