The Eternal Debate - Part II : Final Crisis vs. Secret Invasion (The Return)

And by eternal, I mean for the past 12 or so months. You could not go anywhere in the Internet (well, at least the sites I frequent) without finding a conversation about either Final Crisis or Secret Invasion. Or both. This year's events from the Big Two felt incredibly long, by design or by circumstances, but they are now officially over (Legion of 3 Worlds notwithstanding), which allows us to look at both events objectively, or at least as objectively as comic book readers can get.

That is where I come in. I want to look at the different aspects of both events, measure them up against each other and see who comes up on top. To do so, I have chosen several categories (or rounds) which will allow me to compare both sides of the 2008 Special Edition Event Coin. If you have not yet read both series in their entirety, there will be spoilers ahead. Oh, yeah, and the point system may or may not be arbitrary or what most people consider fair. You have been warned.

After yesterday's post, Secret Invasion leads 1-0 against Final Crisis.

The Return

While almost every comic book event features a shocking death, there is also a trend of returning popular characters during said events. This year saw the return of Barry Allen, in the pages of Final Crisis, and Mockingbird, in the pages of Secret Invasion. The return of these particular characters speaks a lot about the current trends that the Big Two (or at least their writers) are following at the moment.

Mockingbird, while having been around ever since the 1970's, reached the height of popularity during the late 80's and early 90's when she became part of the West Coast Avengers and for being married to Hawkeye (as a matter of fact, she originally "died" trying to save him). During Secret Invasion, it is revealed that the Mockingbird that died all the way back in 1993 was actually just a skrull (and had been one for who knows how long). To make matters more confusing, Mockingbird's soul and body have actually been seen a couple of times after her untimely death at the hands of Mephisto, at times aiding her friends or being manipulated by villains. I hate to nitpick on continuity, but this is one of the times that the writer (or whoever decided that this should happen) really messed things up by bringing back a character from the dead. I also find it hard to believe that any fans were clamoring for her return from the nether regions of the Marvel Universe. It does, however, go in hand with Marvel's direction as of late, where the events and character of the early 90's (a scary time to be a comic fan, as most people know) are being revisited or revamped. Characters like Darkhawk and the alternate timeline of 2099 are getting the revamp treatment, so why not Mockingbird too, right?


Barry Allen, most commonly known as the second Flash, has been dead for the past 23 years after sacrificing himself to stop the Anti-Monitor in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths. His death, one of the most famous and iconic ones in all comicdom, and possible return has been a hot issue for comic fans for years (I am one of those that believes he should have stayed dead). The pages of Final Crisis saw the return of the Silver Age legend, exclaiming "Run!" as he was being chased by the DCU's avatar of Death. Just by the nature of his powers, it is not incredibly hard to believe his comeback to the living world. Speedsters are shown travelling back and forth in time with relative ease in the DCU, so if a future writer wanted to reverse Barry Allen's death, there was already a built-in loophole to bringing him back. Barry Allen is almost synonymous with the Silver Age of comic books, with many people considering his first appearance as the beginning of said era, and this fits with the current output of many DC titles in recent years. While not exactly aiming for the Silver Age, DC seems to be consistently trying to return their universe to the era before Crisis on Infinite Earths: the return of the Multiverse, Hal Jordan becoming a hero again, and the Justice Society of America often teaming up with the Justice League of America in times of crisis.

To be honest, neither of the characters really did a whole lot in their respective events, but both companies have promised to further explore the ramifications of their return. Both events would not have lost much from having the characters stay dead, and the decision to bring back Mockingbird and Barry Allen only reinforces the revolving-door policy that the Big Two have on death (something which I mentioned in yesterday's post). At the end of the day, the return of Barry Allen has been requested from some fans for years while I have never heard of anyone wanting to see Mockingbird back. Add in the continuity-headache factor that the return of Mockingbird causes and I wonder why anyone would bother to bring her back at all. Even though I mentioned I would not have liked to see Barry Allen's return (and I am concerned if having 3 Flashes around is a bit redundant, too) I think that Final Crisis, for giving the fans what they want and a more easily understood (as far as comic books go) return, wins this round.

