A crisis is coming to DC Comics this fall, but it's an event unlike the DC Universe has ever seen before. Instead of cosmic entities and alternate universes, Tom King, Clay Mann and Mitch Gerads' Heroes in Crisis will be far more grounded in reality. Hoping to take on a real-world issue, the series will attempt to tackle gun violence following a mass shooting inside Sanctuary, a crisis center for superheroes. The only question will be how the events within the series will actually be handled.

Tom King has been very vocal about his desire to explore and address the trauma that superheroes face on a regular basis. He developed the concept of Sanctuary as an in-universe shelter from the violence they deal with every day. However, despite several name drops in recent months, we have yet to see the actual facility in question, and now Heroes in Crisis — where the whole thing goes terribly wrong — is almost here.

RELATED: Doomsday Clock May Have Just Spoiled Who Dies in Heroes in Crisis

Seemingly in opposition to how King talks about the project, DC marketing has placed all its focus on the murders that will take place at the beginning of the story. While King describes the concept as a means to discuss real issues, DC really wants you to know that one of your favorite superheroes is going to die, with house ads in DC Nation, the publisher's industry magazine, focusing on the tease. One ad giving you a lineup of characters and saying three of them are accused of murder. Another ad claims two of the assembled heroes WILL DIE.

The question then becomes what is the actual focus of this series. Will it be a thoughtful exploration of gun violence and trauma or a whodunnit capped off with a double homicide involving your favorite DC heroes? But what about the characters whose lives hang in the balance? Death in comics may not mean what it once did, but for two characters to be shot down in such a violent and graphic way leaves a certain kind of permanence to it all. Of course, it's not as easy to come back from a gunshot wound as it may be from an explosion or cosmic incursion event.

RELATED: Green Arrow Sends Another DC Hero to Sanctuary

If DC really plans to kill two major characters, will their deaths be worth it? Can their deaths ever be worth it? When you kill off a character, you lose the ability to market them and tell new stories. At this point, DC and its readers have narrowed things down to three prime candidates for the meat grinder: Tim Drake aka Red Robin, Roy Harper aka Arsenal, and Green Lantern Kyle Rayner. The publisher seems to be focusing its attention on characters who aren't the focus of an ongoing series. But DC doesn't have to kill these characters; it doesn't have to kill anyone, and there are many reasons why.

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DC Needs To Leave Tim Drake Alone

Red Robin meeting Mr. OZ

DC keeps trying to kill Tim Drake. There are so many Robins the publisher doesn't even know what to do with them all. Dick Grayson headlines Nightwing; Jason Todd is the leader of Red Hood and the Outlaws, and Damian Wayne is now in charge of his new Teen Titans. DC kicked off Rebirth with Tim as the promising young leader of the Gotham Knights over in Detective Comics, but he spent the better part of a year off the board following his "death." After his return and subsequent brush with fascism, Tim is now exactly where he was before -- nowhere.

For someone who was such a huge part of Gotham City in the '90s and early 2000s, it's sad to see how far he has fallen from the public eye. This is a character who supported his own ongoing Robin series for 183 issues before it was finally canceled (not for low sales) in 2009 to make way for a new Batman and Robin. His next series, Red Robin, again only ended because of the New 52 relaunch. Tim Drake has more than proven he has staying power, yet DC seems to have no desire to let him stay.

RELATED: Batman Submits to Harley Quinn on Heroes in Crisis Cover

For a good portion of the New 52 era, Tim Drake only existed in the context of Teen Titans, with very few interactions with the extended Bat Family. Now that leader of the Teen Titans has been taken from him, he no longer has a place in the DC Universe, queuing him up for elimination. However, Tim Drake left Detective Comics looking for a new life outside of being a superhero. If that's where the character stands, and DC has no idea what to do with him, it should just leave him alone. Let Tim enjoy his life on the sidelines until a creator comes along with a better idea than simply gunning him down in cold blood. After all, Tim is still just a kid, and how would murdering a teenage superhero really look?

