10 Superhero Resurrections That Actually Worked

2. Kal-El/Superman

Return of the Superman
DC Comics

There are few storylines more famous than 1992's The Death of Superman, a story that saw Clark Kent go toe-to-toe with Doomsday and, well, die.

DC made a massive event out of the arc, even having the entire Justice League attend Kal's funeral in the heart of Metropolis. A massive memorial was soon erected, and a new crop of heroes inspired by the Man of Steel all took to defending Metropolis, most famously John Henry Irons' Steel. All wasn't as it seemed however, and Kal's body was actually regenerating in the Fortress of Solitude all along.

The new Superman emerged from stasis having regained many of his pre-crisis powers, complete with a mullet and a snazzy black and silver suit. It remains the only time the Man of Steel has been killed off in mainstream continuity, and continues to be one of the most significant events in the history of the industry. Most important of all, however, was that it fundamentally reset the character, and brought together both pre and post-crisis interpretations of the last son of Krypton in line with each other.

You may not fancy the mullet, but Supes' return from the grave is still the most iconic of all.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.