Superheroes We Lost In 2020

This year has been unique, and a small part of what distinguishes it from previous years is a relatively low superhero body count. The COVID-19 pandemic is delaying the release of popular superhero movies and cutting short TV seasons, like season 6 of the CW's The Flash. At the same time, the comics industry is seeing similar delays and upsets. Masked heroes that might have been set for the chopping block have gotten a reprieve across all kinds of media. 

But saving the world is dangerous business, and there are still some heroic sacrifices coming in under the wire. The climax of the CW's massive Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover saw the departure of one of television's most beloved superheroes. And in funnybooks big and small, the never-ending war between good and evil has claimed some victims. From mutants to witches, from forgotten sea heroes to unrepentant man-sharks, here are the superheroes we lost in 2020.

Stargirl debuted in May with an explosive display of superhero carnage. The premiere episode opens a decade before the events of the rest of the series, with the Justice Society of America (JSA) getting wiped out by the Injustice Society. At first it appears the only survivor is the sidekick Stripesy (Luke Wilson), to whom the dying Starman (Joel McHale) entrusts his powerful Cosmic Staff. It's revealed in a subsequent episode that while Hourman (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) survived the battle, the monstrous Solomon Grundy murdered him and his wife a few years later.

Wildcat is killed — hurled from the headquarters — just as Stripesy arrives. Doctor Mid-Nite is killed by an unseen foe. Starman fights off most of the Injustice Society on his own before being dealt a mortal wound by Icicle. Flash's helmet and Sandman's corpse are spotted during the melee. Many of the members aren't seen at all. Stripesy flees the headquarters with Starman, who later dies from his wounds. 

Doctor Mid-Nite's death is interesting, as it suggests there may be an Injustice Society member we don't know about. He's pulled away by a giant hand seemingly made of some kind of shadowy energy, and that doesn't match with the powers of any of the on-screen Injustice Society members. A likely culprit is the Shade, a villain who manipulates darkness and, in the comics, eventually joins the side of the angels. While he isn't seen in the series premiere, he appears in a painting of the Injustice Society members at the end of the following episode.

During the first season of The Boys, the shape-changing Doppelganger (Dan Darin-Zanco) proves one of the most useful supes on Vought's payroll. Able to make himself look and sound like anyone he wishes, Doppelganger is a powerful tool when it comes to blackmail. Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue) uses his unique talents to get Senator Calhoun (David Andrews) to play ball when it comes to letting Vought's super-powered employees work with the United States military. But in season 2, Doppelganger's tricks come to an end when he has the bad luck of coming under the thumb of Homelander (Anthony Starr). 

To anyone who's been paying attention, it's a little surprising in season 2's "Nothing Like It in the World" when Homelander arrives at a remote cabin to find who appears to be Madelyn Stillwell waiting for him, since the twisted Homelander murdered Stillwell at the end of season 1. Soon we learn it's really Doppelganger taking Stillwell's form at Homelander's insistence — the Vought superstar apparently uses the illusion of his former boss for comfort. Doppelganger briefly changes back to his natural appearance, explaining he can only hold a different form for so long, and the transformation visibly disturbs Homelander.

By the end of the episode, Homelander is no longer happy with the illusion. Doppelganger desperately tries to calm the madman, but it's too late. Homelander breaks the shape-changer's neck with one hand, killing him instantly.  

In season 2 of The Boys, we meet the infamous Lamplighter — a supe responsible for, among other things, the murders of Grace Mallory's (Laila Robins) grandchildren. No longer a member of the Seven, the pyrokinetic works as both orderly and executioner at the Sage Grove Center, where Vought is secretly running experiments on patients. In a stroke of brilliance, the disgraced superhero is played by Shawn Ashmore, who previously played Bobby Drake, a.k.a. Iceman, in Fox's X-Men films. 

