5. Sue Dibny
I wasn't fully aware of the significance of Sue's death in Identity Crisis when I read it. In fact, it was the first time I'd ever heard of Sue Dibny, but since that time, I realize what a great and terrible death it was. She was linked with Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man, completely. Without her, there was no Ralph, which eventually was what happened. But those panels of Ralph's reaction to Sue's death are some of the most powerful superhero drawings I've ever seen.
4. Captain Marvel
I wasn't around when this happened. Well, I guess I was about 7 years old, but this was one of those stories always spoken about with reverence. They gave the Kree hero cancer, and it was very sad. They've gone him one better by (mostly) keeping him dead. Recently Chaos War brought him back, but just a bit, then sent him back to being dead before long, so I'm not going to count that. Either way, he was a hero's hero, and that image of his funeral has always been the standard by which super sad supehero deaths have been judged.
3. Ben Parker
Yes, I thought of Gwen Stacy too, but really if you had to pick one death in Spider-Man's world that had the most impact, it would have to be Uncle Ben. From Ben's death, we have the basis for 50 years of a guilty conscience, fueling Spider-Man's desire to make up for what he can never make up for. And we barely knew the guy!
2. The Sentry
This one just felt good, so it's in at the #2 slot. Took long enough.
1. Thomas and Martha Wayne
In terms of death and grief causing a superhero to press on and avenge crime, nothing beats the death of Batman's mom and dad. Bruce Wayne makes Peter Parker look well adjusted when it comes to coping with death, and Bruce wasn't nearly as close to responsible as Peter was. Nope, Bruce saw something he couldn't unsee, and made it his life's work to make sure no child ever had to go through that again. It is my sincerest hope that no one in the Batman offices ever gets the idea that it would be a good idea to reunite this family through some comic book flim flam, and Thomas and Marth stay firmly entrenched in Bruce's incurably warped psychology.
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I felt the same way about Sue Dibny’s death, but after reading the Dibny’s exploits in the Starman Omnis, it’s easy to see why her death was so important. Robinson did an excellent job of making them an interesting couple in that series.
I remember reading that issue of Identity Crisis vividly. I was sitting in my in-law’s living room waiting for the rest of the family to gather for dinner and absent mindedly started to get into it. I had never heard of Sue either, and yet that panel featured above brought real tears to my eyes. That’s a true testament to incredible storytelling.
I didn’t think of The Sentry when I saw the title, but I can understand why it is where it is on the list.
I was thinking Frank Castle’s family, or Matt Murdock’s dad. I’ll admit I don’t understand the Sentry reference.
@TinCanGoat I really didn’t like the Sentry.
Gwen Stacy tends to be the one I look to. She hasn’t been brought back yet “proper” has she? Hopefully her and Ben will forever stay that way, it would have more backlash then One More Day I’d imagine.
Hmm Sentry. Give it a year or so.
Funny you saying you hope no-one brings the Waynes back because Rucka kinda did so with Death and the Maidens. Not meant as a complaint btw. Interesting list and amazing how few characters there are who have stayed dead.
I think there’s a lot of wishful thinking/praying for Sentry. 🙂
Ted Kord imo
It really hit me at the end of Blackest Night when the Flash is looking around, expecting Ralph and Sue to be there. I was expecting the same thing, and that’s the first time it hit me that they weren’t coming back.
I remember being really moved by the death of Jeanne DeWolfe. At the time, I realized that Marvel would never bring back a minor character such as her. But I liked her and she was, and still is, gone forever.
I might be in the minority, but I thought Karen Page’s death was a “good” one. It made for some great story moments during the Bendis run.
That Countdown to Crisis issue is still one of my all time favorites (Ted Kord).
Speaking of Sue and Ralph, I have been waiting for a ghost detectives type of story that 52 seemed to imply could happen. I guess not.
Dave’s death in Starman was a great moment too. That shocking scene comes out of nowhere and begins this epic legacy-style superhero story that stands the test of time.
@josh BUT if the Sentry never died Fallen Sun would never have existed… which is worse?
@RolandofGilead Ted Kord’s death is such a strong comic book death. He has come back in Booster Gold (but that’s time travel-does that count?)
Can’t we just list everyone in Walking Dead…gonna happen sooner or later.
Just out of curioustiy how many times has Jean Grey died? The first one was so perfect. Shame they had to undo it once, twice, eight times…anyone know?
Interesting…I may have gone Gwen because of your reasoning: “…we barely knew the guy.” As readers we (not me…but older readers) came to know Gwen and grew with Peter as he loved her. I don’t know for sure, but I think her death was a huge surprise to readers. In an era where the hero’s significant other got harassed (Lois Lane), yet never died, it just seemed like a big shock. Plus, Gwen was hot! Ben was just so so…though he had some good days…well, not the day he was shot. He was a bloody mess that day.
I think the less the sentry is mentioned the quicker he can fade into a half remembered footnote.
But for meaningful deaths (and still dead now) which there have been very few, I agree that Ted Kord is the only name missing.
why does the hatred towards the sentry seem so commonplace? i dont get it at all!
@kmob181 Jean grey has died twice. She died in the Dark Phoenix Saga and she died when magneto did all that stuff in NYC. She has stayed dead since then, so she has come back to life ONE time, even though people on the internet complain she does it every week. it’s actually only happened once.
