Sing Muse, of the Immortal Hero: Using Epic To Understand Comic Books Wittiam Duffy Death occupies unique place in th wr ofthe comic book supethe, Ralter han eresentig character’ permanent eprtare fom be Wore the Wing. superheroorvilin's ease epresenisa mew temporary ane fom iA quote fom Alan Moot’ Top Ten excellently characte relaionsip ofthe comic book superere to death “And so, mettle accept tis, ou scincesster(smpethrane) int hy Bosom unl ek timeas nth inte wisdom, she maybe clone, teinearaed or thereat revved (More, 2002103)" ‘Once the bility ofthe comic ook hero to come tack om the dead ig recognized two questions immedistely ping om: Why can hese hess dois, and what effec does this bli have on then andthe Sens eg created them? To answer these questions itis ecessary lok elds come book supehero gene. and compat to anlar narrative fom i whith characters are nt routinely resurecte. Forumaey, there ese deme of this ype which can easily be contsted eget the comis =the Ferenc. Ther are several reason why the heroic epic he ideal genet be placid alongside comic books, Many of thee quate revolve round the nate ofthe heroes within he two naratve forms. Bahepicand omic bok heroes are commonly lnger than ie igus wih bles tha often arse thos of oral people. fust as Superman's famously “Tater hana speeding bull more powerful hana locomotive Hektor and Altshurl stone arech othe larger than what vo of Home's contemporaries coula hae ied. The charters ia these naraives are alsa commony placed in sir sitaons Thetls of both supereroes and comic bok hoes ado revalvearurd plyscal confrontation wih an adveray: hs sant he cae for many ole Charters refered to as herons Finally eb Goad one lac ing Monsters: Why Chien Need Fantasy. Stperterocs and Mate Beets Vice (2002), people can ele othe eres ofboth gene ina smar Beyond th similrty ofits eoes to thos of he comic bok. the oi enichas an imporant quality which geal faites a comparison withthe comic book genre's approach to meri; consaniy deals wily dath Becoute ofthe aforementioned prevalence fight senesn the hero pe charters often commonly de orere faced withthe possbity af dying ost sini modem dey ome. Eualyasimporantepl pty deal wieth MOCA, Spring 2006259 ina different way than comies do, as related by Roger B. Rollin (1970:439): One significant difference, however, between Beowu// and romance, pop or otherwise. isthe distinction between mortality and vulnerability. Spenser's heroes, lke Batman end Paladin, are alrays being Ueatened ‘wath death but never die (or even age), whereas Beowulf not only ges tot dies* Since the heroic epic features similar characters to the comic book but treats their deaths differently, itis the perfect genre to contrast against the comic for the purpose of understanding the latter's approach to its heroes" mortality. “The first question thatthe comparison between heroic epics and comic books is intended to help answer is why the comic book hero comes back from the dead so often. Here, placing the two genres side by side reveals that ccomies approach death the way they do, not out of conscious choice by the ‘writer, but due to the constraints placed upon it by its narrative structure, “The heroic epic is essentially a standard narative structure, Each poem has a definite beginning and end. Much as we may wish them to, the Aeneid will never tell us what Aeneas does the day after he kills Turnus, nor will the lad ever include the ‘ale of the fall of Troy. The comic book, on the other hhand, is a serial narrative. Serials are designed to have no definitive endings no matter what happens in a story, itis always possible to find out what happens next simply by reading, watching, of listening tothe next installment. ‘This difference between the narrative structures ofthe two storytelling styles helps dictate how the two genres deal with death ‘Since epic poetry has a distinct end, there is no need to resurrect @ character once he or she is killed. Ifa characteris essential to continuing the Story, one ean just end it at or shortly after his death. In fact, using death to ‘atk the ending of an epic can provide closure, making the close of the tale ‘emotionally satisfying, The /liad and Beowulf, which end shortly afer the deaths of Hektor and Beowulf, respectively,’ provide excellent examples of this practice, However, the choice to not bring characters back from the dead hasa consequence: itis necessary to take killing off character very seriously, for once an epic hero is gone he is gone for good.