Here is an archive of all the past top five lists I've one over the years.

This topic was sort of suggested by reader Chi, but this is specifically for saddest death that occurred in the pages of the main X-Men books (Uncanny, Adjectiveless, Morrison's New X-Men, X-Treme X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, Wolverine and the X-Men, Amazing X-Men and Extraordinary x-Men). Here are the top five saddest deaths in the pages of the X-Men...

HONORABLE MENTIONS

I decided to give Senator Kelly's wife the display despite not actually having her in the top five because, well, it was a nice visual scene there and his death doesn't have the same bit.

Kitty's magic bullet never felt like a DEATH to me, so I didn't have her make the top five.

Moira MacTaggert is the closest to making the top five without making the top five.

5. Senator Robert Kelly

In X-Men #108, the finale of "Dream's End," Moira MacTaggert is dying and Charles Xavier has latched on to her psionic energy and won't let her go, even as it drags HIM to death, as well. Meanwhile, due to the heroic death of Pyro (who sort of could make this list, as well), Senator Robert Kelly has befriended Cable and is finally deciding to speak out AGAINST hatred of mutants. Cable is working as his bodyguard, but must first help resolve the whole Moira/Charles thing, and while he's doing that...









Holy crap, that's depressing! This is pretty much the climax of Claremont's second run (X-Men #109 was his denouement) and boy was it sad and depressing. Leinil Yu and Mark Morales drew it.

4. Squid Boy

Throughout his run on Uncanny X-Men and then X-Men, Chuck Austen had developed the relationship between Cain "Juggernaut" Marko and Sammy "Squidboy" Pare, a young mutant whose father was abusive to him. Cain saw himself in Sammy and as Cain slowly reformed and became a member of the X-Men, he and Sammy developed a strong bond. Cain got so close to him that Sammy's mother (she split from Sammy's abusive dad) developed romantic feelings for Cain. Sammy didn't like that, though, and got angry at Cain. This led to a brutal scene in X-Men #162 (by Austen, Salvador Larroca and Danny Miki), where Sammy is suspicious of Cain and discovers that Juggernaut is a member of a new version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (just called "The Brotherhood"). Juggernaut is going undercover infiltrating the evil group, but Sammy is so twisted in his feelings towards Cain, he can't believe it and, well, it ends badly for Sammy when Cain's old best friend, Black Tom Cassidy, who has now mutated into a plant-like being, goes off on Sammy...











This was Austen's final story arc on the X-Men books. It seems hard to believe that THIS is how he wanted to go out, as just like Claremont's last arc, it is sad and depressing as all heck.

Go to the next page for the top three!

3. Colossus

In Uncanny X-Men #390 (by Scott Lobdell, Salvador Larroca and a bunch of inkers), the Beast discovers a cure for the Legacy Virus, but it can only be activated by a mutant basically sacrificing him or herself to act as a sort of guinea pig. The Beast figures he will keep working on it to see if he can develop it further to get past that point. Colossus, though, who lost his sister to the virus, decides that all the mutants dying out there can not afford to wait for Beast to get past that design flaw of the cure and instead, sacrifices himself...













The quotes at the end were a really nice touch.

2. Phoenix

In X-Men #137 (by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin), the X-Men were trying to save their teammate, Phoenix, from the Shi'ar rule of law. However, as they battled for their friend's life, she turned back into the Phoenix and was no longer Jean Grey (in the end, she turned out not to really even BE Jean Grey, but whatever, that's neither here nor there). They had to then turn on their own friend. She eventually realized that she had to kill herself...











Very sad.

1. Illyana Rasputin

Uncanny X-Men #303, however, by Scott Lobdell and Richard Bennett, is just an issue-long story of a little girl slowly dying from a fatal illness (here, the Legacy virus) and another slightly older young girl, Jubilee, dealing with the death of an innocent girl she doesn't even know as Kitty Pryde and Professor X are so distraught with Illyana's death and caught up in the big picture stuff that they miss out on the little picture stuff, plus her brother Colossus' psyche is so messed up that he can't do anything either...













Really well done stuff by Lobdell. He does sad deaths well.

That's the list! Agree? Disagree? Let me know!