Does anyone else remember the Tower of Babel story in JLA where Ras Al Ghul (I know I spelt that wrong, sue me) dug up the coffins of Bruce Wayne’s parents and held them over a Lazarus pit, threatening to bring them back to life? THAT was messed up!
@kidCharlemagne It’s just one of those things. A few people start making fun of him and then the whole internet jumps on the bandwagon. He never bothered me. I didn’t like him, but i didn’t hate him. he was just kind of there.
@JohnVFerrigno Or maybe… just maybe… there are legitimate reasons why some people don’t like and, make fun of, The Snetry.
@conor Yeah, there are. I get why some people don’t like him. But the EXTENT that he is hated is out of proportion with those reasons. People act like he is the worst character of all time, and he is hardly that. Yeah, he is far from perfect, but there are some elements to his character that are interesting and have potential if handled correctly. The blind hatred spewed forth by seemingly the entire community just seems like a lot of knee-jerk bandwagon jumping. There are far more horrible, useless characters than the Sentry and there aren’t internet campaigns raising money to kill those characters.
Also, I have read Identity crisis five times, and every single time that Sue Dibny death, and Ralph’s reaction to it, breaks my heart. EVery time.
@JohnVFerrigno I never saw the Sentry hate being purely based on ‘how bad’ the character is. How much he was pushed in the audiences face by editorial, even though he was visibly disliked was really what set it off, in my opinion, at least. It was more the idea that Marvel was trying to make us like him that really set people off.
I always hated Bob because he was just much better than me at commenting on iFanboy articles. But he always made the best béarnaise sauce! Ha! ha! ha!
@MisterJ Shouldn’t Marvel try to make us like their characters? I hate to think of the state of their sales figures if all of their characters were disliked. Yeah, he probably didn’t have enough of a following to be a part of the Avengers, but really, there have been WAY worse Avengers than Sentry. Triathalon, Gilgamesh, Triathalon, Black Panther, Triathalon, Falcon.
Before I get death threats: I think both Black Panther and Falcon are great characters. I think Priest’s run on Black Panther was one of the best books Marvel has EVER put out. But during his time on the Avengers, he as one of the worst members EVER. He contributed NOTHING to the team. He would just point at some huge monster and go “Look! A huge monster!” and then Thor and Iron man would go beat it up. Useless member. In fact, Black panther was SUCH a forgettable member of the team, he was forgotten by the WRITER during his second stint as a member. He made this speech about how he wanted to stick around and help the team out, they were in the middle of an adventure, and halfway through, he just vanished, with no explanation ever given as to where he went. One issue he was fighting lava men, next issue, POOF! He was gone. The sad part is, most people didn’t notice.
Falcon was even worse. He was on the team so it wouldn’t be completely white, and they picked him because he used to carry Caps luggage at the airport. He did a lot better his last time on the team, as Kurt Busiak actually used him as a real asset to the team. (I think it was Busiak, might have actually been Geoff Johns?) But in his first tour of duty, he was pretty useless.
Triathalon was the worst Avenger ever. Just a totally lame character. lame costume lame origin, lame powers. He did things at the level of three people. Wow. Three people would get their ass kicked by Kang. Triathalon’s main contribution was to suck enough for three people, hence his three appearances in my list.
Sentry was hardly an Avenger on par with classic members like The Vision or Hawkeye, but he was far from the bottom of the barrel. I think a few people (understandably) were pissed about the “hoax” fiasco and the way he was introduced to the Marvel U and they started trashing him. Other people saw this, and didn’t want to feel left out, so they jumped in. It’s no different than when people are in high school and somebody starts picking on the class dork. other people jump in and berate the kid, too. They want to feel like they belong, so they gang up on him with the class bully. Same thing with Internet fans and the Sentry.
If somebody told me 3 days ago, I’d be sticking up for the Sentry, i would have punched them in the eye………
Aw, no, you did NOT just include Falcon in your lame heroes list. And then call him Cap’s luggage carrier?
see, why (in BRIGHTEST DAY) did the White lantern resurrect OSIRIS when it could have brought back someone like TED KORD or ELEGONATED MAN?
eh, i dont get it anymore. if characters are going to die , then they should stay dead. why kill them off when we know Marvel and particularly DC are gonna dig ’em up again?
@JohnVFerrigno I completely see your point. And I am not saying that the reaction of the fans was ‘right’ or ‘good’, but that is what I saw. And I really think it was a snowball effect that was merged with the dissatisfaction from being lied to about how he was created and by who.
@Urthona I did NOT say Falcon was a lame hero. I specifically said Falcon is a GREAT character, but he was NOT a good Avenger during his first tenure on the team. When he joined again a few years back, he was used correctly and was a real asset to the team. His first time, he was just there as a token minority and contributed nothing.
@MisterJ There was DEFINITELY a snowball effect. There was so much hype over Sentry’s introduction, people were expecting this earth shattering, classic story, and when they didn’t get it, and the hoax was revealed, it left a bad taste in their mouths. When his subsequent stories didn’t set he world on fire, he became easy to hate. Believe me, I don’t think Sentry is a great character by any measure. However, I DO think Sentry is a character with great potential. I think Peter David would absolutely knock a Sentry series out of the park and make him awesome.
Uncle Ben trumps Gwen anyday. Noted.
@doctorsporen agreed!
I can’t Believe that Everyone has missed listing ADAM WARLOCK among the honored dead…