Top 10 Worst Death Scenes In Marvel And DC Superhero Movies

One of the biggest tropes in superhero movies is that they frequently kill off their characters. Marvel and DC have dropped the ball over the years, and these death scenes will make you wish you were dead!

By JoshWilding - Jul 31, 2016 08:07 AM EST

Filed Under: Spider-Man

If there's one thing which never lasts in superhero comic books, it's death. Surprisingly, that's often (but not always) a little more permanent in big screen adaptations, and while many characters have returned over the years, there are a long list of villains - and a few heroes too - who have been permanently killed off. Unfortunately for us, their deaths haven't always been handled the best way.

What you'll find here then is a look at the ten worst death scenes in superhero movies. From those which failed to do the characters justice to moments which were poorly executed or just a huge mistake in the grand scheme of things, all of these left a bad taste in the mouths of fans. Some of these are just cringeworthy, while others will make you feel really bad for your favourite heroes and villains.

10. Bane (The Dark Knight Rises)

Despite the fact that Bane's voice has become a running (and now somewhat stale) joke, Tom Hardy's take on the villain resulted in a very impressive performance in The Dark Knight Rises. The British actor's expressive performance was one of the best in any superhero movie from the past few years, regardless of whether it's the scene in which he breaks the Bat or delivers a powerful speech outside of Blackgate Prison.

After a final battle in which the Caped Crusader finally managed to gain the upper hand, Bane looked set to still take down Batman once and for all until he was stopped by Catwoman seconds before pulling the trigger. Though it was inevitable that the villain needed to be taken out of the picture, killing him in such a quick and easy way - Catwoman used the Batpod's guns to do the deed - just didn't feel like a satisfying ending for a bad guy who had had such an incredible presence throughout the rest of the film. Oh, and let's not forget Talia al Ghul's demise...

Had the Tesseract (a.k.a. the Cosmic Cube) factored into Captain America: The Winter Soldier as it did in the comic book arc of the same name, then the return of the Red Skull would have been a guarantee. However, with Hugo Weaving making it clear that he has no desire to reprise the role - "It was good to do it and try it out, but to be honest, it’s not the sort of film I seek out and really am excited by." - Marvel obviously took things in a very different direction.

Captain America: The First Avenger needed to get rid of the Red Skull by the movie's final act as Steve Rogers' descent into the ice was only moments away, but this just felt like a lazy way to do it, especially as the Cosmic Cube had been reduced to little more than a source of energy. However, it's the fact that the Red Skull's death has had very little in the way of repercussions in the Marvel Cinematic Universe which really earns it a place here.

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8. Uncle Ben (The Amazing Spider-Man)

You have to give Andrew Garfield credit for bringing some serious emotion to this scene, but after such an underwhelming build up, it was very much a case of being too little, too late. In yet another bid to differentiate this take on Spider-Man to Sam Raimi's, the iconic "With Great Power..." line was completely done away with, something which seriously lessened the impact of Ben's death and meant that Peter Parker's decision to become a hero was based on revenge after his own stupid actions.

Also strange was that Uncle Ben's actual death scene here was pretty much identical to the ridiculed version seen in Spider-Man 3 where he for some reason battled it out with the gunman. But hey, at least it wasn't The Sandman again! If you need further evidence that Uncle Ben has become little more than an afterthought in this rebooted franchise, look no further than The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Maybe they'll make up for that in The Amazi-oh, never mind.

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7. Senator Kelly (X-Men)

Part of Magneto's ridiculous plan in Bryan Singer's X-Men was to turn all of Earth's the humans into mutants, and his first test subject was the hateful Senator Kelly. While he definitely had this coming, Kelly's ridiculous transformation into a mutants of sorts was laughable, as was his subsequent death in the X-Mansion. It was there that the X-Men discovered the flaw in Magneto's plan as the Senator...turned into a puddle of water!

