I’d say The Shape since he seems to disappear when he dies and reappear later on. Jason fully dies and doesn’t respawn until Tommy brings him back with lightning, and Freddy is already dead. And chucky is the same, he is already dead and just haunting a doll.
Just putting it out there… with a little practice, there is a certain class of villain that those speeches work *very* well on. The slightly unhinged, twitchy kind. To the right person, those experiences can be equivalent to a religious experience.
Steffen
5 years ago
The power of being able to feel death again and again and again and …
yea, I think I would have gone with invincibility instead.
While Ethan usually acts a bit like a goof, I wouldn’t be surprised if he is quite traumatised.
Why do you think everyone is looking for the cure to the undead curse in dark souls? It ain’t because people think being immortal is bad…
The Man in Black
5 years ago
Damn, shit got dark real quick.
Scortch
5 years ago
Hmm, I think Ethan has been reading the comments section here about how the kids powers are better.
Ivan Pirsic
5 years ago
….AND,… wow.
Alex
5 years ago
I know exactly what Ethan could do with his power, if he wasn’t that good-hearted. There’s a manga “Akumetsu”, where an individual repeatedly makes suicide attacks against corrupt politicians. As you may have guessed, repeated suicide attacks are also related to a kind of “respawn” power.
Hmm, now that makes me wonder if would be able to defeat Light Yagami… Since he would respawn after each death, eventually Light would either run out of space in the Death Note, or he would have to sleep or die himself since he can’t keep on writing indefinitely.
Rajani Isa
5 years ago
This description of his power reminds me of a character in Drew Hayes novel “Corpies” – he has a power that lets him come back from the dead. It doesn’t undo the death memories.
If it’s the character I’m thinking of it’s not that he can’t die he just locks himself into a time and date. If he dies he just reverts back to that state. They don’t go into the details but I’m willing to bet that he has to reset it every time he dies so killing him twice in a row in he may die for good. That was a good comparison and I really like that world.
maarvarq
5 years ago
Being able to stay sane, or at least as close as Ethan comes, with those kinds of memories, is a superpower in its own right. He should be able to laugh off any villainous attempts at torture, at the very least.
Jonathan Corbett
5 years ago
Yeah, his power sucks, big time. I mean, it’s cool to be invincible, but… Sooner or later, a villain will figure out his power, and that will lead to a LOT of fun for him.
Lock the respawning hero up in a torture chamber, strip him of all his little goodies, kill him over and over again with an endless variation of death devices and traps. Or heck, if you’re buff enough, maybe just rip his head off!
Seriously, that superpower sucks, for crime fighting. He should get into a new line of work!
dbg
5 years ago
+1 to things god real dark.
Tim, are there therapists for superheroes in this city? Maybe doing it while still hiding the identity. Because that’s so much trauma, Ethan is just… sheesh…
Amusingly, Ryk E. Spoor’s most recent book — Legend — actually has this as part of it’s premise: one of the main characters is a psychotherapist whose client is a superhero.
If the therapist was ethical, it wouldn’t matter if the supers used their secret identity or not, since all therapists and psychiatrists are bound by law to confidentiality. So it wouldn’t matter for example Batman to see a therapist as either Bruce OR Batman, since said therapist would risk losing their livelihood and being barred from practicing if they leaked the super’s identity. And even if Tim hadn’t confirmed it, it would not have surprised me if there were therapists that specialized in Supers. I would think it would be along the same lines as Matthew Murdock or Jennifer Walters… Read more »
on a respawn he is fully healed. doubt it covers old age, but natural causes include cancer, so if he does get it, he just dies and respawns. it’s a crappy power in a fight, so I suggest he makes like batman and get more skilled at fighting cause he does seem a bit clumsy. that SHOULD bring his game up to the point where he doesn’t feel he can’t do anything except die and come back
His recent tests with donating blood indicate he resets to his last healthy state. This does bring up the possibility that he will reach a point where due to age his last health state never changes and he always resets to one particular state/age.
Archer
5 years ago
Okay something that has been bugging me for while now about this power. When Ethan respawns is it to how he was right before he died, or is it to how he was when he got his powers?
