Defend The Indefensible: Characters Coming Back From The Dead

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Rubbish in the Bible, rubbish in comics.

Or do you know otherwise?

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 1 October 2004 08:19 (twenty years ago)

Well, there's the current Green Arrow series for starters. That's pretty damn good.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 1 October 2004 09:39 (twenty years ago)

Ennis pulled it off quite neatly at the end of Preacher.

― Wooden (Wooden), Friday, 1 October 2004 11:03 (twenty years ago)

Dud more often than not, though it can be done well sometimes - I'm intrigued by Colossus' return. But the list o' dudness is long and winding - Jean Grey, the Green Goblin, SUPERMAN ... um, there's more than this, right?

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 1 October 2004 12:29 (twenty years ago)

Captain America essentially counts, in that he was as dead as most seemingly dead characters, and assumed dead or otherwise out of commission by the public, before his Silver Age "resurrection."

Duddest of all: Aunt May.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 1 October 2004 12:36 (twenty years ago)

Least dud of all might have to be Resurrection Man, by default.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 1 October 2004 12:36 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, bringing back Aunt May is dudly, though I like how she's been used post-resurrection. (How did she die / come back, anyway?)

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 1 October 2004 12:39 (twenty years ago)

Others: Professor X (at least once, maybe more), Wonder Man (ditto), Wolverine (died but came back to life when a drop of his blood landed on a superpowered magic crystal in one of the X-Men annuals), Marvel's Hitler (hasn't he? supposedly died in the bunker because of the Invaders' Human Torch, later showed up as the Hate-Monger ... ?), Marlo (I don't know how she came back, but it's dud that she did since the story where Dr Strange explains to Rick that she can't be brought back is one of the best in PAD's Hulk run), Cypher kind of? I guess not really, Buddy Baker's family, nearly everyone in Secret Wars ...

I'm not sure why I can't think of any DC ones.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 1 October 2004 12:44 (twenty years ago)

She died of Aunt May Disease, I think: whatever trouble (her heart?) it was that kept sending her to the hospital all those times; and she revealed on her death bed (with Ben Reilly loitering around, iirc, since it was during That Whole Thing) that she'd known for a long time Pete was Spider-Man.

Resurrected by the revelation that she had just been an actress hired by Norman Osborn to impersonate Aunt May, and that the real one had been kidnapped by him and bleh bleh bleh.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 1 October 2004 12:47 (twenty years ago)

That sounds appalling.

― Wooden (Wooden), Friday, 1 October 2004 12:50 (twenty years ago)

DAMN YOU SPIDER CLONES!

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 1 October 2004 13:10 (twenty years ago)

Green Arrow
Green Lantern is about to.
Captain Atom and his evil counterpart Major Force have both been supposedly killed numerous times only to non-chalantly show up later, but the nature of their similar atomic powers is such that it's (comic book logic) believable.
Villains do it all the time.

― Huk-L, Friday, 1 October 2004 13:32 (twenty years ago)

The thing is (and I think it's something that Tep & other folks here have alluded to), DC's universe is less concerned w/ realism and more in touch w/ cosmic / supernatural goofery, so when folks come back from the dead, it's not as jarring as when the relatively "real" Marvel Universe cracks open a coffin and the smelling salts, because supernatural interventions are, in essence, de rigeur (sic!) @ DC.

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 1 October 2004 13:37 (twenty years ago)

And yet, Marvel's sorcerers and witches have always fared better than DC's.
Scarlet Witch vs Zatanna
Dr. Strange vs Dr. Fate

That's all I can think of for Marvel Magicians. So maybe the reason they've enjoyed better play is that they're rarities.

― Huk-L, Friday, 1 October 2004 13:40 (twenty years ago)

Furthermore, to prove Tep and David R.'s shared point, check out Brad (Identity Crisis) Meltzer's Green Arrow arc "Archer's Quest" where he basically renders Kevin Smith's "Quiver" arc irrelevant with the first two sentences: "I was dead. I came back."
Because, really, in a DC comic, that's all you need to know.

