(upbeat rock music)
Who's gonna die in Avengers Infinity War?
Probably everyone, right?
Or nobody, or at least Captain America.
The Avengers have a proud tradition of dying horrifically
and usually being resurrected a few issues later.
While we have our own theories as who's likeliest
to die in Infinity War,
today we're gonna look back at a brief history
of every time the Avengers have died in the comics.
Now first of all, a quick point of order.
To preserve my sanity,
this video's gonna cover the core Avengers
from the 2012 film
because they are the ones who are likeliest
to bite it in Infinity War,
given their rapidly expiring contracts.
So that is Iron Man, Captain America,
Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and the Hulk.
Sorry for you people who loved the Vision dying,
you weirdos.
Second, let's get two major comic events
out of the way right off the bat.
Number one, 1991's Infinity Gauntlet series,
in which Thanos basically kills every single Avenger
in increasingly horrific ways.
And number two, 1996's Onslaught saga,
in which nearly every Avenger on this list,
except for Black Widow,
dies during the fight against Onslaught,
who's a malevolent psionic baby
formed from consciousnesses of Professor X and Magneto.
I know, it's as dumb as it sounds.
In both cases, everyone was brought back to life
and the status quos were effectively restored
because comics.
And spoiler alert,
in case the title of this video wasn't abundantly clear,
I'm gonna spoil a ton of comics,
so if you don't like that,
watch it later.
Iron Man.
Now Tony Stark might be called the Invincible Iron Man,
but he has actually shuffled off this mortal coil
once or twice before.
In 1995's Avengers: The Crossing storyline,
Tony Stark was revealed to have been working
for Kang the Conqueror the whole time!
(gasps) Gasp you should.
And he began murdering people left and right.
The Avengers had to travel through time to enlist
a 19-year-old Tony Stark to help defeat his older self.
Ultimately, old Tony sacrificed his life to defeat Kang
so that his younger self and his friends could live.
Teen Tony, AKA Iron Boy, AKA Why-ron Man,
didn't fare much better.
While battling one of the worser things
to come out of the 90s, the aforementioned Onslaught,
teen Tony sacrificed himself by spearing Dr. Doom
and flying the two of them through a portal,
presumably dying alongside countless other heroes.
Or at least that's what we thought.
As it turns out, Franklin Richards, boy genius,
created a pocket dimension called Counter Earth
where the heroes secretly survived, and in doing so,
Franklin resurrected adult Tony from The Crossing,
And he merged with Teen Tony when they both returned
to the main Earth 616 continuity.
Now that's not Tony's first time or last time
pulling a fast one on the audience, either.
In a 1992 storyline, Tony suffered nerve damage
during a battle with the Masters of Silence,
this group of high tech samurai assassins,
and seemingly died on the operating table
after defeating them, or so his BFF James Rhodes believed.
In reality, Tony put himself into suspended animation
until he could get better.
And the worst part?
He didn't even tell War Machine who was so pissed at Tony
that he ended their friendship and left to join
the West Coast Avengers,
which is actually the worst coast Avengers,
including Great Lakes.
Also at the end of Civil War II,
it turned out that despite suffering wounds
that should have killed him,
Tony had experimented on his body enough over the years
to make him more machine than man,
and that allowed him to survive his grievous wounds.
While he was effectively dead,
he lived on as an alcoholic AI
in Riri William's, AKA Iron Heart's, armor.
And yes, you heard me right, an alcoholic AI.
He programmed it that way because even in the afterlife,
Tony is a huge dick.
Captain America.
Now few people in the Marvel Universe have died
more than Captain America has.
First of all, Cap seemingly died at the end of World War II,
but it turned out he was just chillin'.
No, literally, at the bottom of the ocean
'cause he was preserved in ice
thanks to the Super Soldier Serum in his veins.
In 1969's Captain America number 111,
Steve seemingly died after being shot by Hydra agents,
but it turned out he faked his death
to trick people into thinking that Steve Rogers
wasn't Captain America after all.
You never seen them in the same room together, have you?
Cap next bit the dust in 1985's Secret Wars storyline
during a battle with Dr. Doom
in which the not-so-good doctor
uses the Beyonder's cosmic powers
to disintegrate poor Stevey boy.
But the Beyonder, who had possessed the body
of Ulysses Klaue, because why hadn't he,
managed to bring Steve back
only for him to just get disintegrated again.
Tough day for a World War II vet.
And then he brought him back again because why not?
Thankfully, the last time stuck,
because otherwise, it's a pretty horrifying time loop.
What is this, the end of Dr. Strange?
Spoiler warning.
Cap died again during the events
of Punisher Captain America: Blood and Glory,
and in this story, Punisher gets mind controlled
and winds up shooting Cap,
and by all accounts, Cap is, like, super dead.
They even have a funeral for him.
He's gotta be dead, right?
Wrong!
Cap faked his death so that he and Punisher
could get the drop on the badguys!
The Punisher also revealed
that he's into some seriously weird stuff
involving his balls.
And you know what?
Not gonna kink shame, you do you, Frank.
Cap died again a few years later
in 1995's Captain America number 443,
when he learned that his heart will stop
because the Super Soldier Serum in his body
is finally wearing off.
Once again, Cap has a heartfelt funeral
where then president Bill Clinton
actually carried his coffin,
but as it turned out, he'd been saved at the last second
by a good Samaritan who actually turned out
to be the worst Samaritan of them all, the Red Skull!
And the Red Skull had actually cloned Steve's body
and was living in it like some sort of beef condo.
It's, yeah, I know.
This is my reaction, too. Why?
In 2007, Steve died horrifically
in the aftermath of Civil War,
shot in the back by Crossbones
after taking a bullet meant for someone else,
and finished off by a mind-controlled Sharon Carter,
where he was deliberately, 100% totally
murdered and dead forever.
