RIP... Well, not you, bad guys! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most iconic kills in DC animated films. Beware of spoilers ahead.
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00:00 In many ways, I'm sure they feel the loss of their leader
00:03 and comrade most of all.
00:05 - Welcome to WatchMojo, and today, we're
00:08 counting down our picks for the most iconic kills
00:11 in DC animated films.
00:13 Beware of spoilers ahead.
00:16 - Make daddy proud.
00:18 Deliver the punchline.
00:21 - Number 10, Joker kills Jason Todd,
00:24 Batman under the red hood.
00:26 The death in the family rocked Batman to his core.
00:29 When the Joker held Jason Todd hostage,
00:31 he beat and brutalized the boy wonder with a crowbar.
00:34 - Whoa, now hang on.
00:36 That looked like it hurt a lot more.
00:39 So let's try and clear this up, OK, pumpkin?
00:42 - And for the final killing blow,
00:44 Joker rigged the warehouse he was keeping Jason in to explode.
00:48 Batman did everything in his power
00:50 to reach his sidekick in time.
00:51 Unfortunately, he was ultimately too late,
00:55 and Jason died in the explosion.
00:57 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:00 - Jason.
01:07 - This truly tragic moment became a crucial part
01:11 of the Batman mythos.
01:12 After this point, Jason Todd will
01:14 be reborn as the Red Hood, a bloody reminder of one
01:17 of the Dark Knight's biggest failures.
01:19 - Bruce, I forgive you for not saving me, but why?
01:24 Why on God's Earth?
01:25 [GUNSHOT]
01:27 Is he still alive?
01:29 - Number nine, Catwoman silences Hush, Batman Hush.
01:33 - Admiring my beauty, Mark.
01:36 The damage to you may be more severe.
01:40 - Batman will find you.
01:41 - When a new criminal called Hush
01:43 begins orchestrating a series of attacks against Batman,
01:46 all bets are off.
01:47 If you want a sense of how dangerous the villain is,
01:50 his plans led to a night where a mind-controlled Superman
01:53 tried to kill Batman and Catwoman.
01:55 The diabolical Hush is eventually
01:58 revealed as Edward Nygma, AKA the Riddler.
02:00 By the time Batman and Catwoman discover the truth,
02:03 they are eager to beat the villain senseless.
02:06 A brutal brawl nearly results ugly in Edward almost falling
02:10 into a vat of molten metal.
02:11 - Don't let me die.
02:13 Please.
02:15 Pull me up.
02:16 Pull me up.
02:17 Please.
02:18 - Leave him.
02:18 - While Batman tried and likely would have saved him,
02:21 Catwoman purposely cuts the rope holding Nygma.
02:24 He plunges to his doom before the building he's in
02:27 explodes for good measure.
02:28 While Batman wasn't a fan of Catwoman's cut,
02:31 Hush was unquestionably silenced.
02:34 - He didn't have to die.
02:37 - You're crazy.
02:38 - Number eight, Sal's death by laughter.
02:41 Batman, Mask of the Phantasm.
02:43 - Your hands are just as dirty.
02:46 Dirtier.
02:48 [GROWLING]
02:49 Don't touch me, old man.
02:51 - I don't know where you've been.
02:52 - When longtime mob boss Al Velestra
02:55 realized he was on the brutal vigilante
02:57 the Phantasm's hit list, he knew his time
03:00 was close to running out.
03:01 He was already knocking on death's door
03:04 thanks to his old age and medical condition.
03:06 Sal thought he could improve his chances
03:08 by meeting with the Joker.
03:10 - That's what I want to see, a nice big smile.
03:15 - However, this measure majorly backfired
03:18 in the absolute worst way possible.
03:20 By the time the Phantasm tracked Sal down to kill him,
03:23 they discovered the gangster had already
03:25 been lethally poisoned by the Joker's laughing gas.
03:28 While the mobster might have died laughing,
03:31 there's nothing funny about this situation.
03:34 - Guess the joke is on me.
03:35 You're not Batman after all.
03:38 Looks like there's a new face in Gotham.
03:40 And soon his name will be all over town.
03:43 - Number seven, Jon Stewart gets roasted by Darkseid.
03:47 Justice League Dark, Apocalypse War.
03:49 - I go to claim Oa for my empire.
