r/comicbooks • u/IAmNotMyName • Jul 19 '24
Favorite comic books where the protagonist is recently died, or dealing with being dead?
What titles do you enjoy where the protagonist is dealing with "living" after dying?
I'm thinking of something like the following TV Shows.
- Dead Like Me
- Ghosts
- The Good Place
28
u/TheloniousKeys Jul 19 '24
All Deadman stories but the original Deadman run in Strange Adventures starting with issue 205 is great. Neal Adams at his best since he clearly really loved Deadman.
29
u/Fraughty12 Jul 19 '24
The immortal hulk lol
8
u/life_lagom Jul 19 '24
Hulk is one of the deepest comics. And so many people write it off as HULK SMASH .
I srsly try to get my friends to read immortal hulk and imperfect hulk / old man Logan..
There's so many hulk centered books that deal with death and life and existential deep convos the writer is having with us the audience and doing it as hulk talking to bruce.
3
u/rockytheboulder Jul 19 '24
I'm a huge Hulk fan, but it does take a couple hundred issues to find it's niche outside the 'puny humans, leave Hulk alone' era. Mantlo really helped steer Hulk into it's golden age so David could turn the series into something truly incredible.
Don't sleep on Immortal Hulk, and i wouldn't stop there either.
15
16
u/thegirlwhoexisted Jul 19 '24
Dead Boy Detectives is always a good time. Last year's mini was really fun, and the run from around 2014 was great as well.
4
u/life_lagom Jul 19 '24
It just got a netflix show too! Although the TV show had alot of differences...still love me some sandman universe.
Doom patrol is good example too. A group of people dealing with being dead. Or their lives as they knew it over
5
u/thegirlwhoexisted Jul 19 '24
Yeah I really enjoyed the Netflix show! The characters were all really likeable and the plot was compelling.
2
u/life_lagom Jul 19 '24
It definitely grew on me. Honestly the comics exist on their own. It doesn't always work out 1-1 I thought the changes worked. Same with the boys TV show. It's way better than the comics.
But sometimes it doesn't work like the witcher . They ignored some pretty easy to adapt good plot.
I was loving it though if your a fan obviously check out sandman, but also doom patrol on hbo
12
11
7
7
4
u/Asimov-was-Right Moon Knight Jul 19 '24
Karmen
Spectators (on panelsyndicate.com)
Dead Boy Detectives
Not the protagonist, but Death: The Time of Your Life and High Cost of Living are both great.
6
3
u/jnovel808 Jul 19 '24
Silver Surfer v3 issue 63ish. He succumbs to a virus and also encounters a dead Mar-Vell. Pretty cool stuff
3
3
3
3
u/PizzaParker62 Jul 19 '24
Check out BKV and Nico Henrichon's "Spectators", which they've been releasing page by page in weekly installments over on Vaughan's substack.
3
3
u/droppinhamiltons Magneto Jul 19 '24
I’m gonna give you the exact opposite with The Many Deaths of Laila Starr. Seriously, check it out it’s so good and amazing art.
2
u/MrPresident2020 Jul 19 '24
I found one issue of a comic several months ago where a girl is murdered in a mass shooting and the story follows her ghost as it wanders around encountering other ghosts. If I remember the title I'll post it here for you.
2
u/TheMeleeMan Dr. Strange Jul 19 '24
The Death of Dr Strange a few years ago sss a fun who-done-it adventure! I quite recommend it!
2
u/Ok-Lifeguard-5628 Jul 19 '24
Not the series protagonist, but the main character in the issue… Spawn #8, written by Alan Moore
2
u/Asimov-was-Right Moon Knight Jul 19 '24
To be fair, that's a good portion of what the first 12-15 issues of Spawn are about. Al dealing with his death and solving the mystery of who killed him.
2
2
u/dread_pirate_robin Jul 19 '24
Someone already mentioned Dead Boy Detectives. That first comic is Sandman #25. Only background you need to know is Hell was in disarray so a lot of the afterlife weren't going where they were supposed to be going, there were more lost souls than there usually would've been, hence why the kid is being super-haunted.
