As the Marvel Cinematic Universe expands and evolves over time, it increasingly diverges from the original narratives found in its comic book source material. In the comics, death is rarely a permanent state, and the mechanics of rebirth are frequently steeped in the incredibly bizarre and fantastical elements that have become a hallmark of the medium’s limitless storytelling possibilities (whether we like it or not).
Let’s take a look at 9 important MCU characters who have been offed in the comics but brought back in really weird and confusing ways. We’re going to order them in a countdown style, with the #1 comeback being the absolute most perplexing. The order was determined by the voters on Ranker, a site that uses the votes of fandom communities like the MCU to create crowdsourced rankings of things.
9. Aunt May ‘Came Back From The Dead’ When It Turned Out She Was A Replacement The Whole Time
How She Died: For a long time in Spider-Man comics, Aunt May’s imminent death looms as a possibility due to her frail health. After an emotional last day out where she tells Peter she always knew he was Spider-Man and that she and Uncle Ben are very proud of him, the two return to her home where she dies in her bed.
How She Came Back: This emotional moment doesn’t hit so hard when it’s later revealed that this wasn’t actually Aunt May, but an actress hired by Norman Osborn AKA the Green Goblin. He had paid for her to have facial reconstructive surgery, told her who Spider-Man was, and manufactured the entire event. As Peter learns this, he rushes to save the real Aunt May from the Green Goblin’s clutches.
8. Namor Was Brought Back To Life After Being Dead For Just A Few Panels
How He Died: While fighting a villain named Suma-Ket who was attempting to take over Atlantis (the comic book equivalent of Talokan from the MCU), Namor is impaled by Suma-Ket’s huge sword and dies from his injuries.
How He Came Back: Unlike most heroes who stay dead for at least a few months of publishing, Namor comes back to life just a few panels later when the god Neptune himself arrives to restore him. While a god bringing someone back to life isn’t all that strange by comic book standards, the circumstances here call up a few questions. If Neptune was just hanging around, why didn’t he step in to help Namor not get killed in the first place instead of just bringing him back after? Namor likely sets a record as one of the briefest and least consequential deaths for a comic book hero.
7. Star-Lord Spent More Than A Century Living In An Alternate Universe After He Sacrificed Himself Detonating A Black Hole Bomb
How He Died: When the Greek gods are resurrected in Marvel Comics, they decide to build a massive floating city called Olympus. They also decide to immediately go on the warpath. The Guardians of the Galaxy step in to stop them, with Peter Quill AKA Star-Lord flying a black hole bomb into the center of Olympus. Realizing that he has little time left to take out the gods, Quill sacrifices himself by detonating the bomb in the city to bring the villains down with him.
How He Came Back: In a twist, Quill doesn’t actually die when he gets sucked into the black hole bomb. Instead, it transports him to an alternate reality, though everyone back in the main Marvel universe thinks he’s dead. After more than a century, Quill manages to find a mystical gateway that allowed him to travel back into his original reality, reuniting him with the Guardians.
6. Loki Was Resurrected As A Preteen Child After He Sacrificed Himself To Save Asgard From The Void
How He Died: To return Asgard to its original place in the Nine Realms, Loki enlists the Dark Avengers and H.A.M.M.E.R. to help him attack the city. Loki’s plan blows up in his face when the Sentry, now fully embracing his dark side the Void, decides to destroy all of Asgard. Realizing his mistake, Loki switches sides to help the Avengers, sacrificing himself in a fight against the Void.
How He Came Back: Before the events of his death, Loki had tricked Hela into removing his name from her Book of Hel. In doing so, he ensured that if he ever died he would simply be reborn, since he could not go to the afterlife. Loki returns to life as a younger version of himself with no memories of who he was.
5. Bucky Barnes’s Return As The Winter Soldier Was Weird At The Time
How He Died: Bucky Barnes never dies in the original run of Captain America comics. Instead, he’s killed off in a retcon when Captain America came back in the 1960s. The new comics explain that Bucky had died in an explosion caused by Baron Zemo while he and Cap had been working together in World War II.
How He Came Back: While modern comic fans are well-versed in the story of Bucky Barnes, at the time of his return it was a big deal. In fact, for a long time comic fans joked that Bucky, Jason Todd, and Uncle Ben are the only characters who stay dead in the Marvel Comics. Bucky broke away from that group with the reveal that he was never dead but rather kidnapped and brainwashed into becoming the deadly assassin known as the Winter Soldier. For context, Bucky’s return came in a comic released in 2005, after only appearing in occasional flashback stories since 1950.