It's hard to believe that this Magneto is the same one played by Michael Fassbender in the prequel movies, and we should probably all be grateful that this moment was wiped away when a new timeline was created. The only redeeming quality about this was that Kelly's arrival on the beach marked the first major Stan Lee Marvel movie cameo, but as dastardly plans go, that sucked as much a the death scene itself.

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6. Whiplash (Iron Man 2)

In what was essentially a rehash of how Iron Monger was dealt with in the first Iron Man movie, Whiplash (who had pretty much become Crimson Dynamo, a.k.a. another suited up baddie in a metal suit, by this point in the movie) was also taken out in a massive explosion. This could have worked had the final battle between this villain, Tony Stark and War Machine been remotely satisfying, but it lasted nowhere near long enough to make an impact.

Mickey Rourke was far from impressive as a lead villain anyway, and the fact that not even his death had any sort of significant impact says it all. Luckily Iron Man 3 more than made up for this by replacing another suited up baddie with Guy Pearce's Mandarin, dispatching him in a far more creative fashion. Well, sort of. He basically exploded too, just minus the metal suit.

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5. Doctor Octopus (Spider-Man 2)

Whereas the Green Goblin's death in Spider-Man made perfect sense (mostly because it paid homage to the comic books), killing off Doctor Octopus did not. Though Otto Octavius overcoming the influence of his arms and acting heroically to save the city was a good moment, it lessened the extent of his villainy and took away an act which would have been much better being performed at the hands of the titular superhero.

Spider-Man 2 is no doubt a great film - in fact, it remains one of the best superhero movies of all-time - and arguably still the best featuring the iconic Marvel character to date, but this feels like an unsatisfying ending for such a great bad guy. It's also a very good example of the annoying habit that this genre has of killing off villains just so the franchises have a convenient excuse to introduce a new one next time around.

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4. Ra's Al Ghul (Batman Begins)

Christopher Nolan's grounded take on the Caped Crusader meant that he was unlikely to ever tackle Ra'a Al Ghul's ability to be resurrected through the use of a Lazarus Pit, so a definitive death for him in Batman Begins was fine. What didn't sit well with a lot of comic fans though was the fact that Batman allowed Ra's to die, something which was very out of character for him.

It's admittedly not the same as Batman killing the villain with his own hands, but it's not that far off either, and just didn't seem right for a hero who is so opposed to allowing anyone to die. The Scarecrow (who did survive his final confrontation) was dispatched in an equally unsatisfying manner, signalling some problems with David Goyer's screenplay and how these villains were ultimately dealt with. Two-Face fared a little better in The Dark Knight, though we've obviously already addressed the problems with the third instalment!

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3. Deadpool (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)

The botched take on Deadpool in the awful X-Men Origins: Wolverine has found its way onto many of our "Worst of..." lists, and so it perhaps shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to see that his death is featured here as well. This messy version of the fan favourite character battled it out with Wolverine and Sabretooth in the closing moments of this superhero movie's forgettable final battle, and was taken down when the former managed to decapitate him.

It was an undignified end for the Merc with a Mouth, but perhaps also something of a relief. It's a shame then that an after-credits scene saw the head of Deadpool return to life, promising (threatening?) a spinoff which did eventually happen, but thankfully with a totally different creative team and a new version of Ryan Reynolds' Wade Wilson.

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2. Bucky (Captain America: The First Avenger)

Like the Red Skull, Marvel made a big mistake when it came to how they handled Bucky's apparent death. If at the time Captain America: The First Avenger was released they already knew that they were going to bring back the sidekick as The Winter Soldier, then Bucky's death should have been far more memorable and had a much greater impact on Steve Rogers.

In the comics, Bucky dies at the same time as Cap seemingly does, but killing him at an earlier point in the movie didn't really work when they then failed to capitalise on the impact it had on the superhero. Perhaps the worst part about this one though wasn't the hero's disappointing fall from the train, but the fact that it was so forgettable that a lot of people may not have even remembered the character when he returned in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Still, he's back now and this is long forgotten.

