Even the most famous DC heroes have died at least once, though most eventually return to life, with their resurrections as varied as their deaths.

Death is surprisingly cheap in superhero comics, especially for DC Comics. While even icons like Superman and Batman aren't immune from death, they're still powerful (or popular) enough to overcome death and come back to life. Depending on the hero in question, this can be such a common occurrence that death feels pointless.

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Sometimes, resurrections are well-earned payoffs to emotionally taxing events, but in most cases, they're so absurd that they border on self-parody. Deaths and resurrections have happened to so many DC Comics heroes that it's practically a tradition now, with some fans loving it and others finding it too predictable.

There's no superhero death as legendary as Superman's first (and best) demise. When Superman fought Doomsday in the bluntly titled The Death of Superman, the Man of Steel died to save the world from Doomsday's wrath. Not even one year later, Superman came back to life.

After Pa Kent took his son's death hard and suffered a near-fatal heart attack, he found Clark Kent in the afterlife, where he was set to move on. However, Clark was being taken away by demons. Pa fought fate to break the illusions trapping Clark in the afterlife, and he successfully brought his son back to life.

Final Crisis was billed as the epic conclusion to the arcs that began in Crisis on Infinite Earths, and as such, it ended with Batman and Darkseid dying in a decisive duel. However, neither of the two stayed dead. In Batman's case, Darkseid's Omega Beams didn't kill him, but literally threw him out of the DC universe.

For the longest time, Batman was considered dead because nobody realized that he was being thrown around different time periods by the Hyper-Adapter. In Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne, Batman outwitted the Hyper-Adapter by inflicting amnesia on himself and trusting the Justice League to save him when he returned to the present.

When the terrorist group Eden Corps rigged Oliver Queen to a genetic-reading bomb that would destroy Metropolis, he sacrificed himself to save the city rather than escape with Superman's help. Oliver's death left the door open for Connor Hawke to take up his mantle, but Oliver reclaimed it six years later during the Quiver arc.

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In Quiver, it was revealed that Hal Jordan (who had the powers of Parallax and The Spectre) brought Oliver back out of guilt and regret. Oliver, however, was at peace with his death. To compromise, Oliver's soulless body came back, but he only retained any memories before he took his first life during The Longbow Hunters.

After debuting as The Joker's girlfriend in Batman: The Animated Series, Harley Quinn took a life of her own. Harley graduated from a villain to a full-fledged anti-hero, and her popularity skyrocketed when her romantic relationship with Poison Ivy became canon. In fact, they loved each other until death in DC's Valentine's special.

Harley and Ivy's story in DC Love is a Battlefield was a flashback to their younger days that ended by revealing them to be older and in a hospital. Harley's bedridden by this point, and she and Ivy took Lazarus Seeds that would resurrect their bodies, but not their memories. The two did so anyway, confident that they'd find each other after death.

Deadshot was such a Suicide Squad mainstay that it seemed implausible for any writer to kill him, even if Task Force X's appeal was that all of its members could (theoretically) die at any time. Deadshot finally met his end in the Suicide Squad's 2019 run, where Black Mask shot him in the face after he figured out his plan.

Since Deadshot was still a popular anti-hero and a constant in all Suicide Squad incarnations, he was brought back as an agent of Task Force Z: a team of zombiefied supervillains led by Red Hood. Task Force Z's debut miniseries ended with Jason winning his freedom, but leaving Deadshot and the others stuck in Two-Face's control.

To this day, The Judas Contract is considered to be the Teen Titans' best arc, especially since it immortalized Terra as a tragic anti-hero. Terra initially joined the Titans as Deathstroke's spy, but her conflicted loyalties tore her internally, and she took her own life out of desperation. Inexplicably, she came back to life twice.

As it turns out, the new Terras were subterranean aliens called Stratans, who impersonated Terra to help the Stratans communicate with mankind. The second Terra died fighting Black Adam, and a third one, Atlee, took her place. The New 52 reestablished the original Terra as the only Terra, although Atlee made it back into canon.

Although Crisis on Infinite Earths was made to clean up DC Comics' convoluted continuity, this didn't stop writer Marv Wolfman and illustrator George Pérez from turning it into a superhero epic. One of Crisis' greatest moments was The Flash's sacrifice, where Barry ran so fast that he disintegrated both himself and the Anti-Monitor's cannon.

Although Barry made the odd appearance in different titles, he was officially dead for most of DC's post-Crisis canon. This changed in the build-up to Final Crisis, with its prelude (DC Universe #0) revealing Barry to be the narrator. Barry officially returned in FinalCrisis, and it was explained that he didn't die; he just got stuck in the Speed Force.

Even if it only happened because of a phone poll, A Death in the Family is still one of Batman's most important comics. Here, the second Robin was brutally murdered by The Joker, and this pushed Batman off the deep end. Jason's death haunted Batman for decades, but then it was unceremoniously undone by Superboy-Prime.

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In the build-up to Infinite Crisis, Superboy-Prime threw a tantrum and punched reality because it wasn't as perfect as he had hoped for. This caused multiverse-wide ripple effects, like Jason coming back to life. Upon learning that Batman didn't avenge him by killing The Joker, an angry Jason became the merciless vigilante Red Hood.

Crisis on Infinite Earths wasn't just one of the grandest comic epics ever made, but one of DC Comics' first attempts to clean house and streamline its messy canon. The latter editorial decisions are actually why Supergirl died fighting the Anti-Monitor, as DC Comics decided that Superman should be Krypton's sole survivor.

Supergirl's death was one of Crisis' best moments, but this also led to a problem where DC had an audience hungry for more Supergirl. This was "fixed" via Kara Zor-El's multiverse variant trying to save the original Kara and Power Girl's introduction. Still, these were retconned for her simpler reintroduction as Superman's cousin in Superman/Batman: Supergirl.

For better and worse, Infinite Crisis was pivotal. Many of its deaths and effects stayed canon for the better part of a decade, and one of the biggest game-changers was Blue Beetle's death. During Countdown to Infinite Crisis, Ted defiantly refused to join Maxwell Lord's cause, and he was rewarded with a bullet to the head.

Ted stayed dead for so long that he was brought back as a Black Lantern during Blackest Night, but before he could be properly brought back, DC Comics rebooted with The New 52. A younger Ted was introduced in Forever Evil's epilogue, and he stuck around DC's canon with his original death going unacknowledged.

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CBR Staff Writer Angelo Delos Trinos' professional writing career may have only started a few years ago, but he's been writing and overthinking about anime, comics and movies for his whole life. He probably watched Neon Genesis Evangelion way too much, and he still misses video stores. Follow him at @AD3ofc on Twitter, or email him at delos3nos1992@gmail.com.

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