[todd_m6d]

When Billy was killed off it was out of nowhere. You didn't see it coming, and you weren't quite sure it really happened at first. It wasn't flashy. It wasn't built up, but the story never made me question the logic behind how we got to where we were.

When SE's death was advertised in solicitations, on the cover of the comic, in interviews beforehand... IDW wanted us to know they were killing him off. They made an event out of it, which right there is a little distasteful. Then they insulted our intelligence in doing so with a lead up so head-scratching that it made little to no sense based on previous characterizations in past storylines of the book.

I thought it was fitting when at the end of the story the team sealed off the hidden section of the base and covered it all up as if to never be spoken of again.

Quote:

Despite the famous Benzheen body count in issue 109, I felt those were "bad deaths". Just random guys dying for the sake of a shock.

I agree they were bad deaths, they're even worse when you realize it was Snake-Eyes going off the book, attacking Cobra Commander at the consulate, and rattling CC so badly in 108 he can't give coherent orders to the Twins to let the Joes go in 109. Had SE and CC never had that interaction between them would the Joes still be alive in the book?

[mcbarkerton]

<<Another "good death" was Tom Thumb in the 1985-196 Squadron Supreme series. Tom dies while trying to find a cure for cancer.

Damn. I'd forgotten about that. I remember reading that when it came out, and being blown away. The character was so intrinsically good--of course he's going to live. And then, bam, at the end of the issue, he's just gone.

[stopdead]

I took the time to email Postbox: The Pit. I'll be curious to see how many letters show up in the next few issues.

[seaneley]

I think the only reason Hama killed the Seven back in the day was because certain "fans" kept pestering him: "Wah! Wah! We want deaths!"
So, he said, "Fine! Choke on it!"
And, amazingly, up until Snake Eyes, no important deaths occurred for many years...
Though not a major character, Sneak-Peek's first death was a "good death." Which made his second one nonsensical.
Also: the deaths of most of Battleforce 2000 was ridiculous. Maverick was flying his hi-tech jet right when Cobra blew up the fuel tanks??? Plus, the artist made it look like the Vector jet was tooling along like a "landspeeder." Stupid! Stupid! STUPID!

[Flints Beret]

Agreed with Sean here.
Also, after all Snake-Eyes had been through, it just felt to me after all of the years that he “deserved” a happy ending. I dunno.
Now, had Scarlett died in #93, I would of been ok with that. I love Scarlett (and I know this counters Snake-Eyes Happy Ending) but that issue was amazing and shocking and made sense.

[chuck x goren]

I spaced the Scarlett "death" in issue 93. When that happened, I was really upset. Almost cried. "No, that's Scarlett! She's Snake-Eyes' girlfriend and my childhood crush! Not fair!"

It affected me deeply. So I felt a little hoodwinked when they reverted it within a few months and she ended up surviving.

[J James]

I like the Snake-Eyes death we got, and still do hope that it is never reverted. Yes, I know there's a movie coming out.

Snake-Eyes had become, for me, a boring and one-dimensional character. He wasn't when I was young, but he had gotten dull and overshadowed everybody. Now Stalker, Scarlett, Tommy, and the others around his legacy like the Arashikage, Granny, and the other OG Joes are all more interesting in his wake. We've also gotten a bunch of storylines and moments which are some of my favorites of the entire series, either half of the series.

I can't express enough how interesting the Sean and Dawn thing is to me, and I've already typed a lot about them, so I'll just skip that.

As for the death itself and how it played out, it was crazy, for sure. There was over a year of bizarre subplots which were driving me nuts. Lots of little streams of sci-fi weirdness after several very strong years of military tales. Those plot threads were bothering me, and then they ALL tied up together into one gigantic bundle of storyline, and that storyline killed Snake-Eyes. It took Serpentor, a giant robot, an alien eye, a deadly fall and a grenade to kill Snake-Eyes. That... well, that's kind of poetic to me. That is how ridiculous his character had become to me anyway. In return, Snake-Eyes killed all those storylines and we returned to military missions and renewed "side" characters pretty much right away. I also liked that Sean put on the mask on the same page... that was bizarre and unlikely and weird in a perfectly comic book way. Now we have a somewhat insecure Snake-Eyes who expresses on paper that he doesn't feel like he belongs, and a Scarlett who is mentoring him and sort of using him in a creepy substitute manner, and it's very interesting.

[Flints Beret]

Yeah but Larry could of done all of that without killing him. Easily.
Or without killing him in a lame way.

[J James]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flints Beret

Yeah but Larry could of done all of that without killing him. Easily.
Or without killing him in a lame way.

Was it lame, though? It took a giant robot, Serpentor, an alien eyeball, a grenade and a fall. That's pretty epic. I've told the story of how Snake-Eyes died to several friends, verbally, and it takes like an hour to explain it all. "But how did he die?" one kept saying and I was like, "I'm working on it, we aren't there yet." It's completely bonkers, probably the single most bonkers series of events and plots in a long-running series full of them.

[Flints Beret]

True, but I guess to me it was just “Serpentor/Grenade/Fall”. The eye drove me nuts. I still don’t know what purpose it had. And the robot was more or less responsible for Sean’s transformation into Snake-Eyes.
Yeah, it was bonkers. I’ll give it that. But it just didn’t work for me.