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1. Venom (Spider-Man 3)

It's bad enough that Venom (one of Spider-Man's all-time greatest villains) was shoehorned into the final act of Spider-Man 3, but to dispatch him so quickly and in such a disappointing manner is unforgivable. Sam Raimi's trilogy had a bad habit of killing off each of its villains, but Venom is the only one of them who had the potential for his own spin-off, so getting rid of him in such a definitive fashion was a huge mistake.

Obliterated by one of the Green Goblin's bombs after being taken down by Spider-Man, this was a lazy way to end Venom's brief story, a character who could and should have been brought back in a much larger capacity had Spider-Man 4 actually happened. Still, Topher Grace was a terrible Eddie Brock, so perhaps this was ultimately for the best. Even without him though, news that a solo outing for the character is still in the works hasn't gone down well with fans.

Which of these superhero movie death scenes do you think was worst? Have we missed any others which deserved a mention here? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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163 Comments

1 2 3 4 5

PesciGotPepsi - 7/31/2016, 8:38 AM

"9. Red Skull (Captain America: Civil War)"

Yep, I hated the part where Red Skull appeared while the Avengers were fighting in the Airport and then died straight away,

Goldboink - 7/31/2016, 11:23 AM

@PesciGotPepsi - appreciate the sarcasm. Red Skull is not dead. Neither was Doc Oc. These were intentionally ambiguous so that these iconic villains could return later. Red Skull was sucked into the rift in space created by the Tesseract in the same way that Loki was transported by the destruction of the Rainbow Bridge. Neither of them were death scenes.

PesciGotPepsi - 7/31/2016, 11:37 AM

@Goldboink - True. I actually hope Red Skull re-appears some day, he is one of the MCU's most underrated villains. I thought he was great.

Goldboink - 7/31/2016, 1:36 PM

@PesciGotPepsi - yea, there is no way they kill off the Red Skull in the first Cap movie never to return. Same as Hydra and their various story lines in AOS. Hydra is not going to die quite that easily and heads will continue to grow back. I am betting that Red Skull reappears in Infinity War somewhere as a vassal of Thanos.

BlackHulk - 8/1/2016, 12:05 PM

@Goldboink - I dont see MCU bringing back Red Skull, Abomination, Ronan or "The real Mandarin". The MCU has been marching to its own beat despite what others may have wanted the studio to focus on. Even when characters are brought back, the MCU does a horrible job of explaining how the characters survived and what they had been doing all this time.

Goldboink - 8/2/2016, 12:26 PM

@BlackHulk - In the short term you may be right but these guys are still rolling out characters and elements of the universe. We may see the short game as the next 3 or 4 years but Feige and The Mouse probably plan on making these movies forever so somehow they will be back.

PesciGotPepsi - 7/31/2016, 8:39 AM

Talia in Dark Knight Rises is the worst for me.

It makes me burst out laughing every time.

RamonSuarez - 7/31/2016, 8:43 AM

I am not certain Red Skull is dead. Weaving probably won't play him in the future, but that doesn't matter since Skull has been known to change bodies time and time again.

Skwad - 7/31/2016, 8:47 AM

Death of Silver Surfer. Dumb as shit

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Top 10 Worst Death Scenes In Marvel And DC Superhero Movies

One of the biggest tropes in superhero movies is that they frequently kill off their characters. Marvel and DC have dropped the ball over the years, and these death scenes will make you wish you were dead!

10. Bane (The Dark Knight Rises)

9. Red Skull (Captain America: The First Avenger)

8. Uncle Ben (The Amazing Spider-Man)

7. Senator Kelly (X-Men)

6. Whiplash (Iron Man 2)

5. Doctor Octopus (Spider-Man 2)

4. Ra's Al Ghul (Batman Begins)

3. Deadpool (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)

2. Bucky (Captain America: The First Avenger)

1. Venom (Spider-Man 3)

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