# Superheros who are dead, and still active Superheroes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 20, 2014, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240 "2014-01-20T01:50:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/41 "2014-01-21T03:13:57Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > And DC comics has [Frankenstein.](http://www.writeups.org/img/inset/Frankenstein_GM_h.jpg) I thought of this thread a little while ago when I saw an ad for the upcoming flick “I, Frankenstein.” Seems that the monster (who is NOT named Frankenstein, but anyway…) is being set up as a Dark Knight Avenger-type superhero in some kind of near-future Gotham City-type cityscape. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/42 "2014-01-21T03:53:24Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I agree with you, actually, but I’ve seen a lot of other people categorize Frankenstein monsters as a sub-category of “zombie,” so I thought I’d throw it out. yeah - its weird how we try to classify our undead… I guess in some ways he’s the original zombie? What is the oldest ‘undead’ (outside of Lazarus and/or Jesus) ?? Dracula was cursed - so he never ‘died’ to be ‘undead’ but he was certainly ‘undead’. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/43 "2014-01-21T04:07:48Z")
Osiris is older, he got chopped up by his brother Set and rebuilt by Isis. The experience left him a bit glum. Adding Morbius (“I’m not really a vampire but sort of, it depends on how you count aaaaargh the light the light”) to the list of walking dead, although in his case as I said it depends on how you count. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/44 "2014-01-21T13:55:42Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > There’s the Gay Ghost, later renamed the Grim Ghost for obvious reasons. Is it because he was way to serious for a gay person? Looked him up, cool character. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/45 "2014-01-21T14:00:29Z")
Don’t know if this counts, but 1/3 of Triplicate Girl was killed and the other 2/3 of her lives on as Duo Damsel. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/46 "2014-01-21T14:09:20Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Adding Morbius (“I’m not really a vampire but sort of, it depends on how you count aaaaargh the light the light”) to the list of walking dead, although in his case as I said it depends on how you count. I think they explicitly call him the “Living Vampire” because he never died, so he really should not count. > [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > For the longest time, the Phantom Stranger had no origin story; he’d just appear like a stage magician to offer the Justice League a little help, and then slip away when no one was looking, or whatever, such that some characters were convinced he didn’t even _have_ powers; the readers knew better, but didn’t know specifics. > > After decades of that, he finally got an origin story: as the one good man in a city like Sodom or Gomorrah, he cried out for God to spare his people and tearfully committed suicide; denied heaven and hell, the guy was tasked with saving his family and his neighbors as the ultimate stranger: forgotten by them, forgotten even by _himself,_ forever wandering the world as The Do-Gooder Who Ain’t From Around Here. > > Of course, whether this was his _actual_ origin was left ambiguous. The recent reboot of the DC universe changed that. I don’t think it’s a spoiler, but just in case, now he’s Judas atoning for his betrayal of Christ. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/47 "2014-01-21T14:14:44Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > For the longest time, the Phantom Stranger had no origin story; he’d just appear like a stage magician to offer the Justice League a little help, and then slip away when no one was looking, or whatever, such that some characters were convinced he didn’t even _have_ powers; the readers knew better, but didn’t know specifics. > > After decades of that, he finally got an origin story: as the one good man in a city like Sodom or Gomorrah, he cried out for God to spare his people and tearfully committed suicide; denied heaven and hell, the guy was tasked with saving his family and his neighbors as the ultimate stranger: forgotten by them, forgotten even by _himself,_ forever wandering the world as The Do-Gooder Who Ain’t From Around Here. > > Of course, whether this was his _actual_ origin was left ambiguous. didn’t know that ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/48 "2014-01-21T14:20:58Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > There’s the Black Terror, one of the obscure heroes Alan Moore revived for _Terra Obscura_. The Terror is killed battling an alien, but has his consciousness downloaded into the supercomputer in his secret lair, so he can continue fighting crime from beyond the grave. The same comic featured the Fighting Spirit, a legacy hero who’s aided by the ghost of her father, the Fighting Yank; the Green Ghost, who was a crime fighting occultist before he became a crime fighting spirit; and Mystico, a reanimated Egyptian mummy (later, a supervillain). Interesting. I liked ole BT when I was looking at the old comics.Didn’t know he qualified. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/49 "2014-01-21T14:33:20Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Don’t know if this counts, but 1/3 of Triplicate Girl was killed and the other 2/3 of her lives on as Duo Damsel. And then another 1/3 (1/2?) was killed, and she became Una. But I understand she’s back to being Triplicate Girl these days. Waaay back in the Golden Age, there was the Heap, a WWI German pilot who crashed and died, but became a large, unliving mass of vegetable matter, but working for Good, and so the forerunner of Swamp Thing, Man-Thing and Solomon Grundy. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/50 "2014-01-21T20:37:53Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > Seems that the monster (who is NOT named Frankenstein, but anyway…) Sure, he is. Frankenstein is the surname of his father, so it’s his surname, too. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/51 "2014-01-21T23:10:21Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > For the longest time, the Phantom Stranger had no origin story; he’d just appear like a stage magician to offer the Justice League a little help, and then slip away when no one was looking, or whatever, such that some characters were convinced he didn’t even _have_ powers; the readers knew better, but didn’t know specifics. > > After decades of that, he finally got an origin story: as the one good man in a city like Sodom or Gomorrah, he cried out for God to spare his people and tearfully committed suicide; denied heaven and hell, the guy was tasked with saving his family and his neighbors as the ultimate stranger: forgotten by them, forgotten even by _himself,_ forever wandering the world as The Do-Gooder Who Ain’t From Around Here. > > Of course, whether this was his _actual_ origin was left ambiguous. I always like (I think) Alan Moore’s “origin story” for the Phantom Stranger. His history goes back further - to the War in Heaven. One angel could not decide which side to support and was cursed by both God and Satan to wander the Earth, commenting on other people’s stories but rarely being allowed to take any action of his own. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/52 "2014-01-21T23:44:04Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Sure, he is. Frankenstein is the surname of his father, so it’s his surname, too. It’s also how the contemporary DC and Marvel versions are referred to, exclusively. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/53 "2014-01-21T23:47:27Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > This is a different Baron Blood (albeit one who wears the same costume). It’s Dr. Strange’s brother. I don’t think he’s made a lot of appearances. In fact,it looks like he was killed off in his second appearance. There was also a third version of the character, also quickly killed off. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/54 "2014-01-22T00:07:28Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > This is a different Baron Blood (albeit one who wears the same costume). It’s Dr. Strange’s brother. I don’t think he’s made a lot of appearances. Doctor Strange has a brother? > [@simster](#): > > yeah - its weird how we try to classify our undead… I guess in some ways he’s the original zombie? > > What is the oldest ‘undead’ (outside of Lazarus and/or Jesus) ?? > > Dracula was cursed - so he never ‘died’ to be ‘undead’ but he was certainly ‘undead’. Nitpick, despite lame, overplayed jokes about Zombie Jesus that used to be all the rage, Jesus and/or Lazarus wouldn’t be considered undead, as they were resurrected, returned fully to life, not animated corpses like a vampire or zombie would be. Frankenstein, well, that’s going to depend on the version, I suppose, he tends to vary almost as much as vampires do from story to story. The classic movie version, stitched together from various corpses then shot up with lightning, I can see why someone might call him undead, but I’d almost think of him as a construct, maybe a golem (albeit of flesh rather than clay). He’s clearly not a zombie, as he doesn’t eat brains/flesh (not even a voodoo zombie as no voodoo in raising him). ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/55 "2014-01-22T01:04:43Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Doctor Strange has a brother? . . . Named Vic. They grew up together in Nebraska. Vic got hit by a car, and Dr. Strange, in trying to keep him alive, overstepped, and infected him with Vampirism. Back in the “Rintrah” days, if you remember him. Jackson Guice art, Roy Thomas writing. (Guice was GOOD! Thomas…um…not bad.) ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/56 "2014-01-22T01:19:17Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Doctor Strange has a brother? > > Nitpick, despite lame, overplayed jokes about Zombie Jesus that used to be all the rage, Jesus and/or Lazarus wouldn’t be considered undead, as they were resurrected, returned fully to life, not animated corpses like a vampire or zombie would be. > > Frankenstein, well, that’s going to depend on the version, I suppose, he tends to vary almost as much as vampires do from story to story. The classic movie version, stitched together from various corpses then shot up with lightning, I can see why someone might call him undead, but I’d almost think of him as a construct, maybe a golem (albeit of flesh rather than clay). He’s clearly not a zombie, as he doesn’t eat brains/flesh (not even a voodoo zombie as no voodoo in raising him). I put ‘undead’ in quotes with that reference to jesus/lazurus to specifically avoid any sense of a theological aspect - I simply meant “newer than the bible references” for a critter that is “returned from the dead”. (previously dead, now living, still qualifies as “undead” regardless of the manner of the undeadifying). I see your point as for Frankenstein both being a creation and an ‘undead’. So - let me rephrase the statement - outside of the bible - whats the oldest ‘undead’ reference - whether it be creation or resurrection or simply re-animated? ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/57 "2014-01-23T02:26:41Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > For the longest time, DC ran a comic where Jeb Stuart’s ghost helped fight the Nazis during WWII; you could argue that he wasn’t a superhero, but it’s awkward to find yourself starting a sentence with _sure, he was a comic-book character who used superhuman powers to battle villains and help law-abiding citizens, but…_ They put out an updated [Haunted Tank from Vertigo](http://connect.collectorz.com/comics/database/haunted-tank), set in the Iraq invasion. And the guy that Jeb was following around, who had to be one of his descendents, was an African-American. There was a bit of friction there, but overall a decent story. > [@CaptMurdock](#): > > Didn’t the Spectre (DC, Golden Age) have to be murdered in his origin? That was true at least up to the New 52. I don’t know if the Spectre is around in the new universe. He was basically the spirit of vengeance possessing a murdered cop, which forced the cop’s soul to stick around an moderate the spirit’s actions. Really seemed like a raw deal for the dead guy to me. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/58 "2014-01-23T09:52:59Z")
> [@Lok](#): > > I don’t know if the Spectre is around in the new universe. He’s around. And Jim Corrigan again. Phantom Stranger lead him to his death so he could be bonded with the Spectre entity. Oddly enough, he doesn’t really have much of a grudge toward the Stranger. John Constantine (who he has faced twice), on the other hand… > [@RealityChuck](#): > > Swamp Thing definitely, but he didn’t find it out until Alan Moore started writing the strip. Swamp thing is anything BUT dead. He’s a conscious mass of living plants. That he had absorbed the memories of a dead human and, for a time, thought he was him, doesn’t make him dead. A similar concept, but more accurately called ‘dead’ would be the current Red Tornado, from Earth 2 - the consciousness of Lois Lane (who was killed about 5 years ago) in a non-living (robotic) body. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/59 "2014-01-23T12:36:58Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > . . . > A similar concept, but more accurately called ‘dead’ would be the current Red Tornado, from Earth 2 - the consciousness of Lois Lane (who was killed about 5 years ago) in a non-living (robotic) body. If she’s wearing Ma Hunkle’s costume, I’m on board with it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2014, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240/60 "2014-01-25T02:37:38Z")
I just wanted to mention DC Comics Presents, where they’d partner Superman with a different guest star every issue. So in one he teamed up with Robin, and in another Captain Comet, but in another… …well, (a) every time Clark Kent hit a journalistic dead end, someone with inside info came forward with a useful tip; and (b) when Superman eventually rounded up the loose nukes while the bad guys would’ve gotten away, some unknown soldier got the drop on said crooks and took 'em into custody at gunpoint. Was _that_ unknown soldier _the_ Unknown Soldier, a WWII-era master-of-disguise superhero believed Killed In Action – but somehow still alive, decades older yet still spry enough to pose as those tipsters and brandish a gun? _Or was it his ghost, still on active duty against America’s enemies from beyond the grave?_ Or is it that, no, this wasn’t the superhero _or_ his ghost, such that those informants and that gunman just happened to be regular guys acting on their own initiative? The last page of the story has Kent mull all three possibilities – concluding that he truly can’t tell whether this even was a superhero team-up. But check out the [cover](http://static4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080616132634/marvel_dc/images/e/e3/DC_Comics_Presents_42.jpg). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheros-who-are-dead-and-still-active-superheroes/679240.md?page=2)