15 Comic Book Movie Deaths That Didn't Last

15. Agent Coulson - The Avengers

Cause Of Death: Massive pointy trauma to the heart region.

Having stolen a march on super-villain Loki aboard the SHIELD helicarrier, Coulson made the considerable mistake of forgetting about his ability to phase, and is stabbed in the back fatally, despite the fact that Loki didn't have his staff in his hand like one second earlier.

He dies a hero, having stood up to Loki, and is used as a means to unite the Avengers against Loki, but then appears in spin-off series Agents Of SHIELD, without a scratch, and presumably furious at his boss for ruining his priceless Captain America cards.

The Science Behind The Revival

Officially, by Coulson's own account in the Agents Of SHIELD pilot, he was resuscitated the good old fashioned way by SHIELD, and sent off the recuperate in Tahiti, so that the Avengers didn't learn that they'd been tricked into being all angry and motivated by Fury.

Later though, Coulson discovers that he had his memory altered by his employers, who actually took days to bring him back to life using an alien drug known as GH-325, derived from a Kree corpse. Basically, he's going to start feeling strange soon.