In superhero stories, it's easy to make anything seem like a big deal. Since superheroes are defined by bombastic action, bright costumes and world-ending threats, everything in the genre is prone to exaggeration from time to time. Countless comic books and TV episodes have been sold on the dubious promise that "this changes everything" for the world's biggest superheroes. Since most superhero stories are serial, tantalizes teases like that are a sure-fire way to get superhero fans to pick up the next issue, watch the next episode or buy tickets for the next sequel. However, those stories don't always live up to expectations. While the promise of change can even lure in the most jaded superhero fans, these earth-shattering stories aren't always what they're advertised as. Whether they try to trick fans or lead to a moment of genuinely unexpected surprise, these fake-outs are the moments that turn casual fans into slightly cynical fans who've seen it all before.
Now, CBR is taking a look back at some of the most astonishing fake-outs in superhero history. In this list, we'll be looking at some moments from comics, TV and film that ended up being something completely different from what they were originally billed as. While some of these twists left fans upset or disappointed, some of them helped make the stories they're in critically-acclaimed modern classics. Still, some of these other revelations turned out to be far more divisive than anyone could've expected. Whether most fans saw these twists coming from miles away or were truly surprised by them, these fake-outs all left a lasting impression.
SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers about recent developments in ongoing storylines from Marvel and DC Comics.
20 JASON TODD'S RETURN
For years, Jason Todd, Batman's second Robin, was one of the few superheroes who actually stayed dead. After the Joker finished him off in 1988, Todd never appeared alive outside of flashbacks. However, that changed during Jim Lee and Jeph Loeb's blockbuster 2003 story "Hush." On the last page of Batman #617, a seemingly-resurrected Todd appeared and threatened his replacement, Tim Drake's Robin, with a Batarang.
Although "Todd" had apparently been revived by a Lazarus Pit, the character was revealed to be the shape-shifting villain Clayface during a fight with Batman in the next issue. Still, that jaw-dropping moment reverberated around the comic book industry and paved the way for the real Jason Todd to come back to life as the Red Hood in 2006.
19 THE MANDARIN IN IRON MAN 3
For most of Iron Man's existence, the Mandarin has been Tony Stark's archenemy. With the alien power of the Ten Rings, the megalomaniacal villain has battled Iron Man dozens of times in comics and cartoons. The first few Iron Man movies even teased his presence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Ben Kingsley seemed set to bring the Mandarin to the big screen in 2013's Iron Man 3.
In the film's trailers, Kingsley seemed to offer a menacing take on the character. However, Shane Black's mildly divisive film shocked audiences when Kingsley's character was revealed to be Trevor Slattery, a clueless actor hired to portray the Mandarin by Aldrich Killian. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige later added that the real Mandarin hadn't appeared on screen yet.
18 THE DEATHS OF DEADPOOL
Since Deadpool has a healing factor on par with Wolverine's mutant powers, the Merc With a Mouth is pretty hard to put down for good. However, a hand was the only part of Wade Wilson that was left after Frank Tieri and Georges Jeanty's Deadpool #60 in 2002. In the deceptively-titled "Funeral for a Freak" storyline, Death kicked him out of the afterlife and revived him one issue later.
Marvel made an even bigger deal about "The Death of Deadpool" in 2015's Deadpool #45. At the end of Brian Posehn, Gerry Duggan and Mike Hawthorne's affecting story, Wade died, along with everybody else on Earth. Deadpool was just another casualty when the entire Marvel Universe was erased to set up the reality-smashing crossover Secret Wars.
17 JEAN GREY IN ASTONISHING X-MEN
In 2004, the telepathic mutant Jean Grey perished in Grant Morrison and Phil Jimenez's New X-Men #150. Since she had access to the life-restoring cosmic power of the Phoenix Force, the countdown to her resurrection began almost as soon as she was gone. In the lead-up to the start of Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's run on Astonishing X-Men, Marvel began dropping serious hints about her revival.