* For this reason, major characters are not as frequently killed off in epic. Among all the hundreds of ‘en who die in the Hiad, only three are at all notable before they die. This Stands in sharp contrast to comic books, in which dozens of heroes can be killed in a single issue. This famously happened at the end of Marvel Comics" Onslaught Saga, which ended with almost every single non-mutant hero dead. As the above example illustrates, comic books have the ability to kill off Scores of heroes ata single time iftheir writer so desires. This is because the ‘omic book genre's serial narrative structure always allows future events to imagined which mitigate the results of a previous event in a given comic Ok series, In the case of the Onslough Saga, the event in question (the OCA, Spring 2006260 actions of an omnipotent child) was planned beforehand by the writers, y this is hardly necessary, as comic book writers often change past event jit characters history in order (tell the story that they wan. This haps particularly often inthe case of esurecting heroes. A reeen example ous occurred in “Astonishing X-Men #4,” when the long dead Colossus 4 shown to be resureeted by an alien named Ord who hadn't even existed the Marvel universe atthe time ofhis demise. However, the comic book gen” isn't merely allowed by its narrative structure to make changes to it storyline itis forced to. * Since serial narratives succeed not due to how many people reads listen to one installment ofthe narrative, but how many people follow it fy Jong periods oftime. Unlike contained narratives, which canbuild toa single satisfying ending and then stop, serial narratives have to constantly fores their audience to want o see what happens next. Often (particularly when the audience is dwindling), this involves violently changing the storyline, One effective way of doing this is killing off a major character’. One of the bes, ‘examples of this is Superman's demise, ‘Superman's death in 1992 was a concerted attempt to reinvigorate the declining popularity ofthe DC Comics icon (Wright, 2001:283). While killing off Superman did indeed reinvigorate the character's franchise (the “death issue" sold six million copies), DC comics was leR with a problem (Wright, +2001:283). Now that the Superman series was once again highly popular, how ‘would they continue it with the Man of Steel now deceased” In a contained narrative structure, there would have been no solution to the problem, and the Superman story would have ended. Inthe serial narrative, the writers simply resurrected the hero, giving barely a page of explanation as to how it was possible. What happened to the Superman character mirrors what has happened to many other comic book characters. The same economic and ‘narrotological factors that forced him to be killed also mandated that he be revived, Comparing the heroic epic to the comic book reveals that the latter provides its characters withthe ability (o come back from the dead due to the demands of the serial narrative structure. However, so far, the effects of this ability of comic book characters has not been explained. To do this Iccessary to narrow our focus and compare representatives cf each ger one another, as itis simply impossible to compare every comic book h every epic hero. [ have chosen to compare the Odyssey and Iliad to Marvel Comics" X-Men. The Odysseyisa good epic to compare toa comic beeau hhas several qualities that make it similar to the genre, including somewhat episodic storytelling and battles with several different characters. | will reference the Hiad which provides examples of heroic deaths, which do not occur in the Odyssey. I have chosen the X-Men to represent comic book because itis arguable that more characters have died and bea revived in itt OCA, Spring 2006‘Men than in any other comic book series. The first effect ofthe comic book's approach to death has to do with its psychological effect on the hero. To discuss this, we tum to the works of Blisabeth Kabler-Rss. Kibler-Ross states that "The dying stage of our life can be experienced as the most profound growth event in our life's experience (Kabler Ross, 1975 149). She also provides numerousexamples of people either gaining incredible strength during the dying process or during mourning for the death of a loved one. If one accepts that dying can enable such growth in ‘a person, the ability to come back from the dead ought to go hand-in-hand swith coming back as a greatly changed person The epic hero does not get a chance to relive life after what he has learned in death. AC times, such as when Hektor gains perspective (and the ability of