Comic book deaths can be chilling.
The death of influential characters can affect readers more than anything else in comics, or can they?
There are actually differing schools of thought.
For your consideration we turn to two experts on the subject of killing characters; Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin and legendary comic book author Grant Morrison.
Both are beloved by fans within the comics, sci-fi and fantasy communities.
Both have killed off more of their own characters than can be counted, but espouse slightly different viewpoints on the how's and why's.
On many different occasions, Mr. Martin has explained his philosophy when asked about the fictional deaths of beloved characters like Ned Stark.
I've been killing characters my entire career, maybe I'm just a bloody minded bastard, I don't know, [but] when my characters are in danger, I want you to be afraid to turn the page (and to do that) you need to show right from the beginning that you're playing for keeps.
Morrison, on the other hand, who notoriously seemed to have killed off Batman during his Final Crisis run at DC Comics, has a more twisted take on his characters' sufferings.
I don't like killing characters, but I like to mess with them. It's a fate worse than death. If you do something unusual or unexpected with them, so they're still around to come back in some form. Death is too easy.
Which theory is correct is for the fans to decide, but ComiConverse is about to give you all the case studies you can handle.
So get ready to laugh, cry and relive it all, as we countdown our top-ten comic book deaths.
(Spoilers ahead!)
Let's do this!
