10 Superhero Resurrections That Actually Worked

9. Colossus

Return Of Colossus X-Men
Marvel

As far as comic book deaths go, Colossus' hit fans particularly hard. Having sacrificed himself to ensure the survival of both the mutant and human race, fans suspected that this was one death that, despite the plethora of resurrections that had preceded it, Piotr Rasputin wouldn't be walking away from.

Enter Joss Whedon, who, having only recently made waves on TV with Buffy, turned his attention to a burgeoning career in comic book writing with Astonishing X-Men, a book that, along with Grant Morrison's New X-Men, defined the mutants during the millennium era. One of the key changes that the book made to the X-mythos involved the resurrection of Colossus, who'd actually been revived by a sinister corporation looking to create a 'mutant cure'.

Piotr's return worked mainly because of his relationship with Kitty Pryde, who have to be the biggest power-couple in the X-Men (sorry Scott and Jean). The book 'earned' the return, so to speak, because it took the time to explore the emotional consequences of the character's death and revival. Indeed, during a period where resurrections were very much off the cards for Marvel, Colossus' return was made all the more potent. More importantly, however, it made sense, and set a precedent for subsequent revivals in the Marvel Universe in its wake.

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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.