prophesy) following his death atthe hands of Achilles, this seems like a sad thing. Since epic tales often end very shortly after one of theit principal characters dies, thee is no real way of looking at how the story could have benefited from the character's resurrection. Comic books, on the other hand, continue after a character's death at the same pace as they did before. This allows us to see the way the world progresses after the hero's demise, from the mourning process of the other heroes to people’s heroic and non-heroic) attempts to make up for the loss of their protector through their own action." Comic book heroes normally continue their work atter the death of thelr friend, using their loss us mrotivation ¢© become better heroes. This both makes the remaining heroes more able (0 protect their world inthe absence of their lost ally and ensures that they will be prepared if the fallen hero returns ‘At this point, it is important to tur to the death of the hero itself, the nature of which iggers all of the effects deseribed earlier in this essay. However, before doing so, itis helpful to take another look at KUbler-Ross's book Death: The Final Stage of Growin it, Murray L. Trelease states that the Alaskan Indians he worked with seemed to have an intuitive knowledge of the time of their death, and were able to arrange for everything that needed 10 be done beforehard.? This allowed them to die in peace. In many ways, the death of the comie book hero mirrors that of these Alaskan indians. Unlike epic heroes, who asually expect to survive thet final battle up until the lat second, comie book heroes are usually aware and accepting of the fact that they are about to die." One of the best examples of this is the end of the X- Men's Dark Phoerix Saga. Init, Jean Grey commits suicide so that the cosmic Power within her (which has already destroyed a planet with millions of living, ‘Tealures on it) cannot cause any more destruction." In the end of the series, ‘the cosmic being known as The Watcher makes this comment about Jean Grey, one which characterizes the self-sacrificial quality of so many comic- hero deaths: “Jean Grey could have lived to become a god. But it was more ‘important to her that she die... human” (Claremont, 2003:183). This sort of OCA, Spring 2006death must come close to what Kabler-Ross means when she talks Abou People becoming better as they approach their own demise Meg tis aspect oF the hero's death is interesting, what is uiqug raat death ofthe comic book hero is what happens when the hero retare from the dead. While this is not always the case, death often fundamentally Slee the identity ofa hero, The X-Man Colossus provides a good exam? Ore oF the most important aspects ofthe Russian mutants early charac; is formance with Kitty Pryde. This relationship ended, in par, because soins Writers didn’ liks the age difference between them atthe time they gr {beets he was in his wenties and she was sixteen) Aer his death, Prone Spread his ashes seross his homeland of Russia, and was once again emindey Cae felings fr him, Years ltr, when Joss Whedon revived that figure st Colossus, he featured Kit Pryde as his love interest. At this point, Pryde hg jRatured into a woman in her early twenties, andthe relationship was aa longer a problem. With all the interesting characteristics of the comie book hero's peumection, the most interesting one isthe mere fact tha the comic bool, hero canbe revived at all, and that it happens so often. For both the characon, Within the comic book and the audience outside of it, the ever-preven Possibility ofa dead character's retum means that there is always hope for lost friends. rhe comic book hero's ability to come back from the dead seems to give bir an advantage over his epic counterpart. While the epic hero's death's ¢ efinit end to his heroic career, comic book heroes (many of whom seem fa be es OF ther ability to be resurrected) often continue o be heroes long after their rst, or even second death. However, the comie book hero's quast, immortality comes at a price. Because the hero's relationship with death ig ‘matched by that of his enemy, evil comic book characters eome back from the dead just as often as good characters do. This results in one ofthe fundamental differences between the heroie epic and the comic book: The status af the hero's foes. In the realm of the heroic epic, the mortal hero is pitted against mortal opponents who can be (and usually are) killed. When Odysseus kille the fuitors in book twenty two of the Odyssey, he knows that they will not come Pack in book