Forever Evil #5 Takes Out a Hawkman Character

I finally got my copy of Forever Evil #5. Overall I am still really enjoying this series, but I have a petty sort of complaint which bugged me last issue, and really bothered me this issue.

SPOILERS for Forever Evil #5

Lex's team runs into resistance from the Society in #4, and among the crew is the new Shadow Thief.  Now, this alone is annoying, because the new Shadow Thief has not been shown to be a member of the Society, nor do her motivations suggest that she should be a member.  Her whole MO is to hunt down aliens on Earth.  She is not a thief in the same vein as Carl Sands was; she is called "thief" because she stole her shadow suit.  But I let it slide, because maybe there is a reason she is working for the Society and we just haven't seen it yet.

So then we get to issue #5, and the fight rages on.  And what goes down here?  That's right, Black Manta blasts Shadow Thief with his eye beams, and seemingly rips her in half.  

ARRRGH.

I am not one of those folks who complains about the level of violence in comics generally.  Forever Evil is a violent series and I'm cool with that.  But killing off the new Shadow Thief in such a throwaway bit is very irritating to me.  Here was a character who was introduced specifically for the New 52, had a different identity, backstory, gender, and motivation from the previous version.  Even the way that her powers were presented was different than what had come before.  This was an original take on the concept of the Shadow Thief, which has been around for 50 years at this point.  

And blam, there she goes, dead as fodder to put over a character who doesn't need any more putting over at this point.  I mean, Johns has successfully established Black Manta as a "bad dude" going back to Brightest Day.  Does he need to kill a character like Shadow Thief at this point to earn any more "cred?"

Talk about a waste.  For all the net-marks kvetch and complain about how the New 52 has no diversity and is "just doing the same things over and over," why has the offing of a character which is both diverse and different from what has come before not generated even a peep from the normally breathlessly-offended internet comics community?  

I know I am going to be shocked (shocked!) when in a year or so, a new new Shadow Thief shows up to fight some iteration of the Justice League, and it's (wait for it) Carl Sands.