Marvel villains are some of the most brutal and sadistic characters in comics, and sometimes they get their just desserts. Even though death in comics is practically meaningless with villains constantly coming back to life to wreak havoc, that doesn’t mean that they still don’t suffer agonizing and over-the-top demises, and sometimes their deaths are so over-the-top gruesome that they never come back (at least not yet). Many of these villains died either because they ran into a vicious anti-hero or because they pushed a morally righteous hero to the point where only cold-blooded vengeance would satisfy them. Even though these evildoers have been torn apart, burned alive, and devoured, it’s hard to feel bad for them because of all the suffering and death they have caused others.
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Marvel villains have died countless times, but some of their comeuppances are more graphic and disturbing than others. While some of these villains returned to life, they should never forget the agony they experienced upon their initial demises. Other times, though, these villains died so thoroughly that their killers ensured that they would never be resurrected. These are the most brutal instances of karma in Marvel Comics.
10) Spider-Man Rips Out Morlun’s Throat
Few villains have pushed Spider-Man to kill like Morlun. A vampire-like creature, Morlun lives to feast on people with spider powers, and he’s already murdered numerous alternate versions of the Web-Head. With his overwhelming strength, Morlun nearly killed Spider-Man but decided to finish him off later. When Spider-Man was hospitalized, Morlun returned to feast on the hero. Mary Jane tried to stop Morlun, but he broke her arm. This act triggered Spider-Man’s primal instincts, allowing him to recover and tackle the villain quickly. Spider-Man developed wrist spikes and pinned Morlun to the ground. In an ironic twist of fate, Spider-Man also grew fangs and used them to rip out Morlun’s throat, causing the vampiric villain to crumble to dust.
9) The Hulk Kills Reginald Fortean Twice
General Reginald Fortean of the U.S. Army sought to weaponize gamma radiation and destroy the Hulk. When Fortean touched the remains of the gamma villain Abomination, the flesh came to life. It absorbed him, turning him into a giant monster. As the new Abomination, Fortean managed to kill the Jolly Green Giant. The dying Hulk took Fortean with him to the afterlife by crushing the villain’s head like a pimple. Since the Hulk and Fortean were both gamma mutants, they both went to the Below Place, where they could respawn by going through the Green Door. However, Bruce Banner, with his Joe Fixit personality in control, ensured that Fortean couldn’t come back to life by snapping his neck, permanently killing him.
8) Thanos Gets His Spine Ripped Out
The Mad Titan Thanos may be among the most fearsome villains in the Marvel Universe, but even he couldn’t stand up to the might of Doom. During the events of Secret Wars, Doctor Doom obtained the power of the omnipotent Beyonders and saved the remnants of the dying multiverse, creating Battleworld. Thanos also managed to survive the destruction of the multiverse and began stirring up civil unrest on Battleworld. Fed up with the chaos Thanos was causing, God Emperor Doom met the Mad Titan on the battlefield. Despite not possessing the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos arrogantly boasted that he didn’t need it to defeat Doom. Thanos was immediately proven wrong when Doom effortlessly ripped out the alien tyrant’s spine.
7) Wolverine Dismembers Sabretooth
Wolverine and Sabretooth have one of the most hateful rivalries in comics, with the villain dedicating his life to torturing the X-Man and his loved ones. After over a century of fighting, the two feral mutants’ conflict reached a bloody conclusion when Sabretooth caused a massacre on Krakoa. Although Sabretooth and Wolverine are normally evenly matched, the X-Man had with him a weapon that gave him a decisive advantage: the Muramasa Blade. This special sword can slow down and even negate healing factors, even those of villains like Sabretooth. With the sword and his claws, Wolverine sliced Sabretooth piece by piece before finally finishing off with a decapitation. And with that, Wolverine avenged all the people Sabretooth has killed over the years.
