[This version was first written in summer of 2006.]

Two years ago, in June of 2004, I posted an earlier version of this: "10 Motives for Killing a Comic Book Character." I invited feedback on any other basic motives the writers and editors might have that I had overlooked on the first pass. Several people were kind enough to offer such feedback - and now I'm finally getting around to reacting to it with a new version!

12 Possible Motives

01. Cannon Fodder
02. False Alarm to Raise Sales
03. Let's Make Room for Someone Younger and Cuter in a Similar Role!
04. The "End of the Romance" Fatality
05. It's Time to Shake Things Up in This Book - Which Regular Cast Member Shall We Kill?
06. Let's Spice Up An Epic By Killing Someone Incredibly Obscure!
07. Housecleaning to Get Rid of an Embarrassment
08. The Professional Corpse
09. The Series Was Getting Cancelled Anyway - Let's Go Out With a Bang!
10. Punishment for Sins
11. The Mystery's Gone Out of Our Relationship
12. "I'm Back and I'm Badder than Ever! (Watch me prove it!)"

 

[This version of this text was first posted elsewhere in summer of 2006]

Last month I posted 12 Motives for Killing a Comic Book Character, an updated version of a post from two years ago. That one dealt with motives the creative team might have for killing off a character – whether he was a hero, a villain, a well-established member of the supporting cast, or whatever.

Now I offer the revised version of the sequel from two years ago, discussing Excuses that can be used in a story to bring back the character who’d previously been killed. I think I’ve covered all the basic possibilities, but if I forgot any, let me know!

The 17 Excuses
01. Missing In Action – PRESUMED Dead
02. Somebody Else’s Body
03. Exact Replica
04. Only “Mostly Dead”
05. Act of God
06. Parallel World
07. Massive Retcon – It Never Happened!
08. Dead But Still Active
09. Didn’t You Know I’m a Professional Corpse?
10. The Original is Dead; Long Live the Clone
11. Reincarnation
12. Time Travel
13. Continuing a Proud Tradition
14. Body Switching
15. The Flashback Option
16. The Ambiguous Return
17. Never Apologize; Never Explain!