There’s a reason why the grand finale of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first three phases was an adaptation of the Marvel comic book storyline, “Infinity Gauntlet.” To this day, the six issue mini-series featured everything that makes a good comic book crossover thanks to the Mad Titan Thanos getting his hands on the Infinity Gems and slapping them into his gauntlet. In the fourth issue of the series, written by Jim Starlin and drawn by Ron Lim, the mightiest heroes of the Marvel Universe assembled to fight against their galaxy’s new deity, only to be struck down in the process. With each hero, or villain, dying in a unique way, we thought we’d get into the morbid details of ranking the best and worst deaths of your favorite superheroes.
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To start, let’s lay down some ground rules for our ranking. We are only taking into account the deaths that took place in the fourth issue of Infinity Gauntlet, as the comic book story saw Thanos unleashing the “snap” in the first issue rather than near the end. Considering heroes and gods alike were killed at the hands of the Mad Titan throughout the mini-series, we needed to stick to the main Marvel heroes that fought Thanos. Perhaps later, we’ll create a ranking of the Marvel gods who met their end at Thanos’ hand but for now, let’s get started.
15.) Hulk
Cards on the table, I read the Infinity Gauntlet series and it took me years to figure out what exactly had happened to the Hulk here. The emerald powerhouse did not in fact die at the hands of Thanos but rather, was simply shrunk down and sent back to New York City, a fate that the Mad Titan seemingly thought was worse than death. The moment in question, which you can check out above, is a little confusing and considering its the opening salvo, I had to rank it as the worst of the bunch, especially considering that it’s the Hulk. Bruce Banner deserved a cooler fate than this.
14.) Dr. Doom
Speaking of characters who got the short end of the stick in fighting against Thanos. Victor Von Doom creates a shaky alliance with the heroes to help bring down the genocidal super villain and when Dr. Doom wraps his hands around the gauntlet, things start getting interesting. Thanos unleashes a blast of energy that is so devastating that it sends Doom flying in a burst of fire, engulfing the Latverian dictator’s armor. Unfortunately, while Doom does return to fight Thanos, his death apparently happens off panel and we don’t quite know what happens. Ultimately, it’s fairly conclusive that the Fantastic Four antagonist bit the big one but it was a moment that deserved panel time.
13.) Spider-Man
That “Parker Luck” was in full effect in his fight against Thanos. While Peter Parker was able to deliver a face full of webbing to the Mad Titan, he was brought low thanks to being nabbed out of the air by Terraxia. If you’re unfamiliar with Terraxia, the short-lived character was created by Thanos himself in an effort to make Death jealous. Seemingly harboring the same powers and strength level as Thanos without the gauntlet, she is more than a match for Spidey. Unfortunately, rather than giving us a grand send-off for the wall-crawler, Peter is simply hit in the head really hard with a rock and that’s the end of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. When it comes to some of the ironic deaths on this list, Spider-Man earns his place near the bottom of this list.
12.) Iron Man
Much like Peter Parker, Tony Stark found himself on the receiving end at the hands of Thanos’ girlfriend. Terraxia literally nabs Iron Man out of the air and begins beating him down, ripping his head clean off his shoulders in a method that is quite gruesome but not quite as ironic as some of the other deaths on this list. This series, of course, was long before Robert Downey Jr. took on the role of the armored avenger, and unfortunately, the comic iteration’s death is a pale shadow in the face of Tony’s end in Avengers: Endgame.
11.) Scarlet Witch
For a character who is routinely able to manipulate reality itself, Wanda Maximoff’s death here in Infinity Gauntlet lacks the grandiosity that it deserves. In an energy blast tug-of-war with Thanos, the Scarlet Witch is only able to hold off the Mad Titan for so long. To be fair, Wanda wasn’t exactly creating “Houses of M” at this point in her comic book career but considering her demise is almost a “blink and you’ll miss it” affair, placing her at this spot in the list makes sense.
10. Firelord And Drax
Now we’re officially getting into the “good to great” deaths of the Infinity Gauntlet Marvel heroes. There’s an argument to be made that the fate of Drax The Destroyer and Firelord isn’t quite their deaths but Thanos simply using the Time Stone to shoot them back into the prehistoric era goes to show off the Mad Titan’s power as well as seeing the heroes as nothing more than flies to be swatted. Even if the two cosmic heroes were able to survive the prehistoric era and defeat the dinosaurs on their home turf, there was no way for them to return to the timeline that desperately needed them.