03:52 Any remaining resistance shall not be a problem.
03:57 - While Justice League Dark, Apocalypse War
03:59 had a ton of violent deaths, there
04:01 was one particular demise that stuck with us.
04:04 After an attack against Darkseid goes horrifically wrong,
04:07 the galaxy's remaining heroes struggle to resist the big bad.
04:10 But the Green Lantern Corps still
04:12 insists on making one last stand.
04:14 - Brightest day and blackest night.
04:18 - Unfortunately, Darkseid is able to utterly decimate
04:21 their forces.
04:22 Despite the odds, an injured Jon Stewart
04:24 tries to use the central power battery to recharge
04:27 his power ring one last time.
04:29 But Darkseid spites the hero by sending
04:32 magma to blow up the battery.
04:34 - Teleport a portion of Earth's magma here.
04:37 I'd like to make a point.
04:39 - The resulting explosion leaves Jon
04:41 as nothing more than ashes.
04:43 Overall, this kill was one hell of a way
04:46 to send a message that the heroes were toast.
04:49 Number six, Superman murders Joker in Justice.
04:53 - What did you do?
04:55 - I'm pulling the best joke ever.
04:59 It'll be my masterpiece.
05:03 - Joker begins this bleak movie by orchestrating
05:06 a series of events that led to Superman causing
05:09 the death of Lois Lane.
05:11 To add salt in the wound, her demise
05:13 directly led to the destruction of Metropolis.
05:16 While Batman was prepared to toss the clown back
05:18 into Arkham, Superman wasn't willing to let
05:21 the vigilante go so easily.
05:22 The Man of Steel makes it very clear
05:24 that he would no longer tolerate the clown's actions.
05:27 - Please don't do something you'll regret
05:29 for the rest of your life.
05:30 - I already have.
05:32 - And in a shocking moment, he executes
05:34 the Joker with one punch.
05:36 The incident propelled Superman into a tyrant,
05:39 sparked years of division, and arguably doomed the world.
05:42 It reminded us all what could happen
05:44 if the Man of Steel showed no mercy.
05:47 - Don't.
05:48 You'll throw away everything the Justice League stands for.
05:51 Everything you stand for.
05:54 - I won't be held back by ideals that
05:56 don't protect the innocent.
05:57 - Number five, Batman burns Dracula.
05:59 The Batman versus Dracula.
06:01 - Scarcely midnight, Batman.
06:04 The sunrise will not help you this time.
06:07 - Batman battling Dracula is a fight we never
06:10 knew we needed until we saw it.
06:12 When Dracula is resurrected, his new plans
06:15 place him in direct conflict with Batman.
06:17 While Batman's not quite on Dracula's level
06:19 in terms of sheer power, his power of having prep time
06:22 made all the difference.
06:24 During their final battle in the Batcave,
06:26 Batman leads Dracula towards a gigantic machine
06:29 that stores solar energy.
06:30 And once the machine was powered on,
06:32 Batman made the vampire see the light.
06:34 - I'm the Batman.
06:36 And you're dust.
06:38 - If Dracula being set ablaze and withering into bones
06:41 wasn't cool enough, the shot of Batman
06:43 punching his skull clean off his skeleton definitely was.
06:47 This is by far one of the most epic Dark Knight
06:50 finishers of all time.
06:52 - I shall sweep that into the dustbin straight away.
06:55 - Number four, Constantine explodes Nergal.
06:58 Constantine, City of Demons, the movie.
07:00 - Voodoo charm.
07:03 How old fashioned.
07:06 - Got you here, didn't it?
07:07 - To say the demon Nergal was a nasty creature
07:10 would be the understatement of the century.
07:12 Not only did he slaughter countless innocent civilians,
07:16 but he also dragged the innocent astralouge to hell.
07:19 Unfortunately, all of this was possible due to a mistake
07:22 Constantine made.
07:24 So it was only appropriate for a petty dabbler of the dark arts
07:27 to take Nergal out.
07:29 The battle initially looks like it
07:31 would go in the demon's favor.
07:32 However, Constantine is able to use a spell fueled by love
07:36 called the Candever Curse.
07:37 - I don't understand.
07:38 - It's the Candever Curse, Nergal.
07:41 That's love, you feel.
07:44 Renee and Trish's love for Chaz.
