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Grand Owl, GeeqShuq ContributorFollowing the events of the Fantastic Four’s storyline Three, Marvel has gotten the bright idea to kill off a major character each quarter as a way to drum up sales. Regardless of whether or not that’s a good idea (Editor’s Note – It’s not!), it leads a fanboy to wonder who’s next… Currently Marvel’s getting Ultimate Spider-Man all tucked in for a dirt nap, but I’m thinking that an “alternate universe” character won’t suffice Marvel’s homicidal thirst, especially when the sales figures roll in. So who do we think is next? We go through our top picks in alphabetical order…
Captain America – Bucky BarnesRecap:Following the untimely “death” of Steve Rogers, his WWII sidekick Bucky assumes the shield and becomes the new Cap. But Barnes hides a dark past as the mind-controlled KGB assassin, Winter Soldier. Recently tried for his crimes against the state, he was let off with a slap on the wrist before the Kremlin comes to arrest him for his crimes against Russia.
Why He’ll Die:In honor of the
Slacker & the Man podcast, I’ll coin this the “Chris Evans Paradox”. Reportedly (though I haven’t seen anything concrete), one of the reasons Johnny Storm was killed off in the Fantastic Four was because Marvel execs didn’t want moviegoers to confuse Chris Evans as Johnny Storm vs. Chris Evans as Captain America. While this logic is dumb (if people thought this way, they probably sat through The Dark Knight wondering when Batman was going to hack people up and go back to his job on Wall Street), there may be a jump for moviegoers interested in the comic series after seeing the film. The film features the origins of Steve Rogers as Captain America, so if a person unfamiliar with current continuity goes to their comic shop after the film, they’ll probably wonder why Cap’s sidekick wields the shield. I imagine, at some point before July, Steve will be back in the red, white, and blue.
Why He’ll Live:BECAUSE CAP JUST DIED! I remember seeing the Today Show report a couple of years ago when Captain America was shot at the end of Civil War. I imagine Marvel would be disappointed in sales figures of writing off a major hero when the world just shrugs their disinterest, figuring that death in comic books has the same resonance as retirement in professional wrestling (which they do). Plus, the writers have left the door wide open, with Steve as the reluctant head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Bucky also reluctantly taking the Cap mantle, that they can just revert things back to the status quo with no blood shed.
Cyclops – Scott SummersRecap:Scott, i.e. Cyclops, has been a member of the X-Men from the beginning. We all know his backstory as the leader of the X-Men, but in current years he’s the de-facto leader of the mutant community. On the remnants of an asteroid that had fallen into the sea, the mutant community has formed Utopia, an independent nation lead by Scott and Emma Frost.
Why He’ll Die:Frankly, I pitched Cyclops just because it’s something I’d like to see. The mutant books, in my opinion, are stale. I bought into the Utopia storyline, just to be disappointed. I picked up X-Force and X-23, just to give up after a couple of issues. The X-Universe needs a shakeup, and cutting off the head seems like the most logical way to go. I would imagine it’d be written where Emma assumes control of Utopia, a figure many in the mutant community either don’t like or don’t trust (and, with many, a combination of the two). It could fall into a mutant civil war, just at a point where they have hope of rebuilding what was destroyed by House of M. Written craftily, it could set up a new order among the mutants that’ll re-engage readers into their world. In addition, considering that he’s not involved in the X-Men: First Class movie coming out (at least that we know of), writing him off around the time of the movie will allow them to use the publicity of both the movie and comics to cross-promote each other.
Why He’ll Live:I really don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t kill Scott off, but from experience I can say that they probably won’t any time soon. He’s still a recognizable figure, probably the most prominent character still around for those familiar with the X-Men movies (at last check, Professor X is literally running around with The Avengers, Storm’s in Wakanda dealing with the fallout of Doomwar and Rogue’s playing nanny to a young mutant girl), and with Nightcrawler being killed off in the Second Coming series, they may feel it’s too soon to kill off another X-Men.
