Game of Thrones Creator Praises Marvel For Killing Characters. Not The Same At All, George.
I love George R. R. Martin. He brought me one of my favorite artistic wankeries in years, in the form of both the Game of Thrones books and television shows. So I respect the man. Yet it’s a bit off. He praises Marvel for killing off important characters, while failing to notice and important comic book trope that undercuts everything.
Daily Blam:
Writer George R.R. Martin, who created the series of novels that HBO has adapted into it’s Emmy Award winning series Game of Thrones is praised as a writer not afraid to kill off major characters both suddenly and shockingly. Martin said that an older issue of The Avengers inspired him years ago, in which the character Wonder Man dies (albeit temporarily as comics tend to do). “It’s hard to understand, I think, from the vantage point of 2011 exactly what was going on in comics back in the early ’60s. The Marvel comics … were really revolutionary for the time. Stan Lee was doing some amazing work,” said Martin.
“Wonder Man dies in that story. He’s a brand new character, he’s introduced, and he dies. It was very heart-wrenching. I liked the character, it was a tragic, doomed character. I guess I’ve responded to tragic, doomed characters ever since I was a high school kid.”
Martin is an executive producer and writer on the HBO adaptation of his novels and both the series and books are praised for their braveness in regards to killing both important and beloved characters in brutal fashion. The writer mentioned that DC Comics in the 1960’s didn’t shake up the universe like Marvel did saying:
“Up until then, the dominant comic book had been the DC comics, which at that time were always very circular: Superman or Batman would have an adventure, and at the end of the adventure, they would wind up exactly where they were, and then the next issue would follow the same pattern. Nothing ever changed for the DC characters.”
Everyone always undies, George. Nothing ever changes in either Universe. Which is why you have balls the size of dwarf planets for offing the characters you do. One love.