twenty thre. In fact, even the enemies that the Ithacan king batles and does no kill donot come back after him. Seylla and Charybdis da Pot chase him down to the sea, nor do the Laesirygonians arrive in his homeland to catch thei escaped meal." While the aforementioned baities ds ot end the death of either the hero or his foe, this i due tothe fact that they A saapping battles in epic poetry that end in death both in theie brevity and in the fact thatthe two parties do not mest in combat again.” Ultimately he epic hero will only baitlea given opponent a single time, no matter what the Ouitcome. This is not the case for the comic book hero, OCA, Spring 2008$$ 263 ‘The comic book hero's foe, just like the comic book hero himself, cannot bbe ruly killed. The majority ofthe time the enemy escapes, but even when he doesn’t, the end of the battle offers litle solace for the comic book hero. Captured evildoers are certain to escape, and seemingly killed ones return all the time. However, the fact that the comic book hero's enemy becomes a recurring character has an interesting side effec Since an enemy who doesn't die for decades requires considerably more attention onthe part of his creator than an enemy who dies quickly in standard narrative, comic book writers ended up creating a completely new character type: the supervillain. Before we look atthe super villain, itis important to take a step back and discuss the epic he:oes' opponents, The epic enemy usually features in a ‘much smaller percentage of the heroic epic than the hero, often just Jong ‘enough to be defeated, Even the suitors, who appear fora large portion ofthe Odyssey, are not very deep characiers. The antagonistic figures in the heroic epic seem to serve o glorify the hero, not to be true characters in their own Fight. Thus, their motivations are rarely discussed in detail, and we rarely hear ‘delsiled stories of their origins. The Odyssey never bothers to explain why Circe tums the men she meets into pigs, or why Calypso does not leave her island. The result is that while the antagonistic figures in the Odyssey are ‘memorable, they arerarely deep or complicated. The comic book villain is an altogether different matter. Rather than being simpler than the eomie book hero, the villain is often more complex. Stan ‘Lee, arguably the most influential man in comics alive today, provided this | ‘statement on the supervillain: (Our villain has to be unique, clever, javentive, and full of fiendish surprises... Mest of our Bullpen story conferences are ‘he selection ofthe right vilin forthe right her, ofall with ways of making you care about the ¥ mistake about i, you've got to be at scoundrel a8 you ‘rein the stlwert forthe story to work (Fingeroth, 2004163), Lee's thoughts on villains are shared by his comic-writing brethren, Fesulting in the creaion of many interesting, complicated, and most of all | Sympathetic villains." One of the greatest ofthese villains is the X-Man’s emesis Magneto. While the Master of Magnetism started out as an | _ ‘complicated evildoer, as the years progressed, he became more and more | ‘Tuanced. It was revealed that Magneto had been the only member of his family to survive after being sent to Auschwitz during World War I, making ‘is desire to protect his mutant brethren from the normal humans wh persecate ‘hem far more understandable. Magneto was also shown to have been @ | ‘hildhood friend of the X-Men’s leader Professor X, and, on occasion, worked al the cadre ofsuperheroes as anally. na contained narrative, Magneto | Would have been killed or permanently defeated after his first encounter with ‘he X-Men, Inthe serial narrative of the comic book, he has become arguably OCA, Spring 2006264 the best character the comic has to offer. The super villain’s ability to survive repeated encounters with g superhero does more than enable him/her (o become gradually more complicated. I also provides an opportunity to repent for past sins and jore "pith the “good guys.” Some examples oF this fom the world ofthe X-Men include Emma Frost (the former White Queen), the Searlet Witch, ang Quicksilver. Again ifthe comic book villain didnot survive battle afer bate, helshe would not have the long period of time they needed to evolve intg heroes The fact that the villain’s lack of mortality allows for multiple battles betwee himsel/erselfand the hero leads oan important facet of the villa, which has not yet been discussed ~ how he interacts with the comic hero ‘This elaionship between the superhero and his enemy is completely diferent from that between their epic