History JokerImmunity / ComicBooks

** The ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'' as a whole does a DeconReconSwitch of this trope. [[spoiler: True to form, Batman won't kill Joker, but there's a good inadvertent reason for that: the other supercriminals are ''terrified'' of him after [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins what he did to Black Mask]]. Joker's hilarious chaos has resulted in all of Gotham's criminals becoming paranoid and turning on each other at the slightest provocation; thus, ironically, Joker's continued existence makes Gotham safer. [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity With Joker dead by his own foolishness]], all it takes is one year for Gotham's criminals to [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight put aside their differences and launch a full-scale military invasion of Gotham City]].]]

* Marvel's [[UltimateMarvel Ultimate Universe]] series seems to be making a conscious effort at averting this trope, along with many of the other cliches from the mainstream Marvel universe. When a character dies (even major legacy ones like Red Skull, Dr. Doom, and the Kingpin), [[KilledOffForReal they STAY dead]].

-->'''Superman:''' Why is it that the good villains never die?\\

--> '''Batman:''' Give me one good reason why I shouldn't finish you off, right now!
--> '''Joker''': Merchandising. You can't afford to lose your best villain.

-->'''The Joker''': I wonder ''whose'' home it's gonna be?

** Maintained with the New 52 version of Harley Quinn, and Deadshot who [[spoiler: shot through the spine and then completely healed with a Lazarus Pit injection from Amanda Waller.]].
* ''{{Superman}}'' [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] this trope in Public Enemies.
-->'''Superman:''' Why is it that the good villains never die?
-->'''Batman:''' Clark, what the hell are "good villains"?

* In John Ostrander's writing of the Spectre, his human host (Jim Coorigan) asks Father Cramer why the Spectre never responded to the murder of Coastal City. Father Cramer suggested that the Spectre was designed by God only to respond to certain cries for vengeance.
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
** Prior to ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}'s death in Final Crisis, the villain seemed to be an apt representation of this trope. One time when the Hal Jordan Specter "killed" Darkseid, the villain was instantly resurrected. The suggested implication was that Darkseid was a universal necessity needed to represent evil (after all, you supposedly can't have good if there is no evil).
** [[ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman Doomsday]] has a version of this trope, as he can die, [[AdaptiveAbility but will return with total immunity from whatever it was that killed him.]]
** Originally this trope was averted with major DC villains such as the Phantom Zone kryptonians, and Sinestro were killed off by their heroic counterparts Superman, and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan). Eventually, it was reversed when continuity was retconned to establish that the villains were actually not killed.

** Sergio Aragonïs Destroys DC: Parodied and Lampshaded:
--> '''Batman:''' Tell me one reason why I should not kill you just now!
--> '''ComicBook/TheJoker''': Merchandising! The WB cannot afford to lose your principal villain!

** In ''Film/SuicideSquad'', the Joker is seemingly killed when his helicopter is shot down and blown up with him in it, but he shows up alive and well by the end in dramatic fashion.

* During ''ComicBook/NoMansLand'', after the Joker murders Gordon's, Batman still refuses to execute the villain, ''but'' he tells Gordon he will ''not'' stop him from doing so. (And Gordon almost does. He backs down after deciding there's been too much death already.)

* The ComicBook/RedSkull practically invented this trope. He doesn't even have his original body anymore. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in issue two of Ed Brubaker's "Captain America", where Cap refuses to believe that Red Skull is truly dead after A GUNSHOT WOUND TO THE HEAD!

* ComicBook/TheJoker's had this from day one. He was originally conceived as a one-off villain (co-creator Creator/BillFinger worried that Batman, and law enforcement would look pretty incompetent if the villains kept returning), and Batman didn't even have his no-kill code back in those early days, but the Joker proved too good a villain to waste by killing after one issue so a last minute edit had him survive. He's been laughing at readers ever since. Joker has become something of a BaseBreaker in the wider DC comics fandom due to this trope. Go to any comic board, and the thread that most often pops up is why Batman hasn't shrugged off his no-kill policy just this once and snapped Joker's neck.

** If not for the Joker, this trope would be named {{Magneto}} Immunity, for the X-Men's premiere villain, who may hold the record for the highest number of sincere and permanent deaths, lobotomies, and depowerings of any villain in comic book history, but could no sooner be removed from X-Continuity than the Joker could from Batman.

