A common narrative convention within the superhero genre is death being a temporary setback instead of the permanent nature of it that is true. Two comics that take this convention to the next level is Strange Adventures: The Immortal Man - Issue 190 and The Old Guard: Issue 1, which feature heroes whose power focuses on being able to come back from the dead.

While the Immortal Man has the genre conventional state of grace, where regardless of the number of times he has died he continues to use his powers to protect mankind, the members of the Old Guard do not hold that same unshakeable will and unchangeable dedication to saving the world. From the start of issue one, Andy tells the reader how tired she is of the endless cycle of life and death and the group are mercenaries that use their powers to earn money. The Immortal man is a hero that has the pro-social mission of using his powers to protect humanity. The Old Guard are antiheroes where money is an important motivation, but they still do the “right thing” in the end. Even though it’s determined to be a risky job and not within their practices of avoiding working with someone they’ve worked with before, the Old Guard refuse to turn their back on a job when they’re told children were kidnapped in the first issue.

This difference in the characters can be explained by realizing that The Old Guard is a hybrid of the superhero genre and the war genre. In The Immortal Man, there is no shown struggle of life-and-death. The Old Guard shows the wear that this cycle of life-and-death through combat has taken a toll on these characters and even suggests a futility to war and helping people even if the heroes have these powers that can make a difference. Andy actively wishes for death as seen in the first pages of the issue. Before Nile even knows she has this immortal power, she is shown giving her life in a futile moment that isn’t glorious combat but simply attempting to complete a mission for the military.

There are several shared themes between these two works despite the time gap. Both sets of heroes are shown to be resourceful, have a sense of duty, and are seen as the wielders of power. The Immortal man finds ways to use both his past experiences and his environment in his fight against a monster that has attacked the city in Strange Adventures 190. The Old Guard use contacts they’ve made over the years to complete a mission and their own fighting experience to complete their missions. Both feel the requirement to get involved when innocent people are in danger with the Immortal Man saving citizens from an earthquake and the Old Guard taking a job to rescue kidnapped children. Both the Immortal Man and the Old Guard group wield this power of being able to come back to life. What’s put into question with this theme in particular is if the Old Guard is abusing this power. The Immortal man gives up his life at the end of issue 190 despite his desire to pursue a relationship with Helen, giving up the selfish option in favor of saving innocent people. While the Old Guard group does take a job that is against their protocol because of the involvement of innocent people, they are still mercenaries instead of the typical vigilante whose end goal is justice, often featured in the superhero genre.

The way that the Immortal Man uses his powers to save people, specifically from a shape changing monster and not challenge the dominant ideology of America during the era when it was published. He is seen almost working alongside law enforcement and only using his powers against the monster, keeping with the Comics Code of the time that prohibited the displaying of anything that might inspire crimes to be committed to actions to be taken against the law. The Immortal Man is only seen stepping in when law enforcement have already been stumped by the challenge of handling the monster. The Old Guard group is different in this aspect because they are actively working outside of the law and using explicit violence to complete their missions. Because The Old Guard was published in a different era that was not bound by the Comics Code in order to be distributed by big retailers, it does not have to abide by these rules. It questions the ability of government organizations ruled by laws and later in the series even takes one of the characters, Nile, away from her position in the military because if her status as an immortal was found out she would not be treated fairly. It brings into question how much someone can trust a government with protecting people or if a military would even protect their own if the possibility for profit or scientific discovery was on the line.

One of the most recognizable visual conventions of the superhero genre are skintight spandex suits that the heroes wear. Both The Immortal Man and The Old Guard reject the convention of skintight spandex suits and detailed musculature for their heroes. While in another rendition of The Immortal Man in Strange Adventures 185 does feature the Immortal Man as Jungle Man, dressed only in a leopard loincloth and fairly sculpted muscles, this is the outlier because later in that same issue as well as in Strange Adventures 190 and Strange Adventures 198 feature the Immortal Man dressed in everyday clothes that aren’t particularly form fitting. The Old Guard group are dressed for convenience in their work as mercenaries, or as a soldier in regards to Nile in this first issue, in dark tactical clothing, vests to carry supplies, and outfitted with weapons. For The Immortal Man, this rejection of convention could be seen as a part of the movement within the Era of Identity to make characters more relatable as an average, everyday person like how the Green Lantern’s identity during this era was a test pilot. This also plays into the superhero convention of characters having a secret identity. With each life, the Immortal Man has a different secret identity. In issue 190 he is working an office job at a publication company. The Old guard also have a secret identity but not in the conventional sense that they live average, everyday lives but instead that their identities themselves are needed to be kept secret and they must remain a secret as immortals.

As a solo hero, The Immortal Man is used as an aspirational figure that continues to give his life to help others. He hopes for a chance at his romance with Helen, whom he has run into during several of his different lives but doesn’t hold back saving someone to do so. It’s because he gives his life for selfless reasons that he is a hero instead of using his immortal lives for himself. That is one of the biggest appeals of The Immortal Man. The Old Guard pushes against this selflessness by bringing the effect of countless deaths on the human psyche into question. Bringing psychology into comic books became popular with the Era of Ambition alongside the deconstruction of the superhero genre conventions. The reader specifically gets insight from Andy’s perspective of being tired of the repeated cycle in direct thoughts and through her behavior of having several different sexual partners without caring about their names. Her own teammates point out her lack of care for keeping a schedule unless it’s directly related to work. One of the biggest pleasures readers can get out of The Old Guard is the friendship between the heroes. It gives another dimension to the characters through their banter with each other and closeness.

“The Immortal Man” by Jack Sparling and The Old Guard by Greg Rucka both feature immortal characters, but it’s the humanity shown for the characters in The Old Guard in their suffering over their countless deaths and the friendships the immortals share with each other that keeps its popularity beyond just when it was published and why the series has already had one movie adaptation with a sequel in the works on Netflix. The story shows complex characters beyond just being selfless heroes, like the Immortal Man who’s near perfect dedication to the fight for good can make him hard to relate to. Those complex feelings of loss, frustration, and resentment towards their own powers lets the audience see them as more than just a figure and captures the hearts of many.