Although the Blue Beetle has a long history in comic publication, for almost twenty years he has been portrayed as a comical character and a fan favorite. When Keith Giffen got his hands on the character in the late 1980s, in the pages of Justice League International the Blue Beetle went from scientific crime fighter to good-natured buffoon. Paired up with lovable loser Booster Gold, Beetle and Booster were the Martin and Lewis of the Superhero set. In the last few years however, Blue Beetle has been portrayed as a hero trying desperately to regain his reputation. In "Countdown to Infinite Crisis" he stumbles across something. Something big. However the rest of the superheroes don't believe him. His discovery gets him killed in one of the best written comic book deaths I've read in a long time.

Max Allan Collins, crime novelist and long time Dick Tracy scripter, once wrote: "You must kill off a sympathetic character now and then, to remind readers that they are in an unstable world, where anything can happen." Deaths of comic book characters are a yearly occurrence these days. Some go unnoticed while others create rumbles through the entire world of fandom. Some are well-written (Jason Todd, the Flash, Gwen Stacy) while others are a terrible excuse for shock value (Lillith Clay, the original JSA members). Some deaths are only temporary (Superman, Green Arrow), others are very controversial (Sue Dibney, Hal Jordan). However I guess the death of the Blue Beetle took me by surprise. Blue Beetle is a likable character and has a popularity with fans. I was quite pleased with amount of respect and the dignity that they showed the character before they killed him, but I guess it feels like a bit of a loss because the Blue Beetle has been a fixture in my comic book collection for decades. It's kind of like the death of a guy you knew, just not very well.

However, the death of the Blue Beetle got me to thinking about the deaths of other comic book characters and my mind wandered back to the one comic book death that probably had the biggest impact on me. This was the death of Vibe. What? You never heard of Vibe? Those who have are probably snickering a bit right now and thinking I'm making a joke. The rest of you are staring a bit blankly. Well, let me explain.

Vibe is a bit of a comic industry joke. Created by Gary Conway in the mid 1980s Vibe was a Spanish American character that had more negative stereotypes to Latin American culture than a velvet painting of Eric Estrada at a Tijuana Taco Bell. Vibe was a Detroit gang leader who spoke terrible English, break-danced by day and hit on the ladies by night. Costumed in a pair of yellow parachute pants and a bandana Vibe moonwalked his way into the Justice League during the disastrous mid-1980s "JLDetroit" era. His powers were that he could generate shockwaves and create earthquakes and such. Not a bad power. However Vibe wasn't a very interesting character and a poor substitute for characters like Green Lantern, Hawkman, Green Arrow or the Black Canary - all characters that he replaced. Vibe was never a character that captured the imaginations of readers. With the exception of being a punchline in the jokes of comic book geeks he wasn't a big hit. Considered a stain on the Justice League's legacy, Vibe was killed in 1987 by one of Professor Ivo's robot minions.

However, as lame as that sounds, I remember the first time I read that particular comic as a child. I was a sensitive ten year old who happily stumbled across that particular issue of Justice League at a Shoppers Drugmart magazine stand. For some reason Justice League was a comic that eluded me as a child, although it was easily my favourite book. I have no idea why I found it so hard to get my hands on it. Now JLDetroit never interested me that much, but I remember greedily lunging for it to read while my mother shopped. The cover was intriguing with the bold statement: "The End of the Justice League of America" on it. Who were they kidding? This couldn't be the end, I thought. As I read I had no real idea what was going on. It was a crossover of some sort and since I wasn't reading "Legends" I had no idea about the back story, but my ten year old mind wasn't really that concerned. It looked like dark days for the Justice League. Elongated Man quit. Jonn Jonzz temporarily disbanded the League. What was to happen to Steel, Gypsy, Vixen and Vibe? Four characters that it seemed like nobody cared about?

The action took us to Vibe walking through a run down slum where he comes upon a young Hispanic boy drawing a picture of Superman. Vibe criticizes the boy, saying that he has heroes of his own race - like Vibe, not revealing to the boy that he and Vibe are one and the same. The boy states that he has never heard of Vibe. He says that Vibe has never been in a cartoon nor does he have any toys on the shelves. Vibe walks away with his ego hurt, realizing what a fifth stringer he really is, when he is confronted by Professor Ivo's robot who has been sent to murder the members of the JLA. A great battle between Vibe and the robot takes place. Vibe nearly gives up to the robots might, only to be inspired by the wide eyes of the young boy he was talking to earlier who cheers him on. Vibe seemingly fries the robot's circuits, to the boys cheers. The boy tells Vibe he's the greatest and he'll tell his friends all about him, pumping up Vibe's confidence and putting a smile on the once glum hero's face. For the first time Vibe feels like a real hero. As he watches the boy run away he has a new lease on life. Now less smug and cocky, it looks like a new start for the break dancing hero. However, at that moment the robot gets back up and strangles Vibe to death with hands that are disconnected from the robot's arms!. Taking another moment to burn a death mask onto Vibe's face, the robot turns and walks down the dark deserted street leaving Vibe's smoking body lying all alone on the pavement. The heroic end of probably one of the lamest characters in comic history.

The death of Vibe haunted my ten year old mind. Fact was, I had never actually seen a comic character killed before. Sure, the Crisis on Infinite Earths had taken place a few years earlier and I knew of the multiple character deaths that took place in that series but, being only eight at the time, I didn't read it. I laid awake that night with my eyes still open wide, the image of Vibe's smoking body still burnt into my mind. Something seemed so sad and lonely about the Hispanic hero lying alone in the street with that horrible death mask welded onto his face, something sad and disturbing. I don't think I slept a wink that night. Nearly twenty years later I can still feel the hollowness that I felt that night. Now that, my friends, is the impact that a well-written death scene can inflict on a reader.