Who's the most famous superhero who has never died?

nah Swampy "died" in issue 53 and didn't appear again until the very end of issue 55, which was his funeral issue.

Sorry: Swampy wasn't 'dead' for an entire two issues. My bad.

apology accepted

Didn't Batman "die" in Final Crisis #6, and was revealed to be alive at the end of FC #7?

Coaster Man

proud that we managed to bog this thread down in excruciating nitpickery in less than an hour, good work team

'bog down' pun unintended but happy to take credit for it anyway

I never could have foreseen such an outcome wrt the topic at hand, so I'm as shocked as anyone.

So since it's established that pretty much everyone in the Big Two has 'died' at this point the real question is who has actually DIED died, like who has been decisively and graphically ground into hamburger on panel in such a way that their resurrection was unlikely at best?

all resurrections are unlikely tbf

Chuck? xp

barry allen literally disintegrating into dust seemed pretty final but then... geoff johns

Anyway, I'm sure you understand that by "death" I mean stories where the hero dies, and isn't immediately revealed to be alive, either in the same issue, or (if the "death" is a cliffhanger) at the beginning of the next one... Meaning that some gullible reader might actually think he has died for sure. Often the next issue following the death features other characters mourning the fallen hero etc.

Batman's death is kind of a borderline case, because he was revealed to be alive in the following issue, but DC had already advertised the death long in advance, and weren't the gaps between FC issue longer than normal too?

The original Cap Marvel remains dead, right? That's most likely because of they way he died, as even Marvel would probably think reversing a cancer death would be in bad taste.

Previously unknown sons and alternate universe counterparts of him have appeared, of course.

Yeah, him and Unca Ben are pretty much it. Jim Wilson also (for reasons likely similar to those you posit).

Oh wait, Ben was kinda sorta briefly resurrected during the recent Clone Conspiracy iirc.

since we're on the topic, i'd like to just take a moment to underline dc's uniquely weird decision to make superman's death - a colossal media event which brought tens of thousands of new eyes to comics - the result of a savage physical beating over the course of numerous issues, which must have been a v odd experience for those new readers

i can only assume mel gibson was taking notes for the passion of the christ

Has Bill Foster been brought back to life? That was a pretty disgusting death imo.

Has Namor ever died?

He was briefly beheaded a couple years back.

same

lol I have no idea what the answer to this question is but this discussion is p hilarious

realizing that ALL SUPERHEROES MUST DIE is like an article of faith with the big two now

As mentioned upthread, I don't think anyone has lasted longer than Dick.

xpost I guess it's still a reliable selling point? Even though everyone surely knows it's totally bogus by now?

presumably the audience just likes watching its heroes suffer, over and over. isn't there a term for this?

I sort of assumed some of the lower-tier X-Men would have gotten through it all without dying, but it seems like they've all been killed off and brought back at some point. Apparently Nightcrawler died, went to Heaven, and then BAMFED himself back to life.

Most of the (then current) X-Men "died" in the late 80s because Claremont wanted to deconstruct the whole team for some reason... Only Wolverine and Longshot survived that story arc.

Trying to think of an X-character who (line-wide universal upheaval/rebootage aside) has managed to avoid even the brief presumption of their having died. Err...Beast? Wolfsbane, maybe? There aren't many. And even those two probably have 'deaths' I've forgotten about.

has dc's captain marvel/shazam ever died?

reading Gotham Central from the library rn, just hit an Infinite Crisis crossover issue where Cap bemoans over and over that Shazam is dead, but I dunno if he was just mistaken, in whatever comics that actually took place in

Oh yeah, the actual wizard Shazam died and Captain Marvel took his place on the cave throne iirc.

he get better yet?

Dunno, I abandoned DC prior to Flashpoint and never looked back. Maybe he's one of the Watchmen now.

Secret Wars aside, Peter Parker has never died, right?

(I'm talkin OG, 616-Peter)

Yes he did, and then Doctor Octopus transferred his mind into Peter Parkers body and became Superior Spider-Man.

Oh yeah

How 'bout Howard the Duck (just grasping at straws here)

got kidnapped out of the Marvel Universe and went into witness protection in 1996, so is safe from death now

also not a superhero

Luke Cage maybe?

Jesus

― I can't dérive fifty-feev (Noodle Vague)

sounds like somebody needs to read irenaeus

Peter also "died" during Kraven's Last Hunt.

IIRC DC meant to kill Nightwing in the Infinite Crisis, but they changed their mind and offed Superboy instead. So Dick Grayson really seems to be the answer to this question, unless someone can come up with a better example?

Dick Grayson gets killed by Luthor during Forever Evil.

Admittedly it's resolved in the same storyline as he needs to die to escape the Murder Machine and is nearly immediately resurrected (also by Luthor) but he is dead dead for a very short time. This death is also what allows him to go undercover in the Grayson book in a new identity.