07:46 And it's all inside the girl.
07:49 - Its overwhelming power caused Nergal to be exploded to bits.
07:53 It may sound ridiculous that a demon was vanquished
07:55 with the power of love.
07:57 But hey, if it works, it works.
08:00 - In order for the curse to work,
08:02 I had to channel Renee and Trish's love for you
08:05 into and through Nergal, every last bit of it.
08:09 - Number three, Thomas Wayne and Deadshot kill Reverse Flash.
08:13 Justice League, the Flashpoint Paradox, and Suicide Squad,
08:17 hell to pay.
08:18 This was a kill that took two movies to complete.
08:21 - Ah, ah, ah.
08:23 - As long as I can siphon off the speed force,
08:25 you can't escape this timeline.
08:27 I'm afraid there just isn't enough speed force
08:29 to go around--
08:30 [GUNSHOT]
08:32 - While Reverse Flash was wasting time,
08:34 bad guy monologuing during the Flashpoint Paradox,
08:37 he was shot by Thomas Wayne.
08:39 It seemed like the act stopped the villain and saved Barry
08:42 Allen.
08:42 However, this killing blow didn't actually
08:45 kill him right away.
08:46 After Flash reset the universe while time traveled,
08:49 Reverse Flash showed up in a new timeline.
08:51 He shockingly revealed that he was
08:53 able to escape death at the last second in the Suicide Squad,
08:57 hell to pay film.
08:58 - I drew the speed force into me with every ounce of willpower
09:01 I had left.
09:02 I literally bought time.
09:04 I'd expanded my moment of dying into days, maybe weeks.
09:08 - While trying to get a literal get out of hell free card,
09:11 Deadshot executed the speedster.
09:13 It was impressive that it took a supervillain, a Batman,
09:16 and two timelines to finally put this evil speedster down.
09:20 - Tell me we got him.
09:25 - He just crossed the finish line.
09:27 - Number two, The Joker's Death, Batman Beyond,
09:30 Return of the Joker.
09:31 During Batman Beyond, Return of the Joker,
09:33 the grisly details of Joker's unceremonious end
09:37 were revealed in flashbacks.
09:38 - Say hello, JJ.
09:40 - It all started when the clown in Harley Quinn
09:48 captured and tormented Tim Drake in order to turn
09:50 the kid into a Joker Jr. The brainwashing
09:53 seemed to be absolute.
09:55 As a result, the clown prince of crime
09:57 ordered his new assistant to kill Batman.
09:59 However, Tim fought his orders and eliminated the Joker.
10:03 - That's not funny.
10:08 - The shocking moment and its gut-wrenching aftermath
10:11 was etched into our brains forever.
10:13 We never thought a Robin would cause the Joker
10:16 to take his last laugh.
10:18 - We buried the Joker deep beneath Arkham.
10:20 The only other person who knew what happened that night
10:22 was my father, the first Commissioner Gordon.
10:25 He promised to keep our secret.
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10:41 - Number one, Superman is killed by Doomsday,
10:45 the death of Superman.
10:47 - Fascinating.
10:48 What kind of civilization would produce that?
10:51 - The death of Superman was a moment where time stood still.
10:54 After the beast called Doomsday was released,
10:57 he tried to kill everything in sight.
10:59 His mission was majorly stalled
11:02 when he came up against Superman.
11:03 The two traded a series of devastating blows
11:06 in a true battle of titans.
11:08 And when Superman put everything into a final killing blow,
11:11 Doomsday fatally wounded the hero.
11:14 It's never easy to see any superhero struck down in combat.
11:17 - That thing.
11:18 Is he?
11:22 - Yes.
11:23 - Seeing the Earth's strongest champion fade away
11:25 felt devastating.
11:27 While the Man of Steel would find a way to overcome death,
11:30 we'll never forget how the loss of his life made us feel.
11:34 - Superman was an example that inspired us
11:37 to reach beyond ourselves,
11:39 to soar towards a better tomorrow.
11:42 - Is there a monumental kill that we forgot?
11:45 Let us know in the comments down below.
11:47 - It was as easy as beating a puppy to death
11:52 with a kitten.
11:54 (laughing)
11:55 - Did you enjoy this video?
11:57 Check out these other clips from WatchMojo
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