The X-Men changed the comic industry in numerous ways. Their Silver Age books died on the vine, but their 1974 reboot would make them into one of the most popular superhero teams ever. Their success led to Marvel creating a sub-universe full of characters, one that seemingly had its own rules when compared to the other portions of the Marvel Universe. Writer Chris Claremont was constantly redefining what a superhero comic could be, and he did that with death in superhero stories as well. One of the reasons that death in comics doesn’t really mean anything any more is thanks to the way that the X-Men comics dealt with it. They made it into a revolving door, something that would become text in the Krakoa Era, when the mutants figured out a way to keep resurrect anyone.
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The X-Men had already had a lot of resurrections, but it skyrocketed, to the extent that many readers felt Krakoan resurrection was a way of mocking the revolving door death had been for mutants. Some of the team’s members have been resurrected many times, with some of them hitting the double digits. These seven X-Men have had the most resurrections, death holding no sting for them.
7) Magneto
Magneto has been an ally and enemy of the X-Men, and death has rarely meant anything to him. Back in the day, several stories ended with what looked like his death, but he’d always show back up. It got to the point that there was a joke that his secondary mutation was resurrection. In the Krakoa Era, he died many more times, mostly in battle but notably while trying to use to his magnetic powers to push the Orchis Forge into the sun several times in Inferno and dying of brain aneurysms, and in A.X.E. Judgment Day was killed in battle with the Eternal Uranos. He was resurrected one more time by Storm, and helped defeat Nimrod.
6) Professor X
Professor X is a well-known jerk (just ask Kitty Pryde), and death has long been a part of that. He faked his death in the Silver Age, hiding out to fight the Z’Nox invasion, and would die several more times over the years. Using his telepathy, he was able to put his mind into a clone body after one of this deaths, planting the seeds for the Krakoan resurrection method. He was killed by Cyclops in Avengers vs. X-Men, and was imprisoned on the Astral Plane by the Shadow King, eventually being resurrected. In the Krakoa Era, he was first killed in X-Force (Vol. 6) #1, and was killed several times over the era. Much like his best friend Magneto, death has long been just another part of his life.
5) Domino
Domino has long been a part of X-Force, first appearing in New Mutants (Vol. 1) #100. She was Cable’s second in command for his entire tenure with the team, and would rejoin them numerous times. In the Krakoa Era, she was recruited by Beast and Wolverine to act as a field agent for X-Force in its mutant CIA phase, and so started her many deaths. She was first killed going after XENO, an anti-mutant group led by a clone of the Genoshan Genegineer. Like other members of the the Krakoa intel agency, she would die numerous times over X-Force (Vol. 6), getting PTSD from all of her deaths. However, she’d be able to overcome this, and went back to being one of X-Force’s most clutch members.
4) Jean Grey
Death becomes Jean Grey and it has for decades. She first tasted death in the X-Men classic “The Dark Phoenix Saga”. Since then, she’s become synonymous with death in the X-Men comics. She was first resurrected in Fantastic Four (Vol. 1) #286. She’d die again in Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #281, coming back an issue later when it was revealed she shot her consciousness into Emma Frost’s body (few remember this one), and would end up dead again in New X-Men (Vol. 1) #150. She returned in Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey, leading her into the Krakoa Era, where she would die numerous times as a member of both X-Force and the X-Men. Jean basically opened the revolving door of death for the X-Men, and she’s been using it ever since.
3) Nightcrawler
Nightcrawler has become an X-Men legend. He’s always brought some levity (and sex appeal) to the team, but even he has tasted death. His most well-known death came at the end of “Second Coming”, killed saving Hope Summers from Bastion. He would be brought back to life not long after. Like many X-Men, the Krakoa Era would see him die a few times, starting with House of X #4. However, what really got him on this list was A.X.E. Judgment Day. He volunteered to use his powers to teleport around the world to recruit allies for the battle against the Progenitor, dying numerous times and being constantly resurrected. He’s somewhere over 20 resurrections because of that alone.
2) Quentin Quire
Quentin Quire was first introduced in story “Riot at Xavier’s”, a story that would end with him becoming energy, basically killing him. His first resurrection would come with Phoenix: Endsong, but he’d end up dead again. He’d get resurrected again in X-Men: Schism and bum around the X-Men until the Krakoa Era. He joined X-Force and stepped into the meat grinder of that team. He started dying at least once a story arc, before it was revealed that his own self-hatred made him put himself into that would kill him. He died one more time in “Sabretooth War”, and was resurrected at the end of the Krakoa Era, rejoining the X-Men.
1) Wolverine
Wolverine has fought many brutal battles and won them. His adamantium skeleton and healing factor have allowed seemingly him to survive nearly everything thrown at him. However, we’d eventually learn something about Logan and death in Wolverine (Vol. 3) #48. This issue revealed that back in World War I, he ended up fighting Azrael, the angel of death. Every time Logan took damage that would kill him, he would end up battling the angel in the afterlife. If he won, his healing factor would bring him back to life. Basically, Wolverine has died every time he took catastrophic damage, and his healing factor only works to resurrect him because of his fights with the angel of death. Wolverine has died and resurrected hundreds of times because of this.
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