Superheroing is a tough business.
One minute you're joking around, punching bad guys in the face, and the next you're
pushing up fictional daisies.
Fortunately, when you've got superpowers, there's a more than decent chance you'll be
resurrected and given new life...usually because you're more valuable to your parent company
alive than dead.
Will any of these super-people come back to life in 2018 or beyond?
Probably...but for now, let's pay our respects and mourn their super-passings.
And of course...spoilers ahead.
Logan and Professor X
In a year filled with so many superhero flicks, it's hard to believe that the R-rated Wolverine
swan song, Logan, actually hit theaters in 2017.
But it did — and it was basically a superhero slaughterfest.
In addition to the demise of Caliban, the D-lister mutant who was played by comedian
Stephen Merchant, Logan gave a final send off to two characters who've been thrilling
comic book fans at the movies for nearly 20 years.
Professor X, played by Sir Patrick Stewart, met an inglorious end at the hands of an evil
Wolverine clone — but not before he practically stole the show in the movie that was named
for a totally different character.
"Two days on the road, only one meal, and hardly any sleep.
She's 11 and I'm f---ing 90."
But it was the loss of Logan himself, played by fan-favorite Hugh Jackman, that fans will
remember for years to come.
Jackman's held the role of Wolverine since 2000's original X-Men movie, and his portrayal
is rightly lauded for helping make superhero movies the force of nature that they've become.
Given the chance to take the character out on his own terms, Jackman helps fans say goodbye
to Logan at the movie's end in a beautiful moment that stands out as not just one of
the most classic moments in a superhero movie, but one of 2017's best movie moments period.
Patriot
Jeffrey Mace, who in the comics is better known by his alter ego, the Patriot, debuted
on ABC's Agents of SHIELD in the fall of 2016.
The character, played by Jason O'Mara, was revealed to be the new director of the super-spy
agency, and at first his name felt more like an Easter Egg — a nod to longtime comics
readers that the show's producers were reaching far into Marvel's back catalogue for new characters
to play in their small corner of the MCU.
As time went on, we learned a whole lot more about the TV version of Mace: he was supposedly
an Inhuman who used his enhanced strength and invulnerability for the greater good.
But as it happened, this was all bogus: Mace had no powers, and instead took the television
equivalent of super-steroids.
Sort of like...Crap-tain America.
"No no no no no!"
When the show came back in 2017 after its mid-season break, Mace and the rest of the
SHIELD team found themselves in the Framework, a VR simulation where Hydra ran the world,
and the good guys were in hiding.
There, Mace heroically sacrificed himself to save his fellow agents from doom.
It was a fitting end for the character who, in the span of only one season, had quickly
became a favorite of fans of the show.
Black Widow
In the 2016 Marvel Comics event Civil War II, an Inhuman who can see the future shares
a vision with Marvel's heroes.
In it, Miles Morales stands on the steps of the US Capitol, his costume soaked in blood,
clutching Captain America's lifeless body.
It's a provocative image, and yet it took a while to get more information.
Then, all the heroes got pretty busy when Captain America revealed that he was actually
a Hydra sleeper agent, took over S.H.I.E.L.D., and conquered the United States.
Man...talk about a real Crap-tain America.
In the follow-up Marvel Comics event story, Secret Empire, Miles and Steve Rogers met
face-to-face — but neither of them counted on Natasha.
While Cap and Spider-Man squared off in Secret Empire #7, the Black Widow had already been
watching on a nearby roof with a sniper-rifle, hoping to end Captain America's reign with
a single bullet.
When the fight broke out, Black Widow intervened, hoping to save Spider-Man.
Unfortunately, Captain America's shield broke Natasha's neck, and she didn't survive.
Once the story was over and finished, the Cosmic Cube undid all of evil Cap's shenanigans
— but Black Widow stayed underground.
Her funeral took place in Secret Empire #10.
Of course, since she's played by one of the biggest movie stars on the planet, the chances
of her staying that way for long are basically slim-to-none.
The Widow will be back in comics pages soon — count on it.
The Warriors Three
In Thor: Ragnarok, Thor saves most of the Asgardians from Hela, goddess of the underworld,
with help from Hulk, Valkyrie, and Loki, to name a few.
He doesn't rescue everyone, however: the Warriors Three, Thor's rambunctious sidekicks, fight
on the front lines when Hela attacks.
None of them survive the film.
Their defeats are so quick, in fact, that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige actually
had to explain that the Warriors Three needed to get decimated to show how big a threat
Hela was.
It worked...but Thor's corner of the MCU is poorer for it.
Martin Stein
Any Legends of Tomorrow fan who was paying attention knew that Dr. Martin Stein, better
known as Firestorm's older half, was on the way out.
In October, right before Legends returned for its third season, Deadline announced that
actor Victor Garber, who plays Stein, would be leaving the show so he could replace David
Hyde Pierce in Broadway's Hello, Dolly! revival.
Soon after the news broke, Legends started planting the seeds for Garber's departure.
Stein was working on a way to separate himself from Jefferson Jackson, the young man with
whom he merges to create the superheroic Firestorm.
Too bad Nazis show up to spoil the fun.
In a plotline too complicated to adequately recap here, Stein is shot and separated from
Firestorm, dying after having saved his friends in the process.
Hello Dolly...goodbye Doctor Stein.
Yondu Udonta
The first Guardians of the Galaxy movie introduced the world at large to Peter Quill's abductor,
the craggy, drawling Ravager who taught Star-Lord everything he knows about conniving and swiping
stuff, who's also a wizard with that deadly, whistling arrow thingie.
Comic book fans, on the other hand, know he was a core member of the original Guardians
of the Galaxy team.
Yondu got his start in the first appearance of the team in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 in
1969.
So his turn to the side of good in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 — and his heroic sacrifice
to save his adopted son Peter — made the loss all the more memorable by movie's end.
His Ravager funeral just before the film's credits stands out as one of the most touching
moments we've seen in the MCU yet.
Perhaps most importantly, he managed to make Mary Poppins cool again.
"You look like Mary Poppins."
"Is he cool?"
"Hell yeah he's cool."
"I'm Mary Poppins, y'all!"
For Disney, Marvel's corporate parent, that's called vertical integration and corporate
synergy.
And that's the most heroic act of all.
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