15 Comic Book Movie Deaths That Didn't Last

4. Jean Grey - X2

Cause Of Death: Smushed by lots of water.

Yet another heroic sacrifice, this time by a mutant powerful enough to probably hold off the incoming wall of water that threatens her X-Men co-members and also start the X-Jet's engines from inside the vehicle, but who chooses to do so in the path of certain watery death.

Inevitably, once the Jet flies away, Grey is overcome with water and dies, leaving her boyfriend Cyclops so upset he wasn't allowed to be in the sequel for more than a few minutes. Mourning her loss, Scott goes back to the lake, and finds that his girlfriend isn't as dead as he thought, and is rewarded by being exploded into a million pieces, as Jean Grey reveals that the Phoenix has taken over her.

The Science Behind The Revival

As Professor X confirms, Jean's heroic sacrifice somehow unlocked the evil alternate being who lived inside her, but which had been suppressed by Xavier, who apparently didn't see the value in turning off the villain button in all of Magneto's allies as well.

It's not really explained in satisfying terms in the film, but the comics state that Grey evolves into the Phoenix when she is forced to use a vast amount of her power, which melts Xavier's control shield in her brain, and she becomes so powerful that she basically transcends into a being of pure thought, which accounts for her ability to reform her body after it is "killed."

The lesson we can all take from this? Never do anything nice, as you might unleash the murderous alternate personality you've been suppressing for years.