*Main post* 30 Days of Scans! Day 4! Character you would bring back from the Dead

[benicio127]

Soooo it looks like we fumbled a little on Day 3, however, there is a *main* post here for Day 3 for those of you who don't have/want to post scans or just want to make a few comments about your favourite/least favourite *insert specific meme day here.*
So just to make it clearer for everyone, we'll add a "main" post to the Topic Headline so you know where to go, and/or you can look for my user name, shelleymaree or one of the mods. We'll try and post in the morning and/or after midnight Eastern Standard Time. But if you get in there before us, even more awesome! Glad to see some eager beavers.

Today is Character You would bring back from the dead day. Mine's under the cut. So S_D'ers, who's yours?





I'm a little pissy about this one in particular, but...
LIAN HARPER. It really bothers me that DC killed a child just to give a character more angst. Particularly a female child for a male protagonist to be able to grieve. That’s basically what’s been done here. It’s a cliche story that’s been done to — pardon the bad use of cliche saying — death.

I get changing up the status quo, I really do. From a storytelling perspective, it’s important. You don’t want these characters to get “stagnant.” But this entire Rise of Arsenal thing just started out from a bad place and only got worse.

That coupled with the piss-poor job of the break-up of Ollie and Dinah (after everything they’ve been through their marriage is just done because Ollie kills the person who kills his granddaughter? Give me a break. And I hate how it made Dinah look like a bitch.) And while I really do like Dinah and Ollie, I think this post by DCWomenKickingAss explains the problem with the series best.

The message I’m getting from DC is that kids in comics suck and marriages in comics suck. (And I know Ollie and Dinah have issues. Oh boy, do they have issues. But they’ve also always managed to work through those issues and seemed to come out stronger until now. And I don’t know one married person who won’t say they’ve been through major ups and downs with their spouse. But I kinda feel like the Dinah/Ollie ship has sailed for me and that makes me sad).

This really bothers me on a personal level because I put a lot of value on marriage. And I think that Dinah would, too. But anyways, digressing from the original topic…

What Lian Harper’s death ultimately says to me is children make things boring, so let’s get rid of them. This isn’t the first time it’s happened, either. Selina Kyle’s child, Helena? Gone. Dinah’s adopted daughter, Sin? Gone.

So rather than automatically kill them off or get rid of them because they’re children and they weigh people down, how about thinking outside of the freaking box for once, DC?



From Outsiders 44

Runner Ups

Kid Devil because I love his relationship with Rose.
Big Barda/Scott Free
Nightcrawler

suggested tags: series: 30 days of scans, char: speedy/arsenal/roy harper, char: speedy/mia dearden, char: lian harper, title: outsiders

Comments

[perletwo]

Oh, Lian. *whimper*

My trouble is, I'm pretty much a DC girl, and DC's been on a Bring Out Yer Dead kick the last couple years. Most everybody I might've picked is already back, if only temporarily, in one form or another.

So I decided to go with this fine fella, who never really had a fair shot:





Countdown brought him to life in Week 15 (hate that backwards counting thing on CD) and killed him off two Weeks later. So much wasted potential, especially when you consider he was traveling the multiverse with Jason Todd, of all people!

[jaybee3]

The Jokester was literally the only good thing to come out of Countdown. Just another example of how that series turned what could have been a good idea into something horribly terribly bad.

And killing him means we never got a Jokester vs Joker confrontation! Or regular DCU Harley meaning a good version of her Mistah J!

Wasted, wasted.

[suzene]

Nailed it in one. I miss Kurt and Ted, but at least they died striving to be heroic. Lian wasn't a character that I knew well, but her death was just so...contrived and distasteful.

[jaybee3]

I'm tempted to say Ted Kord, Tempest, Lilith Clay or Lian but if I absolutely had to bring anyone back it would be RALPH & SUE DIBNY.

The start of what I consider DC's "Dark Age" (that will not age well IMO) begins with Identity Crisis and Sue's death.

[benicio127]

Hear, hear! I just finished reading Identity Crisis and I... want to exchange it for something that's actually good. Like some Kelley Puckett Cass tpb. And you know what? Wasn't a fan of Rags Morales art, either. Yep! I said it.

