10 Avengers Deaths That Came Out Of Nowhere

Being a superhero is a dangerous job. They have to save the world repeatedly while wearing ridiculous costumes. The bigger the event, the more likely readers will see at least one character die. Sometimes, Marvel broadcasts a character’s death for months before it happens, like they once did with Wolverine. They told readers he had exactly three months to die and then started counting down. However, some Marvel deaths, especially in the Avengers, seem to come out of nowhere.

Shocking deaths make for great comics, too. They keep readers engaged. Fans should expect any character to die, but sometimes, it feels raw and unexpected. Sometimes, a death seems more brutal than necessary. Multiple Avengers characters have literally been ripped in half. Others have sacrificed themselves to save their friends and the world. Some Avengers have even died numerous times, and still, their deaths felt like they came out of nowhere. But they always made an impact on the reader.

10 Black Widow Died To Protect a Young Hero

Her death prevented Miles Morales’s potential dark turn

Secret Empire was the culmination of one of the most controversial plot twists in Marvel history. Captain America, or a version of him, was brainwashed into being a Hydra Agent. In Secret Empire, he started taking over America. However, the Inhuman Ulysses had a vision that the young hero Miles Morales would kill him. Black Widow wanted to prevent Miles from doing soby killing Cap herself first.

Before Miles could kill “Grant Rogers,” Natasha Romanov intervened. When she got between the two, Captain America broke her neck with his shield. Yet Ulysses’s powers almost always forced characters to make decisions that made the prophecy come true. Her death motivated Miles to want to kill the evil version of Cap. Thankfully, Miles held back, refusing to kill anyone.

9 Mockingbird Died to Save Hawkeye

They Were the “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” of Marvel Comics

Bobbi Morse and Clint Barton had a tumultuous relationship going into 1993’s Avengers West Coast #100. She had accidentally put the team at risk by trusting the wrong people, while the Avengers also failed to protect her. This led to Hawkeye and Mockingbird being separated for a while. But going into the 100th issue, it seemed like they were poised for a romantic reunion. Unfortunately, Mephisto had other plans.

Hawkeye and Mockingbird tried to cover their escape as the Scarlet Witch performed a spell to get them all safely away from Mephisto. They were able to get Wanda through the portal, but when Mephisto spewed hellfire at them, Mockingbird sacrificed herself to save her husband. This heavily impacted Hawkeye and shaped him for years to come. The team was so distraught that they disbanded, and the series ended at issue #102. Mockingbird didn’t return until 2008’s Secret Invasion, making her death surprisingly long-lasting.

8 Swordsman Proved He Was An Avenger

But It Was One of the Last Things He Ever Did

Swordsman was never going to be a fan-favorite Avenger, but he does have a place in the team’s history and even joined the MCU in the Hawkeyelimited series. No one ever took him too seriously, especially Kang the Conqueror. During the storyline of The Celestial Madonna, Kang captured the Avengers. He believed one of the women on the team to be the Madonna. Meanwhile, he wanted to use Thor, Vision, and Iron Man to power his new macrobots. However, Kang told Jacques Duquesne thathe was too useless to kidnap.

Not only did Swordsman track down Kang (with the help of Agatha Harkness), but he also helped set free the Avengers. When Kang realized that Mantis was the Madonna, he decided if he couldn’t have her, no one could, and he attempted to kill her. Trying to protect her, Swordsman was hit by the blast, leading to his very sudden death. However, even though the cover of Giant-Size Avengers #2 said an Avenger would die, it felt cruel to kill Swordsman just after showing how capable he was.

7 Wonder Man Died Saving the Planet

His death came in Force Works’ debut issue

Wonder Man was a popular character and a member of Avengers West Coast. So, it made sense that Marvel would bring him onto another team as quickly as possible. That team was Iron Man’s Force Works. After quitting the Avengers (though he would be fired anyway), Iron Man created a new team, and Simon Williams was the first to join. It looked like Wonder Man was going to be a regular character in the series as well.

In a shocking twist, writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning killed Wonder Man before the first issue even ends. When the Kree attacked the Avengers, he died in a spaceship explosion as he tried to stop it from crashing into Earth. His death set the tone for Force Works, as anything could happen. The first issue ended with Tony reeling, saying, “How can it have gone so wrong so very quickly?!” Readers were left wondering the same thing.