counterparts, and 's once again entirely wound up inthe way epic and comic tales deal with mertality Inthe heroic epic, a hero, once killed, stays dead. This creates a tension in the narrative, as every one of the hero's batles may actualy be his last. Sometimes an epic tale will foreshadow the death ofa hero, forcing the audience to watch him in combat waiting for him to fall. An example of this occurs in book sixteen ofthe /iad, when Patroklos' death foretold in the beginning of the book but held off until the end. Inte realm ofthe come book, the Fer that the hero will de is greatly diminished Since no one ever really dics inthe comic book, the reader knows that he isprobably not witnessing the final appearance of his favorite character a he {goes off into battle. The lack of a true feat of the hero’s death creates a lifferent question in the audience's mind, Instead of asking “Will the hero win?” the teader of a comic book asks “How will the hero win?" In The X Cutioner's Song, Professor X was seemingly dying due toa techno-organic ‘malady he contracted from a gunshot. The reader knows that Charles Xavier won't de ithe writers had intended to kill him, he probably would have died after the shooting). However, what the reader does not know is how the vinis Will be cured, a question that is not answered unt! well ater the shooting.” While the method here is different from an epics practice of foreshadowing a hero's death, the purpose isthe same: to keep the audience engaged At this point, it is important to re-establish a point about the comic book's approach to death. tis not that comic book heroes donot die, but that they do not stay dead, When Rollin states that “we know, deep down in our hearts, that Batman will not be tumed into a human shish kebob by ‘The Joker," hei notbeing entirely accurate (Rollin, 1970:432). The audience does ot know that Batman will not be killed by his adversary, just that the outcome of the battle will not result in the true end of either character. This does not mean that a comic book reader cannot miss a few issues jus 1 come back 10 find his favorite characters temporarily sidelined by an untimely passing (Fel, OCA, Spring 2006268 1994:43).!"In this regard, the results ofa battle between comic book hero and ‘be much more unpredictable than a battle between an epic hero and the outcome of whieh can be predicted with relative ease based ‘on where one is in the story ‘The comic book genre's approach to mortality results in the creation of the hero which are considerably more complex than those of the epic hero. Italso leads to battles that are much less straightforward than those inheroic epic. It would be interesting enough if this was the total ofthe effeets that the comic's relationship with death had on the characters within it, But there is more. The lack of true mortality of both comic book heroes and villains ‘makes the villains’ persistent survival only apart of a larger issue forthe hero: the inability to effect real change. ‘To fully understand why the comic book hero is unable to truly change his world, we have to look at the economies of epic and comic tales. The epic narrative’s success rests on how it works as a contained narrative which people wan! to experience again and again. For a contained narrative to work properly there must be a progression of events alongside a progression of time (Chatman, 1990:9)." Simply put, something has to change. Heroic epics follow the cefinition of a working contained narrative, with the result that by the end of an epic tale, something has fundamentally changed, Whether chilles hes returned to battle and killed the greatest Trojan warrior ot Odysseus has returned to Ithaca and restored order, the world of an epic is ‘much different at its end than at its beginning. The exact opposite is the case in the serial narrative, Because the comic book is a serial narrative, it does not require the progression of events or time. In fact, the success of a comic book is often predicated on having events and time nor progress in a normal manner. The X- Men provice excellent examples of both these phenomena. Hall and Lucal (1999:63) foint out that the anti-mutant hysteria running rampant in the X- Men comics corresponds to various types of bigotry in modem society. In (Men debuted in 1963, when many minority groups in America were ust beginning to make inroads in their quest to become equals in the country. ‘White these minority groups have since made a great deal of progress in their fight agains discrimination, the mutants in the Marvel world remain as bad