When it comes to toughness, it's hard to beat the heroes of Marvel. Day in and day out, these respected heroes put their lives on the line in the fight against evil, pushing themselves to the limit and beyond. Being a superhero is a rough job and some heroes are rougher about it than others, surprising everyone with their ability to survive some old school grievous bodily harm.
In fact, there are some heroes who come closer to death than others, powering through some harrowing beatdowns imaginable to pull out the win and save the day, leaving them with gnarly scars but also a deep feeling of accomplishment.
10 Sabretooth In The Age Of Apocalypse Walked Away From Getting His Guts Ripped Out
Age Of Apocalypse is one of the most beloved X-Men stories of all time, showcasing a very different Marvel Universe. One of these differences was that Sabretooth had become an X-Man, saving the life of young mutant Blink and leaving behind the forces of Apocalypse. In Astonishing X-Men #2, he faced down Holocaust, the son of Apocalypse, and was captured by him.
In the next issue, Sabretooth would goad and insult the powerful Horseman, resulting in Holocaust hitting him with an attack that tore open his entire midsection. Blink found him that way and was sure he was dead but he somehow survived, a testament to his toughness and healing factor.
9 In Hulk: The End, The Hulk Gets Devoured By Mutant Cockroaches & Gets Better
Hulk: The End, by writer Peter David and artist Dale Keown, kicked off Marvel doing The End books in the early '00s in grand fashion, showcasing the Hulk finally getting his wish and living on an Earth all by himself, completely devoid of human life. The story also has Banner repeatedly try to commit suicide, but the Hulk not letting him, which is both tragic and kind of funny in a Looney Tunes sort of way.
However, the Hulk himself isn't immune to the dangers of this post apocalyptic world as he's attacked by the only other lifeform on the planet- giant mutant cockroaches- and devoured. However, his amazing healing factor, one of the best in the Marvel Universe, brings him back, rebuilding him in one night.
8 Tony Stark Began His Superhero Career By Almost Getting Killed
By now, everyone knows the origin of Tony Stark- billionaire arms mogul Tony Stark is captured and injured showing off his weapons in an active warzone and is forced to build weapons for his captors, all while dealing with shrapnel in his chest that threatens to kill him.
Tony Stark started his superhero career on death's door and what makes it all the more impressive is that he is able to battle through what most have been pretty incredible pain to build the armor that kept him alive and let him get revenge. That's a pretty impressive feat and that's just how he started as a hero.
7 Spider-Man Constantly Gets Beaten Nearly To Death
Spider-Man is known for being the happy go-lucky superhero but underneath the surface, he's a person using his superhero persona to deal with a lot of trauma. Part of that trauma is physical, as Spider-Man gets beat on a lot. In fact, his fighting style is basically jumping around a lot before stopping punches with his face.
There have been multiple times that Spider-Man has come close to death but some of the most grievous were against the vampire Morlun, who was one of Spidey's gravest challenges. Morlun was even actually able to kill Spider-Man but he survived because of the unique nature of his spider powered physiology and got revenge against the vampiric menace.
6 Psylocke Survived A Savage Sabretooth Beating
In Wolverine #90, Wolverine lobotomized Sabretooth with a claw. The villain seemingly reverted to a childlike, animalistic state, making friends with the mutant Boom Boom and acting like her big kitten. However, it was all a ruse to use her to get him loose and she would have lost her life if Psylocke hadn't showed up.
Psylocke and Sabretooth had a knock down, drag out fight but Psylocke's telepathy was ineffective against the mutant berserker, who used his greater strength, speed, and skill to eviscerate her. She would have died but Archangel and Wolverine went on a quest to get her the elixir of the Crimson Dawn, something that saved her while also changing her.
5 Bucky Survived A Bomb Blast & Became The Winter Soldier
For decades, there were a few things in comics that never changed and one of them was that Bucky stayed dead. However, rules were meant to be broken, so writer Ed Burbaker retconned the whole thing. Instead of dying in the bomb blast that was thought to have killed him, Bucky survived, losing an arm, and was retrieved by Russian forces.
They rebuilt him into the Winter Soldier and made him one of the premiere assassins of the 20th and 21st centuries, sending him on missions then putting him back in suspended animation. Eventually, thanks to his friend Captain America, he'd break free but for years his survival transformed him into a pawn of the enemy.
4 Captain America's Super Soldier Serum Has Been The Cause Of His Closest Calls
Captain America's super soldier serum is one of his greatest weapons. Sure, his shield, tactical skill, and good ol' fashioned can do attitude helps a lot but without the super soldier serum, all of that would be moot. For example, Cap is really old and the serum keeps him young and spry. Well, until it doesn't anymore.
More than once, Cap's super soldier serum has just stopped working and it's brought him extremely close to death. The first time was probably the worst, as his body started to break down and he was forced to wear armor to even keep fighting evil, his heart about to give out at any moment.
3 Thor Almost Got Murked By The Dark Elves After He Lost His Worthiness To Mjolnir
Thor became unworthy of the power of Mjolnir after Original Sin but he still wanted to prove that he could hang with the big boys. Taking up his old ax Jarnbjorn, Thor went after Malekith and a group of Dark Elves and it ended pretty badly for him.
The Dark Elves smacked him around like he was nothing and then Malekith was able to disarm him in two ways— first by taking Jarnbjorn, then using it to take his arm. This whole incident was pretty demoralizing to him and the fact that he survived at all was a pretty big surprise.
2 Deadpool Almost Dies Constantly
Deadpool is basically a hyper violent cartoon character; nothing that is ever done to him ever seems to stick. It's actually kind of hard to say if Deadpool is ever in any real danger of actually dying, as his healing factor is one of the most impressive in the Marvel Universe. However, dude gets chopped up, blown up, and otherwise almost killed on a regular basis.
In fact, Deadpool's whole MO is just taking as much damage as possible before coming back and killing everyone in his way. Fighting Deadpool is kind of futile because he can take whatever is thrown at him and will joke about it the entire time.
1 Wolverine Getting His Adamantium Tore Out Was The Worst Thing That Ever Happened To Him
Much like Deadpool, Wolverine's healing factor has allowed him to survive some truly harrowing injuries but there have been times when he's gotten close to death. The worst time was almost certainly when Magneto ripped the adamantium from his skeleton. Wolverine is used to pain but that was beyond the pale.
His healing factor was completely overwhelmed and almost shut down; if it wasn't Jean Grey telekinetically holding him together, he almost certainly would have died. For months afterward, his healing factor was much slower, forcing him to be smarter in how he fought his enemies and come closer to death than he ever had before on numerous occasions.
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