Like, if he went months without dying and worked out at the gym and got buff, then died, when he respawns would he still be buff or would he be back to the way he was originally, scrawny?
If he doesn’t have one already, he needs an instant means to kill himself that’s, ideally, painless. Depending on how his respawn works (he seems to bring his gear with him) that thing could respawn too. Getting paralyzed, or captured alive/tortured, would be a nightmare case with that power set.
A really evil villain could just torture him to death over and over and over again, and his mind would shatter.
False teeth with cyanide capsule. You can break it (with a lot of force) or uncork it and I heard some accounts that cyanide tastes sweet and that the pain is intense in the heart and muscles, but quickly fades.
There are ways to abuse his super-power, tho. Think Dark Souls with its face-to-the-wall-until-it-breaks approach. A smart Ethan could Dormammu any villain.
Very rarely. I’d even argue that Wolverine has claws that can go through nearly anything. They are both badasses who have trained and practiced relenlessly and Wade is highly skilled in hand-to-hand and weapon combat. He also has the advantage of a sky-high pain tolerance because of what he’s been through.
Matt
5 years ago
Tim, that is truly deep… “You can’t die!” “No, Lucas. I can’t STAY dead.” So, he feels every death. He more than likely dies thinking “is this the last time? Will my power save me, or is this game over?”
Ven
5 years ago
Ethan’s power set’s epicness can be summed up with one sentence.
Not exactly 😉 Strange was able to trap Dormmamu in that loop for at least (according to the original script) 1000 deaths. Ethan can do the 1000 deaths, but he can’t exactly force a bad guy to sit there killing him over and over until he gives up.
Fred
5 years ago
What if Ethan dies to Thanos’ snap? Does he respawn then? 🙂
Nope, original script says killed dead. But it is true Thanos didn’t kill shit, the Gauntlet did, and the infinity stones would probably just erase Ethan’s powers.
Unless the Infinnity Gauntlet somehow acquired sentience and manipulated Thanos into executing his plan to bring “balance” to the universe, the Gauntlet didn’t kill anyone. It was a tool. Thanos is the one who killed half the universe. The Gauntlet was only a means to an end.
The Gauntlet didn’t kill anyone. It’s just a tool. A means to an end. Thanos is the one who performed the actual deed.
SimplyMonk
5 years ago
So… you are saying that we could burn Ethan for fuel and we’d have an infinite power source?
Steve
5 years ago
The existential superhero crisis…beautifully done, sir.
Diogo
5 years ago
Never stopped to realize until now that Ethan is just like an Ajin but without the black ghost.
Yeah, if anyone here watched the anime or read the manga, you know Ethan won’t be sane for that long…
Liack
5 years ago
It’s starting to sound like more and more of a vilain origin rather than a hero…
Mike
5 years ago
“Matt · May 3, 2019 at 9:37 am Tim, that is truly deep… “You can’t die!” “No, Lucas. I can’t STAY dead.” So, he feels every death. He more than likely dies thinking “is this the last time? Will my power save me, or is this game over?” This is what I was thinking. Matt here gets a Gold Star. I then felt really sorry for Ethan, maybe that is not the right wording, but I’ll leave it. Ethan is going to need to get some good mental health help somewhere down the line. On the other hand, to add… Read more »
Hunter
5 years ago
If Ethan does get tired of the superhero gig he’d make the best stuntman ever.
Never have to worry about safety, just have him do the most ridiculous stunts possible.
If he was the truly unscrupulous type,he could hire a good lawyer, and make a killing exploiting insurance. Accidental death and dismemberment. I don’t think there are any clauses for the dismemberment and death being permanent. He just needs video proof that he died and had arms and legs cut off.
I’m sure that in a world of supers those loopholes got closed off pretty early,but I can see Ethan thinking that was a good plan.
uggron
5 years ago
Always weird to hear Ethan making a point good and serious enough to shut Lucas up.
Halosty
5 years ago
That supervillain could maybe be one that reads minds. They search people’s memories for their deepest fear, and it just so happens that their own personal fear is the feeling of death. Not just being close to dying, either. Though to be fair going inside Ethan’s head could mess them up regardless.