And that's what I would say
if comics weren't full of the reddest herrings
known to mankind.
Cap was seemingly dead for a year or so,
but in actuality, he was frozen in space and time,
thanks to whatever weird, dumb comic gun
that Sharon Carter used.
(stammers)
So mad about that still.
Thor.
How would you kill a god?
The answer, it would seem, is very carefully,
or just be insanely powerful like Thanos,
or the beings behind Ragnarok.
It's not just a hilarious buddy comedy,
it's also an apocalyptic event that killed Thor
during the events of Avengers Disassembled.
Ragnarok, which means twilight of the gods,
comes at long last for Thor
and the rest of the Asgardians.
And while Thor allows himself to be killed
as well as his people,
he does so after destroying the gods
known as Those Who Sit Above in Shadow,
who have been gaining power from ritually murdering
and recreating the Asgardians
as part of this Ragnarok cycle.
In truth, Thor didn't die,
rather he was just hangin' out
in a void of non-existence where he remained
until his former human alter ego Donald Blake
touched Mjolnir back on Earth
and summoned him once more.
I mean, who among us isn't just chillin'
in a void of non-existence?
I wish I was.
(somber piano music)
During the Fear Itself arc,
Thor died in his father's arms
after defeating his uncle in single combat
who had taken the form of a massive dragon.
Of course, Thor wouldn't stay dead for very long.
Though all memory of him was erased,
Loki and Silver Surfer managed to help rescue him from limbo
and bring Thor back to the land of the living
where he lost 200 pounds of muscle
and now hosts Because Science.
(clunking)
(grunts)
Black Widow.
Now usually, Natasha Romanov, AKA Black Widow,
is the one who's dealing out death
with her leet assassin skills,
but even the best of the best in the Marvel Universe
can slip up and buy the farm,
and in Black Widow's case, she was poisoned to death
by agents of the evil ninja clan the Hand.
But thankfully, she got better,
thanks to Stone, a member of the group called the Chaste,
which is a hilarious name.
What, are they just like, "We don't smooch anyone!
"But we'll revive you, milady."
During the events of Secret Wars,
Earth 616 was about to be destroyed
because another reality was going to collide with it.
Black Widow's tasked with piloting a ship
carrying a handpicked group beyond the barriers of reality
so they could essentially resurrect the human race.
Unfortunately, that ship was shot down
while trying to escape, and it exploded with Natasha
and countless others still on board.
Thankfully, Natasha returned to the land of the living
when Black Panther used the Infinity Gauntlet
to bring the Marvel Universe back to the status quo.
Last and definitely least, during Secret Empire,
everyone's favorite storyline,
Captain America broke her neck with his shield,
killing Black Widow on the spot.
And she very likely was dead
until those silly scientists and tricksy torturers
at the Red Room got their hands on Natasha
and brought her back to life.
And it just goes to show that anything is possible
if you have ties to a shadowy organization
with access to unspeakable technology
and limitless resources.
(rasping)
Hawkeye.
The purplest archer in all the land has learned the hard way
that he is but a mere mortal fighting in situations
where he is often wildly out of his depth.
Like that time in 2004's Avengers Disassembled story arc,
where Hawkeye's quiver full of explosive arrows
catches on fire during a battle with the Kree.
And in his final moments, he commandeers a Kree jetpack
and turns himself into a human cruise missile
to blow up both himself
and a massive Kree battleship to save his friends.
This tragedy was later undone
when Scarlet Witch willed him back into existence
during the House of M storyline,
although death would come for him pretty swiftly
during that same storyline
when he shot Scarlet Witch with an arrow
and she in turn erased him from existence again
in the blink of an eye.
Maybe the Avengers should be less concerned with Thanos
and more concerned with Wanda Maximoff.
The Hulk.
Now despite his crippling anger management issues,
Bruce Banner's big green alter ego
is pretty damn near indestructible.
Yet no one is immortal in the Marvel Universe,
even characters who are seemingly immortal.
Hulk has actually died many, many times,
especially in What If stories and weird future tales,
but most recently, he was murdered in cold blood
by someone he trusted dearly.
Hawkeye!
When the precognitive Inhuman Ulysses Cain
had a premonition that Bruce Banner
was gonna turn into the Hulk and kill everyone,
Hawkeye took preemptive action and shot Banner
with an arrow, killing him instantly.
Thanos also killed Hulk
in a more recent non-Infinity War context.
In the Thanos ongoing series,
a futuristic version of Thanos stabbed a massive sword
through both a de-Hulked Bruce Banner and the Silver Surfer,
leaving Bruce a lifeless heap on the ground,
and the Silver Surfer with a porthole in his chest.
Now unlike his counterpart in the MCU,
Hulk has killed himself at one point,
but not how you're thinking.
After traveling to the future,
Hulk faced off with an evil version of himself named Maestro
who promptly broke Hulk's neck in their first battle
and then had Hulk nursed back to health for some reason.
Eventually, though, our Bruce Banner prevailed
by sending Maestro back in time to the precise moment
the gamma bomb that created him detonated,
obliterating Maestro and leaving Bruce Banner
with yet another thing to be traumatically anxious about.
And that is a brief history of the Avengers dying
again, and again, and again in the comics.
But tell me, which Avengers comic book death
meant the most to you?
What would you add to this list?
Let me know in the comments below,
and give me a dead-ass thumbs up while you're there.
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about the story of earth's mightiest heroes
assembling their forces
to prevent a high school-aged lycanthrope
from surfing on top of a car
and being awesome as hell at basketball
in Avengers Infiniteen Wolf.
Until next time, keep on diggin'.
(tonal music)