In another thread, I started talking about DC resurrections that I was ambivalent about, opening with Barry Allen, Vic Sage, and Jason Todd.
In hindsight, I realize that that thread was basically an excuse to kvetch, which is not great.
So here's a new one - which DC characters had good deaths that "stuck?" And by "stuck" I mean "seemed permanent, lasted a really long time, and were only brought back (if ever) with great difficulty and fanfare."
So Martian Manhunter in Final Crisis doesn't count. Nor does, say, Roy Harper in Heroes in Crisis (assuming you thought it was a good death). Neither of those deaths hung around for very long.
(I'm also not including Elseworlds stories in this... LOTS of characters die well in Elseworlds
Here's a short list before I've had my third coffee:
Barry Allen
Duh.
Pocket Universe Superboy
Went out saving his little universe and the Legion from the Time Trapper in a schmaltzy, almost nonsensical story dictated by editorial fiat. And yet, it brought the feels. Frankly, most of the "classic" Legion deaths are notable for being good deaths that stuck. Okay, maybe not Chemical King.
The original Superman cast of Earth-3
In the original Crisis, Earth-3 was wiped out with style. Alexander and Lois got a nice Jor-El and Lara moment, and Ultraman went out like a Superman should.
The Golden Age Red Bee
He was a joke of a hero, but he got to smack Baron Blitzkrieg with a two-by-four before he went out.
Terra
If you re-read Wolfman's narration of Terra's breakdown/death scene today, it's amazingly wordy and overwrought by today's standards. But it still lands.
Josh Clay
In a lot of ways, Josh's death at the hands of Niles Caulder shouldn't count as a "good" death. It's arguably a gratuitous "shock" death done to show that the hero is really a horrible villain after all. But I think it worked. And it's (I think) stuck. Josh isn't back again, is he?
Arthur Curry Jr.
It's still rather amazing that DC signed off on killing the baby of a JLA member... in 1977.
Hitman
Garth Ennis often enjoys his own jokes a little too much for my taste. But he seriously nailed the ending with Hitman.
Any others?