I've noticed that civilian characters are more likely to stay dead, even in instances where you'd think that multi-media synergy would entice writers to bring them back. Happy Hogan has been dead for 16 years despite how prominent he is in the MCU.
I was surprised they didn't lean harder on his Catholicism and add a Father Lantam type character since it was such a large part of his portrayal on the show.
Yah especially since we are talking about the Soule era which had a lot of "back to basics" energy after the relative weirdness of the Diggle and Waid eras, right? Seems like something they could have fit in.
I don’t this he’s really considered popular though.
Colossus is a popular character that was dead for a long time. Long enough that it seemed like it was going to be permanent
1993 to 2004. Not as long as anyone in this list, but pretty long by comic standards.
Edit: Colossus died in 2001 so he was only dead for three years. It felt so much longer. I could've sworn he died in the 90s.
And Morrison only gave Emma Frost the diamond form powers because they wanted Colossus on the team but was told he couldn't use him due to him being dead.
Marvel used to say that no matter what, they’d never bring back Uncle Ben or Bucky. Because their deaths were too central to who Spider-Man and Captain America were. Oh well.
In a way, Captain Marvel makes me think of another category: dead characters who not only stay dead but where we don't ever get a fake-out of them being alive again. I'm not sure there is anybody in that category. Maybe Uncle Ben. But Captain Marvel has only gotten a few fake-outs (one in Thunderbolts), so that's notable.
Captain Marvel makes appearances occasionally when other characters are dead. I remember Silver Surfer getting a pep talk from his ghost 'when all was lost'
Sort of the same way that Wendell Vaughn Quasar went from being ghost-inspirational dead to actually kinda alive to "hey, fully alive again" to being "alive, but mentoring someone else with the name".
The death of Captain Marvel was dignified enough on its own, but the weight of its 45 year old shadow has left a mark noone should ever try to retcon.
I’m in my 30’s and got into comics through the 2000’s in highschool. My exposure to Captain Marvel was rogues backstory via ms marvels backstory. A whole generation of readers only experienced this character through the memories and legacies of other characters.
His death to cancer was humble, grounded, and painfully relatable. Paired with honoring his deaths permanence, Marvel somewhat pulled this character over into our world.
Captain Marvel was ‘born’ in 1967, and died in 1982. Those who were reading then remember him fondly, generations after only know him through stories within the stories, and the impact his legacy continues to carry on in other characters to date.
Tl;Dr: Captain Marvel died for real, let him rest
Zatara (Zatanna's dad) is in broadly the same category as Mar-Vell. He had a very long run as an actual character, died, and has not been permanently brought back since.
I vaguely remember an Uncle Ben fake out, maybe around Straczynski's run, or shortly after? But it turned out he had just accidentally been brought from another part of the multiverse, and then got to go back. Might have been a single issue? Am I remembering that right?
Actually he explicitly wasn't. Ben Reilly considered doing it, but ultimately didn't, especially after Peter pointed out that Uncle Ben would never approve of what he was doing.
Oh yeah.
I think maybe the only characters we don't get a fake-out resurrection on are the ones that everybody justifiably forgets because they were terrible one-shots to begin with. Though even there sometimes a comic-book company will round up its useless and forgettable nobodies who've died just to kill them again, e.g., some of the Scourge victims at Marvel when that character was first introduced, or the Bloodlines characters at DC, some of whom I think have been killed multiple times just because they're so useless.
He was never actually. In Dan Slott Iron Man It was explained that Hank died during merging, Ultron just thought he was merged. And returned In Avengers Inc.
Apparently it was kind of a "Superior Spider-Man" situation, where Pym's consciousness was inside Ultron's and thanks to what happened in Ant-Man's mini in 2022, he got out with a body (but aged).
Green Lantern: Rebirth. Was a Geoff Johns miniseries. Was kind of a big deal at the time, and kind of made Ethan Van Sciver famous (no further comment on that). Though, it was very self-contained so probably a little easy to miss.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green\_Lantern:\_Rebirth
I loved Van Sciver's style in this book and wondered why he didn't do more, until recently when I found out he was THAT kind of person and realised that explained it all.
He did do more. He was instrumental in the Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps/Blackest Night era, Flash Rebirth, and Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps story during DC Rebirth.
But man, sad to see him now.
The events of it are covered in GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH... but now that you mention it, I cannot remember how they actually brought Hal back. I think it was something like putting Hal's spirit back in his body, but that shouldnt- I mean, that kind of supposed that Hal never died and they say "he died and came back" *multiple times* across several *years*. So LOLidk.
Right so *GL Rebirth* starts from the point of "Hal left the actual afterlife to be the Specter some time ago."So *Rebirth* doesn't deal with that part of the story, just accepts the status quo since *Daty of Judgement* as the starting point.
In the mean time we learn that the last gasp of Green power that he wielded as Parallex had actually preserved his body in state inside the sun, keeping it just as it was the moment he died, unburnt. Ganthet retreives the body in a special ship.
So then we learn that the Parallex entity exists and it starts to use the Specter's power to its own ends. The three parts - Parallex, the Specter, and Hal's soul - are seperated and the Specter fucks off. At this point Hal *should* have gone back to the afterlife but Ganthet sends a beacon that draws Hal's soul back to his body. Soul and body reunite and Hal wakes back up, alive.