off were when they were first introduced, Again, one of the primary ‘Motivations of this has to do with the restrictions placed upon the genre by its ‘arative form and economic reality. Afterall, f mutants and humans could co exist peacefully there would be little need for a clandestine school of mutants and a cadre of heroes desperately irying to change the image of mutants in the ‘Although the narratological and economic demands of the comic book Benre demand that the world ofthe X-Men not change, this demand is not met ‘Without cost for the heroes. Unlike Odysseus, who was able to conquer everyproblem which he faced with a combination of brute free, cunning, and goog Tock, the X-Men are sil ghing the same Battle 40 years ne, wth mo en sight In contrast to their epic heroic counterparts comic book heros dott hhave the ability to change the world around them. They can only protect nt status quo, maintaining the agile state of their world until i is inevitabye threatened again, Reynolds (1992:51) posts that the structure of the com, book narrative inverts the general rule of protagonist and antagonis ‘The common outcome, 3b far os the stactre of the plot is concer, Is that the villains ate concerned with change and the heroes with the naittenance ofthe satus quo... Superheroes ate ot called upon to act 2 the protagonists of individual plots, They Tanction etsemilly a5 antag ils for the true sar of each story, the villa. Reynolds’ statements show a complete reversal of the situation faced by the hero in an epic narrative. The epic hero commonly enters into an untenable reality (usually due to the presence of an antagonistic figure) and endeavors to change it through his actions (usually the removal of said figure). The comic book hero, on the other hand, is forced to protect his society from the attempisof an invading malevolent force to worsen it, regardless of his feelings ‘on the present state of the society The lack of a progression of events in the comic book genre leads to heroes being unable to change the world around them, forcing them into the position of maintaining whatever the current state of his world is. Similarly, the lack of a proper progression of time in the comic book has major consequences for the characters within it. Before we can investigate them, it is necessary to look at the nature of time in the heroie epic. Since an epic poem occurs over the course ofa single narrative, the epic hero only exists along one timeline. It is therefore considerably less difficult for the epic plot to follow a consistent timeline than for the come book plot to do the same. This means that itis not necessary for events in the epic hi life to be forgotten or re-imagined, although they often are in later times. One ent ean, and should, logically follow another until the end of the nasrative. ‘This is not the ease for the plot of a comic book. The comic book hero faces serious dilemmas when it comes to his or her timeline On the one hand, the serial structure of the comic allows a character and it behooves comic book companies to ‘continue a comic character’s storyline as long. as possible, since it is ‘considerably easier to market a known hero than an unknown one. This means that the comic book hero cannot truly age, because if he did, there would ‘come a point when his storylines would become laughable. While it might possibly be fathomable fora 103-year-old Superman to continue Fighting crime, itishardto imagine him having an amorous relationship with a 103-year-old- Lois Lane. Comic books are therefore required to give their characters some OCA, Spring 2006267 form of eternal youth, but itean't be actual eternal youth, as the characters are being portrayed as ordinary mortals. The way that comic books deal with this phenomenon is by placing ther characters in a very strange timeline Since the X-Men comic series has so many characters, the issues ofthe comie book genre's timeline is very easy to see. The first X-Men comic was published in 1963, making it imperative thatthe characters within the com not age at a normal rate, lest the 16-year-old crime fighters ofthe first issue ‘urn into 58-year-old crime fighters in 2005. What is ineresting isnot just that the X-Men seem to have aged ata slower rate, but that they did so at differing rales, While Professor X's original protégés are now depicted as being in their late 20s to early 30, the professor himself scems not to have aged at all.” This pattem has held for many of the later additions to the X-Men roster, as characters have aged or not aged, not according to any