* Parodied in a ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' skit featuring Hamill as The Joker. Batman literally beats him within an inch of his life before lamenting that he's promised to let the justice system to its job and pondering what he should do. The scene then cuts to Joker having been given the death sentence after a testimony from the Batman, to which he says that it's now out of his hands.

* Jigsaw of ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'', to the point that the story arc in ''Punisher War Journal'' by Matt Fraction about him specifically deals with this, as Jigsaw has become GenreSavvy over the years and even calls the Punisher out on this... mentioning others' opinions that it's due to FoeYay. What makes this a notable example of Joker Immunity is that despite letting him go several times, Frank DID kill Jigsaw several years ago--he was brought back with voodoo or something. In general, Jigsaw is notable because his enemy is the Punisher, who usually kills any adversary he comes across -- ''very'' few Punisher villains are recurring; it's really just Jigsaw and Rapido.

** With X-Men comics taking DeathIsCheap to the limit even by comics standards, by now, ''nobody'' takes ''anybody's'' death seriously anymore, even in-universe because the writers could no longer keep the cast ''so epically GenreBlind'' as to have people hold funerals at every single NoOneCouldSurviveThat moment. Sure enough, the character always returns and nobody's ''that'' surprised. Beast even says it about the villain of the previous arc when it wasn't a bad guy with a long history and a wide fanbase. "The more certain the death, the more sure the resurrection," he says of... some purple guy. However, we ''haven't'' seen Khan since.

** Basically meaning that Batman foe or not, if you're obscure enough that Warner Brothers doesn't actively profit from you on the merchandising front, you can be KilledOffForReal.

* SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker's had this from day one. He was originally conceived as a one-off villain (co-creator Creator/BillFinger worried that Batman, and law enforcement would look pretty incompetent if the villains kept returning), and Batman didn't even have his no-kill code back in those early days, but the Joker proved too good a villain to waste by killing after one issue so a last minute edit had him survive. He's been laughing at readers ever since. Joker has become something of a BaseBreaker in the wider DC comics fandom due to this trope. Go to any comic board, and the thread that most often pops up is why Batman hasn't shrugged off his no-kill policy just this once and snapped Joker's neck.

--> '''SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker''': Merchandising! The WB cannot afford to lose your principal villain!

** Rationalized in an issue of ''TheSpectre''. The Spectre is the embodied Wrath of God, and his whole shtick is executing murderers in ironic ways. When the Joker guest stars in his comic, the writers have to explain why the Spectre doesn't just kill him (by turning his smile inside-out or somesuch). The Spectre ends up discovering that the Joker has no functioning conscience, and thus ''can't'' tell right from wrong -- and it would be unjust to kill him when he isn't consciously evil. (There's almost no good reason to believe that the Joker can't tell right from wrong, though.) Still doesn't explain why he doesn't go after Lex Luthor, though...

* SelfDemonstrating/DoctorDoom is almost built on this trope, as it has become nearly a certainty that we are never witnessing the man himself in battle. His character dies in most engagements, turning out to be ActuallyADoombot, programmed to impersonate him. Which happens so often that fans have half-jokingly theorized that ''the real Doom has never actually appeared on-panel''. It took damnation to Hell itself to keep the character down, and even then, he escaped.

* {{DoubleSubverted|Trope}} in the Elseworlds story ''Batman of Arkham'', where Bruce Wayne runs Arkham Asylum to try and cure the inmates he turns in as Batman during the early 20th century. When Batman foils the Joker's plan to make all of Gotham go crazy from inhaling his gas, he nearly lets the Joker burn to death when his balloon explodes in flames, but realizes that letting the Joker die goes against his belief that the mentally ill can be cured, so he saves the Joker's life and has him sent to Arkham like the rest of his enemies.

* Double subverted in the Elseworlds story ''Batman of Arkham'', where Bruce Wayne runs Arkham Asylum to try and cure the inmates he turns in as Batman during the early 20th century. When Batman foils the Joker's plan to make all of Gotham go crazy from inhaling his gas, he nearly lets the Joker burn to death when his balloon explodes in flames, but realizes that letting the Joker die goes against his belief that the mentally ill can be cured, so he saves the Joker's life and has him sent to Arkham like the rest of his enemies.

* ''Comicbook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'': Shredder. Since ''Mirage'' was originally meant to be a one-shot, the BigBad was killed by having Donatello bat a grenade in his face, knocking him off the building as it exploded. As the issue got unbelievably popular, Shredder was brought back to life through a kind of semi-mystical cloning involving a kind of worm that mutates into the tissue it devours.

