Drax, Life's champion succeeded in his purpose by destroying Death's champion, Thanos. So Life triumphed over Death by killing.
Perhaps you've heard the phrase "Death is just a part of life". Well, the scenario above seems to both agree with and refute that statement.
On the one hand, if death was a part of life, life couldn't really defeat it. Your toe is a part of you, if you smash it with a hammer, you didn't really "defeat" your toe. Well, you may have, but you haven't done yourself any favors in the process. So if Life can defeat Death, then they're separate entities. Or if we want to go more, abstract, one's childhood shapes the person they become. You can try to "defeat" whatever effect it had on you, but by doing that, you're verifying the effect, by your response to it.
On the other hand, Life defeated Death through death. Which does imply a connectivity between the two, if Life must beat Death at its own game. It's a loop, Death (acting through Thanos) will kill large numbers of people, so Life (acting through Drax) stops Death by killing. This singular act of Death preserves a much larger proportion of Life. Needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one?
It strikes me as rather strange. Wouldn't life triumph through another method, like giving Thanos a hug, and teaching him there are better ways to court Death? Really, flowers, candy, a nice stroll through the stars, something to take Death's mind off the fact that it's Death, and many people have a strong dislike for it. That could become a tad depressing eventually, assuming that a driving force in the universe is allowed to contemplate its existence, rather than simply carrying out its purpose.
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2 comments:
Well with yesterday's question, the Phoenix might be the embodiment of Life.
Way back in the original Excalibur run Galactus made a comment that Phoenix's power drew energy from the future life potential of the universe.
The more recent Phoenix-focused stories haven't touched on that as much, focusing more on the Morrison-developed "White Hot Room," and being the guardian of Reality as a whole.
As for Life using "touchy-feely" means to change death, don't forget how messy Life is. Life is bloody, destructive and constantly evolving and changing. So killing one to save the many actually fits the Life concept to some degree. Life gets to Point B by evolving as a whole from Point A and therefore the individual doesn't matter.
In a way you could probably say that Death needs a champion, because Life has every living thing as a champion (which is also why Death's champion usually requires dozens of heroes to actually stop him).
seangreyson: Yeah, I probably should have thrown something in there about biology being the study of life, and in biology it's pretty clear that for one organism to survive (or an entire species to survive), other organisms have to perish, either as food, or by being outcompeted.
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