Everyone knows, of course, that comic book death is cheap. Too often used as a ploy to give a story “consequences” or “gravity,” or even just to spike sales for an issue, characters will die in service of a story and then be brought back, often with only the most cursory of explanations, the next time they’re needed in service of another story.This really isn’t all that uncommon in literature; if James Bond were to die, the next movie would be set during the time he was alive and just pick right up and keep moving. Sherlock Holmes was brought back due to fan outcry following his death, and that was over 100 years ago. But “comic book death” is actually a phrase that’s used outside of comics now to denote a death that doesn’t mean anything because the person will be back soon.This has all come up quite a bit this week with regard to Damian Wayne, Batman’s son and most recent sidekick, who died in a story published yesterday. His grandfather (Ra’s al Ghul) pioneered the Lazarus Pit and has used it any number of times to keep himself young, vibrant and return from the dead at least once or twice. Arguably the most notable use of the Pit has been when Ra’s stole the corpse of the previous dead Robin, Jason Todd (now known as Red Hood), and revived Batman’s ex-sidekick in it.And while Damian’s mother, who’s currently the inheritor of her father’s empire, referred to Damian as a “failed experiment,” that didn’t stop her from having a moment of regret and mourning when she realized that she had caused his death.Even before his death was published, there was a line of thinking that if the character were to die, and there was anything left of him to bury, he could be revived using the Lazarus Pit. With four issues remaining on Grant Morrison’s epic Batman run and nothing left but the crying, artist Chris Burnham says he expects Damian’s death to be for keeps–but most comic fans don’t seem to believe him.Assuming, for the sake of argument, that the Morrison run ends with Damian up and around again, it won’t be the first time a character death has lasted for less time than it takes to hard boil an egg. There are probably dozens of these, but we hand-picked our five favorite character deaths that turned out not to be quite as permanent as promised…within about a month of happening.Some of these weren’t technically “deaths,” but some other storytelling device. They were, however, sold to the fans as Dead For Real for however long they lasted, and many had big media events tied to them, not unlike what DC has done with Robin. So I’m counting it.
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