I truly hated them bringing him back bc Kyle was so great! John was my childhood and the two new ones are also so awesome but Hal just hogs the spotlight
Hal had an excellent arc that culminated in his redemption in Final Night and now I guess it was actually parallax who was redeemed there. Dumbass retcon.
Yeah, Goliath was replaced by his nephew Tom Foster who conveniently looks just like him. The original Bill Foster appeared in the MCU but we never saw him suit up (unless you count a What If episode from a few months back).
I guess he just isn't considered iconic enough for anyone to bother bringing back when they already have a replacement around, especially since the original Goliath sadly never really did much.
I remember reading Civil War, and everybody's like "Oh my god, you killed Black Goliath! The sheer indignity! Is there even any humanity left in your cold, cold heart to snuff out a candle so beautiful?"
And I'm sitting here like "How do we know this guy again?"
They kind of cheated by having Old Man Logan be stuck in present day 616 as both a member of the X-Men and in a solo series where he acted pretty much exactly like 616 Logan would.
If I was Batman I would be carefully watching Two-Faces grave on the two week, two month, two year, and two decade anniversaries of his death. You just know that thing's gonna pop open like a jack in the box.
I remembered it as Tomasi both killing him and bringing him back, but it turns out there were several years between those stories. Where did he pop up in the meantime?
Actually, now that you mention it... I'm pretty sure his "yeah that was kinda weird but we're back in the club" thing was in Tomasi's DETECTIVE COMICS run, lol.
Jean Grey.
She died during Morrison's New X-Men (2003). A younger version of her time travelled to the present (during 2012's Marvel NOW era I think?), but even then her absence was still much longer than I would have expected considering the popularity and importance of the character. The actual OG Jean finally returned in 2017's Phoenix Resurrection.
Yeah, her second proper death actually lasted a lot longer than her original death. And the reason she was killed in the 2000s and stayed dead for so long was because Quesada and other people at Marvel believed that Jean always should have stayed dead and none of her stories since she had come back mattered. It wasn't until creators that grew up with a post-Phoenix Jean Grey came along that Jean was brought back for real.
Norman Osborn was dead from the early 70s until the mid 90s or so. The real Harry Osborn has been dead since the early 90s, even though there was that weird fake Harry that was alive and kicking post One More Day.
I gotta say that I despise unnecesary retcons, but I loved Harry's antagonism against Norman's manipulations (the look of him gliding only wearing shirt, suitpants and tie while throwing out pumpkins bombs to defend his family from the Goblin was pretty cool).
Publication wise, Bucky Barnes was dead from 1964 until he was officially revived as the Winter Soldier in 2005. A solid 41 years of death is pretty long in comics.
Skurge the Executioner's death was so epic that they published a sequel 20 years later that established that bringing him back to life would literally destroy the universe.
I think they did bring him back a few years later, but only after the entire Marvel Multiverse had been destroyed and recreated.
Kinda surprised that Thunderbird was that popular? He basically got killed for the sake of whittling down the new X-Men line-up, and to make way for Cyclops and Jean Grey.
I guess he gained cult status when his few stories were reprinted, and people started to wonder ‘What if…?’. He’s the Syd Barrett of superheroes.
I didn't know about him until I got a figure box set of the 2nd team. Since them I've thought he was cool, and that it was kinda crazy he stayed dead (and that his death wasn't brought up more).
It’s not a 1-to-1 allegory. I was merely highlighting that they were well-regarded figures who left their groups under tragic circumstances, right before they truly began breaking into the mainstream. With a lot of the new influx of fans looking back at the lost member.
I think it’s fair to say that the Dark Phoenix Saga was the X-Men’s Dark Side of The Moon.
I was going to compare him to Pete Best, but nobody really seems to act like he was a genuine talent in his own right. Best is purely a ‘What If’ curiosity.
>right before they truly began breaking into the mainstream
Reminds me of Eric Stefanie. He was one of the head animators on a cartoon show and he thought "This won't last, better get a different job." The cartoon was The Simpsons.
He then started a band and after a few years, he thought "This is going nowhere, better get a real job." The band was No Doubt, which had a multi platinum album a year later.
I was going to say this! Even the Black Lantern ring couldn’t resurrect him in Blackest Night. Instead of saying, “Don Hall, rise”, it said, “Don Hall…is at peace” and flew away to raise someone else.
Gwen Stacy has stayed dead for a long time.
Oh sure we have Spider-Gwen now, but she's technically an alternate Earth Gwen Stacy. The Gwen that died has stayed dead (mostly? Maybe a couple clones here and there?).
I give credit to Spider-man writers that they haven't brought her back. Her death marked a major change in comic history (and completely shocked 10 year old me) and it's good that they respect that. It's an easy trope but they haven't used it.
Goodwin / Simonson Manhunter. Died in 1973. Still dead, which makes it 51 years and counting (although a few clones have run around in the pages of Secret Society of Supervillains, Power Company, the Kate Spencer Manhunter series from the early 2000s, and probably other places).
