Videos by ComicBook.com
Even the most formidable and powerful Marvel heroes have tasted some bitter losses, some of which have led to death. All of their power couldn’t keep them alive, and they were killed off (although the vast majority have come back). These ten powerful Marvel heroes have all been killed in battle, showing that power doesn’t always win every fight.
10) Iron Man
Iron Man’s armor has made him extremely powerful, allowing him to defeat just about every enemy. Over the decades, he’s been able to make his armor and weapons way better, creating armors that have protected him from just about everything. Like many major Marvel heroes, he’s been killed off several times, although the most important one wasn’t technically being killed off. Iron Man was put into a comatose state after a battle with Captain Marvel in Civil War II, and replaced by Ironheart and Doctor Doom (and an AI). He was also killed in Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War, and the classic Avengers yarn “The Korvac Saga”.
9) Doctor Strange
Marvel fans have seen many versions of Doctor Strange over the years, with the MCU iteration of the Sorcerer Supreme making him more popular than ever. For the last decade, he’s always had a book, but calling those books popular isn’t exactly correct. So, in the 2020s, Marvel turned to Jed MacKay, the king of Marvel B-list solo titles, and readers got to see the death of Doctor Strange in, well, The Death of Doctor Strange. Strange was murdered and the book dealt with who did it, all while his wife Clea took his place. She acted as the Earth’s protector until Stephen was resurrected.
8) Professor X
As the founder and mentor of the X-Men, death has been chasing Professor X since the Silver Age. In the early years, the team thought he had been killed, but that was really the mutant Changeling. Xavier had faked his death to fight the Z’Nox, with only Jean Grey and Changeling knowing the truth. He’d be killed again years later, but was given a clone body by the Shi’Ar. He played a major role in Marvel 2012 summer blockbuster Avengers vs. X-Men, dying in battle against Dark Phoenix Cyclops. In the Krakoa Era, he was killed several times, most notably by XENO and Nimrod.
7) Magneto
Magneto’s morality is a huge question for the character, but he’s been a member of the X-Men since the early ’10s, so he’s definitely counted as a hero now (at the very least, an anti-hero). Magneto has been killed off several times over that period. In the Krakoa Era, he died numerous times, sometimes in battle, like his death at the hands of Nimrod, and sometimes trying to use his powers to plunge’s Orchis’s Forge into the sun, which caused fatal aneurysms. He would move to Arakko after his defeat at the hands of Nimrod and destroy his memory back-up, since the Arakkii were anti-Krakoan immortality. He ended up battling against Uranos, the grandfather of Thanos and the most feared Eternal in history, when the Eternals were battling the mutants in A.X.E. Judgment Day. Magneto took a blast through the chest, burning away his heart, but used his magnetic powers to keep his blood pumping, and got his revenge against Uranos, dying in the process. He was dead for months, but Storm would resurrect him.
6) Captain Marvel I
Mar-Vell was the original cosmic Marvel hero. The first Captain Marvel came to Earth for the Kree Empire, and then learned to love humanity, becoming a protector of the planet. He’d end up battling some of the greatest threats in the history of the universe, and for a time was connected to Rick Jones through the Nega-Bands. He battled Thanos and was the greatest cosmic protector of the Marvel Universe in those days. However, he ended up dying of cancer, given to him by Nitro, whose explosive powers affected the Kree hero badly. He was one of the most powerful heroes around and has been dead (besides shapeshifters and versions from the past coming to the present) ever since.
