The Marvel franchise is one of the biggest entertainment brands in the world, with its mighty heroes and villains starring in some of the greatest comics of all time. The titanic tussles between characters are pulse-pounding affairs and while more often than not everyone comes out okay and ready to fight again the next time another threat pops up, there are times when someone pays the ultimate price.

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Of course, this being fiction, death is rarely if ever permanent. If a character is popular they are almost certainly coming back to life with a triumphant return that gets fans excited for the future.

10 Jean Grey Is The Poster Girl For Resurrection

Jean Grey X-Men

Jean Grey hasn't had an easy life but that's kind of par for the course for mutants. However, she's also earned a reputation for being the mutant who dies and comes back to life the most, which is sort of unearned. Her first death in "The Dark Phoenix Saga" was retconned, so it wasn't really her and since then, she's only actually died once more, in New X-Men #150.

However, that time would keep her dead for over a decade, until she was resurrected by the Phoenix Force. It's rare for a character as popular as she is to stay dead for so long and while her fans are happy she's back, beyond her time starring in X-Men: Red, the character has been squandered at best.

9 Wonder Man Dies And Comes Back To Life Like It's Going Out Of Style

Wonder Man

Wonder Man is basically the Jean Grey of the Avengers, except he actually dies a whole lot more. Given ionic energy powers, he's not really human anymore so it's much easier for him to escape the Reaper's clammy clutches. Every time he dies, his body, now made of energy, discorporates but always comes back together, usually because of his love for Scarlet Witch.

Wonder Man might be the Marvel hero who has died and come back to life the most but Jean Grey gets all the jokes because she's way more popular than Wonder Man. For Wonder Man, death is barely even a stumbling block, as he's sure to come back the next time the writers remember he exists.

8 Red Skull Proves Evil Never Dies

Marvel Red Skull Power Cube

Evil never really dies and Red Skull is proof of that. He just keeps popping back up, ready to commit even more terrible atrocities, whether it be by putting his brain into cloned Cap bodies, Cosmic Cube shenanigans, or more. As long as Captain America exists, there will be a Red Skull ready to fight against him.

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One could look at Red Skull's constant resurrections as both a metaphor and a warning- much like the terrible racist ideology he espouses, Red Skull always comes back and constant vigilance is needed to stop the threat he and people like him pose.

7 Thor Comes Back Like His Hammer

Thor

Thor is one of the toughest heroes in the Marvel Universe but that doesn't mean he's invincible. One of the ironies of the Norse gods is that they can be killed, unlike other gods, so while Thor is the God of Thunder, that's no protection in battle. Thor has been killed several times over the years, but he always returns ready to take up the good fight again.

In fact, most of the Marvel Norse gods have died at least once and come back, making their vaunted mortality kind of moot- what's the point of being able to die if they keep coming back? However, there have been plenty of times when Thor has saved the universe, so it's a good thing he always comes back.

6 Thanos Never Gets To Stay With His Beloved For Too Long

Thanos leaning forward on a throne

Thanos is known as one of the most dangerous beings in the Marvel Universe and he's more than earned that reputation. However, he still loses, and sometimes, those losses are pretty fatal. For someone like Thanos, death is pretty much a reward- he gets to be with his beloved Mistress Death. However, he never gets to stay dead for very long, so it's bittersweet for him.

It takes a lot to kill Thanos but it's not impossible and every time it happens, he turns up again, ready to bedevil his foes once more and try to commit genocide on a massive scale, because that's how Thanos rolls.

5 Green Goblin Got To The Next Level After His Resurrection

Green Goblin teaming with Spider-Man

There are few more important villain deaths than Green Goblins. After the death of Gwen Stacy, Green Goblin died when he was impaled on his own Goblin glider. He stayed dead for a good, long time, returning to reveal that he was behind the Clone Saga.

Green Goblin would up his game in the years after his death, eventually taking over the Avengers and becoming a villain who fought against the greatest heroes in the Marvel Universe. While he's back to being a Spider-Man villain now, his return led to a huge glow-up.

4 Professor X's Return Presaged The Greatest Expansion Of Mutant Power Ever

Professor X sits in his X-Mansion

Professor X is the X-Men's founder, the man whose dream informed the team's mission. While he had faked his death once or twice over the years, he met his end at the hands of a Dark Phoenix possessed Cyclops. However, his mind survived on the Astral Plane, imprisoned by the Shadow King and he returned to life in the body of the mutant Fantomex.

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This return would see him get serious about protecting mutants, using his wealth and the resources of Krakoa to create a pharmaceutical empire, and finally give mutants the one thing they've always needed- a homeland. While his ways have hindered the X-Men as much as helped, without him mutants would still be in a place of weakness.

3 All Things Considered, Captain America's Resurrection Was Kind Of Ridiculous

Sharon Carter cradles Captain America Steve Rogers after he's shot after surrendering in Civil War

Captain America was the unshakeable symbol of liberty but that all ended on the steps of a courthouse. Betrayed by his long-time friend Iron Man and imprisoned for fighting against an unjust law, Cap was being led to trial when he was shot and killed by a mind-controlled Sharon Carter. It was a powerful moment and at the time, it felt like Marvel might have actually been closing the book on Steve Rogers.

However, he was brought back to life a little before his first movie came out and it kind of felt like writer Ed Brubaker was making the whole thing as ridiculous as possible, as it was revealed that Red Skull used the Cosmic Cube to pull Cap out of time and put him in a new body. It was a weird flex for a story that up until that point had been very grounded and realistic.

2 Spider-Man's Death Saw Him Replaced By Doctor Octopus

non-stop-spider-man-header

Spider-Man had gone through a lot over the years, battling all kinds of foes but he finally was defeated by Doctor Octopus, his mind shunted over into the villain's dying body. Ock took over Spidey's body but a part of Peter Parker was still there and Ock decided that he would stay Spider-Man, but prove that he was superior.

He actually did a better job of being Peter Parker than Peter Parker ever did but eventually, the one true Spider-Man would return, taking over when things were at their worst and proving why he was one of the greats.

1 Wolverine's Death And Return Were A Little Disappointing

Wolverine

Technically, because of the nature of his healing factor, Wolverine has probably been clinically dead loads of times for at least a few minutes but he finally died in (wait for it) The Death Of Wolverine. An aggressively okay story, it saw a healing factor-less Wolverine sacrifice himself to save some people kidnapped by Weapon X.

He would return in (wait for it) The Return Of Wolverine, which tried to give him a ridiculous new power, hot claws, and is best skipped because the title tells one everything they need to know about the story. Since then, he's died and been resurrected by Krakoan mutant tech multiple times.

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