Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses, including the comic book industry, are struggling to stay alive. Because of this, the number of token “shocking deaths” in comic-book-related media has been pretty low thus far. Movie premieres were pushed back, issues of comics got online releases, TV series got cut, and so on. But there were still some freaky casualties nonetheless.
Let’s see which superheroes kicked the bucket in 2020!
1. King Shark
When you’re a member of the Suicide Squad, you know you’re going to die. And so in issue #1, we see King Shark tearing one of the metahumans in half, before the squad marries up the rest of the so-called Revolutionaries. One of the captured metas was Fin, who saw his brother get torn to shreds by the big bulky King Shark. But now they have to work together, which could be problematic. And so it is. During the next mission underwater, Fin shanks King Shark and sics a whole bunch of sharks at him using his powers. Oh, and he connects his and KS’s minds so that KS could see his body being devoured. Sweet-sweet revenge.
2. Witchfire
In Justice League Dark series, similarly to the Suicide Squad, no one’s ever safe, and the fiery warlock Witchfire was not an exception. The whole magical side of the DC hero pantheon is currently fighting the Upside-Down-Man, who has the power to suck the magic out of people. Their next target is Circe, a powerful witch planning something unspeakable. Wonder Woman is sent to the Hecate’s realm where she finds Witchfire, but while her spirit roams free, Circe possesses Diana’s body and kick some major butt after summoning the Injustice League Dark. Back in the spirit realm, Diana makes a deal with the Upside-Down Man to help her get into her body. He says: “sure, with pleasure!” and rips Witchfire’s throat off. That wasn’t the deal? Too bad.
3. Green Arrow
Ding-dong the Hood is dead! I hope you’ve already watched the huge CW crossover titled “Crysis on Infinite Earths,” otherwise you’ll get spoiled. So yeah, to become “something else,” Oliver Queen needs to die first and go to the Purgatory. There he meets Jim Corrigan, aka the Specter, and later becomes that cosmic entity to save the multiverse. In the final confrontation, he gets lazor’d to death but is still able to create a few universes, while also stitching some of them together so that we can get Supergirl in the same world as the rest. Nevertheless, in the end, Oliver dies, but we all know no one really ever dies in the comics.
4. Behrad Tarazi (Legends of Tomorrow)
After good old Oliver snapped his fingers to start up a whole new multiverse, a lot has changed in the CW shows without any apparent reason. In the previous season, the one who wielded the wind totem was Zari, but after the “snap” (no, the other snap), we see that she was replaced by her brother Behrad, who was dead in the previous timeline. Long story short, in just a few episodes, we got to know and love Behrad, just to have him taken away by one of the Three Fates. During the scuttle, Atropos, the evil Fate sister, tells him that he doesn’t belong in this world and wipes him out of existence in an instance. For shame!
5. Kate Pryde
Kate, formerly known as Kitty Pryde, was brutally murdered in Marauders #6. The new mutant nation living on the Krakoa island sheltered some of the worst mutants in history. Sebastian Shaw was one of them. To keep Kate from becoming the Red Queen of Krakoa’s Quiet Council, he drowns her using some unusual vines. It wouldn’t be as bad if the Five could resurrect her like they have done with many mutants in the past. But for some reason, Kate could not be brought back. Is she even a real mutant?
6. Almost every hero in Justice League Dark: Apokolips War
Darkseid invades Earth, and the Justice League is ready to fight back. But here’s the problem — the big bad New God used Superman’s DNA to turn his parademons into paradooms! The entire JL goes down in a jiffy, unable to beat hoards of Doomsday-like creatures. Some heroes got impaled, some torn in half, while others were straight out eaten alive. And that was just the first wave of deaths. Without spoiling too much of the plot, let me just list some of the deceased characters: Aquaman, Zatanna, Starfire, Nightwing, Batgirl, Shazam, every Green Lantern on OA, including John Stewart, Guy Gardner, and Kilowog, Black Manta, Cheetah, Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, and probably dozens more. It is the final movie in the current DC animated universe, and you should definitely watch it!
