There was a time when death mattered in comics, especially over at Marvel. Character deaths, be they heroes, villains, or supporting characters, were rare and treated with pomp and circumstance. However, in recent years, that really hasn't been the case, as character deaths are treated as little more than par for the course, usually thrown into big events to give them some kind of power.
While some of these deaths have had long-term consequences, a lot of them really had no effect on anything but the story they happened in. As the dead characters were resurrected or replaced in some other way rather quickly.
10 The Inhumans Died And Barely Anyone Noticed
For a little while, Marvel was trying to push the Inhumans as the new X-Men, which no one fell for. It was made all the worse by the fact that the X-Men were a civil rights allegory and the Inhumans were a slave-owning monarchy that benefited from a caste-based system, basically the opposite of the X-Men.
It was made even worse by the fact that the Inhumans wholeheartedly supported the genocide of mutants because the source of their powers, the Terrigen Mists, were lethal to mutants. They were killed off in writer Donny Cates and artist Ariel Olivetti's Death of the Inhumans and pretty much no one has brought them up since.
9 War Machine's Death In Civil War II Was Meaningless After The Event Ended
Writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist David Marquez's Civil War II is considered one of the worst events of the 2010s, with one of the catalysts being War Machine's death at Thanos's hands. It was a big deal in the story, spurring both Iron Man and Captain Marvel on for different reasons. However, after the story ended, it got lost in the shuffle.
War Machine's death stopped mattering pretty quickly, which is weird since not only is he an important character in the Iron Man mythos but he's also an MCU character. His death was little more than a story point and most were pretty unhappy with it.
8 Winter Soldier Was Killed And Quickly Brought Back
Fear Itself, by writer Matt Fraction and artist Stuart Immonen, is basically a forgotten event. Focusing on the Serpent's attack on Midgard, it was a Thor-centric event that saw the heroes get pummeled by their own, who were armed with evil magic hammers. Pretty much everything from the book was inconsequential, including its big deaths.
One of those was the Winter Soldier, who was killed by Skadi, Red Skull's daughter, in Washington DC. However, it was all a ploy and it was later revealed that he hadn't died at all but just went underground. It was a fake-out of the worst kind and is one of the worst events in his long history.
7 Jean Grey Was Killed In The '90s And It Didn't Matter
Jean Grey is known for dying and has been through some dark storylines. Most of her fans know of at least one time that she has died. The X-Men's Gold Team was introduced in Uncanny X-Men #281 and the new team was embroiled in a Sentinel assault on the Hellfire Club immediately. After a pitched battle, both Jean Grey and Emma Frost were dead.
However, Jean was able to shoot her mind into Emma's body before she died, keeping herself alive and allowing her to get back into her body once it had been sufficiently repaired. It just lasted a few issues and is her least important death of them all.
6 An Entire Team Of X-Men Were Killed Battling The Orchis Initiative
Writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Pepe Larraz's House of X brought a lot of changes to the X-Men and one of the biggest of those changes was death. In an attempt to stop the Orchis Initiative from building a Nimrod Sentinel, a group of X-Men- including Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, M, Husk, Archangel, and Mystique- were killed succeeding in their goal.
It was a pretty big shock, one that only lasted until the next issue came out. They were all resurrected by the new mutant resurrection technique, instantly taking the sting out of the whole thing.
5 Gorgon Was Killed Fighting For Krakoa And Barely Anyone Has Mentioned It Since
X Of Swords was the X-Men books first big crossover since Hickman took over and it pitted the mutants of Krakoa against the mutants of Arakko and the demons of Amenth, with the winner taking all. If Krakoa won, the Earth wouldn't be invaded but if Arakko won, the legions of Amenth would attack. The two sides met in Otherworld, their contests presided over by Satunyne.
It was revealed that any mutant killed in Otherworld would stay dead and Gorgon, one of the Krakoan champions, was killed battling White Sword and his Hundred. While he was able to slay many of the Hundred, which allowed the Krakoans to win, since then his death has barely been brought up even though he was one of the Captains of the mutant nation's forces.
4 No One Ever Thought Black Widow's Death In Secret Empire Would Last
Writer Nick Spencer's Secret Empire had a lot of potential but there was so much wrong with it and one of those things was the death of Black Widow. It kind of came out of nowhere, as she died fighting Hydra Cap a little past the book's halfway point. And her death seemed to only serve as an impetus for Miles Morales and the Champions to get serious about killing Hydra Cap.
Even when it happened, no one thought it would matter or last and it didn't. She was resurrected as a clone not long after and pretty much no one references this death anymore.
3 Thor Died In Fear Itself And Was Replaced But Quickly Returned
Fear Itself's biggest death was Thor and much like Winter Soldier's, it would have zero long-term impact. Thor has died a lot over the years and sometimes it lasts longer than others but this death was completely meaningless long-term. It meant something in the story itself and played into Fraction's Mighty Thor, where he was replaced by Tanarus, who would be revealed to be Thor's foe Ulik.
Thor would quickly return to life and defeat Tanarus and that was pretty much it for this plotline. Barely anyone remembers it happened because it didn't matter in the slightest.
2 Spider-Man Was Killed By Morlun And Just About Immediately Resurrected
Spider-Man has died several times over the years, with varying degrees of meaningfulness and consequences. However one of his deaths had pretty much no long term impact and it was in the story The Other, which ran through every Spider-Man title being published in 2005. Battling against the energy vampire Morlun, Spider-Man was killed and then resurrected in the next part of the story.
It was a fake-out death and after his resurrection, his powers were supposed to change, another not uncommon occurrence for Spider-Man, but nothing from the story stuck.
1 Wolverine Was Killed And Replaced By Multiple Heroes
The Death Of Wolverine, by writer Charles Soule and artist Steve McNiven, was one of 2014's biggest events. It killed off one of Marvel's most popular characters and while it seemed like it would matter in the long run, it didn't and that's because Marvel replaced him almost immediately. The name Wolverine was taken up by his female clone Laura and then after Secret Wars in 2015, Old Man Logan was brought over to the main Marvel Universe.
This pretty much took away any impact that Wolverine's death had; not only was there a Wolverine running around but for fans who wanted a Logan, there was still one of those around as well. Eventually, the actual Logan would come back but fans really never missed him; they didn't have a chance to.