One of the most enduring tropes of the superhero genre is the ever-present possibility of resurrection. Almost every prominent character who has died or been written out storylines has, at some point or another, been restored through magic, technology, or retcons. While the ways how may change every time, one hero in the Marvel Universe encounters a pretty great representation of why that happens.
The Incredible Hercules and Amadeus Cho once encountered a representation of the Marvel afterlife that took the form of a casino -- which is actually a pretty perfect (and extremely meta) metaphor for the way characters can be resurrected in the Marvel Universe.
Incredible Hercules #129 (by Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, Ryan Stegman, Terry Pallot, Raul Trevino, and Simon Bowland) came in the build-up to Hercules' role in the "Assault on New Olympus" storyline. Also tying into the Norman Osborn-led Dark Reign, the storyline follows Hercules and Amadeus Cho as they venture into the realm of Pluto to counteract Hera's plans. To reach the underworld, the pair make their way to New Jersey, where an entrance to the underworld has been reimagined as a casino. Within the casino though, Hercules and Cho find themselves encountering numerous heroes and villains who were considered dead at the time of the story's release.
They are trapped, almost willingly, in the realm of the underworld known as Erebus. It turns out the casino serves as the entry-level to the underworld that mortals may venture through and where many souls end up remaining. It is here that (the freshly murdered) Aegis is able to explain to them how the souls may gamble in the casino, all in a bid to win the right to resurrection. Aegis and Cho note how this is merely one representation of the underworld, but one that lends a new layer to the frequency by which heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe are resurrected.
Walking through the casino, numerous then-dead heroes could be glimpsed, playing games of chance for the ability to be resurrected. This included Blink, U-Go Girl, Puck, the Ancient One, Goliath, and the Wasp, among others. Some would even go through story-changes to have never actually died, such as the Wasp whose demise in the climax of Secret Invasion was later retconned away. Instead, Wasp survived within the Microverse, allowing her to come back to the mainline Marvel Comics.
On one hand, this seems to mess with the canon of Wasp's appearance in the realm of the dead. But on another, it serves as a visual metaphor for how death is considered in superhero settings. Characters live, die, and are reborn by the whims of ever-evolving editorial directions. Real-world decisions and popularity can necessitate major changes, whether that's tweaking someone's motivation as with Cyclops leaving his family to join X-Factor, or revealing a long-standing popular character like Wasp never actually died. Wasp even cites this trend, noting that Bucky was even eventually revived (another example of a retcon revealing someone actually hadn't died).
From the perspective of characters within these universes, it must feel like a game of cosmic chance. That's what makes the casino metaphor particularly meta for a universe where unlikely figures can be restored. Puck can be seen among the deceased heroes in this realm, and upon his resurrection he's found new prominence in stories like Immortal Hulk and Gamma Flight. These characters, within their own universe, are always hoping that they'll get lucky and have their stories continued. Pluto's Casino is one of the best representations of a long-standing element of superhero comics, and a particularly memorable one at that.