** Sabretooth beats even Mystique's example on this one. There's this sword, right? It's basically magical, and can cut through anything and no HealingFactor can do anything with the wounds it makes. An arc of Wolverine's solo comic ends with him relieving archnemesis Sabretooth of his head using this blade. We see him again soon enough... ''in {{Hell}}.'' In a battle in hell, Sabretooth gets his head lopped of ''again.'' (It could happen to anyone once, but twice and you're just being careless.) With a magic hell sword ''SPECIALLY CRAFTED TO DESTROY SOULS.'' Farewell, Sabes. You were a great villain, and you'll be mi-'''''what do you mean he's back alive and well in less than a year?'''''[[note]]He was cloned, if you care. Apparently cloning someone regenerates the soul too, it seems. Despite not even [[Characters/XMenVillains} Mr. Sinister]]'s super-technology doing anything of the sort when he created Sabertooth clones in the past.[[/note]]

** The first Green Goblin (NormanOsborn) is an apt representation of the "Joker Immunity". After being dead for around 20 years, Norman was resurrected. He later got pardoned and was promoted to being head of the national security agency H.A.M.M.E.R and the Avengers during Dark Reign. After being arrested again for launching war against Asgard, Norman then got pardoned again and led his new band of Avengers.

* Tannarak, foe of ComicBook/ThePhantomStranger, took this to ridiculous levels. He was killed by a falling statue in his first appearance. Then he came back, and died when a temple fell on him. Then he came back ''again'', and was killed when the phoenix he was riding on fell to the ground. Then he came back ''yet again'', and was de-aged into nothingness - and then returned in ''BatmanAndTheOutsiders'' where he died again, of course. Tannarak gleefully {{lampshade|Hanging}}d this phenomenon, always telling the Phantom Stranger (with a completely straight face): "Hah! Did you expect a falling statue/collapsing temple/etc. to ''really'' kill me?"

** Another apt representation are the Dark Judges who have murdered tens of millions, but are already "dead" so are repeatedly confined to orbs which they manage to escape from. They even teamed up with the Joker once in Mega-City One. Conveniently (yet once again) for the Joker, he was instantly teleported back to Arkham Asylum before Judge Dredd (who has a lot fewer qualms against killing) could issue a sentence to our titular trope character.

*** Batman does go to {{justif|iedTrope}}y the reason, admitting he thought about just killing him every day. But Bats recognized that that would be his [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope point of no return]], and he wouldn't ''stop'' killing criminals.
*** In a nice case of StrawmanHasAPoint, Jason ''immediately'' points out the StrawmanFallacy of that argument, asking why every "cub scout" seems to think that killing ''one'' person, an irredeemable, unquestionably evil monster of a person, will somehow lead to them cutting down ''every'' crook. He's not saying that Batman should kill the Penguin, Scarecrow, Clayface, Riddler or Two-Face. Just the Joker. The number one monster of Gotham City.
*** Batman doesn't even argue against that, he just weakly says "I can't..." with no counter reason almost as if to say to the viewer that there's nothing he can do about this trope.

*** ''"Laughter After Midnight"'', a story by Creator/PaulDini in ''ComicBook/TheBatmanAdventures Annual'' #1 deconstructs this trope begining with the Joker falling out of a police blimp after a climactic fight with Batman, and proceeds to show how he spends the rest of his night getting back to one of his lairs. First he survives by falling into a park's lake. Understandably angry that his archenemy threw him from a blimp, he begins a massacre of Gotham's midnight denizens while buying donuts and a paper. He asks Harley to pick him up, but the police are with her. A RedShirt patrolman tries to arrest him and the Joker steals his patrol car. Then the FridgeHorror hits: Batman is TheOnlyOne who can stop Joker, but he believes Joker's dead because he saw him fall from a Zeppelin. So Batman will not come against Joker. For some hours, Joker is unstoppable. The comic ends in an eerie scene with the Joker trying to get home.

** Similarly, other live-action Batman films have done this to other villains. [[spoiler:Two-Face dies in both ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' and ''Film/BatmanForever'', The Penguin dies in ''Film/BatmanReturns'', Ra's al Ghul apparently dies in ''Film/BatmanBegins'' (discussed trope, as Batman doesn't have to save him), Talia al Ghul dies in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', and Bane dies by ''Catwoman's'' hand. In a bit of dark, bitter irony, the Joker survives the events of The Dark Knight, but the character can't come back either way because of actor Heath Ledger's real life demise.]]
** In some of the Batman films, our titular character [[WhatMeasureIsAMook kills henchmen]] when it is completely avoidable, and quite likely unnecessary, such as when Batman incinerates members of the Penguin's gang in ''Batman Returns''.