Kuraimizu
5 years ago
If I am understanding Ethan’s powers correctly, after the event of Ethan dying, When Ethan re-spawns, his body resets back to his most recent “prime state” and he relocates to a variable distance where he is no longer in harms way, and his corpse and fluids de-spawn. For a human depending on how he treats his body, and how healthy they are, their “prime state” is some time during the late 20’s or early 30’s. The question then becomes, what happens after Ethan reaches his “prime”, ages for a while past his “prime”, then dies? When Ethan re-spawns would he… Read more »
The Heliophage of Arhra Mazda
5 years ago
Ethan needs to get Player 1 with his superpowers for them to really shine through. Player 1 has that bloodthirst that have him chuck himself against a challenge without remorse for the consequences. A mindset that works best when you can live life like you were playing Dark Souls or Kenshiro.
I think Ethan’s worst, most visceral, enemy would be the Evil Twin. If you take Analog’s power and give it to someone really, really ruthless that has no concern for the well-being of anyone or anything, only overwhelming and constant amounts of opposing force would ever stop him.
Cmd1095
5 years ago
Man that went dark quickly… and on a lot of levels. I wonder… depending on how you look at it Ethan’s line “I can’t stay dead” gives me a thought…
Does Ethan WANT to stay dead? His life is full of trauma (albeit some of it self-induced). It’d make a lot of sense if he had some depression issues, perhaps even suicidal thoughts… but he CAN’T commit suicide anymore… That line of thinking is even darker.
On a funnier side note. Lucas probably feels a bit worse about cutting Ethan in half during their “training” for that game tournament now
RblD
5 years ago
He just needs to use his power well…like Four, when she won free pizza!
Mike
5 years ago
The ability to die repeatedly means Ethan can willfully go into truly suicidal situations without any fear at all. I doubt anyone else can claim that strength.
On the other hand, it also makes him the perfect suicide bomber. Hmm…
“without any fear at all”? Really?
Dying may not faze him, but the pain of getting slowly mangled by giant cartoon gears* until he finally expires from crushing? He’s not OK with that, note his reactions every time he almost dies.
He’s not like the old Marvel Character “Madcap”, he’s not off the insanity cliff yet…but it looks like he might be inching closer.
Hmm, fair counterpoint. Okay, less fear than a normal person.
I dunno, if it were me, I’d probably hit a point where I’d actively start *trying* to stay dead.
NiteZ
5 years ago
I mean… If a psychic mind reader (who’s capable of experiencing the targets memories) tried reading Ethan’s mind. I’m not sure what he’d go insane/die from first; Ethan’s absolute idiocy that’s still somehow capable of functioning in modern day society, or the ridiculously numerous inexplicably stupid, and painful deaths he’s experienced.
Halosty
5 years ago
I had exactly the same thoughts 🙂
Austin
5 years ago
Think I’ve figured out Ethan’s real hang-up with Game Boy: he knows what it’s like to die in just about every horrible way imaginable, and he knows herowork is dangerous. I think part of why he’s upset is because he doesn’t want the kid to go through something he knows in excruciating detail. Also, everyone’s making comments about Ethan’s sanity or what would happen if a mind-reading villain got a hold of him, and that makes me think. In the origin comic, Ethan seemed silly, but…normal. Lucas probably thinks Ethan got weirder because his power made him reckless, but what… Read more »
Annnnd just like that Ethan’s power went from mildly cool to “more horrifying than ‘always-on’ mind reading”, which was my previous high water mark for “worst power to have”. Good god, why he isn’t a complete basket case by now is beyond me, he must have mental fortitude like nobody else on earth. Being subjected to MULTIPLE events that would drive any other person mad, sometimes on a daily basis and still have the sanity & self awareness to recognize he’s being unreasonably emotional and jealous about sometime, mid rant? That’s bananas.
You write incredible comic sir, thanks for that.
24
Well instead of the gaming aesthetic, how about giving the serial killer gimmick a try. It worked for the Undertaker.
go away we don’t need you dissing their theme! BLASPHEMER!
So he should dress like Jason Vorhees, Freddy, or possibly Chucky?
