BEYOND: DEATH.
She's cute, she's kind, and she comes to us all. PopImage makes a date with Death.

Some writers say death is central to every story. Change, threat and mystery are all just shades of man's greatest fear; mortality. That is why most artforms have often tended toward one popular depiction of death; the Grim Reaper. In comics, though, the most famous vision of death is a far more approachable creature. This month, PopImage looks at the ways the medium has represented its deathgods, death lords, and even Death herself.

DEATH (DC) - According to legend, when Neil Gaiman was trying to decide on the right look for the character of Death in SANDMAN, none of the ideas he had seemed right, until he went into a cafe one day and was served by a pale, perky Goth chick. That was how DC's Death was born, and the character soon came to outshine even Dream himself in every appearance she made. What made Gaiman's Death such an effective character was that she broke the mold. She wasn't grim, and she didn't reap. In fact she appeared so completely unsupernatural, she could quite easily have been found clearing tables in a cafe. She was not quite human either of course, because unlike most mere mortals, she was unprejudiced, patient and gentle. This Death was not just a different interpretation of 'the absolute', but very possibly a more accurate one. Death never killed anyone, but she was bound to be there waiting when you died.

DEATH (MARVEL) - Marvel's version of death may seem a lot more traditional - some might say 'unoriginal' - than the DC version, but their purple-shrouded skeletal ghoul remains an effective and logical interpretation. Marvel's Death is less defined and more mysterious than the DC version. Sometimes she seems unforgiving and brutal, other times she is fair and merciful. To some, she even appears seductive. She has no affiliation, but there are certainly those who feel an affinity to her. She often takes the form of a beautiful mute woman, but she also appears to different people in different forms; as a goddess, a monster, or even as a construction worker. In one episode of THE INCREDIBLE HULK, she even appeared as a strangely familiar perky Goth chick.

LADY DEATH - Marvel and DC are at least agreed that Death is a pale and beautiful woman. At Chaos Comics, Death is a pale and beautiful woman with gigantic breasts and a great big sword. Or rather, that's Lady Death, the demonic, pneumatic villainess who made her debut in EVIL ERNIE. The lady was born in the Middle Ages to a mother descended from heaven and a father born of the fallen angels. Condemned by her father's satanic ambition, the girl named Hope grew up (and filled out) to become Hell's own angel of death. She is now the ruler of Hell, and hopes one day to return to earth, but can only do so by wiping out all life.

DARKSEID - One thing most pantheons have in common is a god of death, and the pantheon in JACK KIRBY'S NEW GODS is no different. Darkseid, the Lord of Apokalips, is one of DC's premier villains, and the reason for this is very simple. He is death-as-supervillain. He rules a world named for destruction, fires 'Omega' beams from his eyes, and seeks to conquer the originating source for all the energies of the universe by discovering the Anti-Life Equation - or death, by any other name. Giving a villain the qualities of death personified may seem a little melodramatic, but these are superhero comics. As the heroes get bigger, so do the threats, and they do not come much bigger than this.

THANOS - Like Darkseid, Thanos is another aspiring death god, this time belonging to the pantheon of the Eternals. His name comes from thanatos, the Greek for death, and his motivation lies with his worryingly obsessive love of death. Or rather, his obsessive love of Death, Marvel's purple-shrouded ghoul. His murderous ambitions stem from a desire to impress her, yet no matter what he does, he has never won her approval. On two occasions he has brought the universe to the brink of destruction, made himself a God, and even tried to wipe the stars from the sky, but so far, Death has never even spoken to him.

JUDGE DEATH - In Mega City One, Judge Dredd is usually regarded as the final authority. The law, however, will only get you so far, and there is one authority that is far more final than that. Hailing from a dimension known as Deadworld, the ghoulish and fang-toothed Judge Death is one of Dredd's most horrific nemeses. In Deadworld it was decided that the only truly effective way to prevent crime was to exterminate all life. When this final solution worked once, Judge Death and his fellow Dark Judges saw no reason not to extend it to other worlds. Judge Death was himself killed in confrontation with Judge Anderson, but his sneaking, whispering spirit survived, and the superfiend was able to return on numerous occasions.

HELA - In Norse mythology, the noble dead go on to Valhalla, the great hall of heroes. It's the most famous Norse underworld, but not the only one. More familiar to modern ears is the realm of Hel, which, alongside Niffleheim, is the domain of the stauesque death-queen Hela. This THOR villain is a perfect example of the angry, greedy side of death, who strives to horde and solicits new souls so that she can torture them and subject them to misery. Hela crosses the mythological divide between death and the devil, and it is this blurring of the boundaries that sees death so often portrayed as a malicious and conniving entity.

THE SAINT OF KILLERS - In the world of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's PREACHER, God has gone AWOL. This alone is remarkable enough, but to add to the confusion, Death has retired and the Devil is dead. The man responsible for both these last two aberrations is the Saint of Killers, a man so consumed by hatred for the old West outlaw who stopped him from saving his wife and child, he was able to turn the whole of Hell to ice. Impressed by the man's passion, the Angel of Death passed on his mantle, making him the patron saint of killers, an unstoppable killing machine armed with two six-shooters and the wrath of God.

DEATHURGE - If you thought a cosmic avatar on a surfboard was strange, you ain't seen nothing yet. Deathurge is the embodiment of self-destruction - the god of suicide - and he travels around the cosmos on a pair of skis. He is made up of 'the midnight of mortal souls', and appears to those who have lost all hope, in order to guide them to his master Oblivion. He sees all life as a blight, and has done what he can in the past to assist attempts to nullify all of existence. It all sounds very dramatic, but at the end of the day, he still travels around the cosmos on a pair of skis.

GALACTUS - Neil Gaiman's Death may be a remarkable creation, but even she has nothing on the Devourer of Worlds when it comes to memorable comic book characters. Galactus has been described as the last survivor of the old universe, and the only thing to survive into the new, thus making him an essential part of reality. If Galactus falls, the universe falls. Unfortunately, keeping Galactus going takes an awful lot of energy, hence his hunger to consume entire worlds. Galactus is not an evil or malicious being, but a core force for change and regeneration in the universe. He is destruction and devastation without reason or accountability. Galactus is death.

Next Month: Beyond Mary Jane. Don't forget to check out our special BEYOND: Jill Thompson in ProFile.

Andrew Wheeler is Editorial Consultant of PopImage.

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