WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Strange Academy #11 by Skottie Young, Humberto Ramos, Edgar Delgado and VC's Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
Doctor Strange's school for the next generation of masters of the mystic arts is by its very nature a treacherous place. With magic and monsters around every turn, the students and faculty of the Strange Academy are never far from danger. Worst of all is that one of the school's best pupils has just suffered a shocking demise. Even still, the demise of Toth is tragic not just in and of itself, but for the frequency that the Marvel Universe's most brilliantly shining characters seem to crumble into pieces.
Toth's Bad School Day
While the rest of his classmates step out for lunch, Toth is busy cramming for finals in the school library. Time is quick to get away from him, and before he knows it the sun has set and he is left walking back to his room in the middle of the night. This just happens to be when the halls of Strange Academy are being stalked by a dark, malevolent force that takes Toth by surprise. The next morning, Toth is found smashed through a wall and shattered on the ground by his classmates. Thankfully, Toth can be pieced back together, assuming that the last shard of him can be wrenched free from the grasp of the entity that took it in the first place.
Iceman vs. Conan
The events of King in Black saw the entire world overrun by Knull's symbiote army, and while most every hero and villain on the planet was busy fighting the invading forces, Conan was busy robbing the Hellfire Mansion with Deadpool and Night Flyer. Savage Avengers #18 by Gerry Duggan and Kev Walker saw their heist rudely interrupted by the sudden appearance of Iceman, Bishop, and Calisto. While the two trios would eventually work together to try and free Cyclops and Storm from the former god of the symbiote's clutches, they couldn't come to such an agreement at this time, and Conan took it upon himself to leave Iceman in pieces with his own symbiote hammer. Bobby was thankfully able to put himself back together, but that didn't take away from the shock of seeing him so completely obliterated by one of Marvel's most ancient antiheroes.
Captain Britain vs. Isca the Unbeaten
Betsy Braddock has always been one of the most capable heroes in the world, having overcome an almost countless number of trials and traumas and always emerging better than ever no matter what she is put through. X of Swords saw her broken much like Iceman and Toth, this time during a fight for the fate of the world during the Tournament of Swords. Facing off against Arakko's Isca the Unbeaten was never going to be a small task, and when Isca shattered Betsy's Starlight Sword, Captain Britain herself shattered with it. At the time, this was a horrifying development. Due to death on Otherworld, there was no chance of resurrection on the part of The Five. Thankfully, Betsy returned once more, but that can never take away the image of her falling apart down to her word bubble.
The Assassination of Emma Frost
Maybe the most incredible instance of a character being left in pieces came in the pages of 2003's New X-Men #139 by Grant Morrison and Phil Jiminez. After a devastating argument between Jean Grey, Scott Summers and Emma Frost regarding the love triangle between them, Scott and Jean both stepped out for some fresh air, leaving Wolverine to comfort the White Queen by himself. Things may have been tense, but no one could have anticipated what happened next. Beast stumbled upon Emma's diamond form in ruins. Having been shot with a diamond bullet by her own protege Esme Cuckoo, Emma was graciously put back together and restored by the then Phoenix Force empowered Jean Grey.