I’d say The Shape since he seems to disappear when he dies and reappear later on. Jason fully dies and doesn’t respawn until Tommy brings him back with lightning, and Freddy is already dead. And chucky is the same, he is already dead and just haunting a doll.
may god have pity on that villain’s soul
Just putting it out there… with a little practice, there is a certain class of villain that those speeches work *very* well on. The slightly unhinged, twitchy kind. To the right person, those experiences can be equivalent to a religious experience.
The power of being able to feel death again and again and again and …
yea, I think I would have gone with invincibility instead.
While Ethan usually acts a bit like a goof, I wouldn’t be surprised if he is quite traumatised.
Yeah, being able to experience death and dying so often… that’s a really fantastic curse.
Why do you think everyone is looking for the cure to the undead curse in dark souls? It ain’t because people think being immortal is bad…
Damn, shit got dark real quick.
Hmm, I think Ethan has been reading the comments section here about how the kids powers are better.
….AND,… wow.
I know exactly what Ethan could do with his power, if he wasn’t that good-hearted. There’s a manga “Akumetsu”, where an individual repeatedly makes suicide attacks against corrupt politicians. As you may have guessed, repeated suicide attacks are also related to a kind of “respawn” power.
Hmm, now that makes me wonder if would be able to defeat Light Yagami… Since he would respawn after each death, eventually Light would either run out of space in the Death Note, or he would have to sleep or die himself since he can’t keep on writing indefinitely.
This description of his power reminds me of a character in Drew Hayes novel “Corpies” – he has a power that lets him come back from the dead. It doesn’t undo the death memories.
If it’s the character I’m thinking of it’s not that he can’t die he just locks himself into a time and date. If he dies he just reverts back to that state. They don’t go into the details but I’m willing to bet that he has to reset it every time he dies so killing him twice in a row in he may die for good. That was a good comparison and I really like that world.
Being able to stay sane, or at least as close as Ethan comes, with those kinds of memories, is a superpower in its own right. He should be able to laugh off any villainous attempts at torture, at the very least.
Yeah, his power sucks, big time. I mean, it’s cool to be invincible, but… Sooner or later, a villain will figure out his power, and that will lead to a LOT of fun for him.
Lock the respawning hero up in a torture chamber, strip him of all his little goodies, kill him over and over again with an endless variation of death devices and traps. Or heck, if you’re buff enough, maybe just rip his head off!
Seriously, that superpower sucks, for crime fighting. He should get into a new line of work!
+1 to things god real dark.
Tim, are there therapists for superheroes in this city? Maybe doing it while still hiding the identity. Because that’s so much trauma, Ethan is just… sheesh…
There are, actually…
Amusingly, Ryk E. Spoor’s most recent book — Legend — actually has this as part of it’s premise: one of the main characters is a psychotherapist whose client is a superhero.
If the therapist was ethical, it wouldn’t matter if the supers used their secret identity or not, since all therapists and psychiatrists are bound by law to confidentiality. So it wouldn’t matter for example Batman to see a therapist as either Bruce OR Batman, since said therapist would risk losing their livelihood and being barred from practicing if they leaked the super’s identity. And even if Tim hadn’t confirmed it, it would not have surprised me if there were therapists that specialized in Supers. I would think it would be along the same lines as Matthew Murdock or Jennifer Walters… Read more »
Harley was a therapist, so I doubt Batman would trust them at this point…
What about old age? Does Ethan age at all? If he died of just natural causes, will he respawn, die, then respawn again?
on a respawn he is fully healed. doubt it covers old age, but natural causes include cancer, so if he does get it, he just dies and respawns. it’s a crappy power in a fight, so I suggest he makes like batman and get more skilled at fighting cause he does seem a bit clumsy. that SHOULD bring his game up to the point where he doesn’t feel he can’t do anything except die and come back
His recent tests with donating blood indicate he resets to his last healthy state. This does bring up the possibility that he will reach a point where due to age his last health state never changes and he always resets to one particular state/age.
Okay something that has been bugging me for while now about this power. When Ethan respawns is it to how he was right before he died, or is it to how he was when he got his powers?
Like, if he went months without dying and worked out at the gym and got buff, then died, when he respawns would he still be buff or would he be back to the way he was originally, scrawny?
