DC's heroes have been fighting evil for a very long time, facing down the worst threats that the Multiverse can throw at them. These respected heroes take the battle to criminals, all-powerful world enders, and alien invaders. While some of these battles go pretty well for the heroes, there are other times when they don't. Being a superhero is hard and dangerous work, so taking a beating is a prerequisite.
However, there have been some heroes who have gotten closer to death than others and survived, putting their lives on the line in the fight for good.
10 Superman Has Almost Been Killed By Green Kryptonite Many Times
Superman is known for being one of the toughest heroes around, able to survive just about anything. However, an all-powerful supergod isn't exactly the most fun character to read about, so Kryptonite was introduced. Radioactive fragments of his homeworld, the different colors have different effects on him, with the Green variety being lethal.
Superman has been brought to the brink of death by Green Kryptonite numerous times over the years, nearly every time he's exposed to it actually. He's always survived but there's always the chance that his number will be up when he encounters it.
9 Batman Cracked His Skull And Almost Died
"Hush" is one of the best Batman stories of the 2000s, a Batman greatest hits album that could be picked up by anyone and enjoyed, regardless of what they knew about the character. In the early goings of the story, Batman was swinging around the city, as he's wont to do, and his batline was cut by a mysterious assailant. He fell from a significant height, cracking his skull, almost garnering some attention from some bad people before Catwoman came and saved him.
It was pretty bad and he'd need surgery, which is where his childhood friend Tommy Elliot would come in, saving Batman's life. There have been numerous other times Batman almost died but this one was one of the most grievous because it was all part of Hush's plan.
8 Superboy Was Beaten Almost To Death By Superboy-Prime Before Actually Getting Killed By Him
Infinite Crisis was an action-packed banger of an event book and issue four saw one of the best fights in the book, as Superboy faced off against the vastly more powerful Superboy-Prime. It didn't go well for the Teen of Steel; Superboy-Prime can throw planets around, after all. Eventually, the Teen Titans and JSA would come to his aid, with the Flashes finally getting rid of Prime after he killed several Titans.
Superboy was very badly beaten and only saved because Lex Luthor was able to whisk him away and use advanced tech to save him. This would set up round two between the Superboys, one that would go terribly for adjectiveless one, as he would die in battle with Prime.
7 Zoom Brutalized Damage When The Society Attacked The Freedom Fighters
In the first issue of Infinite Crisis, the Freedom Fighters were following a lead looking for the Society, the grouping of the most powerful villains in the DC Universe, and found exactly what they were looking for. A group of villains including Cheetah, Bizarro, Deathstroke, Sinestro, Zoom, and Doctor Polaris made short work of the heroes, killing most of them.
Zoom, with his mania for making heroes "better", beat Damage within an inch of his life, damaging his face so badly it would deform him, causing him to always wear a full face mask, believing it would make the young man a better hero.
6 Martian Manhunter And Fire Don't Mix
Much like Superman, Martian Manhunter has all the best powers and he's pretty much unstoppable. However, also like the Man of Steel, J'onn J'onnz has a weakness that evens things up, although it's a bit mundane and hard to avoid as a superhero- fire. While he's learned to stay away from it, there have been some close calls over the years.
One of the most memorable was when Prometheus hit him with a phosphor dart, causing him to burn uncontrollably. He was able to get the fire out with some help from his teammates but it was a close thing, just like any other time he was actually set on fire.
5 Superman Almost Killed Wonder Woman While Mind-Controlled
Wonder Woman is one of the toughest heroes in the DC Universe but even she knows better than to tangle with Superman. Unfortunately, there have been times when she actually had to fight the Man of Steel and the worse was when Maxwell Lord took control of him and tried to have him kill Batman. Wonder Woman stood in the Man of Steel's way and what followed was an epic battle.
Wonder Woman was able to do some damage because of her vast skill advantage over the mind-controlled Superman but his massive power was taking its toll on her. The only reason she survived the fight was because she was able to kill Maxwell Lord, ending his control over Superman.
4 Hawkman Almost Died Fighting Black Adam
Hawkman has spent countless millennia fighting evil across time and space, dying and reincarnating while trying to make up for his time as commander of the Deathbringers in his first life. In modern times, he's been involved in some pretty epic battles but few were as hard on him as when he led the JSA against Black Adam after he and some other ex-heroes took over Kahndaq.
Hawkman is as tough as they come but he couldn't hold a candle to Black Adam, who savagely beat him. It took the entirety of the JSA to even phase Adam and even then, the fight ended in a draw.
3 Mordru Tore The Starheart From Green Lantern
The original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, was bonded with the Starheart, which powered his ring and kept him young. However, Mordru, long working behind the scenes to destroy the JSA, was able to use his mystic might to pull the Starheart out of Green Lantern and Scott's son Obsidian, working with Mordru at the time, imprisoned his father in the Shadowlands.
Starting to feel his actual age and powerless, Green Lantern would died have there if it wasn't for Stargirl, Shade, and Shazam retrieving him. The team was able to get the Starheart back for him and he made a huge difference in the battle.
2 Batgirl Getting Shot By The Joker Was The Worst Night Of Her Life
Batman: The Killing Joke is one of DC's must-read stories, containing one of the Joker's most heinous acts. Deciding to prove to everyone that one bad day is all it took for someone to become like him, he decided to prove this by going after Jim Gordon. His first act was shooting Barbara Gordon, otherwise known as Batgirl, in the stomach as she answered the door.
Left bleeding out on the floor, the whole episode was probably the closest she came to dying in her entire superhero career. Rushed to surgery, most of the internal damage was fixed except for her spine, paralyzing her from the waist down. It would force her to retire as Batgirl and become Oracle for years until she was able to teach herself to walk and become Batgirl once again.
1 Nightwing Was Shot In The Head By KGBeast
Batman's two oldest sidekicks have a bad track record with bullets. KGBeast was part of Bane's plan to destroy Batman and was paid to target Nightwing. He shot Nightwing in the head with Batman standing right there, which was predictably a bad idea for KGBeast, as Batman hunted him down and beat him pretty savagely.
Of course, getting shot in the head and the resulting surgery would have massive repercussions for Nightwing, as he lost a lot of his memory of his life and basically became a different person- Ric Grayson. Ric was an angrier, mouthier person who gave up being Nightwing for a time. He's recently regained his memory and his old personality but his time as Ric was a massive change due to brain trauma.
0 Comments