― Huk-L, Friday, 1 October 2004 13:43 (twenty years ago)

Rubbish in the Bible, rubbish in comics.

surely this is continuity rockism? how is the general reader meant to know that Flangeboy was killed ten years ago, when they have grown up being dimly aware that Flangeboy was one of Mechanon's main enemies?

― DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 1 October 2004 13:44 (twenty years ago)

Villains are allowed to come back from the dead actually, or at least to escape with no explanation from incredibly fatal situations.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 1 October 2004 13:50 (twenty years ago)

well, what if Flangeboy was Mechanon's sidekick? how is Mr Casual Reader meant to know that he's been dead for donkeys years.

I was quite surprised to read above that Colossus is dead now.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 1 October 2004 14:12 (twenty years ago)

Ennis pulled it off quite neatly at the end of Preacher.

no he didn't.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 1 October 2004 14:12 (twenty years ago)

I have just learned to loathe the term "continuity rockism."

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 1 October 2004 14:16 (twenty years ago)

Ennis pulled it off quite neatly at the end of Preacher.

no he didn't.

-- DV (dirtyvica...), October 1st, 2004 3:12 PM.

Yes he did.

― Wooden (Wooden), Friday, 1 October 2004 14:35 (twenty years ago)

I never got to the end of Preacher.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 1 October 2004 14:36 (twenty years ago)

It's not great, but I thought the ending was fairly clever.

― Wooden (Wooden), Friday, 1 October 2004 14:42 (twenty years ago)

How does Elektra not get mentioned yet?

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Saturday, 2 October 2004 01:28 (twenty years ago)

The Elektra resurrection was actually pretty neat, if you're talking about the one Frank Miller did. Those five ninjas (what were their names?) were way cool, though they died kinda easily...

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 3 October 2004 10:04 (twenty years ago)

I don't think they had a group name, just a group convention: Stick, Stone, Shaft (dig it), etc. But that wasn't what I had in mind, it was the subsequent hackery involved with bringing 'lektra back without Lanky Miller's ok.

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Monday, 4 October 2004 03:01 (twenty years ago)

Oh, I don't know anything about that, it was probably after I stopped reading superhero comics.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 4 October 2004 08:58 (twenty years ago)

John Constantine being melted by Satan and then brought back to life cured of cancer is definitely a good one! (although Im not sure if he was actually technically 'dead' at any point..)

― droid, Monday, 4 October 2004 11:33 (twenty years ago)

Does Swamp Thing regrowing himself for the first time count?

― Wooden (Wooden), Monday, 4 October 2004 12:30 (twenty years ago)

I've just remembered how Luther Arkwright kept developing new superpowers to get out of fixes, eventually including being able to come back from the dead. That was not great.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Monday, 4 October 2004 13:59 (twenty years ago)

Not quite coming-back-from-the-dead, but in last week's final issue of Green Lantern, Major Force revealed that he didn't really kill Kyle's mom. Which was sort of a lame cop-out. Also, MF (who is great simply for the reason that we get to call him MF) discussed his own immortality, refering to the many times in the past he's been thought killed only to show up again.

― Huk-L, Monday, 4 October 2004 17:03 (twenty years ago)

LAME

― cinniblount (James Blount), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:19 (twenty years ago)

Elektra's first return was handled well I thought and the Constantine one was classic. I think he actually does qualify as dead in that one.

(that arc was the first Hellblazer I'd ever read and finding that and the early Sandman in my college library were what prompted me to start reading comics again)

― H (Heruy), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:57 (twenty years ago)

Did Hellblazer ever get better than that?

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:59 (twenty years ago)

I read not much longer than that, the JC Lung Cancer bizz. That was the only book I was reading by then, and I was in a special drama school and got hipped to Marlowe's Dr. Faustus after lending that run to my drama coach.

― Huk-L, Monday, 4 October 2004 20:02 (twenty years ago)

didn't The Punisher come back from the dead? That was a punishment.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Monday, 4 October 2004 20:41 (twenty years ago)

Dr. Manhattan.

'Nuff said.

― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Tuesday, 5 October 2004 01:56 (twenty years ago)

the constantine thing (where he sells his soul to everybody) is also one of the more recent comic arcs i've read... actually it was a while ago, but i hadn't read anything else in that series and i liked it.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 7 October 2004 21:31 (twenty years ago)

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