10 Most Powerful Superheroes Marvel Killed Off

Marvel has been putting out amazing superhero stories for decades, taking readers in directions that they never expected. Over those years, the House of Ideas has done their best to set themselves apart from their distinguished competition, and this has meant several things are quite different in their fictional multiverses. One of the biggest is power level. While both publishers have some superlatively powerful heroes, Marvel’s are often weaker per capita and this has often changed the way stories are told. Marvel heroes, even the most powerful of them, are also more fallible.

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.

5) Jean Grey

Jean Grey is one of Marvel’s most overpowered characters, and her numerous deaths over the years are bound up in that. Jean’s first death came in “The Dark Phoenix Saga”. She stayed dead for years, came back to life, “died” in Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #281 (shifting her mind to Emma Frost’s body and then getting back in hers), and stayed alive until 2004’s New X-Men #150, when she was killed by Xorneto, who pumped her with an EM energy to flip the magnetic poles of the Earth while he was using the Phoenix Force. She stayed dead until 2018, when the Force would bring her back, and would later die a few times in the Krakoa Era.

4) Silver Surfer

Silver Surfer is one of the most powerful cosmic heroes ever. The Power Cosmic gives him a nearly indestructible silver coating, vast super strength, a surfboard that can move at multiple times the speed of light, and monumental control of energy and matter. He’s battled foes like Thor, Hulk, Galactus, Mephisto, Thanos, and more, surviving some titanic tussles. However, Surfer has died several times over the years, sometimes in alternate universes like that of Earth X or “Thanos Wins”, and sometimes in the mainline universe. He was recently killed off in The Death of Silver Surfer five-issue miniseries that saw him clashing with some of the most important villains from his career, like Galactus. He was replaced by Kelly Koh, because MCU synergy.

3) Hulk

The Hulk is the strongest one there is, and killing him isn’t easy. He’s infinitely strong, his anger making him more and more powerful. He’s nearly indestructible and has a very powerful healing factor. He’s basically invincible, but not completely invincible. He can be killed, and it’s happened several times over the years. The most notable time was in Civil War II, when Bruce Banner asked Hawkeye to use an arrow designed to kill him to end the threat of the Hulk. It worked, but his gamma-powered corpse would become a weapon used by several enemies, like Hydra. Eventually, the Green Door opened and Bruce Banner took back over. Since then, the Hulk has suffered lethal damage many times, but he was always able to return through the Green Door.

2) The Sentry

Bob Reynolds was a drug addict. He broke into a lab hoping to find drugs or the ingredients for drugs, and found a serum that gave him the power of a million exploding suns. So was the born the Sentry. Bob’s years of mental issues created a dark side of his personality, which would gain sentience and become the Void. The Sentry and the Void would battle over control of Bob’s powers, and his dark side was able to win for a time. The Avengers defeated him, and Bob took back control. He allowed Thor to kill him, and stayed dead for several years before being resurrected with a Celestial Death Seed. He’s since been killed by Knull.

1) Thor

Thor is one of the most powerful gods in the cosmos. The God of Thunder wields Mjolnir, a hammer created by the gods that enhances his powers and grants him the control of many types of destructive energy (and teleportational abilities). He’s the Avengers’ heaviest hitter, and has battled every universal destroyer that has reared its ugly head. However, that power hasn’t kept him from dying. Thor has reached end more than once during his long existence. “Thor Disassembled” saw him dying along with Asgard, before returning again. He died in battle with the Serpent in Fear Itself, but come back to defeat a false Thor. He was just killed by Loki at the end of Immortal Thor, and the memories of his exploits have been erased from existence. Thor and death are old friends.

What powerful Marvel heroes did I miss? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!

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