With romance, action, and powers, even death is an inevitable element of the comic world. With every explosion and alien invasion, Marvel’s heroes have died protecting the universe. But not all of the noble sacrifices have been meaningful, a few Marvel superhero deaths just feel out of place and unnecessary.
From major X-Men characters to Avengers, here are the top 10 Marvel superheroes whose dead might have not been as noble as the character deserved. It is just a plain insult to the character.
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10. Hero’s Reborn
After Professor X’s brain wiped Magneto, his evil thoughts merged with Magneto’s newly-reconstituted mind to form the psychic supervillain entity known as Onslaught. In the climactic final battle of the event, the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Avengers stood together against Magneto. While Thor led the charge against the psychic entity, Magneto the X-Men stayed back to not empower him with mutant energy. However, The Avengers and Fantastic Four seemingly perished, resulting in the much-maligned Heroes Reborn reboot.
9. The Zombie Fantastic Four
Marvel’s Zombie edition is disturbing as well as absurd and was created by Robert Kirkman. It’s an alternate universe of classic Marvel heroes infected by a zombie virus that retains the victim’s personality. After Franklin and Valeria Richards are eaten by She-Hulk, Reed Richards goes mad and secretly infects his fellow mates with the virus. Much to their horror, the trio partially consumes Mister Fantastic and transmits the virus to him resulting in the death of the Fantastic Four.
8. Hawkeye in Avengers Disassembled
Written by Michael Bendis and art by Steve McNiven, Avengers Disassembled was a dark phase for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. After Scarlet Witch lost her sanity, he went on to destroy the Mansion which led to the death of her teammates. And one among them was Clint Barton a.k.a Hawkeye. He grabbed a jetpack-wearing Kree soldier and flew into a spaceship once his quiver of explosive arrows caught fire. Although it was a noble sacrifice, the action felt completely unnecessary because Hawkeye should have just taken off his quiver rather than kill himself.
7. X-Men
Garth Ennis and Doug Braithwaite’s Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe does what the title spells out. Being Marvel’s lone gunman rose in stardom, Punisher was pitted against the rest of the Marvel superheroes. He slaughters nearly every X-character via a nuclear ambush on the Moon. At least one of the many mutant geniuses must have seen it happen.
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6. The Original Hellions
Chris Claremont created a rival, the Hellions, a darker group of youngsters led by the villainous White Queen for his teen team the New Mutants. However, Hellions were soon forgotten as New Mutants rose to fame. But in the 1991 Uncanny X-Men issue 281, Hellions were introduced only to be killed by the newly-introduced villain Trevor Fitzroy.
5. Black Widow
Black Widows’ death in the Secret Empire is one of the dumbest ways to kill an ex-spy. The 2017 Marvel’s Secret Empire was labeled as a controversial crossover. A reality snap made Captain America a Hydra sleeper agent and Black Widow lead a majority of Marvel’s heroes in forming a resistance against Cap’s fascist rule. After attempting to separate Spider-Man a.k.a Miles Morales from Captain America, Black Widow caught an accidental, neck-snapping blow from Hydra Cap’s shield. It was an unbuilt and disappointing storyline because it is unbelievable that an ex-spy would be soo clumsy.
4. Hulk
Old Man Logan’s story took a dark turn real soon. Mark Millar’s apocalyptic storyline saw Logan takes a grounded journey through a wasteland. Logan and Hawkeye sought to restore a semblance of heroism to a defeated and divided nation. After returning to his farm, Logan discovers his murdered family and seeks to find and kill those responsible. This is where a fight takes where Hulk eats Wolverine, but this leads Wolverine to rip Hulk’s guts.
3. Iron Man’s death in The Crossing
The events of The Crossing saw Iron Man retconned to be a sleeper agent of Kang the Conqueror from the team’s very beginning. After Stark’s betrayal, the Avengers time-traveled to recruit a teen version of the Armored Avenger. Teen Tony shocked his adult self so much that he sacrificed his life to stop Kang, leaving fans with both a sour taste in their mouth and a dead favorite. This is the most humiliating death of the creators can award Tony Stark with.
2. Members Of X-Statix
The X-Statix/X-Force created by Peter Milligan, Mike, and Laura Allred is a satire on the disposable humanity of reality television. The comic book introduced an ever-evolving, death-prone cast of fame-obsessed mutants. However, a lot of deaths in the comics were utterly stupid and unnecessary. Members of X-Statix including Ram, Plazm, Genie Gin, and La Nuit have perished.
1. Ultimatum Killed Everybody
The events of Ultimatum took place on Earth-1610, it involved all of the major superheroes in the conflict against the master of magnetism Magneto. However, the faceoff ended up ripping the entire New York City, killing several heroes including Nightcrawler, Dazzler, Beast and Daredevil, and also the Wasp. Dozens of other heroes senselessly died in the aftermath, leading critics and fans alike to pan the violent, unceremonious end of half the Ultimate Universe’s cast.
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