Years ago, there was a comic book called Strikeforce Morituri. The name came from the latin phrase "Morituri te salutant", meaning "We who are about to die, salute you." It's what the gladiators of Ancient Roman said to the crowd right before they killed one another.
The premise of the book was that Earth was being attacked by a pack of aliens that we really couldn't beat. (It's a common enough theme, I know) Some of the best and brightest discovered that they could give a human being superpowers, enabling them to actually fight and win against the Aliens; but the superpowers wrecked havoc on the bearers and eventually killed them. I think the average person so gifted lasted about a year as a superhero, fighting for the people of Earth and basically making the ultimate sacrifice.
Heady stuff for a comic book when I was twelve years old. I don't think it was ever particularly successful, in part because the themes were pretty dark, and the anti-hero revolution of comic books was yet to occur. It also didn't have a long-term recognizable lead character – imagine killing off Spider-Man in a year. Every year.
Dark stuff.
What made me think of this was the recent death of a professional wrestler named Bam Bam Bigelow. He was just found dead at age 45. I'm not a big fan of professional wrestling – I was, for a time, like lots of men – but I find it morbid as hell that so many professional wrestlers die young. Whether it's steriods or pain killer abuse or just the incredible strains on their bodies, it seems that the average lifespan of a professional wrestler is somewhere in their mid-40's. It's not true for all of them – Hulk Hogan and Rick Flair are both still going, I believe, and Rick Flair is probably in his 60's. But over the last few years I've heard of dozens of them checking out – various causing of death, but largely I suspect it's the wear and tear on their bodies along with whatever chemical cocktails they tried to use to dull the pain.
If you could trade your life for one year as a superhero, would you do it?
–Robert