He respawns to his last perfectly healthy state.
If he doesn’t have one already, he needs an instant means to kill himself that’s, ideally, painless. Depending on how his respawn works (he seems to bring his gear with him) that thing could respawn too. Getting paralyzed, or captured alive/tortured, would be a nightmare case with that power set.
A really evil villain could just torture him to death over and over and over again, and his mind would shatter.
False teeth with cyanide capsule. You can break it (with a lot of force) or uncork it and I heard some accounts that cyanide tastes sweet and that the pain is intense in the heart and muscles, but quickly fades.
There are ways to abuse his super-power, tho. Think Dark Souls with its face-to-the-wall-until-it-breaks approach. A smart Ethan could Dormammu any villain.
Hm. Never thought about that…
But actually. If he responds to his previous state, his brain physically respawns from theat state too, right?
That means he’s losing all the memories he got since that state.
That means he won’t actually remember ANY of his deaths. Because he didn’t have memories of them in his previous brain.
THUS, since it’s revealed that he DOES remember them, his brain has to be an exception to what reverts to the healthy state.
Thus, he can still have brain tumors and aneurysms.
gah, “respawns”, not “responds”
His mind transfers, not his brain.
The mind is just synaptic connections in the brain. So is memory.
I wonder if Wolverine has days like this, or Deadpool?
Very rarely. I’d even argue that Wolverine has claws that can go through nearly anything. They are both badasses who have trained and practiced relenlessly and Wade is highly skilled in hand-to-hand and weapon combat. He also has the advantage of a sky-high pain tolerance because of what he’s been through.
Tim, that is truly deep… “You can’t die!” “No, Lucas. I can’t STAY dead.” So, he feels every death. He more than likely dies thinking “is this the last time? Will my power save me, or is this game over?”
Ethan’s power set’s epicness can be summed up with one sentence.
Dormmamu, I’ve come to bargain.
Not exactly 😉 Strange was able to trap Dormmamu in that loop for at least (according to the original script) 1000 deaths. Ethan can do the 1000 deaths, but he can’t exactly force a bad guy to sit there killing him over and over until he gives up.
What if Ethan dies to Thanos’ snap? Does he respawn then? 🙂
Thanos didn´t kill people – he removed them from existence. There is a distinct difference in the two.
Nope, original script says killed dead. But it is true Thanos didn’t kill shit, the Gauntlet did, and the infinity stones would probably just erase Ethan’s powers.
Unless the Infinnity Gauntlet somehow acquired sentience and manipulated Thanos into executing his plan to bring “balance” to the universe, the Gauntlet didn’t kill anyone. It was a tool. Thanos is the one who killed half the universe. The Gauntlet was only a means to an end.
The Gauntlet didn’t kill anyone. It’s just a tool. A means to an end. Thanos is the one who performed the actual deed.
So… you are saying that we could burn Ethan for fuel and we’d have an infinite power source?
The existential superhero crisis…beautifully done, sir.
Never stopped to realize until now that Ethan is just like an Ajin but without the black ghost.
Yeah, if anyone here watched the anime or read the manga, you know Ethan won’t be sane for that long…
It’s starting to sound like more and more of a vilain origin rather than a hero…
“Matt · May 3, 2019 at 9:37 am Tim, that is truly deep… “You can’t die!” “No, Lucas. I can’t STAY dead.” So, he feels every death. He more than likely dies thinking “is this the last time? Will my power save me, or is this game over?” This is what I was thinking. Matt here gets a Gold Star. I then felt really sorry for Ethan, maybe that is not the right wording, but I’ll leave it. Ethan is going to need to get some good mental health help somewhere down the line. On the other hand, to add… Read more »
If Ethan does get tired of the superhero gig he’d make the best stuntman ever.
Never have to worry about safety, just have him do the most ridiculous stunts possible.
So kind of like Ghost Rider, except instead of surviving everything that should kill him, he just dies and comes back.
If he was the truly unscrupulous type,he could hire a good lawyer, and make a killing exploiting insurance. Accidental death and dismemberment. I don’t think there are any clauses for the dismemberment and death being permanent. He just needs video proof that he died and had arms and legs cut off.