9.) Namor And She-Hulk
The Sub-Mariner and Jennifer Walters are strong enough in their own right but Thanos had some serious tricks up his sleeves when it came to the Prince of Atlantis and Bruce Banner’s cousin. Smacking them both with some sort of strange growing moss, the duo is engulfed in the lifeform that encases them completely. While it’s unclear if the moss kills them by cutting off their air supply or if the two heroes become one with the moss, it’s a rough way to go for anyone, let alone two heroes who have saved the world more times than we can count.
8.) Nova
Thanos might be a dark god in Infinity Gauntlet but that didn’t stop the Mad Titan from having a sense of humor. When Richard Ryder punches Thanos in the face, the villain makes a play on words and transforms Nova into a series of children’s blocks. Once the cosmic hero is turned into these blocks, Thanos simply steps on all of them, killing the flying New Warrior long before he ripped apart Annihilus and earned his stripes as a full-fledged hero.
7.) Cyclops
Sometimes, a simple comic book death can still be a good one and such was certainly the case with Scott Summers. The leader of the X-Men attempts to pulls off some tactical tricks following the death of the Scarlet Witch but finds his energy blast cut off by a simple block. On top of stopping Scott’s optic blast, the block also cuts off his air supply, taking down the original X-Man via simple asphyxiation. Unfortunately, even Captain America attempting to crack open the block with his shield is for naught.
6.) Thor
This was the Marvel era where Thor wasn’t the traditional god of thunder that we know today but rather, was newcome Eric Masterson holding the hammer while the God of Thunder was trapped in the underworld. Despite this, the future Thunderstrike puts up a good fight against Thanos but is unable to stop himself from being transformed into a literal glass statue. While not necessarily having as much fanfare as the higher-up deaths on this list, the substitute Odinson puts up a good fight and his demise is a visceral one thanks to Thanos’ blow destroying the “Thor statue.”
5.) Cloak
You might be wondering what happened to Dagger in the Infinity Gauntlet and why she wasn’t able to join Cloak here. Well, the light-wielding vigilante was killed by Thanos’ snap, with Cloak looking for revenge against the Titan who killed his partner. What makes this death rank so high is the fact that Thanos not only kills Cloak but effectively defeats an entire universe to do so. The Mad Titan is banished to the Dark Dimension, the parallel world that is part of Cloak’s cloak and Thanos almost immediately finds his way back to the battle. When you look at an entire dimension as nothing more than a minor hindrance, you know you’ve hit the big leagues.
4.) Vision
The Vision has no organic blood running through his veins or fleshy organs sitting in his frame but he still receives one of the most horrifying and visceral deaths in Infinity Gauntlet. While attempting to sneak up behind Thanos for an assault, the Mad Titan easily breaks through his chest cavity and rips out the wires and chords within. Vision’s death is sudden and gruesome, going to show how vicious Thanos can be when the need arises. There’s nothing poetic or ironic about this death but it earns its place in the ranking.
3.) Wolverine
Of all the heroes that come close to defeating Thanos here, Logan arguably comes the closest. Waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike, Wolverine actually buries his adamantium claws into Thanos’ chest but it isn’t enough to deliver a final blow to the Mad Titan. Transforming Logan’s adamantium skeleton into rubber, there’s not much that the X-Man’s mutant healing factor could do in the face of this attack. This death is one of the most ironic and it’s quite horrifying to look at, proving just what Thanos could do with the gauntlet’s power.
2.) Quasar
The former wielder of the Quantum Bands, Quasar, had fought Thanos on more than one occasion, meaning that the Mad Titan was more than happy to give his foe a horrible end. Rather than turning Quasar’s bones into rubber or sending him spiraling to a prehistoric era, Thanos simply makes the cosmic hero’s Quantum Bands blow up, along with his hands. Reveling in his defeat, Thanos quickly ends Quasar’s suffering but mixes viciousness and irony to bring down the one-time wielder of the Quantum Bands.
1.) Captain America
There’s a reason why the stand-off between Steve Rogers and Thanos isn’t just considered the best moment of the Infinity Gauntlet story but one of Marvel Comics’ best moments ever. While Captain America is dispatched with a simple backhand, Cap goes down swinging as Thanos completely destroys his indestructible shield with one hit. This moment was somewhat recreated in the MCU’s Infinity War movie but the comic scene puts that one to shame. It easily takes the top spot for this death ranking and it ranks as one of the greatest death scenes in Marvel Comic history.
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Image courtesy of Netflix.
