The medium of comics takes a lot of ribbing (much of it, admittedly justified), but it seems that nothing is considered more of a “comic-book” trope than a sudden, dramatic return from the dead. As one who used to work in broadcast television, forced to watch hours and hours of afternoon soap operas, I can tell you it’s hardly a trope unique to comics. Indeed, many a character has had her own return from the great hoary neitherworld, and even the venerable Sherlock Holmes pulled off a notable shocking resurrection. Every one of us has examples of characters that we wish would have stayed dead, but here at the MS-QOTD, we like to try and keep things positive, which in turn begs a query….
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) would like to point out that comics have always had an element of wish-fulfillment about them, asking: What, in your opinion, is the most deserving character resurrection in pop-culture history?
6 Comments
I’m not sure if it counts since i suppose he never went away completely, but Hal Jordan’s resurrection was great. After having one of the most justifiable plunges into villainy, he came back in a big way, with more humility, purpose and a big chip on his shoulder. It not only revitalized the character, but the whole Green Lantern line of comics in general.
Optimus Prime was pretty cool if not only for the fact that they actually kept him dead for a whole season. For a kids cartoon show, that took some balls.
Wonderman! I mean sure the first five or six times he came back from the dead it was silly, but now is what makes him what he is.
I do have to say that Holmes is probably my favorite. I reread tje stories all the time. Started doing so in second grade
Jade, daughter of the original Green Lantern Alan Scott. She’s one of my favorite DC characters even if she is usually kept as a secondary character in her appearances, and I thought it was an interesting story twist how they claimed she wasn’t even supposed to be the one to die in the first place.
It’s Green Arrow for me. The Quiver return arc written by Kevin Smith is great. (His writing for Etrigan’s rhyming was particularly inspired.) Oliver Queen was dead, definitely dead, and was dead for a good long while. Then he was brought back via means and methods most mysterious, which consequentially turns out to be a false resurrection as Oliver is a Soulless body created by Hal Jordan which turns out to be a big problem for the heroes. In true heroic fashion Oliver’s Soul is then called back into action in order to save the day, but also completing his resurrection in the process.