These superheroes crossed the line in the name of peace. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most shocking, brutal, and heartbreaking moments when superheroes and anti-heroes took the baddie’s life in films, TV shows, and comics.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most shocking, brutal,
00:09and heartbreaking moments when superheroes and anti-heroes took the baddies life in films,
00:15TV, shows, and comics.
00:17Beware of major spoilers ahead.
00:28The Guardians of the Galaxy kill Ronan the Accuser, Guardians of the Galaxy.
00:33If you want to rub even more salt into the wound of offing a villain, having a dance
00:38off against them beforehand is up there.
00:46In 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy, Ronan the Accuser betrays Thanos by using the Power
00:51Stone for his own plans.
00:53The Guardians face off against Ronan on Xandar as he prepares to destroy the planet.
00:59Instead, Peter Quill whips out some rhythmic moves to distract the Kree warrior so Drax
01:04and Rocket can destroy Ronan's hammer, releasing the stone.
01:19Quill manages to intercept the gem, but the power of it threatens to annihilate him.
01:25By the Guardians linking up and sharing the burden, they use the stone to obliterate Ronan
01:30in pretty purple light.
01:40The Old Man Logan universe in the comics is one of the bleakest around.
01:44In it, the villains team up to destroy the heroes in the U.S., dividing the country amongst
01:50themselves.
01:51Logan was tricked by Mysterio into wiping out the X-Men, causing him to symbolically
01:55slay Wolverine.
01:57Bruce Banner, who had become a baddie seemingly due to radiation affecting his brain, created
02:02the inbred Hulk gang.
02:04However, after Banner orders the slaying of Logan's family, he has enough and tracks
02:10down the Hulk.
02:17After taking out his family, Banner and Logan battle it out brutally.
02:22By switching to the Green Machine, Hulk consumes Logan.
02:26However, several hours later, Logan's healing factor repairs him and he slices his way out,
02:33ending the Hulk's reign.
02:46After the destruction of Coast City, the Green Lantern Hal Jordan was in a very dark place,
02:51especially as he later turned out to be infected by Parallax.
03:08He attempted to use his powers to rebuild his hometown, only for the Guardians to intervene.
03:14So, Jordan snaps.
03:16During the Emerald Twilight story, he arrives on Oa to enter the central battery and power
03:22himself up.
03:23However, the Guardians had one last card to play.
03:27They released the imprisoned Thal Sinestro.
03:33The friends turned bitter rivals viciously fight, exchanging constructs and resorting
03:38to their fists.
03:40Eventually, Jordan got the upper hand and broke Sinestro's neck.
03:45Jordan followed this by obliterating Kilowog and most of the Guardians as he took his place
03:50as one of the biggest DC villains.
03:59The other is a contentious storyline for Spider-Man fans.
04:03Some aren't keen on the strange supernatural spider shenanigans.
04:11After getting ferociously beaten by Morlun and losing an eye, it all looks over for Peter
04:17Parker.
04:18However, the cops step in, taking him to a hospital.
04:22Yet, as he recovers, Morlun visits.
04:25As MJ bravely battles the vastly overpowered baddie, her arm is broken by the Inheritor.
04:31View Peter waking up with a more monstrous side.
04:38He pounces on Morlun, producing stingers from his wrist that he jams into him.
04:44With sharp spider fangs, Parker bites down on Morlun, ending him and turning him to dust.
04:50Spider-Man also passes away, but only briefly, as he sheds his skin and goes into a cocoon.
05:02In Barry the Flash-Allen's Fast Rogues gallery, Hubert Thawne is perhaps the biggest
05:09headache for the speedster.
05:12After all, it was discovered that Reverse Flash slash Professor Zoom was responsible
05:17for ending Iris Allen's life.
05:24In 1983, Allen was set to marry Fiona Webb.
05:28Thawne wasn't going to let that happen, and forced the Flash to chase him all over
05:32before threatening Webb's life.
05:35As Thawne rushed towards the bride outside the church, Allen, with memories of Iris in
05:40his mind, grabbed his neck.
05:51The speed both were running, and the sudden movement accidentally broke Reverse Flash's
05:57neck.
05:58Barry was later arrested and charged with manslaughter.
06:13In what was seen as Hugh Jackman's Wolverine send-off at the time, Logan was the perfect
06:19ending for the character.
06:20In a dystopian world, Logan's healing factor was dwindling as his DNA was used to create
06:27as X-23.
06:29Then we discover X-24, who's basically Logan in his prime.
06:33Near the end, the former Wolverine and the clone battle it out, with the younger version
06:38getting the upper hand and impaling Logan on a tree.
06:42Before X-24 can finish the job, Laura pops up with a firearm containing Logan's adamantium
06:48bullet and shoots him, ending him.
06:52She was able to tearfully be with Logan as he passed away happily, leaving the audience
06:57broken.
07:07It took a team effort to slay Darkseid during the final crisis event.
07:12When Darkseid's forces looked to take over the Earth with the Anti-Life Equation, the
07:16Justice League answered.
07:23Batman managed to escape his capture by enemy forces and confronted DC's biggest bad.