Marvel even released some Cassaday-illustrated preview pages that seemingly depicted Jean's return.
However, those pages never actually appeared in Astonishing X-Men, and it quickly became evident that they were simply made to throw off fans. While Jean wouldn't be fully revived until 2018, Colossus made a surprise return in Astonishing X-Men #4, three years after his apparent death.
16 SPIDER-MAN'S CLONE SAGA
In the 1970s, Spider-Man fought a clone of himself that was created by the Jackal, a mad scientist. While that storyline had a fairly simple ending, it was revisited decades later in "The Clone Saga," one of Spider-Man's most infamous stories. In that 1990s crossover, Ben Reilly, one of the Spider-Man clones from the 1970s story, emerged and claimed that he was the real Peter Parker.
With Ben as the new web-slinging hero Scarlet Spider, "The Clone Saga" was initially a high-selling success, but it grew infinitely more confusing as it dragged on. Marvel heavily implied that Peter was actually the clone, and Ben briefly took Peter's place as Spider-Man. Despite that, the story ended with a confirmation that Ben was the clone after all.
15 TALIA AL GHUL IN DARK KNIGHT RISES
After Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight took superhero movies to operatic new heights in 2008, every scrap of news about its follow-up, 2012's The Dark Knight Rises, made headlines. When French actress Marion Cotillard was cast in the film, many fans assumed that she would be playing Talia al Ghul since Batman battled her father, Ra's al Ghul, in 2005's Batman Begins.
However, Warner Bros. maintained that Cotillard was playing a character named Miranda Tate.
In the well-reviewed movie, Cotillard's character was initially introduced as Tate, but she revealed herself to be Talia by the end of the movie. Despite the WB's refusals, this twist didn't surprise comic fans, since pictures of Cotillard in costume had leaked out online months before the film's release.
14 WOLVERINE'S END
In 1999, Marvel did the unthinkable by apparently killing Wolverine in Howard Mackie and Brandon Peterson's Astonishing X-Men #3. In that stunning story, Logan seemingly perished at the hands of Death, the mysterious new Horseman of Apocalypse. Just after fans began mourning Wolverine, the X-Men discovered that the late "Logan" was actually a shape-shifting alien Skrull who had been posing as Wolverine for several months.
When Death was unmasked in X-Men #95, Alan Davis and Tom Raney revealed that he was the real Wolverine. Readers learned that Logan had been replaced by an imposter on the orders of Apocalypse during a recent adventure in space. After kidnapping Logan, Apocalypse restored his adamantium skeleton and brainwashed him into serving as Death until the X-Men rescued him.
13 FLASH: THE RETURN OF BARRY ALLEN
While Barry Allen might be the Flash today, Wall West, the original Kid Flash, was the Fastest Man Alive in the 1990s. Although Barry seemingly perished saving all of reality during 1986's Crisis on Infinite Earths, he returned a few years into Wally's tenure as the Flash in 1993's Flash #73, by Mark Waid and Greg LaRocque.
The ensuing storyline, "The Return of Barry Allen" is regarded as one of the best Flash stories ever.
After the seemingly-resurrected Barry began attacking Central City, he was revealed to be Eobard Thawne, the time-traveling villain called the Reverse-Flash or Professor Zoom. While that story updated Thawne's origin, the real Barry returned near the start of 2008's Final Crisis and replaced Wally as DC's main Flash a few years later.
12 COLOSSUS AND KITTY PRYDE'S WEDDING
After having an off-and-on relationship for most of their time together on the X-Men, Colossus and Kitty Pryde decided to tie the knot in 2018's X-Men: Gold #20, by Marc Guggenheim and Diego Bernard. Before that moment, Marvel teased that "the wedding of the century" would be taking place in June 2018. After Kitty and Colossus' engagement became official, Marvel went all out with an X-Men wedding special and covers to celebrate the occasion.
