There was once a saying that no one in comic books stayed dead except for Uncle Ben, Bucky Barnes, and Jason Todd.
Bucky Barnes came back as Winter Soldier and Jason Todd came back as Red Hood, making Uncle Ben the only one remaining.
There is the fact that Jean Grey has died so many times that no one believes it anymore and her deaths mean nothing in comics anymore.
However, this has not happened in movies, although there are plenty of clues that many deaths will get retconned in Spider-Man 3 when several dead characters are rumored to come back, possibly from an alternate Earth.
One man is not a fan of that, as James Gunn is against resurrecting superheroes.
James Gunn on superhero resurrections
James Gunn did a Q&A and a fan asked about characters coming back from the dead. Gunn was emphatic that it should not happen.
“Yes I do worry about that,” Gunn said. “For me there’s a difference between truly meaningful deaths & plot twist deaths where someone seems to die & then hasn’t. But if you milk that death – like, say, Yondu or Tony Stark – it’s cheap storytelling to bring them back.”
This means that Gunn understands things like Nick Fury appearing to die in Captain America: The Winter Soldier only to show that he faked his death. That was a plot twist.
The deaths that didn’t stick after the snap were always going to come back.
However, Yondu died saving Peter Quill and Tony Stark died saving the world, so them returning from the dead would completely ruin their big moments. Black Widow is another perfect example of a hero who gave her life to save the world.
Black Widow is back, but in a story that takes place before her death. She is still dead in the present-day MCU and it looks like a new Black Widow will come out of her movie this summer to replace her.
He didn’t mention the resurrection of Gamora, although that was not technically a resurrection. Gamora died when Thanos killed her, but the Gamora that is going to appear in Gunn’s next Guardians of the Galaxy movie is not the same character, as this is a time-traveler that never was part of the team.
The same is true for Loki, who is also back as an alternate version of himself from the past.
James Gunn and The Suicide Squad
This is also important because James Gunn is also directing The Suicide Squad for the DCEU.
Gunn has said he has free reign to kill anyone he wants in his movie, and one will hope that anyone Gunn’s movie kills will remain dead, although the Flashpoint movie can bring back anyone after the fact.