Comic fans know that the Mad Titan Thanos has been in love with the Marvel Universe’s personification of Death for ages. In the comics, Thanos even assembled the Infinity Gauntlet and killed half the population of the universe just to impress Death. His actions failed to sway “Mistress Death” who appeared throughout the Infinity Gauntlet saga as a silent, dour-faced woman with alternating skull and human faces.
However, Death can appear as many things to different people – as Deadpool discovered when he met and fell in love with a version of Death who appeared to him as a fun-loving party girl, indicating that Death has many sides to her personality. Yet Marvel Comics fans were shocked when they encountered one version of Death who was essentially the same Death from the DC Universe!
To fully appreciate the bizarreness of this, one must understand that in the DC Universe, Death has a very different appearance and demeanor from the Death usually seen in Marvel Comics. When legendary comic book writer Neil Gaiman created his version of Morpheus, the King of Dreams for his Sandman comic book (published under DC’s Vertigo imprint), he also introduced the concept of the Endless.
According to Gaiman, the Endless are the embodiment of powerful forces or aspects of the universe. Members include Dream (aka The Sandman/Morpheus), Destiny, Delirium, Destruction, Desire, Despair… and Death. Unlike the Death of the Marvel Universe, however, Gaiman’s Death is a cheerful, attractive young woman with a zest for life and a love for everyone and everything (as she puts it, it’s impossible for anyone to stay mad at anyone when they get to know them well – and Death gets to know everyone well). Drawn as a pale woman with long black hair and an ever-present Egyptian Ankh necklace, DC’s Death actually looks like someone people would want to hang out with.
Death proved so popular that Gaiman even wrote an acclaimed miniseries starring her called Death: The High Cost of Living which saw Death live one day of life as a mortal woman named “Didi.” Since then, Death has popped up multiple times in DC Comics to guide dead souls to their final destination. Despite her omnipresent nature, her activities seemed limited to the DC Universe… or so it seemed.
During writer Peter David’s celebrated run on The Incredible Hulk series, however, he dropped several hints that Death – and the rest of the Endless – have ties to the Marvel Universe as well. In The Incredible Hulk #399, Hulk’s sidekick Rick Jones bursts into Doctor Strange’s house begging the sorcerer to bring his dead fiancé Marlo Chandler (who had just been stabbed to death) back to life. Frantic, Rick tells Doctor Strange that a sorcerer like him “must be on a first name basis” with Death.
In response, Strange sardonically replies, “Rick, apparently you have me confused with Morpheus…” As Morpheus and Death have no established relationship in the Marvel Universe, Strange (and David) were clearly referencing Dream/Morpheus and Death from DC Comics. While this seemed like an offhand joke at first, several issues later, it turns out that Strange knew a lot more than he was letting on.
In The Incredible Hulk #418, Rick and Marlo (who had successfully been resurrected – although not by Doctor Strange) get married. After a chaotic ceremony involving multiple alien races and a visit from the Devil (long story), Marlo wanders by the buffet table where a pale skinned woman with long black hair is waiting for her. When Marlo asks if they had ever met, the woman (with her back to the camera) responds, “Briefly.” Promising Marlo that she guarantees Marlo and Rick will have a long and happy life together, the mystery woman hands Marlo a wedding gift then states, “I’d better take off before that Thanos creep shows up.”
While readers never got to see her face, the mystery woman was clearly DC’s Endless version of Death – who, apparently, was also the Death of the Marvel Universe given her comments about Thanos and his unwanted advances! Given that both Deaths were the personification of the universal expression of death, the link seems obvious – but it was still incredibly entertaining to see that Marvel’s dour-faced Death could also be DC’s kind and cheerful Death.
Since that issue, Death has appeared to Marlo several times – although not as her Endless version. Nevertheless, fans now know that the “Mistress Death” that Thanos fell in love with was also the peppy, charismatic Death of the DC Universe. Frankly, we’re beginning to understand the attraction…