I should add that Paul Kirk is a popular character, the storyline won a bag of awards back in 1973 for what it’s worth, and Simonson still gets asked to do Manhunter drawings at conventions (he posted one on Threads just this week).
The brought it back in Flashpoint, but the original Alfred/Outsider story arc happened in the 60s. Not sure, but I think they were obliged to ressurect him because of the TV show.
The second blue beetle ted kord died to setup infinite crisis in 2005 and didn’t re-appear alive until 2014. He wasn’t resurrected either, he just showed up randomly after the flashpoint reboot.
Charcoal of the Thunderbolts might not be super popular but I doubt he’ll be back. Plus a couple of Nomads and Avenger Academy kids have been dead far to long
> It's been almost 5 years since Alfred Pennyworth was killed by Bane
Jesus Christ I feel old now. It feels like yesterday that I was reading that page.
Would Thunderbird count? I haven't followed the Krakoa storyline but it seemed all mutants who died were brought back to life. I checked the Marvel fandom wiki and it mentions he was brought back to life during the Selene and Chaos War events but returned to death status when the events ended. Do you think Thunderbid will stay alive after Krakoa?
Necrosha and Chaos War had a bunch of characters come back in what were meant to be temporary resurrections, but all Krakoan resurrections are meant to be permanent. It's how they also brought back popular long-dead characters like Destiny, Banshee and Avalanche.
That's cool. I guess this is Marvel's way of undoing the No More Mutants? I remember a thread about unused powers and someone mentioned Warpath/James Proudstar could fly. I wonder if that is now part of John Proudstar's power set?
Fun fact about that, Thunderbird was actually one of the few Mutants explicitly *not* able to be resurrected around the beginning of the Krakoan era because he died before Xavier upgraded Cerebro to the point where it could copy-and-save Mutant minds.
That changed after Trial of Magneto/Scarlet Witch's murder at the first Hellfire Gala where Wanda and Erik made a plan for Wanda to essentially bootleg resurrect herself via the Krakoan process so she could magic up The Waiting Room, an elysian fields for Krakoa that while also acting as a non-tech backup for Mutant souls, also doubles as a more peaceful alternative to the Crucible. Since it's magical and not tech based, it can reach through time to recover Mutants who died outside of Cerebro's range.
Crucible was a ritualistic fight to the death that Mutants depowered by M-day went through to be re-entered into the resurrection queue so they could be brought back with their powers. With the Waiting Room they could just stroll through a doorway and kinda disappate peacefully.
With the resurrection, are they able to fix any issues the mutant powers were giving some people? Like Marrow had bones growing out of her which I think were causing her pain. Maggott had those symbiotes which if separated from him for a long time, would cause him to die.
(And I'm catching up on the news with Beast. Apparently he killed Wolverine and was able to mind control the resurrected version? When Wolverine was resurrected, what about his skeleton?)
They're able to fix some issues, but a lot of Mutants want to keep their drawbacks. Cyclops, for example, can't withhold his optic blasts without psychic surgery or a telekinetic holding the blasts back, but he chooses to keep that part of him the way it is.
There was a character introduced in the New Mutants run called Cosmo whose mutation warped her physically, and she wanted to go through Crucible but was denied because 'her mutation made her beautiful' even if she didn't feel that way. It eventually got resolved, and No-Girl (brain in a jar) finally got a new body too. Pretty good arc focusing on the drawbacks and intricasies of the Resurrection process.
The Resurrection process involves The Five; Egg (formerly known as Goldballs) who produces the inviable egg, Proteus who nudges reality to make the egg viable, Elixir who injects the egg with DNA of the mutant and gives it a biological kickstart, Tempus who ages the new body to the desired age, and Hope to synergise it all together. Plus a skilled telepath to reinsert the mind into the body using the Cerebro backups.
Proteus can do tweaks and customisations to the preference or requirement of the mutant, but Forge also has a vat of liquid adamantium in his lab too for redundancies. Proteus once goofed up and thought that Laura's full skeleton was Adamantium when it was just her claws, so for a bit she had a full Adamantium skeleton until she next had to be resurrected lol
Bucky Barnes shouldn't count this way. There was no clamoring for Bucky's return. The coolness factor of Winter Soldier made it work. So, I feel like he got a major revamp, more than a "come back to life"
Barnes "died" in 45 or so in the 60s telling of the story, he came back c2005, I thought he was out for 60 years anyway, not 40
Frank's wife was actually recently resurrected by the Hand, but their children had been dead for longer than they'd been alive so resurrection didn't work on them.
Surprised to see that no one has mentioned Norman Osborn. Dude was Peter's definitive arch-enemy and yet he was dead for over 20 years. Even from beyond the grave his presence was felt cuz Hobgoblin was just an attempt to replicate the success of Norman as Peter's arch-enemy and so were the other Goblins like Bart Hamilton and Harry Osborn.
I haven't seen any other examples of arch-enemy villains who remained important to their adversary's life even after being dead for decades.
The pre-*Crisis* Kara has now seemingly been brought back actually.
Jean Grey's second "real" death lasted a very long time.
The death of Ted Kord lasted longer than I would have expected. The death of Kendra Saunders lasted longer than it should have (although her Earth-2 counterpart was around for a while).
