Shendue: That's not true at all. Many characters stayed dead for more then a year, like Captain America, Jean Grey died in 2006 and, ironically, considered she is THE PHOENIX, a character pretty notable for her inability to stay dead, did't reappear since then. Bucky Barnes died in 1964 and was only resurrected in 2005. And i'm not sure about the most recent comic books, but i'm rather sure Gwen Stacy is still deader than dead.
Perhaps I should have worded my statement a bit better. Most
main characters aren't ever dead for more than a year. Side characters such as Bucky or Gwen Stacy are different
(well, maybe not Gwen so much, now that Spider-Gwen is getting her own book). If Cap was dead longer than a year, it couldn't have been by much. He's certainly not dead right now, just de-powered. As for Jean, I give them credit for writing her out of the comics for as long as they have, but she's not dead. A body was never found and
someone who looked amazingly like Jean saved Emma Frost from Madelyne Pryor not too long ago. She'll be back officially soon enough.
Tentpole characters like Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iron Man and Captain America will never be gone for long. Even now, with Falcon taking over as Cap, Steve Rogers will find a way to re-awaken the Super Soldier Serum in his body and be back to leading some form of the Avengers sooner or later. For better or worse, the status quo is never shaken up for long in the world of comics.
EDIT: Spelling. >_<;