Death has always been a temporary thing in literature, at least 2000 years to the first "Back from the Dead" shock ending.

Dynamic fictional characters have a hard time staying dead. Even Sherlock Holmes came back from the dead after his creator quite definitively put an end to his life.

Some deaths in comics are gimmicks that we all accept as a part of genre storytelling. We all know when the Red Skull or Doctor Doom gets blown up at the end of their latest misadventure that they'll be back, and overall we accept that as one of the conventions of the superhero arena.

But when the death is a part of the core legend of the character involved, it should not be tampered with. Think Bruce Wayne's parents; their deaths are part of what makes Batman tick. That also goes for Battlin' Jack Murdock, Uncle Ben, and for that matter Doctor Doom's mother herself.

The only exception I can think of is Superman's adoptive parents. John Byrne managed to retcon them back into existence successfully, I think, because their deaths were never a factor in Superman's character. He is a Warrior of Light, if you will, motivated by an essential goodness, not a pathological obsession with revenge.

It seems unlikely that Spider-Man's Uncle Ben would ever be brought back. And while Aunt May's died 30 years or so into the series, she was soon brought back to life when Marvel editorial decided to bring her back. She should have stayed dead as well, because Peter Parker's overall story arc from Amazing Fantasy #15 through the current day, when not being mishandled by wrongheaded editorial decisions, is among the more sophisticated and realistic of any superhero character. Uncle Ben's death made Peter Parker a hero. Gwen's death made him a man. Aunt May's death made him the head of his family, and therefore closer to his own mortality, and better able to parent Baby May, who unfortunately was "disappeared" from the comics never to be mentioned again. And of course, everything in Spider-Man comics since "One More Day" is just sitting there waiting to be waved away so the "real" Spider-Man and his supporting cast can return.

If I were charged with fixing Spider-Man, I would find a way to reset things back to before "One More Day," and I would restore the canonicity of events like the original death of Norman Osborn, whose revival is one of the bigger narrative blunders Marvel ever made. I enjoyed Warren Ellis's take on the character in Thunderbolts, butt he fact of the matter is, for the sake of the overall quality of the Marvel Universe, some dead people should stay dead.