The trouble with writers playing in the Marvel and DC sandbox is that at the end of the day someone else will get the chance to play with those same toys. There are never any permanent changes for anything. At some point the reader realizes that and either embraces it or will feel the need to find entertainment that isn't serialized commercial open ended soap opera. I love many of the characters, but it's hard for me to get past that concerning the Big Two. When the driving force behind the characters is the corporation instead of individuals, there's always going to be a lack in depth... At least to me. I think when James Robinson stated on the last podcast that he and his artist were in the process of getting a costume change for a character approved was a great illustration of this.
On the subject of Jean Grey dying, I think the behind the scenes stuff was the most interesting. As much as I liked those old Claremont/Byrne issues of the X-Men (almost entirely because of JB), clearly the creators at some point got a bad case of tunnel-vision.
Killing off one of the original members of the X-Men is clearly something that you can't do and is something that will never be permanent. Claremont and Byrne actually worked themselves into a corner, though. They had no intentions of killing her off, they were just going to have her stripped of her powers. I think it was Jim Shooter, who was the editor (in chief?) that stepped in and said "Nope. You just had her kill a few BILLION people. You can't just strip her of her powers and everything is okay. She HAS to die, now." And of course, they had the X-Men heroically step up to defend their friend and Jean was given the redeeming trait of self sacrifice, because it clearly was best way out for the character. You allowed her to act heroic again in the end... But she HAD to die, even if killing off one of the original characters is a mistake, also.
I think some of today's editor's are greatly lacking in understanding the more far reaching implications of the creative decisions under their noses. Tony (in that 'fiery' podcast episode where he, Sara and Corey got into the heated debate about whether or not Batman should have killed the Joker) was completely right in saying you can't go back once you've had a hero kill, no matter what 'fans' thought about the decision. At least DC has gotten it right with one of their two flagship characters in that regard.
Bottom line, though, is that when DC or Marvel kills a character off, it's not if they ever come back, but just a matter of when. It's not the return that diminishes the death, it's the fact that the reader knows they're not going to stay dead in the first place.
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