Top 10 Most Ridiculous Deaths in Comics

We’ve all gotta die some time, but hopefully, it won’t be like this. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the "Top 10 Most Ridiculous Deaths in Comics."

For this list, we’re looking at times when comic book characters met less-than-dignified ends, meeting their maker in some downright silly ways. Not every superhero can have a solemn and dignified death, but these are too ridiculous... even for comics.

Think you know comics? Be sure to answer the trivia questions in between some of our entries. There’s three in total, and the answers will be revealed at the end of the video. How many can you get right?

#10: Grasshopper

Life sure wasn’t kind to the two heroes who took up the “Grasshopper” mantle. And death wasn’t exactly great either. The first iteration of the high-jumping hero got offed mere milliseconds after joining the Great Lakes Avengers when he was hit by a sai that passed harmlessly through Doorman’s head. His backup super suit was later found by another short-lived hero, who only barely lasted any longer. See, his high-tech suit was built for jumping, hence the name. But after engaging the suit’s “maximum jump” function, the second Grasshopper found himself catapulted into space. And for all its bells and whistles, his suit didn’t have an oxygen supply.

#9: Leeta 87

The Legion of Superheroes, a super-team from the distant future of the DC Universe, has one of the biggest rosters of any team out there. They’ve lost a few members over the years, and many of them were entombed on the world of Shanghalla. One of these dearly departed souls was the otherwise unseen Leeta 87. According to her memorial, she was a fearless and powerful superhero who defeated many villains before she met her end after slipping on something called a Banyo-Fruit Peel. We’re gonna guess that’s basically a space banana. Slipping on a banana peel, space-based or otherwise, is a pretty embarrassing way to go for a hero.

#8: Tek-Knight

Garth Ennis’ ‘The Boys’ is a series all about knocking superheroes down a peg or two, and usually by extremely violent means. Take the hero Tek-Knight, for example. An armored hero with an array of high-tech gadgets, you’d think he’d go down in suitably epic fashion, but nope. Instead, he retired from the superhero game and met an undignified end while attempting to save a woman and her child from a falling wheelbarrow full of bricks. In his mind, he saved the woman and went on to sacrifice himself to save the world by having sex with an oncoming meteor. In reality, we learn that the wheelbarrow landed on his head and that the coroner discovered a large tumor in his head.

#7: El Guapo

The X-Men Adjacent team X-Statix lost quite a few members over the years, and often in pretty hilarious ways. Just look at this young mutant who was able to control a flying skateboard using his mind. He sadly met his death at the end of the source of all his power, when he lost control of his board, causing it to fly out of control and crash into a wall, lodging itself in the hero’s chest. This all even came about as a result of a curse placed on the team by a former ally. Guess it’s true: you live by the board, you die by the board.

Marvel’s Ultimate line of comics sought to put a more gritty, real-world edge on many of the publisher’s most iconic heroes, a good idea in theory, but one that sometimes got taken too far. During the Ultimatum event, in which Magneto unleashed a massive tidal wave upon New York, a number of heroes died in almost comically gruesome fashion. The Wasp, a founding member of the Avenger-style team called The Ultimates, was definitely the goriest death in the series, as the shrinking hero was gruesomely eaten by The Blob. In retaliation, Wasp’s ex-husband Giant Man even bit the Blob’s head off himself. Can’t we all just stop eating each other?!

#5: Pantha

While she definitely wasn’t the most popular or memorable character on the block, this dearly departed member of the Teen Titans surely deserved better than the fate that eventually befell her. During the Infinite Crisis event, the classic version of Superboy returned to the DC Universe, having gone crazier than a bag of snakes while living in an alternate dimension. The Titans, along with the Justice Society and Doom Patrol, attempted to stop the crazed former hero, but a backhand blow from Superboy vaporized Pantha’s head. He even claimed that it was entirely accidental, adding insult to the very, VERY fatal injury that took the hero out of action.

#4: Eagle the Archer

Tek-Knight is far from the only hero from ‘The Boys’ to meet a comically undignified end. This WW2-era crimebuster lost his life on his very first mission, his wings, and archery skills proving ineffective against the deadliest weapon of all: a simple plane propeller. Taking to the skies in an attempt to evade a German ambush, the hero was mulched when he collided with a fighter plane and was promptly shredded by the plane’s propeller. He wasn’t the only member of his team, the Avenging Squad, to meet a gruesome end on their first mission, but his death was definitely the funniest.

#3: Mary Jane Watson

Being the significant other of a superhero can be a pretty dangerous life, just ask Gwen Stacy. But getting tossed off a bridge might be a better way to go than the fate that befell an alternate universe version of Spidey’s redheaded main squeeze. In the dark future timeline of “Spider-Man: Reign,” MJ died of cancer, which she contracted entirely from her relationship with Peter and her, um, exposure to his, er, radioactive bodily fluids. Yeah, we’re not gonna spell it out. Obviously, this left Peter with some pretty major issues to deal with, so it’s no wonder this older version of the web-slinger has grown bitter and angry.

#2: Ch'p

There’s actually a pretty long story behind the fact that Green Lantern rings are weak against anything yellow, making the galaxy’s mightiest police force susceptible to attacks from banana peels and number-2 pencils. While on a mission with fellow Lantern John Stewart, the squirrel-like Lantern of the planet H'lven was sadly and rather hilariously flattened by a yellow truck, bringing an abrupt end to his otherwise illustrious career as an intergalactic peacekeeper.

#1: Blazing Skull

A veteran of World War 2 and a member of The Invaders, a legendary wartime superhero team led by Captain America, this fiery hero surely deserved better than the end he eventually met. Thanks to his powers, the result of his tutelage under a mysterious group called the Skull Men, he stayed alive and active as a hero well into the modern era, where he was recruited by Howard the Duck to help battle an outbreak of Nazi zombies. But during the mission, his long superhero career was cut short when he was devoured by Toothgrinder and Toothgnasher, Thor’s chariot-pulling goats who had become zombies themselves. We’ll say it again: Blazing Skull was eaten by goats.