10 Superhero Resurrections That Actually Worked

7. Barry Allen/The Flash

As far as legacy characters go, they don't get any more prolific (or legacy-y) than The Flash. With a grand total of four flashes having taken on the main mantle at some point or another, the identity has the biggest lineage to boast in DC's library, with the most famous of the four being Barry Allen.

While fans of the character from the early 2000s will maintain that Wally West is very much their Flash (a trend exaggerated by the character's turn on Justice League), for the greater part of the hero's history the main Flash has been Barry, the second iteration of the character, and the successor to Jay Garrick. Barry famously sacrificed himself during the mind-bending Crisis on Infinite Earths Storyline, becoming one with the Speed Force after having disrupted the Anti-Monitor's plan to destroy the multiverse as it then existed.

The character would have to wait a full twenty years before his resurrection in Final Crisis, however, where, in one of the coolest returns in the medium, he's found outrunning death himself, the Black Racer. Barry, along with Wally and Jay, would later lead the racer to Darkseid, who, having already been weakened by a god-killing bullet fired by Batman, died as a result.

Praise be to Morrison that he came up with such a batsh*t brilliant way of resurrecting character, but Geoff Johns too deserves some credit, as it was his second 'Rebirth' storyline that really reinstated the character's presence in the DCU. With over twenty years spent on the sidelines, Barry's return felt more than deserved, and, as the character's popularity looks set to continue with a resurgent presence on TV and cinema too, it's one that DC themselves will surely be thankful for.