inner chronology of the comic, but according to whether it would help given story ifthe characters older. ‘The varying rates of aging of comic book characters are only part ofthe issues surrounding the timelines of comic book heroes. Another major issue is that comic book heroes can retain their entre history, even ifthe character's history goes back farther than the supposed lifetime of the character. A recent example of ths is found in Astonishing X-Men #2, 2004 comic in which Kitty Pryde reminds Emma Frost that she witnessed her abduct and torture the Men. The problem with this was thatthe scene in question took place in 1984. ‘Atte time, Kitty Pryde was depicted as being 13 years old, Emma Frost in her Tate 20s to early 30s. By 2004, Pryde had aged about a decade, but Frost hadn't aged a single day. While this would have led to serious confusion for someone Who had both comics in front of them, it was a necessity forthe storyline, as Pryde was the only character in positon to attack Frost for her villainous past Unlike heroic epies, in which the hero’s entire story is enclosed in a single, continuous storyline, comie books often require a write to take major liberties With time in order to make a given story coherent. Ifcomic book heroes could age and dic like characters in standard narratives, this would not be necessary. Then again, if that was the case, they wouldn't be comic book heroes In the comic book, death works in a way tha it has never worked before. ‘The concept of a whole world of characters who are never truly dead and who age only when a given plot demands itis a unique one in the literary world, To fully understand what the impact of this ison the characters within the gente, itis often necessary to compare the narrative form to another, more standard narrative structure, such as the heroic epic. In 1970, Roger B. Rollin suggested Using comic books to help students understand the classics. While he may have been correct inthis, he didnot go far enough. Just as students may need omic books to understand the “great books,” scholars may need these “s books” to understand comics OCA, Spring 2006Endnotes " Ironically, this quote was part of a eulogy for a character in the Mo, series that was later revived via cloning, 2 The picaresque hero, fo instance, i ot characterized by his battle proweg, amaking him ales than ideal Figure to compare tothe likes of Captain Amerisg > Jones states that he often felt weak and powerless as a child, and being read Beowuifesa young child and reading the Marvel's Hulk comics gave him the feeling of power that he craved. * Rollin is also discussing The Fairie Queene in this passage, hence the reference to Spenser, whose work is outside the scope of this paper. Is alse important to note that the epic heroes do not always age, as many epics only take place during a short part of a hero’s life. Sul, the general statement by Rollin holds true. * Both epics continue slightly beyond the deaths of theses heroes, but only tp et up to their funerals, In the iad, while there is clearly more to be written on the subject of the Trojan War, the subject of this epic is not the war but the ‘wrath of Achilles, which is seemingly quelled after he retuns Hektor's body to Priam, © An epic hero can remain in the story in memory, or (less Frequently) as a ghostly advisor. However, he cannot take an active role in the story. Once killed, Pallas eannot come back to deliver the final blow to Turnus, * Comic books are not alone in doing this. Soap operas, arguably the best ‘example of serial fiction on television, often kill of and resurrect characters in a similar fashion. * Mourning lost heroes is a large part ofthe epic genre (although in a different way than that of the comic book), but the following step, namely the ‘continuation of life beyond the battle in which the hero falls, is usually lacking, The evidence Trelease provides for this comes from his observing several _members ofthe tribe who seem to pick the day of their death, dying as soon as their families had arrived and performed the necessary rites (KObler-Ross, 197534), "Both Patroklos and Hektor believe that they have a chance to be victorious in their last battles (Hektor due to the deception of Athena), and although Achilles knows that his participation in the Trojan War will mean his death, he does not know where or when, unlike comic book heroes who commonly know what the exact circumstances oftheir death will be "Oddly enough, Jean Grey received this power as a result of her coming back from the dead before, at which point she took