[perletwo]

See, I thought about them, but in a way they did come back already, and the way they did it has so much untapped potential I almost don't want them back in the usual way.

[pyrotwilight]

Mr. Good J was awesome. ;_;

[kamino_neko]

I choose to believe Jokester doesn't need to be brought back from the dead, as his death was one of the aspects of Countdown that didn't actually happen. And until it's referenced in canon, there's no reason not to believe that!

[q99]

Oh yea, the ghost detective Dibnys were *awesome*. Why is no-one using them again?

[janegray]

Yeah, I was pretty pissed off when the Jokester was killed off. He had so much awesome potential! D:

[runespoor]

I consider myself lucky because the characters I would've asked to return a few years back or if the storylines had been written differently are currently alive: Steph, Mia, Jason, Dick, Connor, Sasha, Anissa. And probably others I'm not thinking about. (At least they didn't kill Cass, you know?)

So at the moment, my vote is for Lian to come back as well. Killing children is not a good way to make drama. Killing Roy's daughter just to strip from everything that made him a fun, contrasted, lovable character - because obviously, something that isn't outrageously grim'n gritty is not unique - was a really bad idea.

Lian has existed for over 20 years, and suddenly the one way to make her valuable is to kill her? Something wrong with this logic, DC!

She was one of the very, very few children characters that worked for me, and that was a really stupid death made of the bad.

Runner Ups
Kid Devil - he was one of the few recent Titans whose personality worked, he had a growing fanbase, he had an interesting pre-Titans story, he was fun, and his relationship with Rose was fantastic.

Ted Kord - c'mon. It's Ted. Half the time I don't remember he's dead, because he's such an iconic character of good DC times. Sometimes they remind us he's dead and I think to myself 'well, no, he's on well-deserved R&R inventing stuff on a sunny island'. Tora is back, maybe we could have Ted back as well?

[requiem2adream]

*meeps* Oh Lian. That page from Outsiders is just beautiful.

100% agree on just about everything in this post. Lian, Barda and Kid Devil are the characters I'd choose to bring back as well.

[darklorelei]

Motto. I thought about Ted, but I kind of think they're getting better stories out of him being dead, especially with the whole time travel thing.

Ralph and Sue for me for sure. (I do love the whole ghost detective thing, though, so actually USING them would also be acceptable)

[minyandu.livejournal.com]

No scanner and no account for me. So I can only post here. :(
I hope they can bring back Garth(a.k.a. Tempest). Reason? Garth literally started my trauma of character death. I only read two pages of DC(also my first two pages of American comic) and I saw his heart got ripped out. I knew that's BN and I did expected dark thing, but heart ripping was way beyond my imagination. What worse was that I just started liking this character because those two pages worked.
Ah...I think I can never get over this...D:

[werehawk.livejournal.com]

Like most of you, my character I wanted back is back (Jade). And Nightcrawler is too fresh a wound. So, who would I bring back? A certain blue lobster who would be a great addition to the Pet Avengers. Don died when Devil Dinosaur accidently stepped on him. Even if Don didn't come back, I would love to see Bill (the green lobster) join the team and urge you all to email Chris Eliopoulis if you agree.

http://www.comicvine.com/don/29-7912/

Their origin is here:
http://occasionalsuperheroine.blogspot.com/2008/08/marie-severin-birthday-tribute-fallen.html

[newnumber6]

I don't know. My favorite currently dead character I want to stay dead, Gert Yorkes (that said, in my own theoretical fantasy plans I'd eventually bring back a character who resembles her in a lot of ways, but isn't the _same_ character, magically brought back from the dead, but rather an alternate universe version who has different relationships with everybody in her own universe and doesn't just slide into oldGert's life).

So who else is there? Hmm...probably one of the mutants, but none is really standing out for me right now, most of the dead ones I liked there recently have been brought back (Magik would have been my choice before a couple years ago).

Since none completely stand out in my mind, I'm going to cheat and say 'The Hellions'. More than one character, but they're all relatively minor. They were brought back from the dead in Necrosha but I believe they died again afterward (I don't think it was outright stated, though), and they were all zombie mentally-controlled version. I kind of want the real ones back. If I had to choose just one, probably Catseye (actually, it would be Tarot, but technically she should still be alive, even though she was raised from the dead in Necrosha, so I'm not counting her appearance there, assuming they just revived her body again without realizing that she was supernaturally revived and living alive and elsewhere already)

[fleur_de_liz]

I'm going to go with the entire dead JLI Roster.