*** Though several of the Joker's crimes would fall under federal, not state jurisdiction, and the federal government still practices capital punishment.

*** In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'', [[spoiler:Joker]] stays dead for all of five seconds before reviving to trap Batman... or so the Caped Crusader thinks. [[spoiler:(Actually, he is only FakingTheDead before the disguised Clayface comes up behind Batman and ambushes him while the real Joker is still sleeping under the influence of the potion on the wheelchair.)]] The trope then gets a {{lampshade|Hanging}} hung on it via the EnemyChatter (I mean, it's not like the Joker ever ''dies'', is it?) [[spoiler: Then, it's completely subverted, as ''the Joker dies at the end''.]]
**** {{Deconstructed}} as Joker seems to be banking on his own Joker Immunity and Batman's insistence on ThouShaltNotKill and SaveTheVillain. This is despite [[spoiler:Joker's dying due to Titan poisoning from ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'']]. It seems that Joker's Joker Immunity pays enough when he suddenly pops up healthier than ever before, but [[spoiler:it is Clayface masquerading as him. Later, when Batman stops him from using a Lazarus Pit to cure himself, he stabs Batman when Batman wonders if he should save Joker from dying. Batman knows if he does, Joker will continue killing. Due to the stabbing Batman drops the antidote for Titan poisoning, and Joker loses his only remaining chance to live. And he then dies, ''averting'' his own Joker Immunity]].
---> [[spoiler: '''Batman:''' ''(sadly)'' Do you want to know something funny? Even after everything you've done, I would have saved you.]]
---> [[spoiler: '''Joker:''' ''(laughing/coughing)'' That actually is... pretty funny...]]
**** Arkham City could be considered a double-subversion (as in it subverted the trope twice, not that the subversion was itself subverted) since [[spoiler: Mark Hamill has declared that Arkham City was the last time he would ever voice the character, after which he would retire from the role forever. So this game could be seen as the final passing of Hamill's iconic interpretation of this iconic villain. A shame, but at least he went out on a high note.]]
**** Then there's ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'', [[spoiler:when the Joker tries many ways to subvert his own Joker Immunity, like shooting himself in the head or strapping himself to an electric chair that is wired to Bane's heart, and yet Batman [[SaveTheVillain keeps saving him]] despite his notion to Batman that he is the monster who deserves to die for his crimes. The Clown Prince of Crime feels amazed, to the point where he's not sure what to think, that Batman would save the life of someone like him, even when Joker's trying to kill him, thus beginning his long obsession with the Dark Knight. When ''Origins'' is over, you can understand why he finally succeeded in subverting his Joker Immunity in both ''Asylum'' and ''City'': the Joker has been a DeathSeeker all along from the very beginning.]]

** [[spoiler: Batman #38 seemingly confirms this; chemicals in the Joker's body resemble the liquid found in the Lazarus Pit. It is hinted he may be older than Gotham itself; several paintings depict a figure resembling the Joker, dubbed "The Pale Man", at different points in Gotham's history]].
** [[spoiler:The "Joker is immortal" theory is jossed by Batman #40; while The Joker DOES have a HealingFactor,he only gained it very recently; after falling down the cavern in ComicBook/DeathOfTheFamily, he landed in a pool of Dionesium(one of the chemicals in the Lazarus Pit), which repaired his face and gave him the ability to heal from fatal wounds]].

* This trope doesn't only apply for the Joker. ''Most'' of ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'''s RoguesGallery never get killed off ([[LegacyCharacter in principle]]) no matter what happens to them. The common in-story explanation is Batman realizes he's quite capable of killing opponents, [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope but doesn't trust himself not to come up with excuses to do it again if he can rationalize it the first time.]] Often forgotten is that other characters have been insistent on stopping Batman if they think he's really been tempted. Jim Gordon explicitly informs Batman that he, the police, and citizens of Gotham tolerate him because of his moral code, and would not hesitate to deal with him if this was broken. Still doesn't explain why the GCPD does not kill these super villains the moment they resist arrest, and present a clear, and present danger, as the police are legally authorized to do.

