This is more of a question for the pros (that means geeks, ha-ha) at http://www.comicbookresources.com , but I figured you - or we - should take some time to think about it.

If anyone really powerful maybe Lucifer Morningstar, were to fight Death, then what?

Fist we ought to look at her offensive capablilities. Can she actually kill anyone? She hasn't done it AFAIK; her function is simply to take the dead to their afterlife. Even poor Raine Blackwell, she could only tell how to end her own life. Bizarre as it may seem - though it makes a lot of sense to me, after thinking about it - Death can't kill anyone.

Secondly, defensive potential. Death has never been in a fight, on or between panels. So we don't know if she's physically tougher than she looks. Of course you want to think she is, this is Death we're talking about, man and so on, but there's no evidence to back these rumors, so we must assume they are false.

It seems very likely that Death could die, just like her siblings. (Despair and Dream seems to be the only ones who has died, but anyway.)

Now, we can assume that the one Endless who doesn't have a cerement, and a burial ceremony, is either Death or Destiny, and my money is on Death. Destiny will die before her, after all. My guess is that if Death should ever die, there will be a simple ceremony, maybe just a pile of rocks (Pardon the harshness, I forgot the proper english word), maybe less than that. And of course, instantly or nearly instantly, a new incarntation of Death. Maybe one without a sense of humor ...

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Originally posted by Iskall eld:
If anyone really powerful maybe Lucifer Morningstar, were to fight Death, then what?

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Endless are ideas. Death won't cease to exist until she puts away the universe. She can "die" like Dream can die, i.e., she can't die, just change points of view kinda sorta.
Fights? she has no set form. A prefered form, yes, but not a set form. Lucifer does have a set form (if I remember Sandman correctly. Haven't read the spin off series) Hows this for a fight: Death takes a form the size of the universe and sits on Lucifer.

And Death can kill, it's just againast the rules. If she kills, there would be consequences, just like the Endless can't kill a family member without consequences.

*shrugs* off the topic of my head answers.

My response can be found here: http://www.comicbookresources.com/community/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=178157

Oh well, I see she could actually fight. In a funny way.

The question then is: Does she want to? She knows what it's like to die, and to be dead. She's not afraid of death. (Then she'd be afraid of herself, duh.)

And she is quite the pacifist. The most violent thing she's ever done, i bet, is to throw bread at Dream. Would she kill anyone, even to save her own life? I somehow doubt that.
Would she really risk to kill Lucifer, with all the onsequences it would bear, and the unbalance it would create, also? I don't belive that for a second.

Pile of rocks over burial = Cairn. or sometimes Caern or even Cairne. depending on *which* english (welsh, scot, eire) you're using...

oh...and i thought she DID die...(SPOILER ALERT - but if you haven't read it yet, that's your fault) somewhere during "Time of Your Life"...? again, long time since my last read, so don't quote me...


then again, maybe she was just pining for the fjords...

Huh? Hmm, it's been long since i read TTOYL too ... but why should she have died there?

Thanks for the word anyway.

My guess is no, Death can't die. If only because she has to be there to turn the lights out. I don't know why that would preclude her from simply changing facets like Dream, but mentally, it does in my mind.

Also, the fact that Death is her domain, and I find it hard to believe if you did kill a mortal version of her, you wouldn't just send her back to the Sunless Lands, where once again semi-Endless-Immortal, she could go back to where you were and kick your butt.

I think it's implied that Death could kick butt if she wanted to. Dream threatens Desire in the Doll's House, that he will get the elder three on its butt if it doesn't leave him alone. He specifically mentions Death, I believe.

Well, just my personal thoughts, of course, YMMV.

And in SoM, Death says:
"Shut up, Desire. If you ever want to speak again ... shut up.

That really says it all, doesn't it.
*massages goosebumps*

NOOO!!! Please keep the rumbles in the rumble boards. I know our uber-geekness needs to know if Goku can beat the Saint of Killers or if the Enterprise can fight the Millenium falcon, but there is a place for everything .... it's all fine and dandy in the rumbles board, where it belongs .. but here ... here it's just obcene.

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Originally posted by Bat-Mite:
NOOO!!! Please keep the rumbles in the rumble boards. I know our uber-geekness needs to know if Goku can beat the Saint of Killers or if the Enterprise can fight the Millenium falcon, but there is a place for everything .... it's all fine and dandy in the rumbles board, where it belongs .. but here ... here it's just obcene.