The Eternal Debate - Part I : Final Crisis vs. Secret Invasion (The Death)

And by eternal, I mean for the past 12 or so months. You could not go anywhere in the Internet (well, at least the sites I frequent) without finding a conversation about either Final Crisis or Secret Invasion. Or both. This year's events from the Big Two felt incredibly long, by design or by circumstances, but they are now officially over (Legion of 3 Worlds notwithstanding), which allows us to look at both events objectively, or at least as objectively as comic book readers can get.

That is where I come in. I want to look at the different aspects of both events, measure them up against each other and see who comes up on top. To do so, I have chosen several categories (or rounds) which will allow me to compare both sides of the 2008 Special Edition Event Coin in a series of posts. If you have not yet read both series in their entirety, there will be spoilers ahead. Oh, yeah, and the point system may or may not be arbitrary or what most people consider fair. You have been warned.

The Death

Ever since the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, no comic book big event is really an event without a big profile death. This year's casualties: MartianManhunter and The Wasp. The coincidences that these two share are rather obvious: both of them are founding members of each company's premiere team (theJLA and Avengers, respectively), both of them are known for being good at handling teams or group dynamics, while at the same time neither of the characters are really that popular. Yes, MartianManhunter has had his own solo series, but he's hardly known to the non-comic reading world. The Wasp, to my knowledge, has never had an ongoing series and she wasn't even particularly liked to a lot of people. So both events killed "safe" characters, neither one would cause too much of an outrage or garner the attention of the mainstream public (like Batman's eventual "death" later would). MartianManhunter's death was particularly disappointing, as he only appeared for two panels, drugged out of his mind by villains before dying by spear-on-fire-through-the-chest (the number one cause of death for Martians of that age and sex group). The Wasp, on the other hand, died in the heat of a battle between the heroes andSkrulls: having been tricked by a skrull impersonating Hank Pym, Wasp inadvertently became the Skrull's secret weapon (some sort of exploding biological bomb) until Thor put her out her misery by Kirby-crackling her into another dimension or something.

Both characters received a "Requiem" special issue, that dealt with the repercussions of their demise and, the reaction of those close to the departed and to recap the lives of the heroes. "Secret Invasion: Requiem" was mostly made up of reprints, with very little new insight on the life of Wasp and more to do with Hank Pym's life after the events of Secret Invasion. "Final Crisis: Requiem" expands on the death of MartianManhunter while at the same time showing us in detail his last moments and the arrangements he had for his funeral, it was an incredibly done and moving issue (and one of the best things to come out of Final Crisis if you ask me).

In the end, both Wasp and Martian Manhunter were tricked into oblivion by the antagonists. Martian Manhunter went down early in the event, as a means to establish how evil/resourceful/hardcore Libra was. With his dying breath, however, he not only gave the bad guys the biggest scare of their lives, he also sent one last telepathic message to his friends who would become his caretakers. The Wasp, however, almost killed all of her friends and someone else had to come to the rescue. I guess this round goes to MartianManhunter and Final Crisis. But...

DC, in an incredibly stupid marketing move, revealed the figures for the upcoming Blackest Night event. The event is going to feature the Black Lanterns, formerly dead people brought back to life, and guess who is there? That's right, everyone's favorite Martian is back mere months after his death, in the company's next big event. Comics already get a bad reputation for their revolving door policy on the death of characters, and DC has just affirmed it even more so. Wasp's death was also suspiciously ambiguous: with no body to be recovered, a future writer could very easily turn back her death in the future, I have to respect Marvel a bit more for not immediately returning one of their characters back to life. So this round goes to Secret Invasion, because DC shoot their own foot with Martian Manhunter's return.