Ted. Ralph and Sue. Scott and Barda. Dmitri. Max Lord's not-evil self.

Hell, I'd even say bring back the JLE members. Vivian and Constance deserve a little love.

I don't have anything against the new guys. Far from it. I love Jaime and I think Gavril's hysterical. But they're not the same, and I don't think it's fair that it's always the big guns that get to come back, and never the little guys like Sue or Dmitri.

Also? I would so bring back the giant bug Ted from Countdown Arena. He is my favorite Ted who is a giant bug.

[milleniumrex]

Seconded on Lian, so much. Not just because I miss her (plus she needs to grow up to be Speedy, be BFFS with Milagro and Iris, and bug the hell out of Damian), but because I really believe it's the only way to fix Roy's character.

[minyandu.livejournal.com]

And I think I need to add this one, too--Ageha from BASARA(manga)
here's his history from WIKI: A former slave and survivor of the Blue Nobles(sexual abused as a child), a nomadic people all but wiped out by the government. Ageha saved Sarasa from the Red King when she was younger, but he lost his left eye in the bargain. He has friends all across Japan and is capable of calling in tremendous favors from them.

Life sucks for Ageha, but he never get beaten down by fate. He is a warrior, a good warrior. He always stays true to himself. His heart is always free. He fights the good fight and die in a heroic way. I think I can borrow Hope's line here: To fight for things that matters--things that are real, to find comrades who he loves, to fight alongside him, and to die on his feet. Ageha got three for three, so no one need to cry for him. But somehow I hope him live on, to live in the free and bright new world he'd been fighting his whole life for, to continue his trip with the wind.

[retro_nouveau]

1. Bart Allen 1. Barry Allen 1. Stephanie Brown 1. Ted Kord

2. Tora Olafsdotter 2. Ralph Dibny 3. Sue Dibny 4. Conner Kent 4. The Jokester 5. Barda Free 6. Scott Free 7. Kurt Wagner 8. Knockout 9. James Jesse 10. Katma Tui

Lian should be at the top of my list, but I don't have an attachment. She should definitely be alive starting yesterday.

Blue + Gold > Gold x 10. Being a ghost is Deadman's job, not the Dibnys'.

Kinda mad at Gail for leaving us hanging on Kane Milohai. Diana has an oath unfulfilled, she's still got to find a way to restore Kane while keeping Achilles alive I know, let's use Ares' heart - before Pele starts blasting lava everywhere.

[shadowpsykie]

and Jason actually LIKED him. and actually got pissed when he was killed.

heh also took me a second to realize his hair and clothing are a reverse of the Joker costume :)

[kingrockwell]

There are a lot! Ralph and Sue, Scott and Barda, Ted, Kurt, Ryan, all of the X-Statix (Deadgirl especially), etc. etc.

But I'm going with Lian. Lian's death was the beginning of the end at DC for me. When I started dreading, pruning, avoiding titles and started feeling more cynical about the whole mess. All the justifications and mansplanations and victim-blaming thrown around by the assholes who saw fit to defend it were ridiculous.

What's more, the fallout over the whole thing has given us some of the worst comics in recent memory. Bring the kid back!

[retro_nouveau]

Yes! Motto! I never fell in love so hard, so fast before the Jokester came along. I hope kamino_neko is right and Countdown doesn't count.

[benicio127]

I don't know if Jason liked him as much as he.... tolerated his presence. XD

[benicio127]

All the justifications and mansplanations and victim-blaming thrown around by the assholes who saw fit to defend it were ridiculous.

Yeah, when Didio said... “But let me ask you a question — do you have any kids? In this particular case, most of the people who were most upset about this story had small children. They felt pain and anguish. To get that level of empathy from the storytelling that both James and JT did is amazing" I was offended.
I don't have children, and I didn't like it. And I don't like that he's almost insinuating that only people with children can be upset by this. And it wasn't empathy at all! It was disgust at bad storytelling.