When the Boys infiltrate the Sage Grove Center in the episode "The Bloody Doors Off" they witness Lamplighter — on Stormfront's orders — using his fire-controlling powers to execute a patient for not cooperating. After escaping the facility with Lamplighter in tow, the Boys convince him to agree to testify against Vought, but as usual things don't work out the way they plan.

In "Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker," after learning the Seven has captured Starlight (Erin Moriarty), Hughie (Jack Quaid) believes he's convinced Lamplighter to help him free her. Lamplighter infiltrates the tower with Hughie and heads for the Seven conference room. He notices his statue has been removed, and says he'd hoped to "do it" in front of it. Lamplighter uses his powers to set himself on fire. He's quickly engulfed in flames and dies, though he still helps free Starlight without knowing it. The panicked Hughie hacks off the supe's hand with a broken bottle and uses it to get through the tower's security. 

Technically, Ben Hargreeves (Justin H. Min) dies before the events of Netflix's The Umbrella Academy. In spite of his death, he's managed to be a part of the team as a ghost tied to his brother Klaus (Robert Sheehan). But that all ends with "743," the penultimate episode of The Umbrella Academy's second season. 

Knowing an explosion courtesy of Vanya (Ellen Page) is the trigger that causes the apocalypse, Diego (David Castañeda), Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), and Klaus infiltrate the FBI office where their sister is being interrogated. None of them are strong enough to withstand the power Vanya's emitting, leaving the world-saving to Ben, whose spirit manages to psychically contact Vanya. Ben is able to reach Vanya through her feelings of self-loathing and guilt, and give her what she needs to take back control of herself. "Dad treated you like a bomb before you ever were one," he tells Vanya. "You aren't a monster. You're my sister." Unfortunately, the strain to save Vanya is too much for Ben's spirit and he's finally forced to untether himself from the physical world and go into the great beyond. 

However, the end of season 2 indicates this still might not be the end for Ben. The final scene finds the team back in the present, but with the Umbrella Academy replaced by a group called Sparrow Academy, and their brother Ben still alive — sporting a facial scar and a different hairdo, and having no idea who his brothers and sisters are.

In the animated feature Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, the ranks of DC's heroes are thinned considerably. It all starts when Superman leads an assault on Apokolips, the planet ruled by the evil New God known as Darkseid. After the events of previous films like 2014's Justice League: War and 2019's Reign of the Supermen, Superman is convinced the only hope against Darkseid is a preliminary assault. 

Unfortunately, Darkseid is ready for the attack. Not only has he secretly been monitoring the heroes through Cyborg, but he's developed a new army of powerful Paradooms — parademons infused with the power of Doomsday. Darkseid's forces swiftly and brutally defeat the League. Some Leaguers like Hal Jordan, Aquaman, and Zatanna are killed outright. Many are horribly maimed and enslaved by Darkseid. Shazam escapes to Earth, but later dies fighting in the rebellion against Darkseid along with Batgirl. In a flashback, we see the Titans suffer similar fates on Earth. 

It's possible, however, that all these deaths will be undone. At the end of the movie, after the heroes' costly victory, John Constantine convinces Flash to use his powers to go back in time and change the events. But we never see exactly how the events or changed or how the world is altered. Flash runs from the gathered surviving heroes, there's a blinding flash of light, and the film ends. 

Part of the reason the Earth heroes get as far as they do in Justice League Dark: Apokolips War is because Darkseid is occupied elsewhere. Right after the mind-controlled Batman learns that Lex Luthor has betrayed him and Darkseid, we cut to the planet Oa — home base of the Green Lantern Corps — where Darkseid has already slaughtered the Guardians of the Universe and fires rage everywhere. We see the corpses of Guy Gardner and Arisia among the rubble. A number of Lanterns, including Kilowog, make desperate assaults on Darkseid, but he easily kills them all. 