07:29The Caped Crusader then showed the trick up his sleeve, a firearm containing the Radeon
07:33bullet that Darkseid used to slay Orion earlier.
07:45While the ruler of Apokolips managed to fire off his Omega Beams, Bats took the shot, mortally
07:51wounding Darkseid.
07:53Batman seemingly perished from the attack.
07:56In the wake of his death, multiple flashes directed the Black Racer towards Darkseid's
08:00vessel to destroy his physical presence.
08:04Superman ultimately finished the job by destroying the big bad's essence.
08:14With the fate of Wakanda and the Black Panther mantle hanging by a thin thread, Erik Killmonger
08:19fought to depose T'Challa in the climax of the 2018 film.
08:30The mythical and tech-supported foes ended up in the Wakandan maglev train route.
08:35With T'Challa unable to vocally get through Killmonger's desire for revenge, the two
08:40battled as the train raced around.
08:42The villain seemed to be on the cusp of winning as he brought in a blade.
08:46With Killmonger's suit disrupted by the train, T'Challa managed to get the weapon and fatally
08:51wound him.
08:53Black Panther then took him to a cliff to see the sunset.
09:06After refusing to be healed, Killmonger pulled out the blade, peacefully perishing in beauty.
09:17During the rise of the Olympian comic story, Ares created Genocide, a corrupted being formed
09:23from the body of a future Wonder Woman and dark magic.
09:27Understandably, Wonder Woman wasn't happy with this.
09:40After Diana beats Genocide and puts her in the ocean, the God of War is furious as he
09:45sends sea monsters to attack Themyscira and Thelarion.
09:50An injured Diana has an axe wrapped in her hand as she confronts Ares.
09:55Before he can say too much, she embeds the weapon through his head.
10:13Another time Wonder Woman crossed that lethal line in the comics was in 2005's Wonder Woman
10:18number 219.
10:20After battling a Maxwell Lord-controlled Superman, Diana snaps the villain's neck to save Clark's
10:27family.
10:33In the heyday of Netflix-producing Marvel shows, there was Jessica Jones.
10:38Armed with a terrifying, mind-controlling villain, Kilgrave was a destructive force
10:42for the private investigator protagonist.
10:55After all, he had forced Jones to take a life before she broke free of his control.
11:00With Kilgrave's return into her life by the end of season 1, he's taken Jones' BFF and
11:06adopted sister Trish Walker hostage as he tries to leave on a yacht.
11:12However, seemingly, Jones was back under Kilgrave's manipulation, making him very giddy with excitement.
11:26After ignoring his request to tell him she loves him by uttering it to Walker instead,
11:31Jones grabs Kilgrave's face, tells him to smile, and then twists his neck.
11:38The Punisher kills Howard Saint.
11:40The Punisher.
11:49In a scene which evokes Achilles' desecration of Hector's body in the Iliad, the ending
11:54of The Punisher was no less poetic.
11:57After systematically killing off Howard Saint's loved ones as retribution for his own family's
12:03massacre, Frank Castle gives his hated adversary a sporting chance in a western-style standoff.
12:10Once he beats Saint to the draw and mortally wounds him, the Punisher ties the mob boss
12:15to a car and sends him to a fiery grave.
12:18Combining brutality with sheer humiliation, The Punisher's revenge on his mortal enemy
12:24is a dramatic kill befitting a Shakespearean tragedy.
12:41Batman kills Harvey Dent.
12:43The Dark Knight.
12:52Batman didn't just break his sacred rule in the comics.
12:56Before he was taking no prisoners in the Snyderverse, he inadvertently killed a friend in the Dark
13:02Knight trilogy.
13:03This bleak event occurred after Harvey Dent and his beloved were used in a fatal hide-and-seek
13:09game.
13:10The sick ruse resulted in Dent's face being burned and Rachel's sudden death.
13:15Spurred on by the Joker and mentally broken from the experience, Dent went on a killing
13:20spree against anyone remotely responsible.
13:23He eventually kidnapped Jim Gordon's family and faced off with Bats.
13:27While Dent was flipping a coin, the Caped Crusader tackles Dent, causing him to fall
13:32to his demise.
13:33To protect the DA's legacy, Batman takes the blame for his and Harvey's kills.
13:47Darkman kills Strack.
13:49Darkman.
13:57Who could have imagined that a slimy corporate crook would be so good at boxing?
14:02Battling atop a skyscraper construction site, Darkman and murderous billionaire Louis Strack
14:08fight it out over Darkman's captive girlfriend, Julie.
14:12Strack initially has the upper hand when it comes to fisticuffs, but once he refers to
14:17Darkman as a freak, he triggers the hideous hero's volatile temper and receives a rage-fueled
14:23beatdown.
14:24Strack then attempts to finish the fight with a nail gun, but before long is kicked off
14:28the scaffold and left dangling over the edge by Darkman.
14:32Instead of admitting defeat, however, Strack makes the critical error of underestimating
14:37his opponent's ruthlessness and plunges to his death.
15:01Number 7.
15:02Tim Drake kills the Joker.
15:04And beyond, Return of the Joker.
