No One Stays Dead...

So, the old saying used to go "No one in comics stays dead except for Bucky Barnes, Jason Todd, and Uncle Ben." Now that Todd and Bucky have both been resurrected, who do you all think should replace them in the saying? For example-

"No one in comics stays dead except for Porcupine, The Ani-Men, and Uncle Ben."

No one stays dead except for New X-Men and Uncle Ben.

I could have sworn they resurrected the Porcupine, or was it just another guy in the suit?

Is Thunderbird I still dead? The Bart Hamilton Green Goblin? Baron Zemo I (Helmut's dad)?

It seems the best way to make sure a character remains dead is giving them a successor to their codename, although that doesn't always work either. Ask Kraven.

edited 15th Mar '13 3:43:25 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

Yeah, Thunderbird's never officially come back. I think he actually has more appearance as a Posthumous Character than he did alive.

Gwen Stacy is also still dead, as far as I know. Unless clones count as being resurrected.

The clones always wind up dead too so yeah I would add Gwen to the saying. The fact that two out of the three would be spider-man supporting characters after editing the saying says a lot about how much crap that guy goes through.

I've begun to think that the number of people who die on Spider-Man's watch has gotten a tad out of hand given the whole "responsibility" theme, so I wouldn't mind if one got a reprieve, preferably Gwen due to the movie.

Bringing Gwen back could be interesting. But I wouldn't want her return to be permanent. And I wouldn't want her to die again. That tends to limit the possibilities.

One good way to make sure a character stays dead is to kill off a teenager. No resurrections for them! With a bare handful of exceptions.

We've already had the discussion about bringing back Gwen Stacy twice before, btw.

Oh, right, there was also Peter Parker himself in Ultimate Spiderman. At least, I think he stayed dead.

Characters from the '90s also seem to have an abnormally high mortality rate, the most egregious example probably being the entire Blood Pack being killed in one panel in Infinite Crisis.

edited 15th Mar '13 4:31:34 PM by HamburgerTime

Of course, no one wants the '90s characters back.

Eh, some of them have fans. People liked Synch and Skin, for instance, and unfortunately being both teenagers and from the '90s I kind of doubt we'll be seeing them again.

I still don't like the second volume of Weapon X because its entire point was almost literally shipping off forgotten '90s characters to the Nazi death camps.

edited 15th Mar '13 5:07:23 PM by HamburgerTime

Aunt May could die... again... only this time stay dead. It would be funny if the statement wound up being changed to "No one stays dead in comics unless Spider-Man loved them."

You know, there's some truth to that. Also I think the Burglar from Spider-Man's stayed dead after getting a heart attack from Spider-Man. And Jean De Wolff has stayed dead, I'm pretty sure. And Captain Stacy.

There are a lot of lower tier characters that died and never came back, especially from franchises with Loads And Loads Of Characters like the X-family and the JLA. Off the top of my head, I know that Agent Liberty, the Crimson Fox sisters, Amazing Man, Black Condor, Steel (not the black version), General Glory, Silver Sorceress, Mystek and Maxima died and never came back. And that's just the Justice League alone.

Unsurprisingly, most of those characters were either from the 90's or late 80's. I also wonder if Ted Kord might end up with Posthumous Character status, since with one exception, most the adaptations that have used Blue Beetle have started with him already dead.

Dan Garrett, the Blue Beetle before Ted Kord, has more or less stayed dead. I think.

Jor-El and Lara have pretty much stayed dead, too. I'd say if a character's death is essential to the origin or motivation of another, more popular character (or if the character was pretty much created in order to die and provide motivation for somebody else) they're probably going to stay dead. Except when they don't.

This thread should have the sister thread, "Always comes back" for the offenders who just won't stay dead.

I tend to think it's Jor-El, the Waynes and Uncle Ben (to keep Rule of Three) as a simplification. But we must also remember Mar-Vell. Granted, they try to bring him back, but in the end he's dead and will stay that way.

Whenever they've tried to resurrect him, it's always been a fake-out, or something like AVX where he came back just to die again immediately afterwards.

Uncle Ben's been temporarily brought back a few times in Spider-Man's run, usually dying again before the end of the story.

Outside Spider-Man, there's still no sign of a resurrection coming for Happy Hogan.

Individuals from the Ultimates Universe stay dead most the time.

*Shakes head in bemusement.*

Scarlet Witch did come back however, I think.

Gwen Stacy came back in the Ultimate universe.

Yup. Though wasn't it one of those "She wasn't really dead her essence was in Carnage" things? Still, same end result.