When they were supposed to get married in Guggenheim and David Marquez's X-Men: Gold #30, Kitty left Colossus at the altar in a gut-wrenching moment. However, Gambit proposed to Rogue later that day, and that iconic X-Men couple were married in an impromptu wedding by the end of the issue.
11 SPIDER-MAN'S REAL MOM
In 2003, Marvel recruited Mark Millar, Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson to revive its long-dormant romance comics line and relaunch its Epic Comics imprint with Trouble. However, the series flopped, thanks in no small part to somewhat ill-conceived photo covers.
Although it wasn't billed as a Marvel Universe title, it offered a new potential origin for Spider-Man.
The series followed the tangled web of relationships between two teenage best friends, May and Mary, and two brothers, Ben and Richard. After May had a baby with Richard, Mary and Richard adopted the infant Peter. As those names suggest, the series introduced the idea that Aunt May was Peter Parker's biological mother. Thanks to the series' poor reception and low sales, the idea was never mentioned again.
10 SUPERMAN IN JUSTICE LEAGUE
Even though Henry Cavill's Superman perished fighting Doomsday in 2016's Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, his return in 2017's Justice League wasn't exactly surprising. Superman is still one of DC's most famous Justice League members and his last solo film, 2013's Man of Steel, kicked off the DC Extended Universe.
Even though Cavill was part of some of the film's early publicity, the WB tried to obscure his role in the movie in some of the film's marketing. While Superman's logo was featured on a few posters, Superman didn't appear on any pre-release ads or in the film's pre-release trailers. While Cavill dropped some hints about his role, director Zack Snyder didn't confirm anything in interviews either, even after Cavill's infamous mustache made headlines.
9 BATMAN: DEATH OF THE FAMILY
Just one year into their classic Batman run, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo brought the Joker back into Batman's world in the heavily-hyped 2012 storyline "Death of the Family." With a title like that, many fans believed that a major character would die sometime during the 23-part crossover.
While the Joker seriously messed Batman and his allies, no major characters died in the crossover.
Instead, "Death of the Family" was about Batman betraying the trust he built with his surrogate family of allies. While it's still regarded as another outstanding story in Snyder and Capullo's landmark Batman run, it wasn't exactly what fans were expecting. However, bloodthirsty fans still got their wish when Damian Wayne's Robin perished in Batman Incorporated just after this crossover finished.
8 SPAWN'S MAN OF MIRACLES
In the 1980s, Eclipse Comics published Miracleman, a groundbreaking post-modern superhero series with work from writers like Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. After Todd McFarlane's blockbuster supernatural series Spawn helped kickstart the Image Comics era in the 1990s, McFarlane bought the rights to Eclipse's creative assets. Under the impression that those rights included Miracleman, McFarlane announced plans to bring him into Spawn's world in 2001. However, the rights to Miracleman were twisted in a legal knot that wouldn't be untangled for years.
Although Miracleman's alter ego, Mike Moran, had already appeared in Brian Michael Bendis and Ashley Wood's Hellspawn #6, that character was revealed to be the Man of Miracles, a semi-benevolent omnipotent being. Miracleman wouldn't reappear until after Marvel acquired the character in 2013.
7 THE DEATH OF IRIS WEST
Throughout the third season of The Flash, Candice Patton's Iris West seemed marked for death. When Grant Gustin's Barry Allen was briefly thrown into the future, he saw the speedster Savitar, that's season's main villain, taking her life.
Understandably, the Flash and his allies weren't too happy about that.
After all of Team Flash's efforts to change the future failed, Savitar seemingly struck Iris with a fatal blow in the 2017 episode, "Infantino Street." However, the next episode opened with the revelation that Savitar hadn't harmed Iris. Tom Cavanagh's H.R. Wells used a facial reconfiguration device to switch places with Iris and took her place as Savitar's victim.
