Resurrection Man (DC Comics)

Resurrection Man
Cover to Resurrection Man (vol. 2) #1. Art by Ivan Reis.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Resurrection Man #1 (vol. 1) (May 1997)
Created by	Andy Lanning Dan Abnett Jackson Guice
In-story information
Alter ego	Mitchell "Mitch" Shelley
Team affiliations	Forgotten Heroes Justice Legion Alpha
Abilities	Immortality via resurrection Each revival grants a new, different superpower

Resurrection Man (real name Mitch Shelley) is a fictional character, a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics.

The character first appeared in Resurrection Man #1 and was created by Andy Lanning, Dan Abnett and Jackson Guice.

Resurrection Man was created by British writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and American artist Butch Guice. The initial idea came to them while working for Marvel Comics in the early 90s. Abnett and Lanning considered reviving the Great Lakes Avengers, a superhero team led by a character called Mr Immortal. They felt that Mr Immortal was boring because immortality was his only power. Lanning thought the character would be more interesting if he gained a different superpower with every resurrection. When they moved to DC Comics, they proposed the concept to the editors.

Mitch Shelley made his debut in Resurrection Man #1 (1997). The character was written as a non-traditional superhero who did not wear a colorful costume or regularly associate with the likes of the Justice League. The book series was written like a TV series, with a grand story arc in which Shelley wanders America in search of the truth behind his past and his transformation. The first volume of Resurrection Man was critically acclaimed but was not a big success. It was cancelled in 1999 after 27 issues, though Mitch kept making occasional guest appearances in other books.

In 2011, DC editor Eddie Berganza asked Abnett and Lanning to revive Resurrection Man as an ongoing title. The new series debuted in September 2011, with Fernando Dagnino Guerra as the artist, but was cancelled in September 2012 after 13 issues (numbered 1 through 12 with the final issue being numbered 0) due to mediocre sales.

Born in Viceroy, South Carolina, Mitchell "Mitch" Shelley became a lawyer who found himself an unwilling test subject for experimentation in nanotechnology, involving specialized devices nicknamed "tektites" by an organization known only as "the Lab". The experiments cost Shelley his memory for several months but also rendered him immortal albeit with a twist: he could still be killed but the death would last a matter of seconds (perhaps minutes at most due to the tektites) and he would be reborn with a superpower influenced by the way he was last killed. A comment by the Phantom Stranger in RM #18 about having worked with Shelley in previous lifetimes suggests that there is more to his powers than just the tektites. However, the series never expanded on this point.