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I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. There is nothing here about any Dragon Ball Z or Star Wars crap, just a simple question on if Death can die. Its a relevant question, that has lead to a very thought provoking discussion and some very interesting points. Perhaps the idea of the topic was brought in from a "rumble thread" but this discussion isn't really questioning if any lame popular culture creations can kill another comic book creation. It has more to do with "can the living anthromorphic projection of Death die, and if so how and what would happen."
This incarnation of Death is Neil's creation and fits here as much as any topic on what turned Delight to Delerium, or the real reason for Morpheous's death.
Nothing obscene about it.

I know how these things go, the first posts starts with "Can Lucifer beat Death?" Soon will be asking if Spider-Man or DarthVader can do the same ....

But, anyway, to answer the original question.

No, Death cannot die unless she wants to.

I mean, let's think about it, Death controls Death, she is the thing itself. If Death doesn't want to die, what you can you do about it? Nothing, Death can only die if she wants to, cause she has full control of the very act of dying.

And by the way, Death did not die in "Time of your life", she sorta died in "The High Cost of Living", but it wasn't really like Death dying, because Death didn't die, Didi died, and Didi was just some sort of Death proxy to live for a day, after all, as Didi confirmed, Death was working collecting people while Didi was eating hot dogs and trapped in some guy's basement.

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Originally posted by Bat-Mite:
I know how these things go, the first posts starts with "Can Lucifer beat Death?" Soon will be asking if Spider-Man or DarthVader can do the same ....

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*shrugs* who cares if it does. Skip the rumble threads if you don't like them.

Sorry... but I've been spending as much time on the Rumbles Board as I have here, and since i already answered the question there I figured i'd just post the link. Besides, the You vs the World and "Gift of Divinity" threads are cool... but wait... Bat-Mite, if you got here, does that mean other Rumbles posters might invade? If so, I can see your fear... but the normal posters wouldn't normal do fight threads, or at least randoms stupid ones.

the (God of Meaning) floyd

There's a time and place for everything, and a very specific place for comic book rumbles. Fear not.

But that's an interesting wiew. Death can't die, unless she wants to. Maybe she would want to, rather than killing Lucifer and disturbe the great order of things. She doesn't lose much, if anything, should she die.
Since she's perfect, I doubt another Incarnation of her would be different in any way.

Alright, people, obviously you simply haven't been reading your Gaiman.

If you read the original books of magic (TPB, or the four comics, I don't care): in the final part, Erik takes Tim to the end of time. The only two left are Destiny and Death. All others are gone. Death comes for destiny, and sends Tim and Erik back to the now. But once everything is over, Death is over. She is, esentially, dead. She ceases to be. Becuase the universe has ceased to be.

Now, you asked if she could die, not if she could be killed. That is a very different question. But I have to say I find the concept of trying to kill the anthropromorphic personificiation of the end of life kinda odd.

And Time of Your Life is about how one day in every century Death takes mortal form to know what it is she takes from we mortals. And whoevers life it is she takes dies at the end of the day, because they were going to anyway, and so her incarnation dies.

But she's so many places at once, it would be hard to really kill her. Remember Sound of her Wings? Death is everywhere she is needed, always.

I hate to mention Piers Anthony... but in Riding a Pale Horse, he starts with the Incarnation of Death getting shot... a new one takes his place. I figure this incarnation of Death could die if she wants to...

the (ehhh) floyd

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Originally posted by reabhecc:
Alright, people, obviously you simply haven't been reading your Gaiman.

If you read the original books of magic (TPB, or the four comics, I don't care): in the final part, Erik takes Tim to the end of time. The only two left are Destiny and Death. All others are gone. Death comes for destiny, and sends Tim and Erik back to the now. But once everything is over, Death is over. She is, esentially, dead. She ceases to be. Becuase the universe has ceased to be.

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Ah, no no no.... It was never implied that she died. Death said, and I quote from memory:

"This is the end, I have to put the chairs on the table and lock the place before I leave"

or something like that..

She says leave, not die .... leave where? beats me.

And remember "Brief Lives", Dream and Destruction have the idea that Death will survive the current version of the universe and live to see the next one. For all we know, she was there in the old one.

Aye. My personal theory is that The Voice In The Room Of Cerements In The Catacombs Beneath Necropolis Litharge, which we in lack of another name could call "Life"; well, it's the mother of the Endless, and it and Death alone will survive this universe, and ignite the Big Bang of the next.

Life and Death as "more endless than the Endless" beings, that makes sense, and it's cool too.

This would be not the first time someone suggested that there is a 'mother Endless' out there that we don't know about. For a long time I was divided on the issue, until I read this:

http://lubakmetyk.hispeed.com/others/vanallen/wrappingitup.htm

That's what I choose to believe about the Endless now. I don't think anyone could write it better.