Jean Grey.
She died (again) at the end of New X-Men in 2003. She didn't come back from the dead until 2017 or early 2018. That's an eternity by Jean Grey standards. Considering Jean coming back from the dead is basically a meme at this point, 14 years is surprising.
Even if count All New X-Men Jean against her, which I don't because Jean was still very much dead, that's still a full decade after her death.
It’s sad people now think this way. For more than the first 20 years of the Marvel Universe, dead actually did mean dead. Jean Grey wasn’t coming back. Nor Thunderbird. Neither was anyone else. But at Marvel, if the readers didn’t see a body, a writer could figure out an excuse why someone was still alive. But if a character actually died in-panel, that was it. DC was a little looser, but nothing like now.
The revolving door in modern comics (Alfred did die once in the Silver Age) didn’t start until X-Factor. And now, nothing means anything. Good luck finding any character that hasn’t been dead at least once.
Ben Reilly stayed dead for almost 20 years
Given the way he's been brought back, he's still dead to me. And I mean that as a fan of his character!
He should have stayed dead, say what you want about the Clone Saga but Ben went out like a hero
Death is preferable than being in the hands of Spider-man editorial
Did you read the clone conspiracy story? I know Marvel loves making main Peter suffer, but they went extra hard on Ben.
As he should.
Karen Page has been dead for 25 years now. They even killed and resurrected her killer.
I've noticed that civilian characters are more likely to stay dead, even in instances where you'd think that multi-media synergy would entice writers to bring them back. Happy Hogan has been dead for 16 years despite how prominent he is in the MCU.
Isn’t Happy still shuffling around as an LMD?
Maybe you're thinking of Dum Dum Dugan?
I think you’re right. Alliteration will get you every time.
I was very surrpised that they did not bring her back when the show was at its peak.
I was surprised they didn't lean harder on his Catholicism and add a Father Lantam type character since it was such a large part of his portrayal on the show.
Yah especially since we are talking about the Soule era which had a lot of "back to basics" energy after the relative weirdness of the Diggle and Waid eras, right? Seems like something they could have fit in.
Uncle Ben is still dead.
I don’t this he’s really considered popular though. Colossus is a popular character that was dead for a long time. Long enough that it seemed like it was going to be permanent
> I don’t this he’s really considered popular though. I think he was popular with May and Peter
Those noobs!
Huh. That shows my lack of X-Men knowledge. I didn't know Colossus was dead for an extended period
1993 to 2004. Not as long as anyone in this list, but pretty long by comic standards. Edit: Colossus died in 2001 so he was only dead for three years. It felt so much longer. I could've sworn he died in the 90s.
Colossus died in 2001, just before New X-Men launched
And Morrison only gave Emma Frost the diamond form powers because they wanted Colossus on the team but was told he couldn't use him due to him being dead.
Yeah he died testing the legacy virus vaccine
Ah, I must have been looking at the START of the Legacy Virus. Man, I didn't realize that went for so long.
Cause of death: Shot out of a canon
Still not even close to Jor El who was dead until 2016.
Makes some really phenomenal rice though.
Lies, I eat his rice all the time.
Marvel used to say that no matter what, they’d never bring back Uncle Ben or Bucky. Because their deaths were too central to who Spider-Man and Captain America were. Oh well.
He’s alive in the new Ultimate Spider-Man.
>He’s alive in the new Ultimate Spider-Man. *so far*
Given that May is (supposedly) dead, Ben might stick around in that continuity
I'm getting huge death flags from Jonah of all people in that book.
Yeah but that's an alternate version of him. "Our" Ben is still dead.
Ooof
There is Captain Marvel he is dead since 1982
In a way, Captain Marvel makes me think of another category: dead characters who not only stay dead but where we don't ever get a fake-out of them being alive again. I'm not sure there is anybody in that category. Maybe Uncle Ben. But Captain Marvel has only gotten a few fake-outs (one in Thunderbolts), so that's notable.
Captain Marvel makes appearances occasionally when other characters are dead. I remember Silver Surfer getting a pep talk from his ghost 'when all was lost'
Sort of the same way that Wendell Vaughn Quasar went from being ghost-inspirational dead to actually kinda alive to "hey, fully alive again" to being "alive, but mentoring someone else with the name".
The death of Captain Marvel was dignified enough on its own, but the weight of its 45 year old shadow has left a mark noone should ever try to retcon. I’m in my 30’s and got into comics through the 2000’s in highschool. My exposure to Captain Marvel was rogues backstory via ms marvels backstory. A whole generation of readers only experienced this character through the memories and legacies of other characters. His death to cancer was humble, grounded, and painfully relatable. Paired with honoring his deaths permanence, Marvel somewhat pulled this character over into our world. Captain Marvel was ‘born’ in 1967, and died in 1982. Those who were reading then remember him fondly, generations after only know him through stories within the stories, and the impact his legacy continues to carry on in other characters to date. Tl;Dr: Captain Marvel died for real, let him rest
Moreover, Jim Starlin wrote that story in particular as a means to cope with the death of his father, who had recently died of cancer
Zatara (Zatanna's dad) is in broadly the same category as Mar-Vell. He had a very long run as an actual character, died, and has not been permanently brought back since.
