Unbelievable Superhero Movie Deaths

Comic book deaths happen all of the time, especially since the character is usually brought back to life somehow. In superhero movies, however, death is a little more permanent. These superhero movie deaths are all shocking for different reasons, but regardless of why, we still can't believe that they actually happened. As you'd expect, there are spoilers ahead.

Even though comic book fans all knew it was coming, we still can't believe that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had the guts to kill off Gwen Stacy. In the comics, Spider-Man's failure to save his girlfriend from the Green Goblin is a classic story and is generally used to mark when the silver age of comic books ended. That was when darker and grittier stories became more popular. Making the death even more shocking is that Marvel recently introduced an alternate reality character named Spider-Gwen, who comes from a world where Gwen Stacy got bit by the spider and became a superhero instead of Peter. Her death was an important moment in the comics, but the movie could have skipped it. They didn't however, and the resulting scene was shocking and heartbreaking. We just wish it had been in a better movie and that it stuck with the Green Goblin as the film's lone villain.

After the amazing X2: X-Men United, Fox couldn't wait to get a third X-Men movie in theaters. Unfortunately, director Bryan Singer wanted to go do Superman Returns before doing another mutant movie. Instead of delaying their production, Fox hired a new director. First, they brought on Matthew Vaughn, but he left the project before cameras started rolling, so Brett Ratner was brought on at the last minute. The result was a real mess of a movie.

X-Men: The Last Stand's worst offense is the way Cyclops gets killed. He dies in an off-screen scene that was hard to care for. It's confusing, because the movie is an adaptation of the Dark Phoenix storyline, where Cyclops is supposed to be a major character. He and Jean Grey are in love, so when she turns into an evil entity that can destroy the world, he's clearly stuck in a bad situation. The movie decided to get rid of him and use Wolverine (mainly because he's being played by Hugh Jackman). Instead of Jean's relationship with the man she loves being the emotional center of the story, now she's dealing with some guy who hit on her a few times and keeps moving in on someone else's girl.

One of the most confusing aspects about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is which characters are actually available for Marvel to use. Since the comics are all connected, many characters first appear in separate series but become major parts of another. When the casts for X-Men: Days of Future Past and Avengers: Age of Ultron were announced, fans noticed that Quicksilver was listed for both movies. With X-Men still being owned by Fox, this was an unexpected twist. It turns out the character could be used by both studios, Fox and Marvel, but he wouldn't be played by the same actor and each studio could only refer to certain parts of his story.

The X-Men version of Quicksilver debuted first, and he was one of the most enjoyable parts of the movie. When Quicksilver premiered in The Avengers sequel, fans were curious to see how Marvel would handle this. It turns out they barely utilized him and killed him during the finale of the movie. He sacrifices himself to save Hawkeye and a little kid, but the scene felt tacked on and weightless. At least we don't have to hear Aaron Taylor-Johnson's forced accent in a future sequel.

There was no way that Alan Moore's classic Watchmen series was ever going to be successfully adapted into a movie. Zack Snyder's version isn't necessarily a bad movie, and it does have its fans, but it had to make so many changes to the source material that it almost seems like a different story. The ending to the movie was significantly changed, and with good reason. A giant squid monster is harder to believe than a Dr. Manhattan-esque explosion. One part of the comic ending that was kept was Dr. Manhattan killing Rorschach. It's a horrible moment, but Manhattan has to do it because Rorschach wants to do the right thing and tell the world the truth.

While Rorschach's death happened in the comics, it's amazing that the studio allowed this to happen in the movie. Rorschach was the most popular part of the movie, and Hollywood typically doesn't like to let popular characters die. It was the least Hollywood thing to do, and it's one of the most powerful moments of a very uneven movie. If the studio was willing to change so many other moments, why be faithful to something that basically destroys the possibility of a sequel?

To be fair, it wasn't that shocking when Whistler died in the first Blade movie. That's not to say it wasn't a sad moment, but that's usually what happens to father-like figures in superhero movies. The scene where it goes down is a surprisingly emotional one, and it helped humanize Blade. Unfortunately, that moment was ruined in the sequel, when Whistler is immediately brought back to life within the film's first few minutes. The more shocking thing was when Blade: Trinity came out and Whistler gets killed off again! Come on, how many times is this going to happen? Whistler's story is that he dies, comes back to life, and then dies again. Who thought that was a good idea? Granted, Blade: Trinity was full of bad decisions, this is still one of its most baffling moments.