10 Legal Problems Superheroes Don't Like To Talk About

…and then they come back to life. It’s a given, in many cases - the X-Men, in particular, have died as a team and as individuals time and time again. But what are the legal ramifications for being declared dead when your race or your occupation tends to suggest that you won’t remain dead?

The US legal system has ironclad rules in place for what happens when somebody passes away. If they have a legally binding will, their property and assets are split as dictated by that will, assuming that no authorities like the IRS have a legal claim on them first.

Without a will, they’re declared intestate, in which case matters are resolved according to the state’s own codes - but generally speaking, let’s assume that a court mandated administrator will disperse all property and assets to spouse and immediate family according to whoever is closest by blood or marriage.

So what happens if, some years later, that hero is resurrected? Well, they’d have to be declared legally alive again - but that’s not as easy as you’d think. The fact is, in real life America thousands of people are accidentally declared dead every year, and many have to struggle for years to have that bureaucratic error reversed. How much harder will it be when the person in question was genuinely dead? What if their dependents have cashed in life insurance policies?

In the case of Charles Xavier’s most recent death, his will was read to the X-Men by his attorney, the She-Hulk, and Cyclops declared the beneficiary - the school, its grounds and everything associated with it reverted him Scott Summers. Unfortunately, Summers was the one who’d killed him. He passed ownership on to the other X-Men, but Xavier’s clearly not going to stay dead. What happens to the school then? Legally, they can’t pass title back to a man with no legal status.

If they manage to get themselves declared legally alive, many states will allow for property and assets to be distributed back to them - but many won’t, and often if property has since been sold on in good faith, it cannot be passed back to the resurrected person. A resurrected hero could find that they get back a lot of the property they lost when they died… or they could end up with nothing at all, and the longer they take to return from the dead, the more likely the latter.

New York, in particular, has no relevant statute, and Xavier’s school is in New York state. In other words, if Cyclops legally sold on the school and grounds - say, for a dollar - then they might not have to give it back to anyone.