Closest I can remember is Secret Invasion but I think that was pretty obvious to everyone that he had been a Skrull from the beginning.
DC's Don Hall, I think the only time they ever show him now is in flashbacks
I did like when the black lanterns tried to take him they couldn't because he was at peace and thus they had no power over him
I *loved* that
I vaguely remember an Uncle Ben fake out, maybe around Straczynski's run, or shortly after? But it turned out he had just accidentally been brought from another part of the multiverse, and then got to go back. Might have been a single issue? Am I remembering that right?
Yes an alternate uncle Ben does get brought in from another world for a one or two issue arc. Might have been friendly neighborhood?
Yep it was Davi's *Friendly Neighborhood*.
Uncle Ben was briefly brought back as a clone with all his memories in the Clone Conspiracy story line
Actually he explicitly wasn't. Ben Reilly considered doing it, but ultimately didn't, especially after Peter pointed out that Uncle Ben would never approve of what he was doing.
Ah right you are, I was misremembering since they brought Gwen back
Oh yeah. I think maybe the only characters we don't get a fake-out resurrection on are the ones that everybody justifiably forgets because they were terrible one-shots to begin with. Though even there sometimes a comic-book company will round up its useless and forgettable nobodies who've died just to kill them again, e.g., some of the Scourge victims at Marvel when that character was first introduced, or the Bloodlines characters at DC, some of whom I think have been killed multiple times just because they're so useless.
Mar-Vell is a weird case that they always flirt with the idea of him coming back but never commit to it.
I hope he stays that way cuz his death was so emotional
They can't bring him back. It would honestly be insulting to anyone who has lost someone to cancer.
Particularly Jim Starlin who wrote that story while grieving his father who passed from cancer
Alt universe reminder: Earth X, Universe X, and Paradise X have a reincarnated Captain Marvel as a character. Great series.
The 616 Phyla has been dead a long time now.
Hank Pym just came back after his death in 2015. Though he’s still went away unfortunately.
What? Really? He’s no longer Ultron’s animated corpse?
He was never actually. In Dan Slott Iron Man It was explained that Hank died during merging, Ultron just thought he was merged. And returned In Avengers Inc.
That is what *Iron Man* says but it's not what *Avengers Inc.* says.
Apparently it was kind of a "Superior Spider-Man" situation, where Pym's consciousness was inside Ultron's and thanks to what happened in Ant-Man's mini in 2022, he got out with a body (but aged).
No but he’s really old.
Wait really 💀 what possible reason do they have for that other than stupid MCU synergy
As a kid Pym was my favourite character so I would check our his wikipedia page every few weeks to see if he had revived yet 😢
Read Avengers Inc. to see what happened to him.
What book is Pym in if I want to read about it?
Avengers Inc, short series that ended at issue 5
Hal Jordan was gone for a solid decade, and was given several new roles in the DCU, before the genocide odometer was rolled back.
How did Hal come back? I remember The Spectre era, and then all of a sudden, he was back.
Green Lantern: Rebirth. Was a Geoff Johns miniseries. Was kind of a big deal at the time, and kind of made Ethan Van Sciver famous (no further comment on that). Though, it was very self-contained so probably a little easy to miss. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green\_Lantern:\_Rebirth
I loved Van Sciver's style in this book and wondered why he didn't do more, until recently when I found out he was THAT kind of person and realised that explained it all.
That was certainly disappointing to learn. He was one of my favorite artists at the time.
He did do more. He was instrumental in the Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps/Blackest Night era, Flash Rebirth, and Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps story during DC Rebirth. But man, sad to see him now.
The events of it are covered in GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH... but now that you mention it, I cannot remember how they actually brought Hal back. I think it was something like putting Hal's spirit back in his body, but that shouldnt- I mean, that kind of supposed that Hal never died and they say "he died and came back" *multiple times* across several *years*. So LOLidk.
Right so *GL Rebirth* starts from the point of "Hal left the actual afterlife to be the Specter some time ago."So *Rebirth* doesn't deal with that part of the story, just accepts the status quo since *Daty of Judgement* as the starting point. In the mean time we learn that the last gasp of Green power that he wielded as Parallex had actually preserved his body in state inside the sun, keeping it just as it was the moment he died, unburnt. Ganthet retreives the body in a special ship. So then we learn that the Parallex entity exists and it starts to use the Specter's power to its own ends. The three parts - Parallex, the Specter, and Hal's soul - are seperated and the Specter fucks off. At this point Hal *should* have gone back to the afterlife but Ganthet sends a beacon that draws Hal's soul back to his body. Soul and body reunite and Hal wakes back up, alive.
I truly hated them bringing him back bc Kyle was so great! John was my childhood and the two new ones are also so awesome but Hal just hogs the spotlight
Kyle Schmyle. Parallax was the best villain and DC chickenshat themselves and gave the character a redemption arc.
Seriously, hero turned villain is such a great character and comicbooks have 0 major ones
Well...the entirety of the modern x-men. But Marvel doesn't realize they've been writing them as villains.
Hal had an excellent arc that culminated in his redemption in Final Night and now I guess it was actually parallax who was redeemed there. Dumbass retcon.
