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  • Batgirl: Barbara Gordon gave up on being Batgirl after the Joker shot her and left her with waist-down paralysis. After several years, in Batgirl (2011) Barbara regains the use of her legs and becomes Batgirl again.
  • Due to his crippling defeat at the hands of Bane in Knightfall, Batman was relegated to a wheelchair. Following his recovery and regaining of his old martial arts skills, he finally regained his confidence and put on the batsuit again.
    Robin: Welcome back.
    Batman: A little premature, Robin. I won't really be back until I've retaken Gotham...and that battle starts now!
  • A truly epic example in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns where Batman comes out of retirement after 10 years and is around his 60s. What we get are panels of him warring on horrified criminals, news reporters talking about a man dressed like a bat kicking the asses of criminals all over the city, among other reactions. And this is all in his first night back.
    Reporter: Police phone lines are jammed with citizens describing what appears to be a siege on Gotham's underworld... by the Batman.
  • After the events of Batman: Endgame, Bruce Wayne had been living with no memory of his time as Batman, with Alfred telling Superman and the rest of the Bat-family to leave him be. However, a combination of rescuing one of the Robin Movement kids and an encounter with a possibly healed Joker results in him starting to remember everything. However, it's Mister Bloom's rampage and having a child center he worked on explode thanks to an infected kid that leads Bruce to return to the manor, confront Alfred and tell his loyal butler the five words he did not want to hear: Take me to my Cave.
  • Captain America does this following his death and in style: leading both the Registration and Renegade Avengers against the Red Skull, barking orders out as if nothing went wrong, then, finally, showing the rest of America that, yes, he's back.
  • Daredevil:
    • In the Born Again story arc, the Kingpin, knowing that he has completely ruined Matt Murdock's life, sends the Super-Soldier lunatic Nuke to attack Hell's Kitchen. As the maniac is laying waste to the slum, he is struck with a billy club, which then ricochets back to Daredevil. There, back in costume after so long and framed by the flames, Matt is ready to show the monster that there will be the devil to pay for all the harm he caused that night!
    • Chip Zdarsky's run on Daredevil has Matt renouncing Daredevil after accidentally killing a criminal, though he continues to fight crime in simple, alternative mask. As Hell's Kitchen plunges into chaos, ordinary citizens don the cowl to fight for their neighborhood, but are quickly defeated. This causes Matt to realize Daredevil has become such a meaningful symbol for the residents of Hell's Kitchen, and inspires him to once again don the mask.
  • DC Comics Bombshells: Steve Trevor spends most of the first two volumes suffering from PTSD and unwilling to fight. Then he sees two children being threatened by a monster. He immediately jumps in, punches the monster, then carries the children to safety. He tells Diana that the nightmares are gone.
  • At the start of the Doctor Who Magazine comic "The Blood of Azrael", the Doctor is sulking over having lost the TARDIS in the previous story, and refuses to engage with the problem, even though Clara is doing her best to help. Halfway through part two, they end up at a hospital where the Doctor gets roused enough to stop an alien child getting inappropriate treatment. The child gives him a hug and says "You're a good doctor", and the next panel has him bounding towards Clara, talking nineteen-to-the-dozen about their next move.
  • Cobra Commander has a pretty big one in the Marvel GI Joe series, in Issue 98. He'd been shot in the back, buried in a shallow grave and Left for Dead while Fred VII, the man who shot him, masqueraded as Cobra Commander. Fortunately for the real Commander, it was standard Crimson Guard policy to have Siegies spy on each other, and Fred VIII rescued him and got him to a Cobra doctor — another Fred — in time. Then, the Commander simply bided his time until he was ready to come back to Cobra Island and clean house.
  • After the events of Identity Crisis (2004) the Elongated Man became "Un-Elongated" and began to verge closer and closer to despair and insanity. In 52, he gets involved in the Cult of Connor and seems to step over the edge of insanity, perpetually carrying a flask and letting his personal hygiene fade away, but in the climax of his personal story, he reveals that he knew Felix Faust had been manipulating him the whole time and had actually been manipulating him. For the first time in weeks Ralph Dibny is clean shaven and wearing a neat suit and tie and reveals that everything has gone according to his plan.
  • Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, had the "Demon in a Bottle" story arc where he developed and then suppressed his alcoholism. Years later in the Obadiah Stane Saga, he had a major relapse in which his alcoholism increased more and more, leading to him dumping the suit and handing it over to Jim Rhodes and Obadiah Stane taking over his company. Eventually he sobered up, manned the hell up, then suited up, proceeded to take back his company, and then face off against Stane in his Iron Monger battlesuit, intending to kill him, but Stane committed suicide so that Tony would be robbed of any "real" victory.
  • The Joker:
    • An interesting case of a hero's return causing a villain's return occurs in any number of the times the Batman has "died", causing the Joker to go temporarily sane or catatonic. Which always reverses itself upon Batman having his own He's Back moment.
    • After a year-long absence, he returned in Death of the Family, to the horror of Gotham. His first act is an assault on the GCPD resulting in the murder of 19 officers.
    • And as of the Batman: Endgame arc, after having been absent for two whole years (not counting a revised origin story in Batman: Zero Year), Joker is back in town.
  • Judge Dredd went through this kind of character arc throughout the events leading up to "Necropolis" and the aftermath of those events.
  • In Kick-Ass, Hit-Girl, having spent the first four issues of Volume 2 trying to be normal, steals a cop's gun & guns down Red Mist's Mooks after they set-off a bomb & kidnap Dave at his father's funeral.
  • Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour gives us the page picture: After Ramona leaves Scott is an absolute wreck and withdraws from everyone and pretty much gives up on life... but after Gideon shows up in town Scott takes a wilderness sabbatical to visit Kim who reveals that Scott's been a real bastard in his relationships. As if that wasn't enough Scott encounters his evil clone Negascott, who turns out to be the negative memories of his past. After merging with him Scott's better than ever and ready to finish what he started and... Well, see the page picture.
  • At the end of the New 52's Secret Six #12, Ralph Dibny, still in his Damon Wells/Big Shot persona, discovers Sue has her memory back and is waiting for him. The final page is a splash panel of the first New 52 appearance of the World Famous Elongated Man.
  • Princess Sally Acorn gets her moment in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) Issue # 178. As Sally, Bunnie and Antoine are reminiscing of the past, Antoine mentioning his old cowardly ways and Bunnie's reassurance makes Sally remember her old times as leader of the Freedom Fighters. Tired of her angst and moping, Sally asks if Bunnie remembers her old dream of being the royal hairdresser. A few pages later, Sally leads both the Freedom Fighters and the Chaotix in chasing off Dr. Eggman and his Egg Beater robot, finally throwing herself out of Chickification and back into Action Girl status.
  • Supergirl:
  • In Issue #30 of Superior Spider Man, Doc Ock comes to realize that his arrogance has always been his downfall and that Peter was such a hero because he had the same intelligence, but since it came at such a high price, he kept sabotaging himself so he wouldn't fall for it. He decides that Peter is the true Superior Spider-Man, restores Peter's memories and destroys his own, asking Peter to rescue Anna Maria from the Goblin King. Peter's response? He ditches Ock's costume, dons his old red and blues, and declares, "My turn."
    • The realisation that Peter has returned hits the Goblin King when Spider-Man makes a quip about his "man-purse."
      Goblin: It's YOU.
      Spider-Man: The one and only.
  • Superman:
    • Superman abandons humanity for ten years in Kingdom Come because he feels that society has become morally degraded beyond repair. When he finally makes a comeback, the first thing he does is rescue a cablecar full of civilians from warring gangs of vigilantes. The narrator puts the scene best:
      And suddenly, there was a wind. No, not a wind. A blur of motion, bending the steel of their weapons and changing the very course of the mighty river below. Even before the bystanders freed themselves from the cablecar, they knew. We all did. We knew... and remembered.
      Bystander: Look! Up in the sky!
    • Reign of the Supermen: The real Supes emerges from a robot, with an all-black suit (and silver logo), long hair, and tells his friends, "Don’t let the costume fool you. I’m Superman — and I’m back."
  • The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye: Megatron, after having a Heel Realization and renouncing violence, is cornered with the rest of the cast by the Decepticon Justice Division, and opts out of the fighting, leaving the rest of the cast to fight without him afraid that if he started fighting, he'd never stop. Then Ravage gets killed, and the Heroes are on their last legs. And suddenly, there's a massive explosion and Megatron comes out of the dust, Fusion Cannon in hand, ready to save the day.
    • Over in The Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Optimus Prime had rejected that title and reverted to being Orion Pax. During The Transformers: Dark Cybertron, Nova Prime kicks him around a bit while monologuing about the corrupted lineage of Primes, shifting between the forms of various Primes, including Orion himself, before Rodimus tells him that the title "Prime" is still a mark of heroism and honour because Orion was the one to claim it. When Nova Prime then knocks Rodimus out, the leader of the Autobots steps back up to the plate:
      My name is OPTIMUS PRIME! [punches clean through Nova's chest]
  • Ultimate Marvel:
    • The Ultimates: With the U.S. literally coming apart at the seams, Steve's returned to being Captain America to keep the nation from falling apart even further.
    • Downplayed in All-New Ultimates: Lana practiced her grand return salute, and got filled of doubts and insecurities about it.
  • The Flash:
    • In The Return of Barry Allen, Wally West was devastated when Barry Allen intentionally leaves him behind in a Death Trap; even though Wally escapes, he felt that he should go into hiding that only a select few know of his survival. Other speedsters (plus Green Lantern Hal Jordan) decide to deal with Barry Allen when he goes rogue, but Wally was still affected by the betrayal that he refuses to lift a finger. But then Wally finds an important clue that reveals that the rogue Barry Allen is an impostor. Wally proceeds to return to being the Flash, and unmask the impostor as Eobard Thawne the Reverse-Flash. And in the duel of the two speedsters, Wally further overcomes his own limitations, a mental block he placed on himself that Nerfed his power, allowing him to fight Thawne on even ground and eventually win.
    • In The Flash (Infinite Frontier) Wally learns that the explosion that killed the other heroes at Sanctuary during Heroes in Crisis wasn't even his fault but rather Savitar trying to take control of the Speed Force. This absolves Wally of all his self-inflicted guilt, allowing him to return to full power and beat Savitar when they returned to the present.
  • Jim Gordon, who lost his trust in Batman following the events of Knightfall and was eventually forced off the force by Mayor Pain Armand Krol gets two in Batman: Contagion: first is him regaining his trust in Batman upon realizing that the Batman he's currently working with is the Batman after all. The second comes at the end when newly sworn-in mayor Marion Grange follows through on her end of her deal with Bruce Wayne and reinstates Gordon as Commissioner.

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