Ah,the death of Guardian from Alpha Flight #12 - it was truly a shocking moment. In those pre-internet days it was a secret kept from me until I actually read the issue. I remember seeing the ads for the issue with gun sights over images of the entire team, warning readers that one will die... bu I never expected it to be the team leader, James MacDonald Hudson!It's great that we have such bigger and faster means of communications these days, but that's made it harder and harder to maintain surprises in comics, TV and movies.
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Byrne mentioned he found Guardian boring. Hence, Hudson's death.
Science, magic, and alien dups. Oh my.
I always though the Alpha Flight title was a huge missed opportunity due to poor writing. A new super-team with great characters that never got along and were dragged down by so many problems. Much more of a soap opera than a fun action-adventure book. Guardian getting killed didn't surprise me at all. In fact, I wouldn't have been shocked to see the whole team killed off at that point.
Boy, do I remember turning to that last page. The book was never the same after that. For me, it jumped the shark when Puck was revealed to have been a giant, not a dwarf.
I'm with you as far as surprises, Ross.
It was a similar shock on Doctor Who, when Adric died at the end of the story "Earthshock." For all of his misguided efforts, that was one thing that John Nathan-Turner handled perfectly, even finding a way for the character to show up as a hallucination a couple of episodes later so the Radio Times could mention him in the cast list.
These days, it takes at least that much misdirection and careful planning for a character's death to surprise audiences. I was pretty blindsided by the deaths of Captain Cold on Legends of Tomorrow and H. R. Wells on The Flash, but the former wasn't yet a big enough hit for Wentworth Miller's exit to be notable advance news and in the latter case the death of a Wells didn't mean the exit of Tom Cavanaugh.
And now, since The Death of Superman, killing any character in comics, other than a minor legacy hero who's being replaced (like much of the JSA) or some other secondary supporting character, is considered temporary and thus no big deal. And that's only gotten worse since Barry Allen was brought back.
DC probably could decapitate Dick Grayson, and he'd be back on his feet in no more than a year.
@Alec: Puck is one retcon that should be retconned.
Just a notion for a possible team. The Reincarnations. Along with Guardian, I can think of Captain Marvel (Marvel, not Fawcett-DC). There must be others to bring back from the dead. (Presumably the ones that have - so far - stayed dead.)
I defer to you guys with greater knowledge of the comics world. Who would you put on the team?
@Davejonz: Generally, I'm not a big fan of Geoff Johns' writing. But he did come up with a clever idea in 'Blackest Night': Nekron, the lord of the dead, said that for years he had been allowing certain heroes to return from the dead, so that when the right time came, they would act as his agents on Earth.
The only thing that shocked me more than Hudson's apparent death is the convoluted back story that was ultimately used to bring him back! First, a deep-cover impostor with a tale of time travel involving friendly Lovecraftian-style aliens. Followed by the revelation that the impostor had not been b-s-ing. That really had happened to the real Hudson! The impostor had merely used Hudson's memories when he returned to the present...and got taken captive by the impostor's henchmen.
@DaveJonz: With your two Marvel characters, I'd certainly add the original Blue Beetle (Dan Garrett) and at least one deceased JSA-er (Sandman comes to mind as the most likely).
@CAnonymous1144: I guess that means Hudson was vindicated. ;-)
On a somewhat more serious post-scripted note? I hope Ordinaryguy2 is still among the healthy. And I hope that goes double for his wife and family. :-)
@Carycomic (re: his note @ 7:02 PM). Insert thumbs-down icon here.
Seeing Booster Gold hear makes me think. Have you teamed up Waverider and Nova? Another brother team in the making.
How about Nova and the Creeper? You could have them be the NIghtwing and Flamebird of Xandar as part of a team up Ross could entitle...
"Two Worlds' Finest!"
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