From: mss2@kimbark.uchicago.edu (Michael S. Schiffer)
Subject: Re: Flash 73:  SPOILERS!!!
Reply-To: mss2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 10:04:00 GMT

In article <1992Dec17.060628.9699@sol.UVic.CA> jcowling@ophelia.UVic.CA (Scowling Jim Cowling) writes:

Major league Spoiler



>Barry Allen!

>Well, kids, whaddaya think?  Personally, I couldn't be happier.  My guess is
>that he's here to stay for the long run.  It's quite possible that this is
>in fact Barry.

>Barry's got time travel powers.  He could conceivably show up here, now, or
>anywhen, without problem.  My guess is that Barry has returned to the 20th
>century from the 30th century.

	My first thought was also time travel, though my hope is that
he's time travelled from the past and that it's a temporary visit.

	Don't get me wrong-- I love Barry Allen.  He was one of my
favorite characters in my childhood, and I was sad when he died.  But
DC is quickly losing any credibility with respect to death-- and if it
loses it, then all possibility for tragedy goes out the window.  It
was Marvel's revolving door of death which turned me off them when I
tried their titles for a while during the 80's.

	Once upon a time I could point to Ferro Lad as the exemplar of
DC having some respect for death.  Sure, people died and came back,
but Ferro Lad died, stayed dead, and was remembered by the Legion as
an inspiration.  Of course, Tom and Mary Bierbaum have changed that.
Maybe he's a clone.  It doesn't matter.  Reviving dead people
cheapens death, even if there's "really" a dead version as well.
Supergirl died-- but they raised up a zombie pod person in her place.
Ditto for Superboy, it looks like.  The JSA went to limbo, and were
effectively dead for the purposes of remembrance by other heroes-- but
no longer.  Kent Nelson died, but he got better (and I enjoyed the
Messner-Loebs Dr. Fate series, but it's still a contribution to the
problem).  These days, _no one_ is staying dead.  People who fought
crime in the 40's are fighting crime in the 90's, and superheroes seem
to be excellent risks for insurers.

	I don't think people should be killed gratuitously.  The two
great sins comics have committed against the tragedy of death are too
much, too fast, to the point it becomes numbing, and the "yeah, _sure_
he's dead" syndrome which comes of engineering resurrections from ever
more unlikely circumstances.  I hardly need mention the current most
notorious case: no one in his right mind believes Superman is dead.
This is the comics.  Superman is the hero of heroes.  He won't stay
dead.  But maybe they could have convinced us if _most_ people who
died stayed that way, and they concocted a story of "failing sales...
wanted him to go out with a bang..." (and wrote a decent story around
it, but that's another rant).

	Which brings us to Barry Allen.  Barry Allen is just about
_it_, now-- pretty much the only big name, high profile hero who has
actually fallen in the line of duty.  Not a dream, not a hoax, not an
imaginary story, and not (like Kara Zor-El) forgotten by all who knew
the person.  He died.  He was mourned.  His friends and family have
had to come to grips with the fact that someone they loved who
followed a dangerous and noble calling paid the ultimate price for it,
and he isn't going to be around any more.  Wally's character has been
_shaped_ by Barry's death: Barry's example and martyrdom are what
made Wally grow into the shoes of an adult hero, from a
hero-worshipping child and a self-centered young adult.  He's a
_memento mori_ for the entire metahuman world; if it could happen to a
man who could outrace thunderbolts, it can happen to anyone.

	I think he's more valuable to the DC Universe in that role
than as yet another superhero who came back from the dead.  No matter
how they explain it.  Even if they don't invalidate his death, he has
a charmed life-- nothing permanent can happen to Barry, since he has
to go back and save the universe from the Anti-Monitor.  Characters
whose future is fixed lose something, which may be why Superboy got
crowded out by the Legion.  (Though ironically, it turned out that his
future was the least fixed of all.)  And we'll always suspect that
they'll think of another way to avoid even that doom.

	I'm sorry they killed Barry.  Personally, I think it was a
mistake.  But bringing him back would be a bigger one, and the latest
in a long line of the same _sort_ of mistakes.  Barry Allen deserves
better than to go through the revolving door.  He's earned his rest,
and his heir carries on his mission.  And that, I think, is as it
should be.

Mike
-- 
Michael S. Schiffer, LHN, FCS	"Indeed I tremble for my country
mss2@midway.uchicago.edu	 when I reflect that God is just."
mike.schiffer@um.cc.umich.edu	 -- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on
mschiffer@aal.itd.umich.edu	    Virginia (1784)
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