* ''ComicBook/Superman'':
** Prior to {{Darkseid}}'s death in Final Crisis, the villain seemed to be an apt representation of this trope. One time when the Hal Jordan Specter "killed" Darkseid, the villain was instantly resurrected. The suggested implication was that Darkseid was a universal necessity needed to represent evil (after all, you supposedly can't have good if there is no evil).
** [[TheDeathOfSuperman Doomsday]] has a version of this trope, as he can die, [[AdaptiveAbility but will return with total immunity from whatever it was that killed him.]]

* In the ''Comicbook/New52'' universe, heroes such as Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Superman, and Hal Jordan seem to be fine with killing alien invaders in battle. Nevertheless, human villains such as Joker and Deathstroke continue to remain at large.

* If not for the Joker, this trope would be named {{Magneto}} Immunity, for the ComicBook/{{X-Men}}'s premiere villain, who may hold the record for the highest number of sincere and permanent deaths, lobotomies, and depowerings of any villain in comic book history, but could no sooner be removed from X-Continuity than the Joker could from Batman.

** Likewise, every story featuring X-Men villain ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}} ends with him being finally killed off permanently. And this time we mean it. For now.

*** Mystique is becoming a queen of this trope. One showing had her and {{Wolverine}} fighting in a desert, and whilst she can hang because her shapeshifting gives her a form of a healing factor she eventually is left for dead bleeding out in the MIDDLE OF A DESERT. Next time she shows up? She acknowledges this happening but then doesn't bother to explain ''how she got out of that situation''.

* Captain America's enemy Baron Zemo must have been somewhat popular to constantly return from certain death time and again, always having some barely-acceptable excuse at the ready. He'd fall into boiling-hot glue... but come back to reveal that there had been an escape trap in the vat just in case of an accident. He'd fall off a mansion roof to the concrete waiting below... only to return with a neckbrace, but other than that doing pretty good. Even Zemo once compared one of his deaths to a comic book "demise" and narrated it thusly for Spider-Man.
** Although we're on the [[LegacyCharacter second Baron Zemo]] right now, the first having died in WWII, so at least one of them took.
* Finally averted with Bullseye (arch-enemies of ComicBook/Daredevil) who use to be a representation of this trope. Having been left paralyzed, Daredevil refrained from killing him, only to have the villain regain his mobility through an adamantium skeleton. Eventually, a demonic possessed Daredevil killed Bullseye in Shadowland. Lady Bullseye then resurrected her male counterpart, only for him to be a quadriplegic with no sight, hearing, smell, taste, or feel, truly a fate worse than death.
** Prior to that, though, he'd been a definite example; despite being a normal human with no power besides ImprobableAimingSkills, he repeatedly wound up going up against opponents whom he shouldn't even have been able to physically damage, let alone beat.

** Don't forget the good Doctor is also a sorcerer who can swap minds with nearby bystanders and had to do so to avoid being killed by Terrax once (and left the bystander's mind to die in his body). This means he's not even in his original body anymore and thus death need not take should you somehow destroy the 'real' Doctor Doom.
* Another poster child for this trope would be {{Galactus}}, who has slaughtered untold trillions of seintient aliens in his hunger for planetary energy. As Galactus laid dying during John Byrne's run on Fantastic Four, Mr. Fantastic saved the villains life with NO conditions attached (i.e. staying away from planets with sintient life, stupidity beyond belief).
** Except for the small fact that Galactus being alive is a cosmic need or else a ''multiverse'' level villain gets released. It turns out that when Galactus promised that he'd someday give more to the universe than he'd ever taken from it, not only did he mean it, he's doing it ''even now.'' If the [[SealedEvilInACan sealed evil he's keeping in the can]] gets loose, you'll wish you were ''merely'' dealing with a ''thousand'' Galactuses instead. ''Still,'' Reed should have attached a string or two to saving the big guy.

** However, at the end of this arc, [[spoiler:Jigsaw finally is killed by his allies Lynn Michaels and Ian.]] Soon after, however, [[spoiler:Stuart Clarke, briefly Frank's "new Micro" before he discovered Frank killed his girlfriend, was horribly scarred on his face in a bloody fight with Frank, effectively becoming the new Jigsaw. And no, old Jigsaw did not remain dead in case you were going to ask.]]