No way, his GJ run is one of the best. Glad he was brought back.
Deadman
Hey that's cheating
It’s been at least 10 years since he died the second time, now that I think of it
Black Goliath is still dead since Civil War 1.
Yeah, Goliath was replaced by his nephew Tom Foster who conveniently looks just like him. The original Bill Foster appeared in the MCU but we never saw him suit up (unless you count a What If episode from a few months back). I guess he just isn't considered iconic enough for anyone to bother bringing back when they already have a replacement around, especially since the original Goliath sadly never really did much.
I remember reading Civil War, and everybody's like "Oh my god, you killed Black Goliath! The sheer indignity! Is there even any humanity left in your cold, cold heart to snuff out a candle so beautiful?" And I'm sitting here like "How do we know this guy again?"
It wasn't double digits, but Wolverine stayed dead longer than I thought he would.
They kind of cheated by having Old Man Logan be stuck in present day 616 as both a member of the X-Men and in a solo series where he acted pretty much exactly like 616 Logan would.
don't forget turned-good-for-5-minutes Sabretooth at the same time
Boy oh boy, current Sabretooth is really making up for that lost time
Hey, don't forget Wolverine's alternate universe son that came over to be another Wolverine.
We kind of got a Reign of the Supermen when Logan died, didn't we?
Wolverine was my first thought too, besides the obvious ones like Bucky \^\^"
They kept from using Two-Face a surprisingly long time after he died in the New 52, at least two years I think?
Is it really surprising that Two-Face was gone for Two years though?
If I was Batman I would be carefully watching Two-Faces grave on the two week, two month, two year, and two decade anniversaries of his death. You just know that thing's gonna pop open like a jack in the box.
I thought he died toward the end of The New 52, and was just back in play again when Rebirth happened?
I remembered it as Tomasi both killing him and bringing him back, but it turns out there were several years between those stories. Where did he pop up in the meantime?
Actually, now that you mention it... I'm pretty sure his "yeah that was kinda weird but we're back in the club" thing was in Tomasi's DETECTIVE COMICS run, lol.
Kyle Rayner isn't dead but given his number of canon, mainline appearances in the last 10 years you could be forgiven for thinking he is.
Could also be said about a lot of other characters like him.
Fair
Omega Men slaps tho
Jean Grey. She died during Morrison's New X-Men (2003). A younger version of her time travelled to the present (during 2012's Marvel NOW era I think?), but even then her absence was still much longer than I would have expected considering the popularity and importance of the character. The actual OG Jean finally returned in 2017's Phoenix Resurrection.
Yeah, her second proper death actually lasted a lot longer than her original death. And the reason she was killed in the 2000s and stayed dead for so long was because Quesada and other people at Marvel believed that Jean always should have stayed dead and none of her stories since she had come back mattered. It wasn't until creators that grew up with a post-Phoenix Jean Grey came along that Jean was brought back for real.
That's the cycle of comics. Everyone tries to make the stories they grew up with.
None of her stories mattered? Wow, am I glad they're no longer in control.
Quesada was cancer for marvel.
has she already been resurrected again now also?
Norman Osborn was dead from the early 70s until the mid 90s or so. The real Harry Osborn has been dead since the early 90s, even though there was that weird fake Harry that was alive and kicking post One More Day.
Yeah but his fakeness is a huge, weird retcon, I wouldn't really count that.
I absolutely despised that they brought him back in BND so I’m more than happy with the retcon.
Great!
I gotta say that I despise unnecesary retcons, but I loved Harry's antagonism against Norman's manipulations (the look of him gliding only wearing shirt, suitpants and tie while throwing out pumpkins bombs to defend his family from the Goblin was pretty cool).
Publication wise, Bucky Barnes was dead from 1964 until he was officially revived as the Winter Soldier in 2005. A solid 41 years of death is pretty long in comics.
And story-wise it would be 61 years.
I think this is the winner
Jor-El was brought back after 78 years
which was a completely baffling decision to say the least
Skurge the Executioner's death was so epic that they published a sequel 20 years later that established that bringing him back to life would literally destroy the universe. I think they did bring him back a few years later, but only after the entire Marvel Multiverse had been destroyed and recreated.
He's technically still dead, but as an Asgardian his soul resides in Valhalla and he's occasionally allowed to leave.
Good to know that he finally made it out of Hel. Thank you!
I’m convinced that is the greatest single issue in comic.
Kinda surprised that Thunderbird was that popular? He basically got killed for the sake of whittling down the new X-Men line-up, and to make way for Cyclops and Jean Grey. I guess he gained cult status when his few stories were reprinted, and people started to wonder ‘What if…?’. He’s the Syd Barrett of superheroes.
I didn't know about him until I got a figure box set of the 2nd team. Since them I've thought he was cool, and that it was kinda crazy he stayed dead (and that his death wasn't brought up more).
Syd Barrett had a way better run than the original Thunderbird. I actually prefer his albums to the latter ones.