the name Phoenix. Jean Grey has since died and been revived numerous times. She is quite possibly the best example of ahero for whom death s litle more than a temporary inconvenience "The fathers ofthe suitors and the father of the Cyelops Polyphemus both attempt to take out vengeance on Odysseus for what he did to their respective ore’s OCA, Spring 2006269 children, While in the later case the Ihacan king certainly suffers for it in both cases the parties he defeated only indirectly attempt to get their revenge conhim. Neither Polyphemus nor the suitors return fora rematch with Odysseus, as a serial encmy almost certainly would. © Itis also worth noting that in all hese battles, many of Odysseus’ shipmates ate killed, 50 it would be inaccurate to say thatthe battle ends without death, ‘The including of at least one death in every battle (not found in comic book battles) is yet another way thatthe “non-fatal” battles in the Odyssey map the fatal batles of epic. ™ John Gardner's Grendel did attempt to force readers to see the monster of Beowulfin anew light, but did so centuries after the original was written, and his work involved a serious re-imaginating of the Grendel character, among others in the original epic. "The later two characters actually tur out to be Magneo’s children, further complicating all three of their characters. Also, while itis more common for a villain to become a hero, several heroes (notably Angel/Archangel and Colossus) have temporarily become villains. ™ An interesting exception to this occurs in books 9-12 of the Odyssey, in Which Odysseus recounts the tales ofhis fantastic adventures. However, the Stories are told within the framework ofa larger tae (the attempt of Odysseus to retum home), the outcome of which is uncertain Xavier is ultimately cured by one of the X-Men's greatest (nd evilest) foes, ‘once again underscoring the complex relationship between the comic book hero and villain. '"Felter describes his surprise at realizing that his favorite character, Robin, ‘had died and been replaced, This particular Robin, Jason Todd, did not reappear ‘gain until early this year after a very long absence. "Chatman provides this statement on narrative: “What makes Narrative unique Achrono-logic, its doubly temporal logic. Narrative entails the movement through time not only Aextemnally (the duration of the novel, fim, play) but also Ainiernally" (the duration of the sequence of events that constitu the Blot) In fact, if his physique, dress, and lock of personal effects, such as a 4nd blanket, are any indication, the professor has actually gotten younger over the years, References Chatman, Seymore. 1990. Coming To Terms; The Rhetoric of Narrative in Clareg, “ition and Fir. lhaca, NY: Comell University Press ‘temont, Chris. 2003. The Dark Phoenix Saga. New York: Marvel Entertainment Group, OCA, Spring 2006270 Felter, Douglas P. 1994, “Skeleton Keys: Teaching the Fiction of Wy Truth.” The English Joumal, Feb.:43-47, Fingetoth, Danny. 2004, Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Reay, Tell Us about Ourselves and Our Society. New York: Continuum Hall, Kelly and Betsy Lucal 1999," fapping into Parallel Universes: Usin Superhero Comic Books in Sociology Css.” Teaching Socioiog® Jan:60-66, Gerard, 2002. Killing Monsters: Why Children need Fantagy ‘Superheroes, and Make-Believe Violence. New York: Basic Book” Kabler-Ross, Blissbeth. 1975, Death: The Final Stage of Growth. Englewoo Cliffs, NJ: Spectrum Books, Lacey, Nick. 2000. Narative and Genre: Key Concepts in Media Studies, ‘New York: St. Martin's Press Loeb, Jeff. 1998. Bauman: The Long Halloween, New York: DC Comics. “Magneto: History.” 2005. Marvel Universe. Marvel Comics. Nov. 25 ‘. MeCue, Greg S. and Clive Bloom. 1993. Dark Knights: The New Comics in Context. Boulder, CO: Pluto Press. Moore, Alan. 2002. Top 10: Collected Stories Book 2, Canada: America’s Best Comics. Reynolds, Richard, 1992. Superheroes: A Modern Mythology. Jackson, MS; University Press of Mississippi Rollin, Roger B. 1970. "Beowulf to Batman: The Epic Hero and Pop Culture.” College English. Feb,:431-449, Uslan, Michael ed. 2004. Superman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told. New ‘York: DC Comics Wright, Bradford W. 2001. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth (Culture in America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press. arate Jones William Scou Duffy iss frst year Pb.D. student in Classics at the University of Buffalo. His main interests in the evolution of heroes from ancient epic to modem day pop culture OCA, Spring 2006