It’s common for comic book characters, whether hero or villain or just supporting cast, to be killed and then resurrected a few months later. But once in awhile, a character will be killed and actually stay dead. At least until the universe gets rebooted. For example Gwen Stacy over at Spider-Man never really returned from her shocking death, though she had clones and alternate versions aplenty.
But that’s Marvel and as you know I’m a DC guy.
Here are five examples, and the one rule is that the character has to have never been brought back to life. If they made appearances in the after life or as a ghost or zombie (or in expanded media) it’s not the same.
Dove
I talked about Hawk and Dove before, but it’s still fascinating that this character was never resurrected. Dove was reinvented with others playing the role, but Don Hall himself was at peace and stayed that way.
Sue Dibny
I think most know this story. In the pages of “Identity Crisis” the wife of Elongated Man was killed. She was more than just a supporting character, with a nice personality and a was always helpful whether it was with the JLA or just Ralph. Which made her retconned rape, and later death, really distressing.
Danny Chase
Ugh, Danny Chase. If you’re an AT4W fan you know Linkara loved this little brat. Though most people hated him. Yeah, I’m in the hated them side of that argument. He was just a whiny, arrogant kid who hardly ever did anything beneficial. I will admit his final action was pretty damn heroic, and I like his role in “The Game” graphic novel, but for the most there is a reason this character never returned. And I’m not getting in the Phantasm nonsense.
Mr.Terrific
No, not that one! I mean the original. Yeah before Michael Holt we had Terry Sloan. He was the master of Fair Play and a JSA member back in the early days. Then he came out of retirement during a JLA/JSA event and was killed. Yeah I know he was resurrected in The New 52, but since that was a rebooted version I say it still counts. This character never returned, and in fact his killer was never even caught. Until that was resolved, about twenty years later!
Vibe
Arrow resurrected Mr.Terrific, so Flash got a chance to resurrect an old forgotten character. Ever discover a character just have him get killed off before you even get to know them? I started reading JLA just before Vibe met his end. During the idiotic Justice League era when they operated our of Detroit, Paco Ramon was one of the people initiated into the group. He had vibration powers and while there are points for being a Latino character, he was basically a jerk. When it was time to wipe away this new version of the league, by having Professor IVO kill the new members, Vibe was the first to be rather unceremoniously killed off. The sad part his that in the story, his character has a breakthrough and seems to finally be evolving..just before he’s killed! Ouch. His legacy endured, but he never returned pre-New 52. Actually as much flack as that reboot gets, one thing they did right was Vibe. Now Cisco Ramon this character isn’t the stereotypically offensive one from the 80’s, this one is badass!
There are plenty more, including parents. Can you imagine Thomas and Martha Wayne every getting resurrected? Hardly! So next time I want a challenge, so I’m going to come back with five comics characters who died but got resurrected..and should have stayed dead!
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