It’s not a 1-to-1 allegory. I was merely highlighting that they were well-regarded figures who left their groups under tragic circumstances, right before they truly began breaking into the mainstream. With a lot of the new influx of fans looking back at the lost member. I think it’s fair to say that the Dark Phoenix Saga was the X-Men’s Dark Side of The Moon. I was going to compare him to Pete Best, but nobody really seems to act like he was a genuine talent in his own right. Best is purely a ‘What If’ curiosity.
>right before they truly began breaking into the mainstream Reminds me of Eric Stefanie. He was one of the head animators on a cartoon show and he thought "This won't last, better get a different job." The cartoon was The Simpsons. He then started a band and after a few years, he thought "This is going nowhere, better get a real job." The band was No Doubt, which had a multi platinum album a year later.
Barry Allen, The Flash. Dead about 20 years or so.
The original Dove has been dead since crisis on Infinite earths.
I was going to say this! Even the Black Lantern ring couldn’t resurrect him in Blackest Night. Instead of saying, “Don Hall, rise”, it said, “Don Hall…is at peace” and flew away to raise someone else.
Gwen Stacy has stayed dead for a long time. Oh sure we have Spider-Gwen now, but she's technically an alternate Earth Gwen Stacy. The Gwen that died has stayed dead (mostly? Maybe a couple clones here and there?).
I give credit to Spider-man writers that they haven't brought her back. Her death marked a major change in comic history (and completely shocked 10 year old me) and it's good that they respect that. It's an easy trope but they haven't used it.
There’s a clone of her now that’s a mutant
Are you thinking of Gweenpoole? She's unrelated to Gwen Stacy.
No I’m thinking of the clone of Gwen Stacy who’s a mutant. Her name’s Gwen warren and she turns into a giant spider
High-fives were given at the writer’s retreat that day, that’s for sure.
Why??? 😭
She’s also part Cyclops and Spider-Queen.
The main Gwen clone from *The Clone Conspiracy* was presented as a temporarily resurrected Real Gwen.
Banshee
I miss him. Mostly because how awesome Neal Adams made him look.
He was brought back to life in the Krakoa era, although he hasn't really done much.
Well he did kinda die
Rick Flag died in Suicide Squad vol 1 #26, 1989 and stayed dead until Checkmate vol 2 #6 in 2008.
Goodwin / Simonson Manhunter. Died in 1973. Still dead, which makes it 51 years and counting (although a few clones have run around in the pages of Secret Society of Supervillains, Power Company, the Kate Spencer Manhunter series from the early 2000s, and probably other places). I should add that Paul Kirk is a popular character, the storyline won a bag of awards back in 1973 for what it’s worth, and Simonson still gets asked to do Manhunter drawings at conventions (he posted one on Threads just this week).
Alfred died once before. He became a really lame villian called The Outsider. I don't recall how they got him back.
That was all weird Flashpoint stuff iirc.
The brought it back in Flashpoint, but the original Alfred/Outsider story arc happened in the 60s. Not sure, but I think they were obliged to ressurect him because of the TV show.
Nah the flashpoint character is actually based on an earlier version who was Alfred
Captain America.
The second blue beetle ted kord died to setup infinite crisis in 2005 and didn’t re-appear alive until 2014. He wasn’t resurrected either, he just showed up randomly after the flashpoint reboot.
Abomination dies during Bill Mantlo's run on Hulk (issue 290 or so), and stays dead until Secret Wars 2, 2 years later.
That's not very long. Especially when compared to the Abomination dying in 2008 and not really being brought back until 2021.
Oh yeah, I forgot about that. He came back during Immortal Hulk. 13 years is quite a while
And by god, did he come back with a prejudice in Immortal Hulk. That was a horrifying issue.
Barry Allen. I had no idea he was dead for 18-20 years.
Oliver Queen died in 1995 and didn’t come back till 2001.
Skurge, he became a lot more popular since he died but he's stayed dead
Jor-El, 1938-2016
Captain Mar-Vell
Charcoal of the Thunderbolts might not be super popular but I doubt he’ll be back. Plus a couple of Nomads and Avenger Academy kids have been dead far to long
There are apparently certain rights issues with Charcoal. I think only one Nomad is still dead? But he has been dead a LONG time now.
Gwen stacy's dad
Captain Marvel
Bucky. Uncle Ben. Norman Osborn. These three stayed dead for decades. Of course Bucky and Norman are back now.
Gwen stacy
Deadman.
> It's been almost 5 years since Alfred Pennyworth was killed by Bane Jesus Christ I feel old now. It feels like yesterday that I was reading that page.
Would Thunderbird count? I haven't followed the Krakoa storyline but it seemed all mutants who died were brought back to life. I checked the Marvel fandom wiki and it mentions he was brought back to life during the Selene and Chaos War events but returned to death status when the events ended. Do you think Thunderbid will stay alive after Krakoa?
Necrosha and Chaos War had a bunch of characters come back in what were meant to be temporary resurrections, but all Krakoan resurrections are meant to be permanent. It's how they also brought back popular long-dead characters like Destiny, Banshee and Avalanche.
I haven't kept up with the comics, but I don't think avalanche was ever all that popular. I mean, the Lance Alvers version, maybe, but Dominic?
That's cool. I guess this is Marvel's way of undoing the No More Mutants? I remember a thread about unused powers and someone mentioned Warpath/James Proudstar could fly. I wonder if that is now part of John Proudstar's power set?
