7 Marvel Characters Who Died & Came Back Way More Powerful

Over the years, Marvel has given readers some of the most popular comic deaths ever. Heroes and villains alike have had entertaining demises, ones that stayed with readers for years and helped launch entirely new plot lines. Of course when a character dies, that just means that there will be a resurrection. Sometimes, a resurrection will be just as entertaining and beloved as the death was, and other times fans will try to forget about the resurrection and just enjoy the fact that their favorite characters are back. An interesting thing often happens when a character is resurrected; the publisher decides to drop some changes on them, taking them in new directions.

One of the most prevalent changes is characters getting some kind of power upgrade. Their return to life finds them having tapped into a new power or that death makes their powers develop in some way. Sometimes, death teaches them something new about the universe, making them more powerful. There are loads of reasons why. These seven Marvel characters died and returned with even more power than before, their new powers making them more formidable than ever.

7) Magneto

Magneto has changed numerous times over the years, with his power level often rising. Magneto has also died several times, returning to life so much that there used to be a joke that his secondary mutation was the ability to resurrect. Like many mutants in the Krakoa Era, Magneto died and was resurrected several times, and most notably was killed by Uranos during A.X.E. Judgment Day. Before this battle, Magneto destroyed his memory back up, meaning the Krakoan resurrection method wouldn’t work on him. However, Orchis was able to smash the mutant island, and Storm went to resurrect Magneto, finding his soul in the mutant afterlife known as the Elysian Fields. He was given a new body and immediately went to war with Nimrod. Magneto has never been able to defeat Nimrod before, but this time was able to help destroy the ultimate Sentinel. Magneto was much more powerful upon on his resurrection, although that would change in “From the Ashes”.

6) Wonder Man

Simon Williams made a deal with the Masters of Evil, his body imbued with ionic energy that gave him superhuman strength and invulnerability. Wonder Man was meant to kill the Avengers with his new power, all to free his brother Eric, but decided to help the Avengers. He ended up dying in battle. However, he was now a being of ionic energy and returned to life, joining the Avengers and falling in love with Scarlet Witch. He was again killed in battle, and Wanda eventually resurrected him. He gained the power to manifest an energy form and finally gained the power of flight (before this, he used a jet belt). He also became stronger and more durable than ever, but gained an all-new existential crisis from his seeming immortality.

5) Hulk

The Hulk is the strongest one there, and he’s gotten way more powerful over the years. This all stemmed from his death in Civil War II, when Hawkeye used an arrow that Bruce Banner created to kill him on the scientist. His body was resurrected by Hydra in Secret Empire, and later battled the Avengers in “No Surrender” as a zombie monster Hulk. This would lead to The Immortal Hulk, a pitch perfect Hulk horror book, where we learned that he was an avatar of the One Below All. He gained the power to resurrect after he died, and became more physically powerful than ever. Since then, Hulk has been pulling off feats that he never had before, and has become ridiculously powerful, possibly the most powerful human being ever.

4) Wolverine

Wolverine is the best there is at what he does, and he’s died a couple of times and came back more powerful. The first time that I can think of came in X-Men Annual #11, where the X-Men battled the alien Horde. The villain had a crystal that gave its bearer godlike power, and was able to kill the mutant heroes. The crystal’s power resurrected Logan after Horde destroyed him and the team, and the Canadian hero used the crystal’s power to kill the villain and bring his friends back to life. Later, he would be killed in Death of Wolverine and resurrected in Return of Wolverine, where he gained “hot claws”. This power allowed him to super heat his claws and go into a powerful berserker rage, losing his healing factor. He proved to be a more dangerous fighter but the power would eventually fade away.

3) Professor X

Professor X was killed in battle with Dark Phoenix Cyclops in Avengers vs. X-Men #11, and he stayed dead for about five years. He was resurrected in Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 4) #1-6. His soul had been held on the Astral Plane by the Shadow King and he returned by taking over the body of Fantomex, helping the X-Men battle the Shadow King and Proteus. This would lead into the Krakoa Era, where Xavier, Magneto, and Moira MacTaggert founded the new mutant nation. The X-Men’s mentor used his telepathic powers to download the memories of thousands of a mutants, constantly using his power for that while also using his telepathy in other ways. He even developed telekinesis, as seen in Inferno (Vol. 2) #4. Professor X was always the most powerful telepath on Earth, but before his death, he never was able to do what he did on Krakoa.

2) Jean Grey

Jean Grey has grown into one of Marvel’s most overpowered characters since her last death. In X-Men: The Hellfire Gala #1, Jean Grey was killed by Moira MacTaggert. The cyborg stabbed her with a knife that had an Otherworld poison on it, which meant that Krakoan resurrection wouldn’t work on her. However, Jean Grey has always had the greatest homie in the history of the Marvel Universe that a dead person can have: the Phoenix Force. She tried to use its power to change her past, hoping that would stop the failure of Krakoa, but was instead able to completely bond with the personification of death and rebirth, returning as Phoenix to help defeat the Orchis Initiative (also going back in time and impregnating Hope Summers’ mother in order to foil the Dominion Enigma). Since then, she’s become a godlike hero and has been traveling through space using her power to save the most lives possible.

1) Thanos

Thanos was positioned as the main villain of Jim Starlin’s cosmic Marvel in the ’70s. He battled Silver Surfer, Adam Warlock, and Captain Marvel I, and would die in battle with the Avengers when he tried to get his hand on the Cosmic Cube. The Mad Titan stayed dead for a long time, but would eventually talk Mistress Death into bringing him back to life because he had discovered a way to kill half of all life in the universe: the Infinity Gems (they’ll always be Gems to me). Thanos Quest #1-2 saw him defeat the Elders of the Universe, using the information that he had gained from the Infinity Well in Death’s realm, and was also more powerful than ever. This lead to him getting the Infinity Gauntlet and becoming god.

What is your favorite dead Marvel character who came back? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!

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