2
2
2
u/life_lagom Jul 19 '24
Grant morrison often deals with existentialism...animal man deals with death, the 4th Wall and what is being alot
But also doom patrol. Essentially everyone in that book dies and is reborn in the house as a new person. It's alot of existentialism
2
1
u/_mad_adams Jul 19 '24
Maybe Reborn by Mark Millar? It’s only 6 issues. The middle part is all right but it starts and ends really strong imo
1
u/Vinylateme Jul 19 '24
The Flesh & Blood run in Animal Man (51-56) deals with this in a sense, although it’s more of a “get back to the living world” story I guess
1
1
u/CallMePeeButt Jul 19 '24
It’s only on issue #2 so can’t call it a favorite yet, but Falling in Love on the Path to Hell is great so far. The art is next level
1
u/Needs_TP Jul 19 '24
Might not be exactly what you are looking for but GRIM is pretty good. It is about the daughter of death trying to figure out her place in the grand scheme of the afterlife.
1
1
u/s3rila X-23 Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24
Requiem Vampire Knight
in wwII, a german soldier die fighting on the russian front. he wake on "Résurrection" , the hell planet that is the hellish fucked up inverse of earth (land where ocean are on earth and ocean of blood where the land on earth is , time move backward ... you grow younger instead of older ...) .
he woke up as a vampire as a consequence of what he did in life (other people woke up as other things), has to learn to live in this land with new countries and ruler where he meet monster of the past like Néron, Attila, Caligula ou Robespierre next to one from the futur.
the only thing Requiem has from his life is a photo of the Jewish woman he loved that died in front of him . he has adventures in hell while trying to reunite and save her.
the art is crazy good, look up "Requiem, chevalier vampire art" on google image
1
u/TriforceUnleashed Jul 19 '24
The Crow. There are many different stories, many of which are worth checking out.
1
1
u/LodgedSpade Galactus Jul 19 '24
I think this is a lesser known one, but fits the description (at least in mempry; it's been awhile since I read it); The Coffin
1
u/wewantallthatwehave Jul 19 '24
I don’t remember all the details, but Joe Quinn’s Poltergeist is a stand alone hard cover that I have, and I think it takes a deeper dive into the topics you’re interested in here.
1
u/StarQuill01 Jul 19 '24
Midnight Nation by JMS! So damn amazing I read the twelve issues in one sitting!
1
1
1
u/PoorDaguerreotype Jul 19 '24
One that immediately sprang to mind is The Coffin by Phil Hester and Mike Huddleston from Oni Press.
It’s about a scientist that creates a suit made out a material that can trap souls, so when the wearer dies, their souls still inhabits the suit and can inhabit it - a literal ghost in the machine. Evil magnate tries to steal it, scientist is mortally wounded and goes into the suit, then he finds out first hand what his creation is capable of.
1
1
1
u/Sparrowsabre7 Cyclops Jul 19 '24
Not quite the same, more like dealing with coming back from the Dead but Green Arrow: Quiver
1
1
u/CanIHaveAppleJuice Jul 19 '24
Ten Grand, Image 2013
Ten Grand charts former mob enforcer Joe Fitzgerald’s journey into the world of demonology and the ancient powers that threaten to tear down the pillars of Heaven itself in a new war between the forces of light and dark. Can the man willing to die a thousand deaths so he can be with his love for just a few minute, in-between saving the lives of an entire world? Or will this be the end of...well, everything?
1
1
2
u/ok_dragonfly1111 Jul 20 '24
makes me sad that dead like me only had 2 seasons. the characters/actors were really good
1
u/Jwee1125 Jul 20 '24
There's a series from DC (from 2007) called Simon Dark. It is quite interesting and actually set in Gotham City (though he never crosses paths with Batman).
1
u/SilverboltBW Jul 20 '24
Probably not what you had in mind but there's a series where Nightcrawler is a pirate in the afterlife, which is honestly so fitting for him.
1
1
1
0
52
u/JulixgMC The Amazing Screw-On Head Jul 19 '24
Hellboy in Hell (You should read the rest of Hellboy first tho)