We all get frustrated with the people we work with, it’s inevitable. If we spend an endless amount of time with a specific set of people with a level of stress thrown in, it’s bound to happen at some time. But throw in superpowers, alternate realities, murderous tendencies and the occasional costume, then that inevitability is increased considerably. Like any good story, comics try to produce twists, murders and complications into a plot so that the audience is kept on their toes. Whether that’s the murder of a loved one or the loss of their powers, superheroes never get it easy. But wouldn’t it be boring if they did?
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Sometimes to keep things fresh, the writers throw a spanner or two in the works. To change up a team dynamic, sometimes one member of a team will kill a teammate. Whether this is an accident, done out of rage or simply out of necessity to save the world all depends on the storyline itself. We’ll get the spoiler warning out of the way, some of these deaths do spoil certain storylines from comics over the last few years and even a little further back. Here are 15 times teammates killed each other.
15 ROBIN KILLS NIGHTWING
Robin the Boy Wonder. Well, that should really be; Robin the Boy Murderer. Although it shouldn’t really be surprising that Damian Wayne has killed someone, it’s shocking because of his victim. Damian Wayne killed the original Robin, Dick Grayson, during the Injustice comics.
The world of Injustice sees Superman become a violent dictator, flipping the world into chaos. During a heated argument between Damian and Dick, the young Wayne hurls one of Nightwing’s batons at his head. It strikes him, and Nightwing falls to the ground in shock. But when he hits the floor his neck hits a rock, breaking it and killing the vigilante. Damian is visibly shocked at what he’s done, but there’s no taking it back. So even though Robin is shown to be villainous later on, at least he’s remorseful.
14 SHE-HULK KILLS VISION
Considering she’s part of the Hulk family, Jennifer Walters is usually the calm one out of the rampaging green monsters. She is able to keep her personality and intellect to even still operate as an attorney. That is until "Avengers Disassembled" of course. It happened just before "House of M", and it sees She-Hulk go on the rampage when Scarlet Witch manipulates her mind.
She attacks Vision after he appears literally vomiting Ultron drones from within himself. Jen attacks Vision, tearing the android completely in two. Because of Scarlet Witch’s mental manipulation of the hero, she lost all sense of control and worked herself into a terrifying fit of rage similar to her cousin. Even though Vision is a synthetic android, it’s still a grisly sight as he’s torn in half.
13 OZYMANDIAS KILLS THE COMEDIAN
Spoilers. Sorry. The story has been out for 30 years though. But it’s the death of the Comedian that kickstarts the entire Watchmen story to begin with. And it also gives us the iconic smiley face pin badge with the blood sear across the design. It turns out that Ozymandias himself (Adrian Veidt) was the one picking apart each hero one by one to cover his plan of killing millions to save billions.
This started with hurling Eddie Blake, aka the Comedian, out of his window in a skyscraper. It sent him falling to the floor, killing him. And since Ozymandias’ plans resulted in world peace, it makes Eddie’s death that more meaningful. But because the Comedian was a violent, sadistic man the fact his death ended up contributing to peace is a twisted joke. Which is probably just the way he wanted it.
12 WONDER WOMAN KILLS STEVE TREVOR
Not Steve Trevor! Diana Prince’s frequent love interest was recently brought to our screens by Chris Pine during the Wonder Woman solo movie. And although he was a man of action, he and Diana wound up falling for each other. But in the alternate world of "Flashpoint", this is definitely not the case.
Diana’s feelings for Steve are anything but affectionate. Quite the opposite. Although she’s happy to watch him die as she strangles him with the lasso of truth. He’s one of Lois Lane’s friends in the story, and Diana does not like being spied on one bit. She actually takes a lot of enjoyment from seeing him die, and it’s quite disturbing to see their dynamic completely flipped upside down. We doubt the Flashpoint movie will have Chris Pine strangled to death by Gal Gadot though.
