Videos by ComicBook.com
As sad as Spider-Man’s sacrifice is, though, it can’t hold a candle to some of the other trials that MCU heroes face. The franchise just doesn’t want to see its good guys win, choosing to make them suffer to get the best out of them. Here are the seven worst things that MCU heroes have survived.
7) Shuri Losing Her Family
All of Wakanda mourns the loss of King T’Chaka at the start of Black Panther, but it hits his two kids, T’Challa and Shuri, the hardest. However, they can’t throw themselves a pity party because Erik Killmonger shows up and takes over the country for a short period. And the hits just keep on coming because, a handful of years after that, both T’Challa and Queen Ramonda die, leaving Shuri all alone. It’s a testament to Shuri’s resolve that she becomes the Black Panther and saves her people at the end of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
6) Iron Man Starving in Space
Tony lived a cushy life before his parents died, and when he reached adulthood, he returned to his wild lifestyle. It takes being kidnapped and thrown in a cave in Afghanistan for him to wake up to reality and put his mind to good use, becoming the hero known as Iron Man. But being the face of the MCU doesn’t get Tony any special treatment, as he loses Peter and a few other friends at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. He tries to return home, but his ship stalls out in the middle of space, and he runs out of food. Captain Marvel finds him in the nick of time, but he’s not in the best of shape.
5) Doctor Strange’s Time Loop
People respect Doctor Stephen Strange, but nobody likes him at the start of his 2016 solo movie. After a car accident, Strange seeks the help of the Ancient One, whom he believes can heal his hands and put his life back together. Instead of doing that, though, she teaches him the Mystic Arts, and he starts to embrace his heroic side. Dormammu shows up not long after Strange starts his training, so the newbie uses the Time Stone to teach the villain a lesson, trapping him in a time loop. There’s no telling how many times Strange died before Dormammu finally threw in the towel.
4) Nebula Being Tortured
Nebula doesn’t fit in the hero category at the start of her MCU, and she doesn’t want to. Her only mission is to dish out pain because that’s all she knows how to do. Thanos, Nebula’s adoptive father, spent years upgrading his daughter using cybernetics, pushing her body to places it should never have had to go. And the abuse doesn’t stop after Nebula leaves her dad’s side, with him torturing her for information in Infinity War. At least with Thanos gone, she can now live a peaceful life on Knowhere.
