So I just finished reading the Amazing Spiderman Annual where Jackpot's ID is revealed. For those who haven't been keeping up, Jackpot is this superhero who looks like Mary Jane Watson. Anyway, she dies at the end. I didn't have any particular love for Jackpot--though that's a great name--but it got me to wondering about how easily characters are killed off in the comics.
I don't watch enough TV to make an accurate judgment, but I sense the same thing is going on there. I don't have a problem with death, but if it's a character the writer has invested some energy in, it feels like it should have some place in the narrative. It just felt like they killed her because they didn't know how else to end the story. Comics have always had a lot of death--and resurrection. But it seems like there's a lot more of it today. Am I wrong? Was it like this in the 80s too?
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2008/12/out-in-the-streets-they-call-it-murder/6380/
