A new comic features 'Elvis' as Comeback King. Back in 2003, writer Peter Milligan and artist Mike Allred planned to bring Princess Diana back to life as part of the Marvel superhero team X-Statix — that move was met with so much controversy that the story was eventually changed to remove Diana, but if the past eight years have left you with a burning desire to see famous dead people fighting crime in comic books, Ardden Entertainment has a new title that just may be up your very specific alley.
Comeback Kings, starting in March, brings together Bruce Lee, Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, Andy Kaufman and Tupac Shakur as a super-secret team of super-spies, who faked their own deaths as part of “Project Resurrection.”
Creator Matt Sullivan: "The stars we chose are obviously all icons that died too young who could still be alive today — but they also all have an audience that believes (or wants to believe) they faked their own deaths. We thought it’d be interesting to use that folklore as a satirical springboard to comment on both celebrity culture and the superhero genre simultaneously. There’s actually a lot of common ground between the two. Our superstars are all larger than life characters, with both heroic attributes and tragic dimension — just like many comic book heroes. There are similar core issues: Are their talents (and the fame resulting from them) a gift or a curse? So when we started talking about the names that fit the bill — Bruce, Elvis, Andy Kaufman — we saw how each one could be different personality type in a super team. Andy could be the goofy master of disguise, Jim could be the brooding ladies man, etc. It seemed so natural, we wondered why they never teamed up before. Would have been the best Enter the Dragon sequel ever."
"Elvis hasn’t quite given up the banana and peanut butter sandwiches. But he still feels like the Jailhouse Rock-era Elvis, thanks to Bruce’s training. We portray him as kind of a gregarious daredevil, who will pick up any weapon — a sword, a rocket launcher — as long as it makes him the King. Elvis is also in fighting shape. In real-life, Elvis was in the Army and also took karate lessons — a background that wouldn’t be out of place on any superhero’s resume."