11 HAWKEYE KILLS BRUCE BANNER
When a new Inhuman shows off powers of premonition, the superhero community are split as to use his power to prevent attacks, or whether it’s a profiling issue. Sometimes, his visions aren’t accurate as they’re actually showing off potential futures. One of these visions shows the Hulk on the rampage and killing the Avengers.
So when Captain Marvel and Iron Man go to speak to Banner and discover whether he’s on the brink of becoming the Hulk, the argument becomes heated. Just as Banner seems to get angry, an arrow flies from nowhere, killing him. Clint Barton was under orders from Banner to kill him if he was going to turn. Hawkeye supposedly saw his eyes flicker green and made a judgement call. Whether he actually did or not, remains to be seen. Did Hawkeye save everyone, or did he murder a key Avenger?
10 KING SHARK KILLS YO-YO
King Shark is one of the bigger members of the Suicide Squad, and is known for his brutality and taste for human flesh. So when Yo-Yo is sent to retrieve King Shark from the prison cell he’s locked in, it doesn’t quite go to plan. Yo-Yo has the ability to reduce and increase his mass at will.
But King Shark doesn’t care and once Yo-Yo is in the cell, the monster eats him in one go with all four limbs going down like spaghetti. The blood left on the floor implies that Yo-Yo is dead and that’s the last we see of him. Or is it? He makes a reappearance later on seemingly unhurt, but since we saw the blood left from his chewed body, it’s questionable. Either way, King Shark ate the Suicide Squad member whole. Ouch.
9 SHARON CARTER KILLS CAPTAIN AMERICA
Not many people can brag about being able to kill Captain America, and nor should they really. Unless it’s Secret Empire Steve, then who cares, that guy is awful. But back in the aftermath of "Civil War", Captain America is shot dead. And although Crossbones may have been the one to shoot first, he didn’t strike the killing blow.
That role was heartbreakingly reserved for Sharon Carter, Cap’s girlfriend. She’d been brainwashed by Doctor Faustus into killing her boyfriend to clear a path for the Red Skull. When Cap went down with the first bullet, Sharon pulled her side arm and dealt a killing blow for the star spangled hero. It just twists the knife further knowing that Sharon was pregnant with Steve’s unborn son too. Put your hand up if you hate Red Skull?
8 WONDER WOMAN KILLS BATMAN
Diana dispatching the Dark Knight? Surely not! During Superman/Batman #15 the story rolled back the years and looked at what might have happened if the two eponymous heroes were adopted by supervillains instead of their original upbringings. Needless to say, it doesn’t go well for the rest of the world.
There’s no Justice League, but there is a Princess of Themiscyra. Diana steps up to sort out the madness the two formidable foes have caused. But during the fight, Wonder Woman realizes the drastic measures she has to take, and stabs Batman in the chest. Ouch. That’s gotta hurt. Luckily, this alternate timeline was reset and everything was adjusted back to normal. But still, it’s monumental to see an iconic character slaying the Dark Knight.
7 SUPERMAN KILLS SHAZAM
Superman taking over the world is pretty much the worst case scenario of any situation. It’s one that’s fully explored during the Injustice games and comics. It sees the death of various DC characters as well as the shifting of allegiances of heroes and villains. One of those deaths is Shazam.
When the thunderous hero raises a few concerns with Supes way of doing things, the Man of Steel responds with swift punishment. He freezes Shazam’s mouth shut, and then proceeds to shoot laser beams through his face and right through the back of his head. There’s no way that Billy Batson was coming back from that one. It’s the killing that signified to many heroes on Superman’s side that he was completely unhinged and out of control. It’s just a shame it took the death of Billy to do so.
6 WOLVERINE KILLS THE X-MEN
We recently got to see an uncaged Wolverine during the critically acclaimed Logan, which was partially adapted from the equally praised "Old Man Logan" story. In that story, the majority of superheroes have been wiped out, including the X-Men. Leaving a few ageing heroes to protect the ones closest to them.