6) Punisher Butchers Barracuda
There are few anti-heroes in comics more vicious than the Punisher. The villains who have the misfortune to meet him suffer painful, graphic demises. Barracuda, the Punisher’s deadliest adversary, has cheated death on multiple occasions and returned to torture the lethal vigilante. However, eventually Barracuda’s luck ran out when he and the Punisher had their last showdown. After kidnapping the Punisher’s baby daughter, Barracuda and the anti-hero engaged in a brutal firefight that devolved into a fist fight. The Punisher tore off Barracuda’s nose before chopping off his arms with an axe. To finish his nemesis off, the Punisher drove the axe into Barracuda’s heart before unloading an entire machine gun clip into the villain’s head, reducing it to paste.
5) Ultimate Giant-Man Bites Off Blob’s Head
Ultimatum is considered by many to be among the worst Marvel stories of all time, featuring some of the most graphic deaths ever depicted in comics. In this alternate universe storyline, the Blob gleefully devours the Wasp. As the Blob committed this horrific act of cannibalism, the Wasp’s ex-husband, Giant-Man, walked in on this brutal scene. Entering a blind rage, Giant-Man decided to give the mutant terrorist a taste of his own medicine. Scooping up the Blob, Giant-Man proceeded to bite the villain’s head clean off as if he were a gingerbread man. Unlike the Blob, however, Giant-Man doesn’t swallow and instead spits out the mutant’s head.
4) Ma Gnucci gets Kicked into a Fire
Few villains suffered more at the hands of the Punisher than Ma Gnucci, the head of the notorious Gnucci Crime Family. When the Punisher began dismantling Ma’s operations and slaughtering her family, Ma and her henchmen tried to corner him at a zoo. Unfortunately for Ma, the Punisher not only killed her men but also left her to die in the polar bear exhibit. Although Ma survived the polar bears, they ate her arms and legs. Having clearly not learned her lesson, Ma tried yet again to kill the Punisher. However, the anti-hero made sure the crime lord was dead by punting her into a burning house. Without any limbs, Ma could do nothing but scream in agony as she burned alive.
3) Birds Devour Ero
When Spider-Man nearly died fighting Morlun, he shed his skin and was resurrected thanks to the mystical Spider entity known as the Other. However, because Spider-Man refused to give in to his spider-side, the Other manifested as a horde of spiders that devoured the hero’s shed skin. The spiders then transformed into a human female body called Miss Arrow or Ero. In this new form, Ero tried to impregnate Flash Thompson with her spider eggs, but Spider-Man swooped in and saved him. When Ero tried to escape, Spider-Man made her crash into an aviary, where the birds feasted on the humanoid mass of spiders. When only one spider remained, Spider-Man promptly stepped on it.
2) Annihilus gets His Insides Torn Out
Hailing from the Negative Zone, the tyrant Annihilus and his Annihilation Wave invaded the positive matter universe and destroyed numerous worlds and heroes. Annihilus wouldn’t rest until all life in the positive matter universe was extinguished and he proceeded to slaughter billions of people. Annihilus’s conquest culminated in his massacre of the Nova Corps intergalactic peacekeeping force. After a long and brutal battle that took countless lives, Annihilus faced off against the Corps’ last surviving member, Richard Rider. Rider finally managed to avenge his fallen comrades by shoving his fist down Annihilus’s throat and ripping out all his internal organs.
1) Ultimate Hulk Eats and Digests Herr Kleiser Alive
The shapeshifting alien Herr Kleiser was one of the primary villains of the Ultimate Universe. But he met an incomprehensibly painful end. When Kleiser and his Chitauri army attack, Captain America got so desperate that he unleashed the Hulk to stop the invasion. America’s hero directed the Hulk towards Kleiser. In a fit of unstoppable rage, the Hulk proceeded to bludgeon the Chitauri and rip off his head. The Hulk wasn’t done, however, as he proceeded to devour the villain’s entire body. S.H.I.E.L.D. theorized that, given the Kleiser’s shapeshifting ability, he could have survived a prolonged period of time inside the Hulk’s stomach, meaning that his actual death occurred by being digested alive in the gamma infused acids of the Hulk’s stomach.
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