4. Doug Ramsey
Remember that kid in X2 whose mutant power was "changing the TV channel by blinking"? Doug Ramsey was about one notch cooler than that guy. A member of the X-Men, Doug had the power to translate any language, which made him as bad-ass as a 6 CD Rosetta Stone course in Serbian. Somehow, he managed to get shot in the line of duty (by fanciful dipshit Ani-Mator) and died. The good news is that his best friend, Warlock, is an alien robot who apparently merged with his dead body to create a composite entity and bring Doug back to life. The bad news is that this composite entity was named Douglock and can still only speak Spanish really well. Doug Ramsey was boring as an alive human and boring as an undead cyborg, and that's all there is to it. He died soon thereafter and got resurrected again recently, and – let me tell you – I'm on the edge of my seat waiting to see what exciting, dramatically-satisfying development is in store next.
3. Green Lantern/Hal Jordan
A little bit Flash, a little bit Dark Phoenix, Hal Jordan didn't die in great standing. After going insane with grief and power, naming himself Parallax, murdering thousands, and nearly destroying reality, public approval of the greatest Green Lantern was low. Even sacrificing himself to save the sun didn't do much for him, nor did his becoming the embodiment of God's brutal vengeance. For some reason, fans react poorly when comics creators decide to turn a profit by sullying everything great about their favorite character and then throwing them table scraps. Finally, in order to boost flagging sales, DC decided to revive the Green Lantern in a miniseries, but never bothered to take the time to figure out an elegant way to do it. As it turned out, the best they managed to come up was, "Someone put his soul back in his body, and it worked." Say what you will about turning a beloved hero into a mass murderer, but at least it was passingly cinematic. The creative team attached to the project went on to produce the miniseries chronicling the Flash's return, with similar results. Writers: If you want to bring back a dead character and the best way you can think to do it is, "He stopped being dead!", don't bring back that character.
2. A Gaggle of Useless Losers In Brightest Day
DC's latest crisis event saw dead superheroes and supervillains revived as zombified Black Lanterns and sent to attack the living. After the heroes manage to defeat the avatar of death, twelve of the Black Lanterns are brought back to life by an unknown entity for an unknown purpose. This unknown entity must have been pulling names from a hat, though, because it managed to pick a whole cavalcade of D-list superfolks. We're talking about the likes of Captain Boomerang (he can throw boomerangs), Deadman (whose whole thing is being dead, a thing kind of negated by being alive), Captain Marvel's evil twin's little brother, three hawk-people (Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and Hawk of "and Dove"), and goddamn Aquaman. This spectacular squadron set about completing a number of tasks, including throwing a boomerang, burning down a forest, getting a sidekick, and catching a boomerang. Some writers have built careers out of reviving useless characters and reinventing them with dignity and pathos, but frankly, there's only so much you can do with Captain Boomerang.