The final Lantern we see alive is John Stewart. Badly wounded, he drags himself to Oa's main Green Lantern battery, hoping to use its power to defeat Darkseid. The villain barely seems to notice Stewart as he speaks with Batman from worlds away. Just as Stewart is about to finish the famous Green Lantern oath, Darkseid orders a portion of the Earth's molten core to be teleported to Oa. Batman does as ordered, and the molten liquid kills John Stewart and destroys the Green Lantern battery.

The Suicide Squad truly live up to their name in Justice League Dark: Apokolips War. No longer controlled by Amanda Waller — who Harley Quinn says died of cancer — the Squad agrees to help the heroes take out Darkseid. Cheetah is killed during the initial assault on LexCorp, riddled with bullets by the building's human protectors. 

The rest of the former bad guys stay on Earth with Lois Lane and Lex Luthor to protect LexCorp so the heroes on Apokolips have a way to return, and Lex arms them with Kryptonite-infused weaponry. When Batman learns of Lex's betrayal, he sends hordes of Paradooms to Lexcorp, where the Suicide Squad makes its last stand. 

Bane is devoured by a swarm of Paradooms while Black Manta is ripped in half by one of the monsters. The surviving members of the squad — Captain Boomerang, Harley Quinn, and King Shark — fall back behind a force field with Lane and Luthor. Eventually the barrier fails and Lex Luthor is killed by one of the Paradooms. Lois Lane calls Superman on his signal watch to say goodbye to him as they detonate a bomb, destroying LexCorp and killing everyone inside it. 

The fiery mystic Witchfire first showed up in 2002's JLA #61, right before the introduction of the short-lived Power Company series. In Power Company, she was one of a group of heroes who decided to monetize their crime-fighting careers. 

Unfortunately for Witchfire, the last few years haven't been a good time to be a mystically-themed hero or villain in DC Comics. Early in the current volume of Justice League Dark, the horrific villain Upside-Down Man — leader of the Otherkind — declares war on DC's wizards and witches while consuming the magic of his victims. 

In Justice League Dark #15, in order to stop the machinations of the witch Circe, JL Dark leader Wonder Woman has Doctor Fate and Zatanna send her spirit to Hecate's realm, where Witchfire is as well. Unfortunately, Circe is prepared for this; she takes over Diana's body while she and her newly formed Injustice League Dark lay siege to Wonder Woman's teammates. Upside-Down Man appears to Wonder Woman and Witchfire at the end of Justice League Dark #17. In the following issue Diana makes a deal with Upside-Down Man so he'll get her back into her own body. Before sending her back, the villain reaches for Witchfire. Wonder Woman protests that hurting her isn't part of the bargain, but before she can do anything to stop him, Upside-Down Man rips out Witchfire's throat.

It's been three decades since 1990's four-issue limited series Brute Force introduced a group of intelligent, cybernetically-enhanced animals to the Marvel Universe, and little has been heard from the electronic beasts ever since. But the critters make a return in a back-up story for Weapon Plus: World War IV #1, and sadly one of their number doesn't survive to the end. 

Brute Force is sent to infiltrate and gather intelligence from a supply tanker owned by Orchis — an anti-mutant paramilitary organization. It seems to be a cakewalk as the cyber-beasts easily take out Orchis soldiers, until Dr. Echo finds himself facing what appears to be either a large robot or a human in a suit of power armor — it isn't clear which. Regardless, Dr. Echo is brutally beaten before his comrades show up and pile on his attacker. They make short work of the bad guy, but Dr. Echo dies moments later. 

At the end of Catalyst Prime: Seven Days #6, the Lion Forge heroes score a major victory against Khrelan and his armies of Obsidian Men, but one of them falls in order to make it happen. 

Khrelan sends giant Godzilla-sized Obsidian Men to New York City, each of which unleash hordes of terrible reptilian monsters into the metropolis. Just about all the surviving Lion Forge heroes band together to fight back the monsters, but just as things seem to settle down an even more massive Obsidian Man — this one with four huge arms — approaches the city, this one opening up and pouring armies of smaller Obsidian Men into New York. 