I’m sure that in a world of supers those loopholes got closed off pretty early,but I can see Ethan thinking that was a good plan.
Always weird to hear Ethan making a point good and serious enough to shut Lucas up.
That supervillain could maybe be one that reads minds. They search people’s memories for their deepest fear, and it just so happens that their own personal fear is the feeling of death. Not just being close to dying, either. Though to be fair going inside Ethan’s head could mess them up regardless.
If I am understanding Ethan’s powers correctly, after the event of Ethan dying, When Ethan re-spawns, his body resets back to his most recent “prime state” and he relocates to a variable distance where he is no longer in harms way, and his corpse and fluids de-spawn. For a human depending on how he treats his body, and how healthy they are, their “prime state” is some time during the late 20’s or early 30’s. The question then becomes, what happens after Ethan reaches his “prime”, ages for a while past his “prime”, then dies? When Ethan re-spawns would he… Read more »
Ethan needs to get Player 1 with his superpowers for them to really shine through. Player 1 has that bloodthirst that have him chuck himself against a challenge without remorse for the consequences. A mindset that works best when you can live life like you were playing Dark Souls or Kenshiro.
I think Ethan’s worst, most visceral, enemy would be the Evil Twin. If you take Analog’s power and give it to someone really, really ruthless that has no concern for the well-being of anyone or anything, only overwhelming and constant amounts of opposing force would ever stop him.
Man that went dark quickly… and on a lot of levels. I wonder… depending on how you look at it Ethan’s line “I can’t stay dead” gives me a thought…
Does Ethan WANT to stay dead? His life is full of trauma (albeit some of it self-induced). It’d make a lot of sense if he had some depression issues, perhaps even suicidal thoughts… but he CAN’T commit suicide anymore… That line of thinking is even darker.
On a funnier side note. Lucas probably feels a bit worse about cutting Ethan in half during their “training” for that game tournament now
He just needs to use his power well…like Four, when she won free pizza!
The ability to die repeatedly means Ethan can willfully go into truly suicidal situations without any fear at all. I doubt anyone else can claim that strength.
On the other hand, it also makes him the perfect suicide bomber. Hmm…
“without any fear at all”? Really?
Dying may not faze him, but the pain of getting slowly mangled by giant cartoon gears* until he finally expires from crushing? He’s not OK with that, note his reactions every time he almost dies.
He’s not like the old Marvel Character “Madcap”, he’s not off the insanity cliff yet…but it looks like he might be inching closer.
* – insert any given “incredibly traumatic method of execution” here
Hmm, fair counterpoint. Okay, less fear than a normal person.
I dunno, if it were me, I’d probably hit a point where I’d actively start *trying* to stay dead.
I mean… If a psychic mind reader (who’s capable of experiencing the targets memories) tried reading Ethan’s mind. I’m not sure what he’d go insane/die from first; Ethan’s absolute idiocy that’s still somehow capable of functioning in modern day society, or the ridiculously numerous inexplicably stupid, and painful deaths he’s experienced.
I had exactly the same thoughts 🙂
Think I’ve figured out Ethan’s real hang-up with Game Boy: he knows what it’s like to die in just about every horrible way imaginable, and he knows herowork is dangerous. I think part of why he’s upset is because he doesn’t want the kid to go through something he knows in excruciating detail. Also, everyone’s making comments about Ethan’s sanity or what would happen if a mind-reading villain got a hold of him, and that makes me think. In the origin comic, Ethan seemed silly, but…normal. Lucas probably thinks Ethan got weirder because his power made him reckless, but what… Read more »
You made it darker. Wow.
Annnnd just like that Ethan’s power went from mildly cool to “more horrifying than ‘always-on’ mind reading”, which was my previous high water mark for “worst power to have”. Good god, why he isn’t a complete basket case by now is beyond me, he must have mental fortitude like nobody else on earth. Being subjected to MULTIPLE events that would drive any other person mad, sometimes on a daily basis and still have the sanity & self awareness to recognize he’s being unreasonably emotional and jealous about sometime, mid rant? That’s bananas.
You write incredible comic sir, thanks for that.