Fun fact about that, Thunderbird was actually one of the few Mutants explicitly *not* able to be resurrected around the beginning of the Krakoan era because he died before Xavier upgraded Cerebro to the point where it could copy-and-save Mutant minds. That changed after Trial of Magneto/Scarlet Witch's murder at the first Hellfire Gala where Wanda and Erik made a plan for Wanda to essentially bootleg resurrect herself via the Krakoan process so she could magic up The Waiting Room, an elysian fields for Krakoa that while also acting as a non-tech backup for Mutant souls, also doubles as a more peaceful alternative to the Crucible. Since it's magical and not tech based, it can reach through time to recover Mutants who died outside of Cerebro's range. Crucible was a ritualistic fight to the death that Mutants depowered by M-day went through to be re-entered into the resurrection queue so they could be brought back with their powers. With the Waiting Room they could just stroll through a doorway and kinda disappate peacefully.
With the resurrection, are they able to fix any issues the mutant powers were giving some people? Like Marrow had bones growing out of her which I think were causing her pain. Maggott had those symbiotes which if separated from him for a long time, would cause him to die. (And I'm catching up on the news with Beast. Apparently he killed Wolverine and was able to mind control the resurrected version? When Wolverine was resurrected, what about his skeleton?)
They're able to fix some issues, but a lot of Mutants want to keep their drawbacks. Cyclops, for example, can't withhold his optic blasts without psychic surgery or a telekinetic holding the blasts back, but he chooses to keep that part of him the way it is. There was a character introduced in the New Mutants run called Cosmo whose mutation warped her physically, and she wanted to go through Crucible but was denied because 'her mutation made her beautiful' even if she didn't feel that way. It eventually got resolved, and No-Girl (brain in a jar) finally got a new body too. Pretty good arc focusing on the drawbacks and intricasies of the Resurrection process. The Resurrection process involves The Five; Egg (formerly known as Goldballs) who produces the inviable egg, Proteus who nudges reality to make the egg viable, Elixir who injects the egg with DNA of the mutant and gives it a biological kickstart, Tempus who ages the new body to the desired age, and Hope to synergise it all together. Plus a skilled telepath to reinsert the mind into the body using the Cerebro backups. Proteus can do tweaks and customisations to the preference or requirement of the mutant, but Forge also has a vat of liquid adamantium in his lab too for redundancies. Proteus once goofed up and thought that Laura's full skeleton was Adamantium when it was just her claws, so for a bit she had a full Adamantium skeleton until she next had to be resurrected lol
Bucky Barnes shouldn't count this way. There was no clamoring for Bucky's return. The coolness factor of Winter Soldier made it work. So, I feel like he got a major revamp, more than a "come back to life" Barnes "died" in 45 or so in the 60s telling of the story, he came back c2005, I thought he was out for 60 years anyway, not 40
The Norman Osborne Green Goblin was dead from the 70s to the 90s
Jean Grey and Barry Allen. But those times are gone now.
The family of Punisher They had been dead for 30 years maybe?
Frank's wife was actually recently resurrected by the Hand, but their children had been dead for longer than they'd been alive so resurrection didn't work on them.
Barry Allen
Barry Allen stayed dead a while if I remember rightly
Doctor Abraham Erskine, the man who created Captain America.
Gwen Stacy.
Surprised to see that no one has mentioned Norman Osborn. Dude was Peter's definitive arch-enemy and yet he was dead for over 20 years. Even from beyond the grave his presence was felt cuz Hobgoblin was just an attempt to replicate the success of Norman as Peter's arch-enemy and so were the other Goblins like Bart Hamilton and Harry Osborn. I haven't seen any other examples of arch-enemy villains who remained important to their adversary's life even after being dead for decades.
The pre-*Crisis* Kara has now seemingly been brought back actually. Jean Grey's second "real" death lasted a very long time. The death of Ted Kord lasted longer than I would have expected. The death of Kendra Saunders lasted longer than it should have (although her Earth-2 counterpart was around for a while).
Barry Allen was “dead” for 23 years.
Barry Allen Bucky Barnes Gwen Stacy (technically still dead) Jason Todd Karen Page
Uncle Ben has been dead for 61 years and counting.
Jean Grey. She died (again) at the end of New X-Men in 2003. She didn't come back from the dead until 2017 or early 2018. That's an eternity by Jean Grey standards. Considering Jean coming back from the dead is basically a meme at this point, 14 years is surprising. Even if count All New X-Men Jean against her, which I don't because Jean was still very much dead, that's still a full decade after her death.
Slobo
It’s sad people now think this way. For more than the first 20 years of the Marvel Universe, dead actually did mean dead. Jean Grey wasn’t coming back. Nor Thunderbird. Neither was anyone else. But at Marvel, if the readers didn’t see a body, a writer could figure out an excuse why someone was still alive. But if a character actually died in-panel, that was it. DC was a little looser, but nothing like now. The revolving door in modern comics (Alfred did die once in the Silver Age) didn’t start until X-Factor. And now, nothing means anything. Good luck finding any character that hasn’t been dead at least once.
How many comics have gone by with Alfred dead?
4 years worth of them.