X-Man heaven has a revolving door

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In the world of comics the concept of death is more of a suggestion than a rule, as evidenced by the numerous heroes and villains who’ve inexplicably returned to life after seemingly being killed for good. Perhaps no group exemplify this more than the X-Men, a group of heroes who come back to life so often that even they think it’s kind of stupid. 

First though, for an example of how frequently members of the X-Men eat shit you only need to look at Jean Grey, a character who has died and then subsequently come back to life no less than 15 fucking times in total over the years. Our favourite being when a version of Jean from a previous timeline was brought into the present after the current version has died at the hands of the Phoenix Force only to be attacked and then immediately killed by the Phoenix Force, again.

It’s kind of her thing.

Then you have characters like Wolverine who has seemingly died several times, returning from supposed oblivion each and every time. All of which culminated in the character being killed totally for real this time in a highly publicised comic arc literally titled “The Death of Wolverine“. Despite the finality of that title and assurance from Marvel that the character was never coming back, Wolverine was back up and clawing people’s shit just a few years later.

This has led to a running joke amongst comic fans that the only person in the Marvel Universe who ever really stays dead is Uncle Ben. However, what’s even funnier is that people in the Marvel seem to be aware of the fact that nobody ever really seems to stay dead in their world.

For example, Professor X himself has commented on how many of his X-Men have returned from death, wryly noting that Mutant Heaven seems to have a revolving door instead of pearly gates.

Then you have the mutant hero, Siryn who once refused to mourn her own father because he was a member of the X-Men when he died. When asked why this mattered, she noted that X-Men always come back to life after seemingly being killed. Hell, even the Daily Bugle has bemoaned this trope, with the character Ben Ulrich once loudly complaining about how many obituaries he’s had to retract due the alarming regularity with which heroes inexplicably spring back to life.

A fact made all the more hilarious when you consider that according to in-universe lore, J. Jonah. Jameson fucking hates printing retractions. Which now we think about, contextualises why he’s always so angry.