How Hollywood Killed Death (NY Times)

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The problem is that death at the movies has died. The movie industry has corrupted one of cinema’s — if not all of fiction’s — most emotionally taxing moments into hollow formula, the kind of thing that passes in the blink of a plot point leading to a literal, if not figurative, explosive finale that takes up half the budget.

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Formula may have atrophied death at the movies, but resurrection has killed it. And an unholy coalition between comic-book publishers and an economically weakened Hollywood is to blame.

Perhaps you’ve noticed that your local multiplex might as well be Comic Con. Amid rapid shifts in the media-buying public’s preferences, comic-book adaptations have proved incredibly lucrative for movie studios, practically becoming Hollywood’s main business model. They’re an ideal medium for an industry constantly looking for ways to tap into built-in audiences and spin out endless sequels. Comics are never-ending serials with decades’ worth of fans and stories to draw from, and Hollywood can build upon that, making its own serial stories and movies, creating loyal, invested audiences who will always show up. This has helped sequelitis shed its reputation as a symptom of creative bankruptcy, recasting it as ambitious world building.

Serialized storytelling isn’t the only thing that has made its way from comics to the movies. The timing of the rise of resurrection in blockbusters is no accident — it’s an inheritance. Along with the rise of superhero movies came comic books’ notorious revolving-door attitude toward death. Given the medium’s sprawling, practically interminable story lines, publishers like Marvel and DC Comics often need ways to bring major upheaval to their worlds. So they kill off major characters. Superman, Spider-Man, the Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern and Captain America have all died — at least temporarily. But Marvel and DC are financially dependent on characters that are too popular to leave dead. As a result, death to comic readers has become something of a joke: a tolerated pretense that means nothing more than a cash grab (buy the issue where Captain America dies!). A character’s demise allows the publisher to hype their resurrection (buy the issue where Captain America comes back!) or at least facilitate the sustained financial draw of a popular character.

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