10 Comic Book Deaths You Never Saw Coming

By James Egan / July 10, 2023

The most heartbreaking moment in any story is when a key character dies. Novels, TV shows, and films are pure fiction but it can still be agonising to watch a beloved character meet their maker.

However, it's not the same with comic books. Superheroes and supervillains get killed all the time and show up a few years later without a scratch (not even a headache). For the likes of Captain America, Bucky, and Robin, death seems like a mere inconvenience rather than a tragedy.

Also, when a comic is called The Death of Superman, it's not a big surprise when, y'know, Superman dies.

But there are some deaths that are so sudden, they absolutely blindside us. When Green Goblin tossed Gwen Stacy off that bridge, readers truly believed Spider-Man was going to catch her in time. When Jean Grey was corrupted by the Dark Phoenix, readers assumed the X-Men would save her.

On occasions like this, we were horrified to see our favourite comic book characters getting snuffed out, and even though some of them were resurrected later on, it still didn't make their deaths any less impactful.

10. Blue Beetle - Countdown To Infinite Crisis #1 (2005)

Ted Kord was a millionaire who used his fortune to become a crimefighting spy called the Blue Beetle. Throughout his career, the bug-inspired vigilante broke into corrupt organisations, hacked computers, and gathered intel to bring down criminals, especially crooked businessmen.

While looking into Amanda Waller's intelligence agency, Checkmate, Kord discovered she had files on nearly every superbeing on Earth. Checkmate's leader, Maxwell Lord, then confronted Kord and informed him that he was intending to wipe out every metahuman on the planet.

Because Lord was once friends with Kord and worked with the Justice League, you'd assume he'd would just imprison Blue Beetle to stop him from telling his teammates. Instead, Lord blew Blue Beetle's head off then and there.

What makes Kord's death so tragic is that it could've been avoided if the superheroes took him seriously. Unfortunately, the Justice League was on the verge of collapse at the time and Batman had severe trust issues (more than usual), causing all of Kord's warnings to be ignored.

Also, Kord wasn't 'Comic Book Dead'. He was 'Dead Dead', since we never saw this incarnation of Blue Beetle return until the New 52 reboot.