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The webcomic Loving Reaper tackles a very difficult subject in an innovative way that simultaneously highlights both tragedy and hope.
Heroes and villains dedicate their entire lives to either preventing or causing the deaths of others, and many of them have lost their own lives while attempting to save or end someone else’s. However, thanks to the fantastical nature of comics, death can be reversed as easily as it can be inflicted, and the tragic deaths of heroes like Doctor Strange and the supposed final defeats of villains like the Batman Who Laughs could easily be undone through advanced medical technology, magic, time travel, or the intervention of higher powers. While this does give fan-favorite characters a chance to make a triumphant comeback, it also undermines the seriousness of death by turning it into a trivial affair that can be easily dealt with.
In contrast, the webcomic Loving Reaper (by Jenni Jinya) takes a more realistic approach to death by exploring the topic through the eyes of Death himself, portrayed as a stereotypical grim reaper. Through this unique perspective, Loving Reaper approaches the difficult subject of death with a sense of empathy and understanding that many mainstream comics fail to capture, painting the end of existence as a tragic but necessary part of life that deserves to be handled with responsibility and respect.
Many stories have been told from the perspective of the personification of death, but Loving Reaper offers a unique spin on the traditional trope by focusing on the reaper’s encounters with recently-deceased animals. As an advocacy comic, Loving Reaper addresses the issues of environmentalism and animal abuse, and the webcomic doesn’t pull any punches in this regard. Many of the animals that Death encounters died as a direct result of humanity’s carelessness or cruelty, whether they are pets neglected by their owners or wild animals poached for their body parts. As a result of their traumas, many of these animals are unable to pass on from this world, haunted by the doubts and regrets that they hold or completely unaware of the fact that they died, and the fear, rage, and sadness that these creatures express as they wander a world that they no longer belong to is as heartbreaking as it is anger-inducing.
However, much like Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, Loving Reaper doesn’t treat death as a complete tragedy. Despite his foreboding appearance, Death is portrayed as a deeply empathetic figure who goes out of his way to give the recently departed the emotional reassurance they need to move on from their lives. Rather than allow a dog to believe that it somehow let its neglectful owners down or watch wordlessly as an abused circus lion laments his fate, Death offers them comfort, assuring them that their lives were never defined by their relationship with the humans who caused their deaths and swearing to protect and provide for them in the afterlife. Through Death’s actions and words, Loving Reaper stresses the seriousness of death while offering a surprisingly gentle take on the difficult subject that directly encourages the reader to treat the lives of animals with greater respect.
Loving Reaper‘s depiction of death is a notable departure from the one presented in most mainstream comics. Death is a somewhat common occurrence in many comic book universes, as heroes, villains, and innocent civilians have met their end in the never-ending battle between good and evil. However, because of that prevalence, death tends to lose some of its importance, and the many casualties left in the wake of the latest grand battle between heroes and villains often become mere numbers meant to demonstrate the severity of the current threat. Even if established heroes and villains do end up dying, their fates are likely to be undone later.
Unlike the real world, the Marvel and DC universes are full of fantastic technology and mystical forces, and many of them are capable of bringing the dead back to life. Events like DC’s Dark Knights Death Metal (by Scott Synder and Greg Capullo) and Marvel’s King in Black (by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman) feature genocide on a galactic scale, but the massive loss of life is either completely glossed over or undone thanks to the intervention of greater cosmic beings, rendering the loss of life inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Without permanence, death loses much of its meaning, and both the sacrifices that heroes make and the atrocities that villains commit become less and less impactful.
Through its simplicity and commitment to its core message, Loving Reaper reminds us that death is an inescapable part of life that deserves to be treated seriously. Although they’ve never pretended to be realistic, DC and Marvel could learn a few things about accurately portraying death from this whimsically dark webcomic.
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