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Agreed. If they managed to give Blue Beetle’s death such heroism even though it seemed that a lot of the writers didn’t get him, Banshee could have gone out in a prouder fashion.

While Banshee was always one of my favorite X-characters , and I wasn’t thrilled that Brubaker killed him off in order to pump up the still rather lame Vulcan, this did lead to one of the very best X-Men comics of recent times: the issue of X-Factor where Cyclops has to explain to Theresa that her father is dead. She spends the entire issue thinking it’s not a big deal, that he’ll come back soon, which is perfectly acceptable in the Marvel universe. Of course, the truth hits her on the last page. Still, Sean will be back, say 2012 or so?

Of course, PAD did pretty much the exact same story back in his run on ‘The Incredible Hulk’, with Nick Fury instead of Banshee and the Howling Commandoes instead of Siryn.

Which is funny, because they all turned out to be right when they said that Fury wasn’t really dead and that it was all a big fake-out.

Disagree. I’d have kept Banshee alive. As the only emotionally mature, well adjusted, humourous mutant in the whole X-universe, they couldn’t really afford to lose him. He certainly shouldn’t have been sacrificed for something as exorable as the Deadly Genesis ret-con.

What was Banshee doing before his death? Last time I’ve seen him was during the X-Corps story in Uncanny X-Men, which ended with him losing his abilities after Mystique stabbed him in the neck.

Oh, I’d totally keep him alive, but I think that’s a bit too big of a change (which I think these “I’ds” are supposed to be more minor tweaks).

But yeah, I thought it was lame to kill off Banshee.

Eh. I think Siryn’s got virtually the same powerset and ten times the personality. Having two of them around was redundant. Plus with Moira dead and Gen-X disbanded I’m not sure just where Sean really fit in anymore.

Siryn might have the same powerset, but she hasn’t lost her powers nearly as many times as Banshee.

I’ve always liked stories that established that power set =/= characterization and had two or more heroes with similiar powers, but who bring different things to the story.

Theno

Banshee smokes a pipe and has a girl’s name. He is completely unique.

She spends the entire issue thinking it’s not a big deal, that he’ll come back soon, which is perfectly acceptable in the Marvel universe.

OK, is it wrong that this sentence reduced me to helpless giggles?

Also, just out of pure curiosity, why couldn’t Banshee come back?

I’d like to see Vulcan die and never come back. Boring and pointless character. Banshee could make a comeback.

ha, doesn’t this entire entry go against the whole ‘comics should be good’ classification? it seems to fit better into the ‘comics should be cliche’ book.

does ‘good’ equal vindicated ideas of just and unjust final moments?

but still, despite his hair, i agree that banshee should be alive and kicking.

j

It’s not like Banshee’s death was some major artistic thing - it was barely part of the series, and the purpose of his death was for the utter cliched purpose of establishing how bad a brand new villain is, so if you’re already doing something as cliche as killing off an established character to pump up a new villain, at least give the poor guy a heroic death.