Death really IS a revolving Door!
As I was pondering my Rebirth post, I also started thinking about how many superheroes have died and been resurrected. And man oh man, it is a LOT! It is quite possible to put together a Justice League that consists of NOTHING but Used To Be Dead, But Are Now Breathing Air Superheroes.
Superman of course. His death was probably the biggie. There's Hal, he went out with a bang, and then got to be all Spectral and stuff. Ollie ALSO went out with a bang...quite literally. Hawkman has been resurrected tons of times. So, for that matter, has Hawkwoman.
Barry is apparently back, and so is Aquaman, or soon going to be. Tora is now back, which is awfully nice. Quite frankly, that's one pretty powerful version of the Justice League. I do find it a little depressing that more male heroes have made it back than female, but I guess that's just how it goes. Katma, Silver Sorceress, Maxima, Barda...are still waiting for their turn at the ol' revolving door.
We could also have one heck of a Justice League that is composed of STILL dead people. You just know it is only a matter of time 'till they are all back amongst the living anyway. We could have Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), Scott Free and Big Barda, Rocket Red (Dmitri), Martian Manhunter,Lightray and Orion, Firestorm, Max Lord, Maxima, Black Condor, Manitou Raven, and probably a whole passel of people that I can't remember off of the top of my head.
Then there were characters that we THOUGHT were dead, but really weren't, like Booster Gold and Guy Gardner.
The Justice Society doesn't seem to go through this sort of thing quite as much for some reason. Of course it is also full of old farts who have somehow attained youth and vigor in a number of interesting ways, and a crapload of kids, so it is a different dynamic somehow. The Suicide Squad is supposed to have a high level of mortality, but I think that the Justice League may just have them beat. The Teen Titans have grown up, and more or less all seem to be around in one form or another.
I just think that a League of once dead people would have some interesting things to talk about.
posted by SallyP @ 8:04 AM
5 Comments:
I'm LOLing at your Teen Titans line.
Wonder Girl/Troia (died, came back)
Omen (dead)
Hawk I (became evil, died)
Dove I (dead)
Gnarrk (dead)
Joker's Daughter (dead)
Raven (died, came back)
Terra I and II (dead)
Jericho (died, came back)
Phantasm (dead)
Pantha (dead)
Wildebeest (dead)
Dagon, Killowat, Redwing, Prestor Jon & Battalion (erased from time)
Kid Flash II (dead)
Bushido (dead)
Superboy (dead)
Osiris (dead)
Power Boy (dead)
Little Barda (dead)
Bombshell (died, came back)
Young Frankenstein (dead)
In some cases, bringing the dead back to life was incredibly well done (I'm thinkin' Oliver Queen has probably had the single best super-hero resurrection story I've ever read). However, there are cases where the hero in question really should have just stayed dead. Jean Gray as Phoenix really should have stayed dead originally, instead of being brought back via that whole stupid "Oh, that wasn't really ME, it was really sort of an alien clone masquerading as me!" (What the hell IS IT with Marvel and CLONES, for crying out loud?!?!) Really, if Marvel was so keen on keeping a Phoenix character around, I think Rachel Summers made a PERFECTLY good (and logical) Phoenix. What was wrong with keeping HER? Jean Gray was ALWAYS boring as dirt, when she wasn't Phoenix.
And I'm probably the only Trek fan in the world who thinks Spock should have stayed dead. But that's another story.
It is sad that fewer DC heroines get to come back to life, but what's even sadder is that so many of them have ridiculous, pointless deaths that are horribly done to begin with. Arisia didn't have to die the way she did (really, Major Force offing peoples' lady-friends and relatives was getting way old by that point), and I remember being aggravated that Tora's actual (pointless) death and the aftermath of it got less panel-time than Booster's almost-death in the same storyline.
And of course, nothing quite beats the sadness of Katma Tui's pointless, horrific, mostly off-panel demise in which she didn't even get to put up a fight, staged solely for the man-pain of Hal (with her own husband's pain only secondary).
At least two of these three got to come back!
Good grief! I had no idea that so many Teen Titans had bit the dust! I always seem to think of the TT' as being Wonder Girl, Roy, Dick, Wally and Aqualad, but that's just me.
Jean's death as Phoenix, was a heck of a story,and I agree that they should have just let it alone. Once they started killing her and bringing her back every second Tuesday, it lost a bit of its impact. Now there are rumors that she's coming back AGAIN!
At least Arisia got to go down fighting, instead of just being zapped like Tora or Jade, for example. Katma's death was indeed idiotic. She was supposedly brought back in Mosaic, but it didn't seem to take, because it's never been mentioned again.
Duskdog, may I just say, that I read you latest two stories, and was practically falling off of my chair laughing. Brilliant!
John is SO bad.
Psst, you forgot about Wonder Woman (All FIVE of them!). You could form a League just from them!
Orana, pre-Crisis, took over the title of WW for two issues. Her second issue was her last. She was a spunky redhead who died because she couldn't deflect bullets very well. (Never came back, to my knowledge, unless she's one of the many unnamed Amazons on Themyscira)
Artemis, post-Crisis, took over the title of Wonder Woman for a lot of issues who died because she couldn't beat up on evil magicians very well. (Fought her way out of Hell)
Diana died in a battle with Neron, came back as the goddess of truth. Eventually got demoted to Amazon again.
Hippolyta took over the title of Wonder Woman, died because casual readers couldn't figure out she wasn't her daughter, who was again also operating as Wonder Woman. Nearly killed in a big company cross over, she was instead allowed to die doing something truly heroic! (Brought back by Circe in a pitch to cause utter destruction of Amazons)
Donna Troy, took over for Wonder Woman during OYL. Died so many times, she's got an entire monument dedicated just to her various incarnations, since Donna was literally killed hundreds of times by Dark Angel, who was Also Donna, who was Also Harbinger(?). Came back.
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