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It seems like you can keep a dead body down sometimes. Right now both Marvel and DC really seem to be making death a tradeoff between characters. Characters come back to life, others die, some pop out of the time stream, others come in from other dimensions and turn out to be fake (have I mentioned I'm not touching Secret Invasion with a ten foot pole?). The idea of death not being permanent in the world of comics is . . . well . . . alive and well. In my mind right now the strongest case of a death "tradeoff" is between Barry Allen and the Martial Manhunter.
One of the biggest events in my life was the original Crisis on Infinite Earths. I still remember when I encountered it. It was during summer vacation and my family happened to stop at a convenience store. While we were inside I saw Crisis on Infinite Earths issue 5. Running down the middle of the cover were dual faces of characters I knew and around them were many faces I didn't know. I was interested in knowing what was going on inside a comic with all those faces. I had my dad buy me the issue and bought the rest of them as they came out. Much to my shock I found myself seeing the death of many characters, most of which I didn't even really know. The most impacting death of course was Barry Allen, the Flash.
I grew up watching Super Friends. I was well aware of DC's heroes in that presentation and was most interested in the Flash and Green Lantern (GL being my favorite of course). After Barry's death I moved on to reading the new Flash series as I wanted to see how Wally would be as the "new" Flash. I didn't stay with the series long as my tastes at that age were a little more towards the Marvel side. Still, I never forgot the death of Barry Allen and I knew even at that age that I had seen something major happen in the pages of comics, and that was the death of a major hero. But, you can't keep a good hero down.
Over the years Barry (or someone people thought was Barry) kept popping up. For me this seemed a bit "gimmicky" but it made sense. The character was important to many people and they had stories they still wanted him to be a part of. Still, his death HAD happened. It was part of DC's history. As time went on other characters would die (to some degree at least), but they always came back. This wasn't the case with Barry. His death stood. It almost seemed as though there was a bit of pride in DC that during a major event a hero could make the ultimate sacrifice and it would forever represent the pinnacle of a hero being a hero. Then the new Crisis titles started.
The rumbles and shakings could be heard for some time. Still, nothing was known for certain. Then, as the Final Crisis approached the word finally became solidified. Barry Allen was returning. He wasn't doing another time-hop thing. He was coming back to life. For me, this was a serious concept. I still don't know exactly what DC is thinking. However, there were points that I mentioned above that I believe were factors in his permanent return. During one of the panels I was at during this year's San Diego Comic-Con I listened to Geoff Johns talking about how Barry was always around anyway. That he was never really gone with all the time jumping and impersonations. Younger readers may be more familiar with Wally West, but I do believe they know who Barry Allen is. So, I believe his return could prove to be the base for a number of interesting stories. Plus, there are many other speedsters who we aren't sure will ever return. If anyone deserves a "do over" when it comes to life, it's someone in the speedster corner of the DC Universe, and who better to shoulder that event than Barry Allen?
Of course, the event couldn't simply go with Barry returning. The scales had to be balanced it seemed (no that isn't a bad Libra joke). While Barry is returning for good, we're been lead to believe that Martian Manhunter has been killed and will stay dead permanently. I really don't know if I buy this or not, but I'm sad to say that I don't really care. I cared about Martian Manhunter when he was in the JLA (and it was the main title you found his character in), but since his "revision" I haven't followed his adventures or cared about him in the least. Still, in my mind he was one of the constant fixtures of the various incarnations of the Justice League (with or with the "America").
Unfortunately Barry's return and Martian Manhunter's death just seems like we're watching some bizarre tag-team wrestling match where you're considered to be dead if you're not in the ring battling the bad guys. Barry was out for a while and he wanted back in, and as luck would have it Martian Manhunter was the one closest for the tag. Old Flash in, Manhunter out. Oversimplified? Sure. Still, having this all happen at once seems to take away some of the "oomph" of the importance of Barry's return. In my mind it seems that much more gimmicky.
For now, I will accept that Martian Manhunter is dead. I won't be looking for him or expecting him back. However, if I hear of a storyline in the near future where another hero is supposed to be dying "permanently" I'm going to guess that they're simply taking their turn to "tag out" and there may be a familiar old green face with red eyes waiting to jump back into the ring to work out some issues on some villains.
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