Anonymous asked:

When, in your opinion, did people stop believing in comic book deaths? It seems like the deaths of Jean Grey and Barry Allen were taken fairly seriously by fans, but by the '90s there were already jokes about how superheroes always come back. Was the obviously temporary death of Superman a turning point or was there something else (like maybe the return of Jean Grey)?

brevoortformspring answered:

I think the return of Jean Grey was a big shift, as was the return of Elektra before that (people forget that Frank Miller’s second-to-last issue of his original run brought her back to life) and even the resurrection of Thanos, Adam Warlock, Pip and Gamora in the lead-up to INFINITY GAUNTLET. To say nothing of the deaths and resurrections at other companies. That said, it’s not like readers truly believed in comic book deaths completely even when Jean Grey died–there was always a certain amount of cynicism that, say, Gwen Stacy would return (even if only as a clone) and so forth.