Oh woe is me.

Are comic books even worth it anymore? They’re just not going to feel the same. I won’t have X-Factor to look forward to every month, at least not my X-Factor. Sure the title will still be coming out, but my favorite character is dead. My favorite superhero has been killed. My favorite fictional character of all time has been mur-diddily-urdlered!

I am infinite sadness.

But cheer up, Sean, you might say. Death is a joke in comic books these days. Everyone from Bucky to Aunt May has come back from the dead, so it’s only a matter of time before your favorite character returns. Heck, he’s already ‘died’ once before and come back. His super power is essentially a get out of ‘dead’ free card.

Some of you might even punch me in the stomach and tell me to ‘grow up’ because it’s just a freakin’ comic book!

And to all of you I’d say, “It’s just not the same.”

First of all, let me just say that of course I know that comic books are fiction and Multiple Man is just a fictional character and that his ‘death’ is hardly important in context of the real world. Of course that’s all true, but that’s also bullshit. It doesn’t solve my problem and it doesn’t make me feel any better. Comic books are my hobby. They are my vice. And I read comic books for the characters. Some people like the art, some people follow certain writers, I read comic books for the characters.

And now my favorite character is dead. My main reason for reading comic books is gone.

Of course there are other books to read, other characters I like; but my favorite is gone.

And he will be missed

I’m not sure how to explain this sense of loss to someone who doesn’t already get it. Not everybody likes or reads comic books. But everybody has a hobby, everybody has their niche. A lot of people watch sports. Almost everyone in the world watches television and has their favorite shows. Everybody has something they cherish. So what if the one aspect that you loved most about your hobby was suddenly taken away. What if it just wasn’t there anymore.

Your favorite athlete. Your favorite sports team. Your favorite character on a TV show. What if they had killed Professor Snape in the fourth Harry Potter book, and you only really read Harry Potter because of Snape. Would you keep reading books 5, 6 and 7? Yeah, maybe. But the stories wouldn’t be the same.

They would be less interesting. You’d care less. Or if you favorite sports team closed down shop. Sure you could follow another team, but they wouldn’t be your team.

That’s how I feel about losing my favorite superhero. I’ll still read X-Factor, I’ll still collect a wide variety of comics. But they won’t be as much fun without Multiple Man. And yes, as I’ve said already, there’s a good chance this is just the beginning of a story that ends with him back among the living. But…what if it’s not? What if this is just his grand send-off?

Death may be a joke in comics, but it still happens. And if it’s your favorite character that’s gone, you’re just shit out of luck. Maybe someday some writer might bring them back, but who knows when that will be.

The Human Torch has been dead since January. So everyone who loved the Human Torch can no longer read about him. The Wasp, from the Avengers, has been dead since the end of 2008. She was killed in the stupidest way imaginable, as just the ‘marquee death’ at the end of Secret Invasion. No plans on bringing her back.

The return of Jean Grey, from the X-Men, is always hinted. But she has stayed dead since February 2004. That’s nearly 8 years that Jean Grey fans haven’t been able to read about their favorite character.

And that sucks.

Clearly I should have kidnapped X-Factor writer Peter David when I had the chance.

It would have been so easy...

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Depression is the fourth stage of grief. Here are the others:

Denial.

Anger.

Bargaining.

Acceptance.