15 Comic Book Movie Deaths That Didn't Last

14. Jim Gordon - The Dark Knight

Cause Of Death: Heroic sacrifice, obviously.

Concerned that his family are under threat because of his leading of Gotham's Major Crime Unit (a specialist unit built with only Gordon's trusted allies that STILL manages to have moles in it) and his unfailing commitment to the anti-mob agenda of the mayoral office, Gordon manages to pre-empt the Joker's plan to kill Mayor Garcia by wearing a bullet proof vest and diving in front of the bullet meant to kill him.

Putting his skill and bravery aside for a minute, in working out the Joker's plot, Gordon also manages to become the only person who manages to know what the villain is going to do next, basically making him better at being Batman than Batman (following on from his taking down of Ra's Al Ghul in Batman Begins.)

The Science Behind The Revival

Well, he wasn't dead all along, he just staged his death to make sure that his family are safe from harm, and then popped up again when he was needed to help capture the Joker, who somehow pre-empted that Gordon would not only work out his own plan, but would also fake his own death and then come back to life to arrest him, so that his plan to be captured could go off without a hitch.

And thus, the messer becomes the messee. Unfortunately, Nolan didn't have the fore-thought to cast Brian Blessed in a brief cameo to announce that Gordon is alive.