How Often Has The Living Tribunal Died And Returned?

My inner completist loves tracking deaths and comebacks, so I’ve kept tabs on the Living Tribunal over the years. The short version: he’s not the kind of being who dies a bunch of times for shock value. The clearest on-panel death happens in the Hickman era — the Beyonders wipe out a swath of cosmic entities during 'Time Runs Out' and the Tribunal is one of their victims. That event is the main canonical instance where he gets erased rather than merely challenged.

That said, Marvel’s cosmic bookkeeping is messy. Before the Beyonders, the Tribunal had faced severe challenges in stories like 'Infinity Gauntlet' and other big cosmic sagas, but those were more about limits on his authority than him being destroyed. After 'Secret Wars' the multiverse’s reshuffling left his role ambiguous; sometimes writers treat the cosmic balance as changed, other times they drop him back in with a wink. There are also alternate-universe versions and metaphysical substitutions (characters who fulfill judgment-like functions), so if you include non-mainstream timelines you’ll find more “deaths” or replacements.

If you want a reliable reading route: start with the Hickman-era 'New Avengers' material and the 'Secret Wars' fallout, then dig into classic appearances like 'Strange Tales' and 'Infinity Gauntlet' to see the contrast. Personally, I love how rare his actual destruction is — it makes the moments when he’s gone genuinely unsettling.

Quick, fan-to-fan breakdown: the Living Tribunal has one major, canonized death that most readers point to — he’s killed during the Beyonders’ assault in the 'Time Runs Out' lead-up to 'Secret Wars'. Other stories before that put him under threat, questioned his authority, or neutralized him temporarily, but they weren’t permanent kills. After the Beyonders’ attack the cosmic hierarchy was shaken and his presence was spotty; sometimes writers hint that the role is vacant or filled in strange ways. There are alternate-universe versions and metaphysical stand-ins that muddy the waters, so if you’re counting every reality you’ll find more variations, but in mainline 616 continuity he’s been definitively taken out once and only sporadically referenced or alluded to since.

I still get a little thrill every time the cosmic big players show up on the page, and the Living Tribunal is one of those characters who makes you feel the scale of the universe. To keep it short-ish: in mainstream Marvel continuity the Tribunal has been effectively killed once — during Jonathan Hickman's 'Time Runs Out' lead-up to 'Secret Wars'. The Beyonders (those multiversal villains who blew up realities) took out a bunch of cosmic arbiters, and the Tribunal was among the casualties. That is the clearest, most widely cited 'death' on his record.

Before that moment he’d been threatened, negotiated with, and momentarily overruled in stories like 'Infinity Gauntlet' and various Doctor Strange tales, but those were not permanent deaths. After 'Secret Wars' the cosmic order was scrambled and the Tribunal’s presence was noticeably diminished; he didn’t immediately snap back into his old omnipotent courtroom role. Writers sometimes treat his absence as a big hole in the hierarchy and sometimes fill the seat conceptually with other forces (like Molecule Man’s reality-shaping role during the Beyonders arc), but that isn’t the same as a straightforward resurrection.

So, tallying it up as plainly as I can: canonically killed once in that Hickman/Beyonders storyline, then effectively removed from the cosmic chessboard for a while. He’s been referenced and echoed in later books, and a few creators have hinted or teased returns or replacements, but there hasn’t been a simple, repeated die-and-return cycle like some other characters. If you want to chase the panels, read 'New Avengers'/'Time Runs Out' and the various tie-ins around 'Secret Wars' for the clearest depiction.