But it turns out that the architect of society’s downfall, was Wolverine himself. Mysterio and a group of villains tricked Logan into thinking the mansion was under attack, when he was really butchering his fellow teammates with his claws. The moment he realizes what he’s done is truly heartbreaking as he sits among the dead. It’s a gruesome scene, and it haunts him for decades realizing the extent of his actions. In Logan the X-Men die in an accident, but one caused by Professor X, not Wolverine.
5 DOCTOR MANHATTAN KILLS RORSCHACH
When Rorschach and the rest of the heroes discover the extent of Ozymandias’ plan, the majority of them agree to keep his terrible secret because it brings about world peace. All but one of them, that is. Rorschach can’t live with that secret, and there’s only one way of stopping him from talking about the truth of the entire conspiracy. Everyone knows what has to be done.
Doctor Manhattan makes Rorschach disintegrate into a thousand bloody chunks. It’s a gut punch. Everyone knows that either decision is the right thing to do. Rorschach wants the world to know the crimes that Veidt had committed, but that could cost the arrival of peace after the countries united against the threat. All Walter Kovacs wanted to do was stop a conspiracy, why did Veidt have to make everything so complicated?
4 CYCLOPS KILLS PROFESSOR X
"Avengers Vs. X-Men" saw the Phoenix Force make its’ way to Earth in a devastating display of power. It corrupts the Mutants one by one, with several of the most powerful holding a portion of the power inside them. Slowly, Cyclops becomes devastatingly corrupted by the cosmic power.
And when he completely gives into it, becoming Dark Phoenix, Cyclops faces down his old mentor Charles Xavier. And when Professor X screams that this is enough, Cyclops calmly agrees. He then uses the Phoenix Force to swiftly kill Xavier. And because Professor X was one of the most powerful mutants on the planet, it shows us just how powerful the phoenix force is if it can kill him that easily. It’s a monumental moment that resonated with readers around the world.
3 OLD MAN LOGAN KILLS THE HULK
Whilst Logan didn’t get to use the Hulk as part of the live action film, it’s probably for the best. When Logan’s family are murdered by the Hulk’s inbred offspring, he goes hunting for Banner himself, beginning a beatdown with the psychopathic future version of the monster. And when Banner transforms, he eats Wolverine pretty easily.
But he can’t quite digest him. After a while, Banner begins to get some stomach pains. No wonder, when there’s a regenerating mutant with Adamantium bones inside of him. Wolverine rips his way out of the Hulk, killing him. If that doesn’t tell you how powerful Logan is, that he can actually kill the incredible Hulk, nothing will. It’s a truly grisly moment, as Logan is head to toe in the Hulks insides. Lovely.
2 CAPTAIN AMERICA KILLS BLACK WIDOW
“Secret Empire” was controversial from the start, some fans loved it and others hated it. It saw Captain America take over the world as a secret Hydra agent who had been recruited back in the ‘40s. All of this had transpired because Kobik, the cosmic cube come to life, willed it into existence. But when Miles Morales and Black Widow both try and kill Hydra Cap, the worst happens.
To stop Miles from committing murder, Black Widow tries to push him out of the way. But in doing so, she’s caught by Cap’s shield. It breaks her neck instantly in a shocking X-ray panel that shows the damage of the blow. It was a bold move, killing Natasha Romanoff. We can’t help but wonder how long it’ll be till she’s revived though.
1 BATMAN KILLS THE FLASH
During "Dark Nights: Metal", we’ve been introduced to various nightmarish versions of Batman. They all resemble different members of the Justice League, and one such version cannibalizes the Speed Force. To make it worse he uses Barry Allen to do it, and it must have been terrifying.
Even though Barry was used to strong speeds, we don’t think anything could have prepared him for being strapped to the Batmobile that had been repurposed with the cosmic treadmill. This devious invention merges Barry and Bruce together, with Barry helpless to stop Bruce. He can only plead from inside Bruce’s head to make all of this stop and to put his powers to good use. But since he’s already been corrupted by the Batman Who laughs, there’s no chance of that.
Which of these deaths is the worst to you? Let us know in the comments!