DC Needs To Let The Arrow Family Live

green-arrow-arsenal-header

If you ever wondered why Arrow has so many archers hanging around, it's because The CW series pays homages to its comic book counterpart. Dating back nearly 20 years, the adventures of Oliver Queen have been defined by the company he keeps. Dinah Lance, Roy Harper, Connor Hawke and Mia Dearden created a family for the Emerald Archer that DC has been adamant about splitting up almost as soon as they put it together.

Just when Green Arrow and Black Canary were going to tie the knot, Connor was nearly killed. Then Arsenal's kid was killed and Roy was sent back into a whirl of drugs and anger that he never truly recovered from. This family was one of the biggest casualties of the New 52 relaunch, but right when Oliver has started to reform his family, one member is placed in the crosshairs.

RELATED: Heroes in Crisis Means A Total Shift in the DC Universe As We Know It

Arsenal doesn't have much to do since his Titans team was disbanded, so it looks like DC is setting him up as a potential casualty. If the publisher were to do that, it would be a real shame based on what Shawna Benson, Julie Benson and Javier Fernandez have teased at the start of their run on Green Arrow. Oliver and Roy are buddies again, and they are more than hero and sidekick -- they are partners. Bringing back that relationship is more than just a change of status quo; it is a sign of growth for both their characters. For this new focus to just be a setup for Arsenal's eventual fall would be a true tragedy, because we've seen this before and it doesn't really work.

Kyle Rayner Deserves Better

There are now six Earth-based Green Lanterns, and it's impossible to give all of them the attention they deserve. However, it doesn't mean the solution is to kill one of them. Kyle Rayner was created to be the one and only Green Lantern following Hal Jordan's fall from grace, but when the rest of Lanterns came back, DC Comics lost all understanding of what to do with him. DC tried making Kyle stand out as Ion and the White Lantern, while making him one of the guys in Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps, but nothing has made him truly stand out.

The problem with killing a Green Lantern is another one is just going to take their place. If Kyle Rayner dies, his ring will seek out a new wielder, and chances are it will end up on the finger of another Earthling. Therefore, what is DC truly gaining if by eliminating Kyle, they replace him with a new recruit? At that point, you're just rearranging furniture instead of actually building something new out of what you have.

RELATED: Heroes in Crisis: New Details (and a New Artist) Emerge

Given Tom King's history writing Kyle Rayner as the Omega Lantern in his and artist Barnaby Bagenda's The Omega Men series, you would imagine the writer has a plan for the character. Perhaps out of all three heroes likely to die, he is the one with the best chance to survive -- but the fact he's fallen so far as to be lumped in with the other suspects is truly telling. DC continues to put all its focus on Hal Jordan, despite fan desire to see literally anyone else take center stage. Putting Kyle on the chopping block is actually the opposite of what the fans want, so why make a spectacle of it?

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What Can We Really Expect From Heroes in Crisis?

Heroes In Crisis - Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and more all looking sad while mourning.

Death in comics has become a pretty boring and lazy concept over the years, so no matter who ends up dead, fans are bound to be disappointed and upset. It would be a bad marketing move to center an entire story around the death of characters who don't really deserve such a fate. Going out a hero is one thing, but murdering someone in cold blood as they seek solace from emotional and physical trauma is an incredibly evil editorial direction. It's a new level of tone deafness that the comic book industry doesn't need.

We have seen enough from Tom King, Clay Mann and Mitch Gerards to know they can be trusted in their storytelling. However, no one ever bats 1.000 in baseball, so comic book creators are bound to miss on some things. Will this story be worth all the death and trauma, or has DC warped the once thought-provoking idea of Heroes in Crisis into an Identity Crisis-level travesty for a new generation? Maybe Booster Gold will just travel back in time and prevent it all from happening. Only time will tell.