6 X-MEN: DECLASSIFIED
In 2000, Marvel published X-Men: Declassified, a special one-shot issue that almost changed the X-Men's world forever. Written by Karl Bollers and illustrated by a team of artists including Adam Kubert, Salvador Larroca and Pasqual Ferry, the story saw Wolverine, Gambit and Kitty Pryde explore holographic recreations of moments that could've been real or fake.
These holograms teased some major X-Men storylines like Psylocke using the Phoenix Force, Beast contracting the Legacy Virus, Jean Grey being a clone and Apocalypse giving Wolverine his first adamantium skeleton. While the comic was sold on the idea that some of these plot points could be the basis for future plots, Logan and Gambit agreed that they were all fabricated and nothing ever really came of them.
5 HYDRA CAPTAIN AMERICA
In the Marvel Universe, Captain America is a paragon of morality who sets the standard for Marvel's other heroes. So when Captain America revealed that he was a sleeper agent for the villainous organization Hydra in 2016's Captain America: Steve Rogers #1, by Nick Spencer and Jesus Saiz, some fans weren't too happy.
Despite the criticism, Marvel maintained that this was the real Steve Rogers.
In the next issue, it was revealed that Hydra had used Kobik, an impressionable girl with the reality-altering power of the Cosmic Cube, to rewrite reality. After that Captain took over the United States in 2017's Secret Empire, the real Steve Rogers was restored thanks to some more Cosmic Cube shenanigans and promptly defeated his evil counterpart.
4 LOIS AND CLARK'S WEDDING
Since they were created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1938's Action Comics #1, Superman and Lois Lane have become one of the most famous couples in all of fiction. Their romance played an especially prominent role in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. After Clark proposed to Lois at the end of the show's second season, Lois and Clark were officially engaged in the show's third season.
Lois and Clark's wedding was a heavily advertised event that was set to happen in February 1996. However, Superman unwittingly married a clone of Lois after the real Lois had been kidnapped by Lex Luthor. After that much-derided storyline was resolved, Lois and Clark finally got married in the show's fourth and final season.
3 THE DEATH OF THE NEW GODS
In the lead-up to the 2008 crossover Final Crisis, DC released several series that would theoretically set the stage for the crossover. The two most noteworthy titles were Countdown to Final Crisis, a year-long weekly series, and Jim Starlin's The Death of the New Gods. Both series brought Darkseid and the New Gods to the forefront of the DC Universe.
Both series actively contradicted Final Crisis, the story they were supposed to set up.
Countdown and Death of the New Gods offered different versions of the same events that also conflicted with Final Crisis. Once the crossover actually started, writer Grant Morrison dealt with the contradictions by essentially saying that the series were apocryphal approximations of events that regular humans couldn’t comprehend.
2 THE ULTRAVERSE EXILES
In the 1990s, several publishers launched superhero universes that could theoretically rival the Marvel or DC Universes. Malibu Comics' Ultraverse was one of the more noteworthy '90s superhero universes, and it even achieved some success outside comics with TV shows like Ultraforce and Night Man.
In Exiles, Steve Gerber and Paul Pelletier showed what happened when a dysfunctional group of random people with superpowers worked together. In 1993's Exiles #4, one hero accidentally set off an explosion that wiped out the rest of her team. To preserve the shock of the surprise series finale, Malibu had already advertised and accepted pre-orders for future issues of the series. After the finale was published, Malibu fully reimbursed retailers who had ordered the next issue.
1 BATMAN AND CATWOMAN'S WEDDING
When Batman proposed to Catwoman in Tom King and David Finch's Batman #24 in 2017, the event made international headlines. While Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle got married in some alternate realities, this seemed like the culmination of a decades-long flirtation. DC treated it as a major event and celebrated the impending nuptials with preludes and heavy advertising leading up to the wedding in Batman #50.
However, as the New York Times said in a spoiler-heavy article "it just wasn't meant to be, Batman."
While CBR covered what happened in more detail, Selina skipped the wedding once she realized that making Bruce happy could distract him from being Batman. Now, it's unclear whether this incident will send Batman down an even darker path going forward.