10 Superheroes Who Have NEVER Been Killed
It takes a rare kind of hero to avoid DC and Marvel's Grim Reaper.
Throughout the history of comic books, it’s become a running joke that death is never a permanent arrangement. Ever since Superman returned from the dead in 1993 – which actually turned out to be one giant Super-sleep – death has become a huge cliche in the comics medium.
Even after Superman’s death and return, there was always at least the holy triumvirate of Uncle Ben, Jason Todd and Becky Barnes to cling onto. Despite all other deaths and resurrections, those three always remained dead, right?
Well, not quite. Bucky would eventually return as the Winter Soldier and Jason would return as Red Hood, although Uncle Ben has remained deceased in throughout Marvel's mainstream 616 continuity.
The point here is that death eventually comes calling for near-enough all of your favourite comic book heroes and villains. It’s truly rare for a character to have never had a run in with the Grim Reaper, yet that’s not to say that they don’t exist.
They may be few and far between, but there are at least a few famed comic book favourites who have never been killed off.
10. Luke Cage
Considering his involvement with a who’s who of Marvel’s greatest teams of heroes – The Avengers, The Defenders, The Thunderbolts, Heroes for Hire – Luke Cage has been in the crosshairs of the Grim Reaper on more occasions than most. Still, the indestructible Power Man has yet to be killed off at any point since debuting back in 1972.
With unbreakable skin, you’d imagine it would take quite the special something to take down Cage. Still, that special something has yet to rear its head in main comic book canon. Unfortunately for Luke, the downside of his indestructibility is that he’s had to see plenty of his friends and partners die over the decades.
Then again, as already mentioned, death is not a permanent arrangement in comics – meaning those deceased buddies have usually returned to the land of the living before even getting the chance to have a funeral.
The closest we've really got to a Luke Cage death was in the non-canon Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe story, in which Power Man is the last Avenger standing as Wade Wilson looks to wipe out every Marvel hero. The eventual cause of his death? Wade spikes Cage's coffee with a shrunken-down bomb.