Free Comic Book Day took place once again this last Saturday. Since 2002 the event has taken place during the first Saturday in May. It is an opportunity for fans and newcomers alike to take a look at books from a variety of publishers.

It is a chance to expose outsiders to the untold worlds and stories found in the comics medium.

I love Free Comic Book Day(FCBD in shorthand) not just for the free entertainment but for what it represents. For one day the comics world throws open its doors and says come in, look around, stay for a while.

In the last few years super hero movies have ruled the cinematic world. From Iron Man to the Dark Knight, from Avengers to the Man of Steel to many others. Over the next few years we can expect dozens of new comic book movies, along with TV series such as Arrow or the Walking Dead. Sadly, many people never investigate where these stories come from. Many have never stepped into their local comic book shop.

There are worlds upon worlds inside. Dark despotic wastelands, beautiful Utopian futures, and worlds we could never imagine. There are volumes upon volumes of hope within those walls.

Free Comic Book Day can be that gateway and I love it for that.

I have found that there are these movies that we are just absolutely compelled to watch. We cannot help ourselves. It is ingrained in our DNA from an early age.
If one of these movies is on we know what we are doing for the next few hours. Doesn’t matter if we have it on DVD or Blu-ray we will sit down in front of the TV and watch, we have to.
This is the Movie List…

The Mummy (1999)

This is legitimately one of my favorite movies ever. How much do I love this movie?? I actually watched it again while writing this. It has everything I look for in a movie: action, adventure, comedy and most importantly FUN! It is almost as if Raiders of the Lost Arc had a kid with Abbott and Costello meet the Mummy. Something so wonderful that you didn’t know you wanted until you sat in the theater watching it.

I knew I loved this movie from the start. I went and saw it one Saturday night, not really expecting much just a nice little movie to pass the time. I loved it laughing while on the edge of my seat at the same time. I did not know how much I loved it until later. It was a warm late night and I stopped for gas on the way home. As I was pumping gas these bugs were flying around me, absolutely freaking me out. All I could think of was those creepy little scarabs crawling all over my body. Right then I knew I was hooked.

The movie itself is nearly flawless. Most importantly it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Brendan Fraser is our intrepid hero, Rachel Weisz wonderfully plays the part of the damsel in distress, while John Hannah fills in as comedy relief. But they are so much more. They become family before our eyes: laughing, teasing and protecting each other in a world they never expected to be thrust into.
The entire cast is wonderful, there is never that moment where you think “the movie was great except for that one guy…”.
As we come to the end all I think is I want more: more stories, more action, more fun.

And the best thing about The Mummy is that you want more every single time you see it.

Death. It is so final. Except in the comics.

Everyone dies it seems.

And they all come back.

Captain America.

Spiderman.

Superman.

Two Robins.

The list goes on and on. So many characters. Heroes, villains it does not matter. No one is safe. But as they say “no one stays dead in the comics, not even Bucky.”

A death should matter. It should be important. It should not simply be done to increase sales. As some kind of a sweeps ploy. These are characters that we develop relationships with, that we love or hate. Killing them and reviving them for no good reason is a waste.

“The Death of Captain Marvel” worked. It was wonderful, fresh. A hero dying not so much from the actions of a villain but from cancer, it brought humanity to the funeral of a friend. Jim Starlin set the table for many writers to follow.

“The Death of Superman” was done well. The unstoppable force meeting the immovable object. We all knew he would be back, but the death made sense. There were repercussions. New characters were born: Steel, Cyborg Superman, even a new unique Superboy. There was a sense of loss for all the characters in the DC universe. Superman came back as we knew he would, but the story still felt new.

For a time some deaths lingered. Bucky Barnes, Captain America’s sidekick, stayed dead for almost 40 years. Jason Todd, the second Robin, did not even last twenty years before returning to the land of the living. Their returns brought something new, new characters. Winter Soldier and a heroic Red Hood are wonderful, that never would have happened without their deaths and resurrection.

Recently we have had Captain America, Spiderman, Thor, the Human Torch, another Robin: all dead, will they all come back?The question becomes who is next? Maybe the question should be who hasn’t died yet.

In company wide crossovers the body count can get enormous, writers simply using characters they don’t care for as cannon fodder. Killing off perfectly good characters to try to create a sense of danger. What happened to crippling someone.

Maybe there is another way. As fans and writers we become desensitized to the carnage. Maybe we need a break. A moratorium on death. Give us time to step back and actually be surprised when someone does die.

There are creative people out there. Can we not find a way to create the same drama without the body count.