(It might be a tad late in the evening to post this, but…)
Jean Grey, of Marvel’s X-Men. Her many risings from the dead are the oldest joke in the (comic) book.
But my question is…how many times, exactly, has she died then pulled a Lazarus? I’m counting two or three, myself, but I’m sure I’ve missed more than a few.
So…can anyone enlighten me?
Well, according to her Wikipedia entry (since I assume the fans would know what they’re talking about), as far as I can tell, she’s only been brought back to life that one time. She’s dead now, yes, but she hasn’t been brought back yet.
Oops, sorry, you’re right, it WAS twice. My bad.
Good christ, the only charatcer with a more complicated backstory than Jean Grey has to be Donna Troy/Wonder Girl/Troia/Darkstar/Donna Troy.
Well, don’t forget that besides being resurrected twice, she was also cloned (Madalyn Pryor) and that clone went insane and became a villain (the Goblin Queen). Also, the persecuted-mutant-collaborator daughter of her alternate universe future self also made an appearance (Phoenix II).
Not as long as Hawkman flies, she ain’t.
The wikipedia entry missed a “death”. It was at the beginning of the Whilce Portacio period of Uncanny. The X-Men were fighting some sentinels from the future and the sentinels managed to kill a good portion of the hellions and appeared to kill Emma Frost and Jean Grey (both were thought to be dead at the end of the issue).
It was later revealed that Jean and Emma had managed to do some sort of telepath shuffle, switching their minds to avoid being killed or something like that. :rolleyes:
Since she was pronounced dead at the end of the issue, the death counts.
Frankly, I’d suggest that Rachel/Nathan Summers has the most convoluted ‘history’.
Lemme see: to begin with, IIRC, there are two Rachels.
Both are the child of Scott and The Phoenix Creature Inhabiting Jean’s Zombie Carcass and both are from an alternate past that never actually happened (the Zombie-Jean didn’t die in X-Men 137 and would have gotten preggers around X-Men 140 and was to give birth to Rachel in X-Men 150–but she died first) but one came back from a scary-alternate future that doesn’t exist any more* and the other came from really dumb-alternate future that, if it exists, shouldn’t, just because it’s so dumb**.
The one from the dumb (not scary) alternate future (which may or may not also exist anymore, but probably doesn’t) who moved to the present only to somehow end up in another (probably) aborted alternate future rasing her timelost half-sorta-alternate infant brother who’s the son of Scott and an evil goblin***-clone of either Jean or the Phonix Creature Inhabiting Jean’s Zombie Carcass (I was never sure whether his mom was Jean or the Zombie Jean—apparently neither were the writers).
But wait! There’s more! To add to this mess, another version of Nathan from another alternate past that never existed escaped the alternate past that never existed (the Nathan kid from Age of Apocolypse) showed up (with another (?) version of the goblin clone in tow(?)) and the kid may actually be Cable after all…or not…I think that there’s two kids with two different mommies from two different alternate pasts who somehow grow up to be the same person.)
Hawkman was never this bad! 
Fenris
*Rachel 1: has Senator Kelly murdered by Mystique–who was stopped by future Kitty come back to the past which erased her particular future. Rachel II maay be from a substantially similar alternate future but it’s not the same alterante future–there’s no way to reconcile the whole Ahab/mutant slaves/face tattoos and punk rocker look of Rachel II’s dumb future with the powerful/scary genocide of the Rachel I future.
**The aforementioned “Mutants are our oppressed slaves and we make them wear bad 80’s style punk-rock fashions…and we don’t dress all that well ourselves.” future.
***No. Really. “goblin”. Like “elf” or “halfing” or “pixie”. How a goblin became a clone is a matter best left unanswered. Unless Maddy’s not a goblin any more. Which is possible. Or maybe she was a goblin in an alternate past that was erased by someone from an alternate future from another/different alternate past. Or maybe she wasn’t.
I’m apparently the only person who doesn’t mind Jean Grey’s deaths and resurrections. She’s Phoenix. Of course she dies and comes back!
Actually…
<comic pedant> Jean Grey never actually WAS Phoenix. Phoenix was just the Phoenix Force in physical form and deluded into believing that it was Jean. The entire time the Jean-form Phoenix existed (and a while beyond) Jean was still in stasis in the spaceship sunk beneath Jamaica Bay.</cp>
But it has also been revealed that she and the Phoenix Force share a special bond. She has since been the bearer of the phoenix force. Most recently for about 30 minutes before Magneto/Xorn killed her.
Speaking of Maggie, how many times has that nutty monkey cheated death. He’s gotta be up there with Jean.
I swear I was going to add an addendum to my post that said “Unless they’ve retconned this since.” Inevitability, thy name is Marvel.
But Dr. Doom beats 'em both, combined. Hell, I’d guess he died or was “banished forever” at least 2/3ds of his first 20 appearances.
There is NO Phoenix Force!
Talk about lame-ass deus ex machinas…
Wow…I’d actually forgotten that my own basepoint (as shown in the post you quoted) was a retcon itself.