We generally tend to think of Jean Grey, as the first big character to come back from the dead.

But really, it had been happening for decades beforehand. It's now commonplace, a revolving door of death. Even the well-used phrase - 'Only 3 people stay dead in comics: Bucky, Jason Todd, and Uncle Ben' is useless now, as 2 out of the 3 are back.

So: Who really started it? Marvel? DC? Someone else?

And the second part: Who is the biggest offender today.

Third part: Overall, of the big two, who has the worst history when it comes to the revolving door of death?

The earliest one I remember is Alfred the butler, who had supposedly died but actually became Batman's foe The Outsider. It was a good storyline:

Jean Grey is the one character for whom I can completely accept the whole death/resurrection revolving door. I mean, She's The Phoenix - that's what they are supposed to do.

Didn't the Joker and Luthor die in their first appearances? The trend probably started there.

Red Tornado died twice in the 1970s and was brought back. Of course, he was a robot. Or at least we thought so then.

I remember reading that storyline in those great 100 page super spectaculars of the seventies. A great way to read the classic adventures from years past.

Claremont has taken a lot of criticism from a certain grumpy artist about how often he brought Jean Grey back after she was killed in 1980, but other than the non-canon X-Men/Teen Titans cross-over, I can't remember this happening.

Wonder Man was brought back from the dead in 1977, I think.

Of course, Professor Xavier wasn't really dead. He was preparing for an alien invasion.

Is there an X-Men who hasn't been killed and resurrected at least a year later? Xavier. Jean Grey. Storm. Psylocke. Wolverine. Havok. Dazzler. Longshot. Colossus. Northstar.

Avengers? Hawkeye. The Vision. Wonder Man. I'm sure there are more. We all know that the Wasp is not coming back. Right?

Banshee is still dead. I think.

Yep. Banshee was possibly alive after Necrosha, as that was left ambiguous, but he was in Chaos War as a dead X-Man, so I think that makes him still dead.

You've also got the two latest additions to the dead X-Men list: Nightcrawler, Cable.

I think this was Nightcrawler's first death, at least?

Has Iceman ever been killed? I can't recall it.

Did Thunderbird ever come back?

Last month as part of 'Chaos War' he did, and lead a team of dead X-Men.

Can you name the X-Men Who Died And Were Resurrected?
http://www.sporcle.com/games/alkaline2k ... surrection

I couldn't get two of them.

I might of got 3
Though once the answers were revealed. Did a lot of Oh yeahs

There was a website that traked every X-men's death and resurrection. Wolverine was ridiculous do to stories where he would die and come back in the same story.

Until 1986 or so, DC used to have a pretty decent record for leaving major characters dead: 3/4 of the Doom Patrol, Ferro Lad, Invisible Kid, Chemical King, Iris Allen, Mr. Terrific, Earth-2 Batman, probably more. It made the stories more powerful because the reader knew that if a character died, the odds were greatly in the favor of it being permanent.

X-Men is an example of a book where deaths became so common in that it cheapened the concept of heroes dying. After awhile I just started rolling my eyes when someone "died" because I knew they would be back in no time.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/02/11/ ... y-quarter/

Marvel – “We’re Going To Kill A Character Every Quarter”

From the ComicsPro retailer summit, David Gabriel, VP Sales at Marvel Comics has announced that as a result of the Fantastic Four sales and media coverage, Marvel are going to kill a main character every quarter.

He also added “this is not a joke”.

Ah, yes, the Sales people dictating content...

Still inclined to take it with a grain of salt. Although heaven knows one can't put it past them to try something this hamfisted.

Got 14 out of 20.

I've had budget meetings that followed that logic.

"Why did you do so well in the 4th quarter?"
"Christmas"
"Can you do that in the other quarters?"

They're the ones to blame for the Clone Saga.