Deadpool – Wade WilsonRecap:The “Merc With A Mouth”, Deadpool was yet another failed attempt to create a super-soldier using Wolverine’s healing factor (Random Question: Bigger waste of taxpayer money – The Canadian government constantly trying to recreate Wolverine or the U.N. continuously needing to build helicarriers for S.H.I.E.L.D.? Maybe for another piece.). Unlike others who’ve gone through the process, the procedure made Wade a little… Yea. Usually a second-tier character in the Marvel universe, Deadpool has blown up in recent years, and after his appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, speculation has been that he’d star in his own movie.
Why He’ll Die:Well, Marvel usually doesn’t admit to their own mistakes, but even they have stated that the marketplace is over-saturated in Deadpool. I saw a tweet a few weeks ago stating that a new addition to the Marvel drinking game should be “Whenever someone says that they need to make a unpredictable move and they call in Deadpool”. Marvel has stated that they wanted to trim his line of books, so who’s to say they don’t write him out entirely. With a Deadpool movie a ways off apparently, killing him off now will allow the comics fans amongst us to lose the bad taste in our mouths of Marvel shoving him down our throats before they try again.
Why He’ll Live:Because he’s in EVERYTHING! Why? I don’t know. I read some of the Deadpool series, funny but meh… Deadpool MAX has its fans, but I hated it. And I wouldn’t give the time of day to the Deadpool team-ups or Corps. books. But Marvel isn’t going to just kill their golden goose without anything else to replace it. They’ve taken a character and put so much into marketing him, that they’re going to ride that train until it jumps the tracks. Meanwhile, us fans have to deal with the thought that, whenever someone’s out of ideas and doesn’t know what to do, the familiar red-and-black mask will pop up out of nowhere.
WolverineRecap:He’s the best there is at what he does. Wolverine – Guy with claws and regenerative health. If you don’t know who he is, I don’t know why you’ve made it this far in this article. Currently, the leader of the X-Force, he’s also a member of The Avengers, and any other team-up you can think of.
Why He’ll DieBecause of the big characters in the Marvel Universe, Wolverine is the only big name they have to kill off right now. None of the other three in this list would have the cache’ of Wolverine. While you could throw out some other names (like Iron Man – who just came back from semi-death), I can see a huge sales pop for a Wolverine death storyline versus maybe marginal sales bumps for the others. With Wolverine primarily in team books right now, killing him off doesn’t mean that the book will end, giving the writers time to write epilogue issues that will also probably sell (if written well). While I’d like to see Cyclops killed off, I think Wolverine is the most likely.
Why He’ll Live:Because he’s too popular. When they killed Cap off, it was because his sales had been lagging and Marvel wanted to provide a boost. Same thing with Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four and Ultimate Spider-Man. They were stunts, and Wolverine isn’t necessarily in need of a stunt right now. Plus, with another Wolverine movie coming out either late next year or in 2013, they’d likely have to kill him off and immediately start sowing the seeds that he’s coming back (at least in some type of movie tie-in series), which will definitely be off-putting to comic readers.
So who do you think? Take part in the poll or if you don’t think any of the ones listed, write in the comments who you’d pick. I was trying to go with popular heroes that would generate some buzz if they were killed off, but there are others that I think are more likely to go. Remember that they’re saying they’ll do one a quarter, so if you use Johnny for the Spring and Ultimate Spider-Man for the Summer, the next one wouldn’t be due for six months at the earliest. So plenty of time to set up someone else’s march to death.
So, who do you think Marvel should kill next? Let us know on the
GeeqShuq Facebook Fan Page.
Ever since they first released the image of Adrianne Palicki in the Wonder Woman outfit, the internet has be a buzz with outrage comic book fans. Many said that it looked more like cheap version of a "sexy" Halloween costume and that this is no way for a superhero to dress. 