** And with good reason. The Red Skull has seemingly died numerous times throughout history but he ''always'' finds a way to cheat death to the point of being a RunningGag. Buried within the rubble of a bombed building? He gets put into [[HumanPopsicle suspended animation by experimental gas.]] Death by old age? He just had his mind put into a clone of Captain America. Obliterated by the cosmic cube? He reconstituted himself using the cube's power and [[TheDeterminator sheer force of will.]] Assassinated by the aforementioned gunshot? He used ''another'' cosmic cube to transplant his mind into the very person who ordered him killed before dying. His host is ventilated by a machine gun? Armin Zola puts his mind into a robot body. Plots to transfer his mind into Captain America's body only to have it cast out? He transfers his mind into an even [[HumongousMecha bigger robot body!]] Giant robot body blown up by [[MacrossMissileMassacre missles?]] [[DeathIsCheap Just wait.]]
*** Currently, the Red Skull running around the Marvel Universe is a clone of the original. So whilst he technically is dead, for all intents and purposes he's not.

*** In Doom's case, it was [[ComicBook/UltimateFantasticFour revealed]] that [[spoiler: the person who was killed was [[ActuallyADoombot a body double]], meaning that this trope is still in force for him]].

* Wolverine's former Sensei Ogun was beheaded. Came back all the same under numerous guises, be it ghost or demon, apparation or possession.

* Let us not forget Shredder. Since ''Comicbook/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Mirage}}'' was originally meant to be a one-shot, the BigBad was killed by having Donatello bat a grenade in his face, knocking him off the building as it exploded. As the issue got unbelievably popular, Shredder was brought back to life through a kind of semi-mystical cloning involving a kind of worm that mutates into the tissue it devours.
** Interestingly, the comic Shredder actually becomes an aversion. This semi-mystical clone eventually gets killed, and the Shredder himself never returns again, even with the Foot Clan remaining a prominent part of the book. Comic Shredder is a TokenMotivationalNemesis and not any kind of ultimate archenemy. ''Other'' versions of the Shredder, however...
* Galvatron in the UK ''[[ComicBook/TheTransformers Transformers]]'' comic. Simon Furman brought in Galvatron from the Transformers movie, thanks to the magic of time travel, and used him as his principal villain (since the US comics weren't going to use the movie characters at all, meaning Furman didn't have to worry about contradicting the US continuity). Galvatron was used for two years, in which time he got shot, blown up, blasted with missiles and trapped inside a volcano which then exploded with ten times its normal force (due to his own dubious plan to tap the volcano with an energy-siphoning device), but survived each time due to reader popularity. For his final appearance, Galvatron had half his face blown off by an energy weapon so powerful its recoil killed its wielder (Roadbuster) and was then attacked by just about ever single still-breathing character in the comic. He finally died when a rip in the fabric of space/time tore him down to a robotic skeleton and finally consumed him, causing most of the comic readership to breathe a massive sigh of relief.
** Furman then took over the US comic and decided it was a shame that the US readership had missed out on the Adventures of Insane Unkillable Uber Galvatron, so brought a new version of Galvatron into the comic from a parallel timeline. This Galvatron was somewhat saner than the previous one and wasn't the primary antagonist of the entire series, but him coming back in a new form seemed a bit cheesy given the lengths needed to kill his predecessor.
** That wasn't even the first time Furman resurrected Galvatron: The UK comic storyline continued with the Autobots from the movie-era future who had helped destroy Galvatron returning to their own time...only to run into Galvatron. It turns out that their intervention in the past had changed history so Galvatron never went back in time and never died.

*** However, Furman seemed to change his mind and decide this was rather silly: the new Transformers comics from IDW will apparently not feature the Unicron/Primus mythos at all. Granted, he said that about [[{{Fembot}} Female Transformers]], too, then gave us Arcee [[GenderBender anyway]]...
*** ThePowersThatBe have said that the same goes for ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated''. However, the ''Transformers'' "powers that be" changing their minds would not be unprecedented. (''However'' however, after ''three whole shows'' in which Unicron was highly prominent, letting the idea rest so as not to wear out his threat value with overuse - just ask the Borg what that's like - seems logical.)

* In the ComicBook/{{Warrior}} (the professional wrestler the Ultimtate Warrior) comic book, an evil spirit (Rock, creator of parts unknown) possessing the Ultimate Warrior's body murders over 42 major world leaders. Apparently secret service was a joke and there was only one witness who was able to testify on television. You can see the laughable absurdity here http://atopfourthwall.blogspot.com/2011/10/warrior-4.html.