To write this, I did a lot of research, and had much help from friends. One of them, Craig Deaton, gave permission for his name to be used, but the others have not. I am grateful to them all.

This is a compilation of three lists, for purposes of comparison and analysis, and concerns life, death, being “unkilled,” then “re-killed” after being unkilled, and then, sometimes, being “re-unkilled,” and so on. In other words, the topic here is bad writing, and a terribly overused plot device. To (try to) keep this simple, I’m limiting this survey to the primary Marvel Comics universe, in which Earth is called, for reasons I do not understand, Earth-616. I started this yesterday, by simply posting some questions on Facebook, and watched, with growing amazement, as the information started pouring in.

The shortest of these lists includes only comic book characters who are currently dead, but whom I have high confidence Marvel will unkill, before too long.

1. Wolverine, a/k/a James “Logan” Howlett
2. Uatu, a/k/a The Watcher
3. Charles Xavier, a/k/a Professor X

At least two of these characters (Wolverine and Professor X) have been killed, and then resurrrected, before, and I will be shocked if this process is not repeated, again (and again, and again, and again…).

The next list includes characters who have been killed, have actually remained dead, so far, and whose resurrections I do not (at least not fully) expect.

1. The Abomination
2. The Ancient One (associated with Dr. Strange)
3. Hector Ayala, the Black, Hispanic, male version of the White Tiger, killed after Matt Murdock failed to secure his acquittal on a murder charge, of which Ayala was innocent
4. Blink, of the X-Men
5. Daken, son of Wolverine
6. Jean DeWolf, a police detective who used to work with Spider-Man
7. Dr. Doom’s mother
8. Leland Drummond, a corrupt FBI man involved in “outing” Daredevil’s secret identity
9. Richard Fisk, son of the Kingpin (Wilson Fisk)
10. Flashback, a little-known mutant killed in a weird time-travel scenario created by his own superpowers
11. Bill Foster, a/k/a Goliath, a/k/a Black Goliath
12. Adolf Hitler, a/k/a Hate Monger (brought back from the dead, and then re-killed)
13. Karen Page, the primary love interest of Matt Murdock’s (Daredevil’s) life
14. Mar-Vell, a Kree warrior who went by the name “Captain Marvel”
15. Microbe, of the New Warriors
16. “Battlin’ Jack” Murdock, best-known as Daredevil’s father
17. Namorita, of the New Warriors
18. Night Thrasher, of the New Warriors
19. Scott Perkins, a police officer whom Hector Ayala (see above) was falsely convicted of killing, despite Matt Murdock’s best efforts, as his lawyer, to secure Ayala’s acquittal
20. Pyro, one of many foes of the X-Men, who was killed, brought back as a zombie, and then killed again
21. Spider-Man’s father
22. Spider-Man’s mother
23. Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben
24. Gwen Stacy, former girlfriend of Spider-Man
25. Katherine Anne Summers, the mother of the mutants Cyclops, Havok, and Vulcan
26. Turbo (the original one)
27. The chain of unnamed criminals who first got Daredevil’s secret identity from Karen Page to Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of crime, and were then ordered killed by Fisk
28. Numerous unnamed people who lack superpowers, and also lack connections to superheroes who are neither Daredevil, nor Spider-Man
29. The unnamed woman whom Daredevil’s wife Milla, under the influence of mind control, pushed in front of an oncoming subway train, leading to Milla’s institutionalization
30. At least one person affected by the Wendigo curse (killed by the Red Hulk)

What can we learn from the list above? Well, for one thing, characters in the Marvel Universe who have no superpowers should stay far away from both Daredevil and Spider-Man.

The last list, and easily the longest, includes characters who have recovered from death at least once, and are currently alive in this fictional universe — one where death obviously “has a very loose grip,” as one of my friends on Facebook phrased it.

1. Bucky Barnes / The Winter Soldier, and, briefly, Captain America
2. Bullseye
3. Cannonball
4. Captain America / Steve Rogers
5. Colossus, of the X-Men
6. Cyclops / Scott Summers, of the X-Men
7. Cypher / Doug Ramsey, of the New Mutants
8. Daredevil / Matt Murdock
9. Darwin, of the X-Men
10. Dead Girl (except that she’s still sort of dead, being, after all, Dead Girl)
11. Elektra
12. Firebrand
13. Vanessa Fisk, estranged wife of Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin
14. Galactus
15. Jean Grey (not exactly the same as Phoenix)
16. The Grim Reaper (brother of Wonder Man)
17. Havok / Alex Summers
18. Hawkeye / Clint Barton / Ronin
19. The Human Torch (original android version)
20. Loki, Norse God of Mischief
21. Longshot, of the X-Men
22. Moira McTaggert, friend of the X-Men
23. Mockingbird, ex-wife of Hawkeye
24. Mysterio / Quintin Beck
25. Nightcrawler, of the X-Men
26. The Owl / Leland Owlsley
27. Petra, of the X-Men
28. Phoenix (not exactly the same as Jean Grey)
29. Agent Preston
30. Kathryn “Kitty” Pryde, of the X-Men
31. Madelyne Pryor, estranged wife of Cyclops / Scott Summers
32. Psylocke, of the X-Men
33. The Punisher / Frank Castle
34. The Red Skull
35. Rogue, of the X-Men
36. The Sentry
37. Speed, of the Young Avengers
38. Spider-Man / Peter Parker
39. Spider-Man’s Aunt May
40. Spider-Man’s clone
41. Storm / Ororo Munroe, of the X-Men
42. Hope Summers, of the X-Men
43. Sway, of the X-Men
44. Tarot
45. The Thing / Benjamin Grimm
46. Thunderbird, of the X-Men
47. Toro, the original (android) version of the Human Torch
48. Trickshot
49. The Vision
50. Vulcan, of the X-Men (brother of Cyclops and Havok)
51. Wiccan, of the Young Avengers
52. Wonder Man
53. Wong, associated with Dr. Strange
54. Zzzax

It is clear that the most effective way to cheat death, in the Marvel Universe, is simply to be one of the X-Men. Are there more characters who should be on this list? Yes, but we all got tired after several hours of this, and moved on to other things.

Seriously, though, Marvel needs to stop doing this.

However . . . they won’t.