Superheroes–whether they are aliens, humans, or mutants–all have to die sometime. It’s nature. The body, human or otherwise, can only take so much stress before it finally gives out or in some cases people simply grow old. One must realize that while your mild mannered alter-ego will die or grow old at some point your hero, or at least the symbol that they embody, will never die.

Superheroes tend to be very much like the mythical phoenix that would burn up, die, then be born again from its ashes. Somehow superheroes seem to find this way of coming back to life or being reborn despite being mere men, typically. From what I have gathered there are at least five different ways of what can happen to your hero:

• Someone takes on their persona
  • Because they die(Captain America)
  • Or they grow old (Batman)
• They are reborn (Elektra)
• On few occasions they can’t die (The Mighty Thor)
• Something beyond keeps them going on despite life or death (Ghost Rider)
• They split into other entities (Superman)

How your hero dies is up to you, but at the same time the hero must have an epic and earth shattering death. A typical human being dies of things like heart disease or, at best, if the person was very brave they could die saving people from a burning car leaking gasoline. Superheroes don’t “go down” like that. That is child’s play for a superhero. If the situation is compounded it would be more like a hero’s death.

The hero is not human, it is an ideal that lives on. The human behind the mask does die, but what the hero stands for and stands up for continues to live on. The world continues to live in turmoil and we have a back up hero, someone that picks up the torch in place of the original hero. The public may or may not know of the death of the original “whatever-man,” but there will still be peril and someone needs to help. That’s why the hero never dies. You may think of it as a new adventure or even a transformation.

Let’s get out our notebooks and writing utensils because it’s time to write!

1. Take your character, know them, know their powers and ask yourself if they would die because of their weaknesses or because they are still human?
2. Choose one then plan accordingly.
3. Then you may want to ask yourself how is this going to “go down?”Is this some strategic plan? An accident? Do they die in battle? That is entirely for you to decide.
4. When the character dies there will definitely be some form of response from the community, which should be compared to how people treated your hero throughout the story.
5. You may have some secret post mortem story if you like to make things a bit more interesting.
6. Finally you must ask yourself “Is this it for the symbol too?” Then you may either let the symbol die or you may carry it on with someone new, but either way you must provide some closure for the death of the former hero.

Remember: Death doesn’t always end everything, sometimes it simply delays it