4. Spider-Man Hatched From A Giant Egg After Morlun Ripped Out His Eye And Left Him For Dead
How He Died: During the event Other: Evolve or Die, Spider-Man is hunted down by a villain named Morlun who is obsessed with killing Spider-Totems (people like Peter Parker who have been granted spider powers). Morlun savagely beats Spider-Man, even plucking out one of his eyes and eating it, but he is chased off before finishing the job. While Peter’s in the hospital, Morlun returns and finishes him off.
How He Came Back: Other: Evolve or Die reveals that Spider-Man has actually been granted powers by a strange entity known as the Great Weaver. After his death, Peter experiences visions where the Great Weaver tells him that in order to survive, he must reconcile the human and spider parts of him. When he agrees to embrace his arachnid “other,” he is brought back to life with enhanced spider powers, making him a greater hero than before.
3. Doctor Strange Earned His Way Back To Life After Fusing Together With His Wife Clea And Earning Death’s Gratitude
How He Died: It became clear that Marvel was building up to Stephen Strange’s death when they ran an event called Death of Doctor Strange. In the book, Strange’s longtime enemy Kaecilius breaks into his Sanctum and kills him, also removing his hands for good measure. Though Strange is briefly revived by a younger alternate version of himself, Death arrives and tells Strange his time has come to leave the land of the living.
How He Came Back: After Strange dies, his wife Clea takes up the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme. During her time in the role, she fights a group of villains called the Blasphemy Cartel who resurrect dead characters. This resurrection angers Death who sends her own hero, the Harvestman, after them. The Harvestman turns out to be Stephen Strange himself, and when he and Clea share a kiss, their bodies and souls merge into one being with enough power to defeat the Cartel. As thanks for stopping the villains, Death grants Stephen his life back, separating him and Clea back into their original bodies.
2. Hawkeye Was Rebuilt When Scarlet Witch Created The House Of X Universe
How He Died: During the event Avengers Disassembled, a massive Kree invasion threatens Earth. As a last ditch effort to take down their battleship, Hawkeye straps on a Kree jetpack and flies into the ship and blowing it up, sacrificing himself to turn the tides.
How He Came Back: When Scarlet Witch rewrites reality during the House of M event, she brings Hawkeye back from the dead. However, Hawkeye hasn’t forgiven her for causing his initial death, since her powers had orchestrated the Kree invasion. After he angrily confronts Scarlet Witch, she once again erases him from existence. However, at the conclusion of House of M, when the Marvel Universe returns to normal, Hawkeye comes back with it.
1. Jane Foster Came Back Thanks To The God Tempest Trapped Inside Mjolnir After She Finally Succumbed To Cancer
How She Died: Shortly before gaining Thor’s abilities, Jane Foster is diagnosed with breast cancer. Though the period of time where she acts as the Mighty Thor extends her lifespan, as a side effect, it makes her cancer worse when she returns to being a human. She learns that Mjolnir had purged her of toxins, including the chemotherapy, but left the cancer because it saw it as part of her body. By the time Jane understands this, it’s too late to change it as the cancer has progressed too far, and she passes away.
How She Came Back: Immediately after Jane’s death, Thor brings her body to the Moon where the rest of the Asgardians are gathered. Thor uses the power of the God Tempest, that had been previously sealed in Mjolnir, to attempt to bring Jane back to life. Having finally accepted Jane as an Asgdardian, Odin joins in, and together they are able to resurrect her.
Honorable Mention: War Machine Had His Body Rebooted By Tony After Thanos Punched A Hole In Him
How He Died: Acting on intel from an Inhuman named Ulysses who could see the future, War Machine and a group of heroes ambush Thanos when he arrives back on Earth. During the fight, Thanos punches a hole straight through War Machine’s armor – and his body. His death is the catalyst for Marvel’s Civil War II which divides heroes based on supporting or opposing the use of Ulysses’ predictions to stop future crimes and disasters.
How He Came Back: Marvel essentially gave War Machine the same revival as Iron Man after Civil War II: Tony Stark uses his experience of rebuilding bodies and reattaching consciousness to reset War Machine’s biological systems and restore his former self.