15:11This was as dark as animated Batman stories dared to get.
15:15Taking place within the first Batman Beyond film, this scene is actually a flashback to
15:19the earlier days of when Bruce Wayne was still Batman and was working alongside Batgirl and
15:25Robin.
15:26After being kidnapped, tortured, and brainwashed by the Joker, Tim Drake reveals Batman's
15:32true identity to the Clown Prince of Crime inside Arkham Asylum.
15:37After Joker gets the upper hand on Batman by stabbing him in the leg, he hands a gun
15:41to Tim and tells the former Robin to murder his mentor.
15:45Luckily for the Dark Knight, Tim is able to break his conditioning and shoots the Joker
15:50instead in a truly disturbing scene.
16:01Number 6.
16:02Blade kills Deacon Frost.
16:04Blade.
16:05You're too late, Blade.
16:11Although one could refer to Blade as a superhero, a more accurate description of him would be
16:16a vampire exterminator.
16:18Needless to say, then, that he is quite at ease when it comes to killing his enemies.
16:23In the first installment of the Blade trilogy, the titular Daywalker crosses swords with
16:28Deacon Frost, the vampire who infected Blade's mother while she was pregnant with him.
16:33While Blade manages to deal out several devastating strikes, Frost's godlike powers allow him
16:39to regenerate instantly.
16:41Blade then takes a different approach and injects Frost with an overdose of the weaponized
16:45anticoagulant, which causes Frost to erupt in an explosion of gore.
16:56Number 5.
16:57Superman kills the Joker.
16:59Injustice gods among us.
17:12While the Joker may have been safe in the assumption that Batman would never kill him,
17:16he definitely made an error in assuming the same about Superman.
17:21Dragging Superman into thinking a pregnant Lois Lane was doomsday, the Joker intentionally
17:26caused the Man of Steel to murder his beloved wife.
17:29Grief-stricken and consumed by an unforgiving bloodlust, not even Batman can reason with
17:35Superman before he kills the Joker in a fit of rage by tearing out his heart.
17:40Although shocking at the time, in a way, Superman's actions were poetic justice, given that the
17:46Joker figuratively did the same to him by murdering his family.
18:06Number 4.
18:08Superman kills Doomsday.
18:10Superman number 75.
18:12While a lot of comic book fans may not be comfortable with Superman killing his enemies,
18:17there's little debate when it comes to Doomsday.
18:20An adversary so destructive that he defeated the Justice League before going toe-to-toe
18:24with the Man of Steel, Doomsday is a virtually unstoppable killing machine who cannot be
18:30contained or reformed.
18:32Realizing this, Superman fights Doomsday with all of his resolve, and the ensuing slugfest
18:38decimates much of Metropolis, culminating with the two titans delivering simultaneous
18:43death blows to each other.
18:45Although Doomsday often gets the credit for killing Superman, it's also important to
18:50note that Superman returned the favor.
18:53Number 3.
18:54Deadpool kills Ajax.
19:09Francis definitely had this one coming.
19:11After putting Wade Wilson through hell to transform him into a mutant, Ajax makes the
19:16second mistake of kidnapping his beloved Vanessa.
19:20While Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead deal with Angel Dust, Deadpool and Ajax have
19:26their own personal battle, which concludes after the cargo ship they are fighting on
19:30overturns.
19:31The merc with the mouth then beats Ajax to a bloody pulp, and before learning that Ajax
19:36can't in fact cure him of his deformity, with no further reason to let him live, Deadpool
19:42prepares to blow Francis' brains out before Colossus gives an impassioned speech for mercy.
19:49Needless to say, he ends up wasting his breath and his breakfast.
19:59Number 2.
20:00Thor kills Thanos.
20:04At the end of 2018's Avengers Infinity War, the audience held their breath when Thor thrust
20:09Stormbreaker into Thanos' chest to stop the mad titan.
20:14Sadly, since he didn't go for the head, Thanos snapped his fingers and wiped out half
20:19of life in the universe.
20:28In 2019's Avengers Endgame, the returning heroes track down Thanos after weeks of searching.
20:34In a quick flurry, the Thunder God sliced off his Infinity Gauntlet-wearing hand.
20:39But when they discover Thanos had used the stones to destroy themselves, thus remaking
20:44those lost in the blip seemingly impossible, Thor lost it with guilt.
20:49He went for the head this time, getting hollow revenge for everyone Thanos killed.
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21:17Number 1.
21:18Superman kills General Zodd, Man of Steel.
21:28Although the final fight between Superman and General Zodd in the first installment
21:32of the DCEU generated a ton of controversy, their fight's conclusion demonstrated that
21:37Superman takes no joy in killing.
21:40With General Zodd intent on using his heat vision to slaughter some innocent civilians,
21:46Superman is forced to make a judgment call and emphatically snaps the genocidal villain's
21:53neck.
21:57Although killing Zodd saved the lives of his intended victims, Superman lets out a cry
22:02of anguish and remorse after having to resort to such brutal methods to save lives.
22:12What incidents of superheroes killing the villain left the biggest impact on you?
22:17Let us know below!