6 Goliath’s Death Drastically Altered Civil War

He died in a very controversial way

For the first few issues of Civil War, it felt like Ben Foster might have been one of the rising stars on the anti-Superhero Registration Act (SRA) side. He helped in major battles and was involved in big decisions. Unfortunately, Goliath met a sudden end whena clone of Thor shot him through the chest with a lightning bolt.

This death had significant consequences in the already controversial event. When heroes discovered how far Tony Stark and Reed Richards went, cloning Thor, several pro-SRA heroes switched sides. This included Spider-Man, who had given up his secret identity. Yet the death was unsettling for readers, too, as it at first looked like Thor himself killed Goliath.

5 Hawkeye Was Killed Twice By The Same Avenger

Both deaths of the Avenger came out of nowhere

There were quite a few deaths in Avengers: Disassembled, but Hawkeye’s was one of the most shocking. While he was fighting the Kree, his quiver caught on fire. He used a Kree with a jetpack to fly into a Kree warship engine and sacrificed his life to save others. Yet this is just one of two times that writer Brian Michael Bendis killed off the character.

Bendis brought Clint Barton back to House of M, only to have Scarlet Witch – revealed to be his murderer in the first place — kill him again. This time, he was disintegrated out of existence. The second death was even more shocking than the first. Why bring back such a fan-favorite character only to kill him again? But, just as Bendis killed him twice, he resurrected him twice. It was a strange time for the character.

4 Ares’s Death was Beyond Brutal

It’s shocking that Marvel even allowed it

Those who claim superhero comics are trivial stories for kids might want to check out Siege #2, which depicts one of the most gruesome superhero deaths in comic book history. As pictured above, Sentry ripped Ares in half. The battle beforehand was already intense. The comic became infamous when readers turned the page to see Ares’s insides flying towards them.

There was no other way for the fight to go. Both characters were very powerful and able to kill the other. However, the shocking brutality almost felt like overkill. The fact that the image went any further than Olivier Coipel’s pencils and editorial didn’t put a hard stop to the scene is impressive. One thing is sure: it was not written, drawn, inked, or colored with younger readers in mind.

3 Sentry’s Violent Actions Are Returned Upon Him

The King in Black was far more powerful

When Sentry ripped Ares in half, it was a shocking moment. Indeed, that moment could never be replicated…until artist Ryan Stegman came along and did just that. In King in Black #1, Knull, the god of the symbiotes, attacked Earth. Captain America called upon one of the most powerful superheroes he knew to make quick work of the “King in Black.” But the tables were turned rather quickly. Knull ripped Sentry in two just as Sentry did to Ares.

The Sentry had recently returned to life before King in Black came out. Since it was just the first issue, it was obvious that Knull would defeat Sentry. However, readers were once again floored like they were in Siege #2. Stegman recreated the moment perfectly, down to the panel layout. It’s a testament to the writing and the art that the homage worked so well.

2 She-Hulk Ripped The Vision In Half

Marvel really loves ripping heroes in half

Characters getting ripped in half might be an ongoing motif in Marvel Comics. This dismembering came years before Sentry ripped Ares in half, but it was also written by Brian Michael Bendis, the author of Siege and Avengers: Disassembled. Under the influence of the Scarlet Witch’s chaos magic, She-Hulk lost control of herself. When she tried to question Vision, believing he knew why Scott Lang died, she lost control and tore the android apart.

Avengers #500 started with a resurrected Jack of Hearts exploding and killing Scott Lang, Ant-Man. But things kept escalating faster than readers could keep up with. By the time She-Hulk killed Vision, audiences understood that this story arc would truly disassemble the beloved team.

1 War Machine Died in a Flashback

Readers learned of his death off-panel

There is a term in comics lore called “Fridging.” It’s when a female character is needlessly killed and often in a brutal way. These deaths are usually written just to develop a male character further. But if there were ever a male equivalent, it would be War Machine’s death in Civil War II #1. As CBR’s Jake Dee said, War Machine’s death “felt like a last-ditch effort to raise the dramatic stakes of the storyline.”

Not only was his death first revealed off-panel, but it was later revealed in a flashback of the team’s battle with Thanos. James Rhodes and Tony Stark are famously best friends. However, James and Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel, have had a long-running romance. Killing off War Machine didn’t enhance the story; it was just a way to make Captain Marvel and Iron Man angry at each other, which they already were. The death of the Avenger not only came out of nowhere, but it also accomplished very little for the narrative.