Appearances
Death appeared in Captain Atom #42-43 (June–July 1990), alongside the Black Racer as one of several aspects of Death in the DC Universe. Gaiman reportedly took issue with this depiction, feeling that portraying her as merely an aspect of death diminished her importance.[16] Other DC Universe comics that feature Death include the satirical Ambush Bug Nothing Special one-shot (Sep. 1992), and a cameo in the equally satirical Lobo comic book Lobo's Back #3 (Oct. 1992), in which she slaps Lobo for getting fresh with her. She observes the destruction of the Earth in Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 4 #38 (Dec. 1992).
Death's popularity saw her spun off into two solo miniseries, Death: The High Cost of Living (1993), and Death: The Time of Your Life (1996). Both were written by Gaiman and illustrated by Chris Bachalo, and dealt with Death's encounters with various mortals. Death: The High Cost of Living became the first comic released under the newly instigated Vertigo branding in 1993, at which point The Sandman also moved from the DC to Vertigo imprint. A third miniseries, The Girl who Would Be Death by Caitlín R. Kiernan, was about a girl who purchased an ankh stolen from Death and tried to become her. Death is never actually seen in the series, but she speaks and acts in the third and fourth issues of the four-issue series.
In 2003, the manga-style graphic novel Death: At Death's Door portrayed Death's activities during the fourth Sandman story arc Season of Mists. It was written and illustrated by Jill Thompson, and the format proved popular enough for Thompson to produce the similarly manga-influenced follow-up Dead Boy Detectives, featuring minor Sandman characters, and "featuring a cameo by Death".[17]
A one-shot issue titled Death Gallery (1994) was released as one of several art showcase comics from DC Comics spotlighting various Sandman characters released between 1994 and 1995. The Death Gallery featured representations of Death by more than thirty comics artists, including a rough sketch by Gaiman himself. In Endless Nights (2003) Gaiman shows Death several billion years ago, with a markedly different personality — forbidding and joyless.
She also appears in The Books of Magic (first volume, 1991, also written by Gaiman) at the very end of time, where her function is to set things in order and close the universe down. She meets Timothy Hunter and Mister E there after Mister E has taken Timothy all the way to the end of time, because only there can he kill Timothy without fear of interference. Death stops the murder on the grounds that "I took both of you billions of years ago". She sends Timothy back home, but forces Mister E to return the hard way.[18] John Ney Rieber included her in The Books of Magic (vol. 2 #3-4), in which she lets Timothy Hunter hang out at her house and hold her teddy bear, Cavendish, while he is recovering from the venom of the Manticore. Hunter later encounters Death walking in the rain in The Books of Magic #25, and there was later an arc about her in Hunter: The Age of Magic. In Hellblazer #120, Death appears briefly in a pub filled with ghosts.
She also appeared in Mike Carey's Lucifer series when the eponymous main character was wounded and nearly died. Initially it appears that Death has actually arrived for Lucifer, but in fact she is there for Elaine Belloc who dies (temporarily) saving Lucifer's life. Death admits she has arrived a little early and takes the opportunity to talk to Lucifer who is currently trapped between life and death.
In Madame Xanadu, the title character calls out to her while chained up and denied access to her youth potions during the French Revolution. As she is a survivor from the days of King Arthur, she grows very old very quickly without them. She summons Death and reads her own cards, interpreting her Death card as predictive of her future destiny on earth. Death is so amused by this interpretation that she grants Madame Xanadu immortality, revocable any time Xanadu wishes.[19] Death appeared in Action Comics #894, which was written by Paul Cornell. Gaiman helped write Death's dialogue to ensure that her characterization remained consistent with The Sandman.[16][20] In the story, while searching for a black power ring, Lex Luthor encounters her.[21] She appears again in issue #900 and in The Flash (vol. 3) #6, part of the Brightest Day crossover.
Quasi-canonical appearances
In the AIDS-awareness eight-page comic Death Talks About Life by Gaiman and McKean (which was first included in various Vertigo titles, and later released as a stand-alone giveaway pamphlet), Death demonstrates safe sex by placing a condom on a banana held by John Constantine. Lightening the impact of the underlying message, she informs the reader that when one is through with the demonstration, "you can eat the banana".[22] This was used in high school health classes and is also reprinted as an addendum to the Death: The High Cost of Living trade paperback.
This version of Death also made a cameo appearance in the crossover special Avengers/JLA #2. She is represented in the Grandmaster's home base, alongside Deadman, Hela and the purple-robed version of Death native to the Marvel Universe, which, as the plots of other crossover comics have hinged upon, exists in the same continuum of fictional universes as DC's. Marvel's version of Death appears alternatively as a coldly beautiful woman in a purple robe or a walking skeleton (sometimes male and sometimes female in form, depending upon the context).
She made an appearance in the Marvel Universe, at the wedding of Rick Jones and