Ugh, Forever Evil

Dick Grayson is also currently 'dead' in that following being shot through the head by the KGBeast in Batman, Dick hasn't no memory of his previous life and is living as a taxi driver called Ric (which is making the current Nightwang book less than rivetting as he mainly plays pool in a bar).

A long time since I've read it but surely the only acceptable Marvel answer is Fred Hembeck?

They brought back KGBeast? Wow.

Ok, so Dick isn't the right answer, I wonder who is? Maybe Sue Storm then?

Ray Palmer?

He's shrunk himself into isolation plenty of times but were any of them teased as death?

I would argue Sue Storm is more famous than Ray Palmer...?

Still curious about the Thing, though. If you don't count Secret Wars, has he ever died?

those stores that Marvel likes to do — including recently — in which someone like Reed Richards or Steve Rogers or Thor or Logan is the last being alive at the end of time, witnessing the heat death of the universe, etc.

Sniffing through Alan Moore’s bins for old teabags they can dry out & try to use again.

Which Moore story did that, I can't recall?

Wildstorm Spotlight #1

How could I have forgotten such a popular + feted work.

it was pretty feted at the time!

https://www.tor.com/2012/07/09/the-great-alan-moore-reread-mr-majestic-voodoo-and-deathblow/

That seems to have come out years after Books of Magic #3 tho, which has a similar plot.

iirc that has magic people in a magic chamber ruminating on a time when various different magic worlds have passed into history? the Moore story is "Superman one immortal superhero is the last being left alive at the end of time, witnessing the heat death of the universe, etc"

Was specifically gonna mention that BoM issue (which is rad)!

iirc that has magic people in a magic chamber ruminating on a time when various different magic worlds have passed into history?

no, Mr. E takes the kid "walking" to the end of time, it is def the heat death of the universe and is literally described as such (that's when Death shows up!)

okey doke! I still think that's "magic" though

maybe I'm conflating with the Paul Johnson issue re ppl ruminating in a chamber

it is magic, I don't see why that matters. I mean, Thor is magic.

it's magic that takes them there, but they are literally *there* and they interact with various entities that can see them.

The lure of alliteration overpowered my brane.

― Hootie and the Banshees (Old Lunch), Tuesday, January 8, 2019 4:22 PM

That's the ghost of Stan Lee trying to possess you.

Kamen Rider, Ultraman, Super Sentai team, Bananaman, Darna, One Punch Man, Kick Ass & Hit Girl, The Mask, Witchblade, The Incredibles? All guesses.

The Spirit started by faking his death? Didn't The Phantom or The Shadow do something similar? The Crow and Spawn died in their origin and I bet they probably died more times.

I presume Hellboy died at some point?

Storylines discussed above sound incredibly stupid, even by DC and Marvel standards. I guess some characters are just killed off so we can get sentimental about them and then show them looking ICONIC *retch* when they come back.

Hellboy's death is one of those 'death is not the end' stories, as quite a few of the last Hellboy comics are after he is dead and Mignola came to the end (for now). The current series are working in the 50s etc filling in stories earlier in the cycle.

Was Swift from The Authority ever killed?

Didn't she die in a really disgusting way? I've never read it, but I remember that.

https://www.cbr.com/comic-characters-went-heaven-hell/

https://www.cbr.com/major-superheroes-avoided-dying

Bryan Cronin recently addressed this question over at CBR, and it seems to correct answers are Nightwing, Daredevil, and Batgirl. He doesn't seemt to count DD's recent "death", though.

He also doesn't count Nightwang's recent death, but weirdly does count Deadpool's.

The Stephanie Brown Batgirl died also, so his last option is ruled out. (Yes I know he makes the Babs Gordon distinction but there are something like 20 years in age between the 2 versions currently in continuity - yes, I do mean Babs only versions - so all bets are off. See also Wally West, of which there are two different continuity versions at the moment and I'm willing to bet the dead one won't be dead by the end of Heroes In Crisis.)

Doesn't stand up to the academic scrutiny we applied above I'm afraid.

Wally West, of which there are two different continuity versions at the moment

christ i fuckin hate dc

By different, I mean the two versions of Babs are arguably the same one excepting their age - both shot by the Joker, both cured, both had a relationship with the Wang when he was Robin - but one experienced all that while at high school and the other one as an adult.

The two versions of Wally though are the ginger 90s title one (who might be currently dead) and the black Johnsiverse one.

i refer you to my earlier comment

See, Marvel does this stuff too but they're often able to make it coherent and fun. DC just seems like they're completely unaware of the narrative conventions which might render their bad ideas at least readable.

pro-tip for dc: rebooting your entire line every few years makes it really fuckin hard to care about what's happening month-to-month, especially when the detritus of those reboots leaves you with multiple versions of the same character which i'd venture to suggest shows your reboots aren't actually doing anything good or useful anyway

It's pretty sad that my Marvel/DC pull list went from maybe 75/25 pre-Flashpoint to a fairly consistent 98/2 ever since (and almost none of that 2% has been in-continuity material).