Things seem hopeless when the heroes Noble, Kino, and Summit arrive. Noble and Kino fly towards the giant Obsidian Man, carrying Summit with them. They hold off the swarming drones until they're close enough, then hurl Summit towards the monster. The narration explains that Summit is a living plasma battery, which the heroes have pinpointed as the monster's vulnerability. Summit builds up her power and detonates within the monster. Her final thoughts are cut off as she explodes, killing the giant and herself. On the final page, we learn that the destruction of the larger Obsidian Man triggered the destruction of all the smaller ones, giving the heroes of Lion Forge a much better position from which to fight when they battle Khrelan in the final issue. 

In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s seventh and final season, the team loses one of its most beloved and unique members. Enoch (Joel Stoffer) sacrifices himself to save the team from oblivion. 

At the end of "After, Before," while Yo-Yo (Natalia Cordova-Buckley) finally manages to reawaken her super speed, it isn't enough to fix the Zephyr's time engine. This leads to the time-loop episode "As I Have Always Been," in which Daisy (Chloe Bennet) keeps waking up and re-experiencing the same few hours. Specifically, she experiences the Zephyr caught in a temporal storm that threatens to wipe everyone on board from existence. Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) knows how to fix the time engine, but the knowledge is trapped behind a mental block she created to keep the location of Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) safe. 

When the heroes remove the implant, they discover the only way to fix the time engine is a device inside Enoch, and the removal would mean Enoch's death. When the Chronicom hero learns of this, he doesn't bother to wait while his friends debate the moral quandary — he reaches into his own body and yanks it out. Daisy and Coulson stay with Enoch as he dies. He tells them about his feelings of loneliness and warns them that he has seen the future and that while they will survive their current adventure, it will be their final mission as a team. 

The Inhuman Gordon (Jamie Harris) already died late in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s second season, but that was an older version of the character. The younger version of Gordon (Fin Argus) meets a much more heroic end in "Stolen."

Once Afterlife is invaded by Nathaniel Malick and his followers, Gordon agrees to teleport Coulson into the commune. Unfortunately, Malick and his followers are expecting them. While imprisoning them both Malick uses his ability-duplicating process to give Gordon's teleportation abilities to the young John Garrett (James Paxton). Once Gordon and Coulson are left alone in a locked room, Gordon volunteers to use his powers to get them out. Coulson objects, saying Gordon's still too weak from having his abilities fed into Garrett, but Gordon grabs Coulson and teleports them out before the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent can stop him.

After getting them free, Gordon collapses. Coulson tries to comfort the Inhuman, telling him he's going to be all right. Gordon speaks his final words — "You're hilarious" — and he dies.

Marvel Comics ended 2020 with the kick-off of the line-wide event "King in Black," accompanied by the King in Black mini-series by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman. The event brings the evil symbiote god Knull to Earth in King in Black #1, and the superhero Sentry becomes one of his most powerful victims. 

The arrival of Knull forces the Avengers to call Sentry back to Earth, and the heroes are confident he'll be all they need to take out the cosmic threat. When the villain confronts an assembled group of heroes that includes members of the Avengers, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four, Captain America tells the symbiote god, "Normally, we're the last thing guys like you ever see. But today? We're just here to watch." Sentry enters the battle with an incredible display of power, killing one of the symbiote-merged Celestials with a single blow. 

But the Sentry's fall comes when he tries to make lightning strike twice. He carries Knull into the sky, planning to rip him in half just as he did to the symbiote villain Carnage back in 2004's New Avengers #2. But Knull is ready for this, and instead it's Sentry who is ripped in half by Knull. Sentry's last words are a plea to Knull that killing him will unleash the Void — the powerful villain who lives within him. But in the wake of Sentry's death, Knull is able to simply absorb the Void and add it to his power.