12 Superheroes That Kill Without Hesitation (Marvel and DC)
The comic book media throughout the years showed us that superheroes are always on the side of good – they always see better in their foes and do not wish to harm them more than they need to. Well, some of our superheroes are not impartial in killing their opponents. In recent decades, superheroes got more complex in character, and for that, we will provide you with a list of 12 superheroes that kill without hesitation in the Marvel and DC universe.
The complexity of the characters was achieved through big and tough decisions our superheroes had to go through to do the right thing, and most of the time they needed to kill for the good. Some of them killed because they wanted to kill and both of these characters will be listed in our article. Without further ado, let’s start!
12. Black Widow (Marvel Comics)
Natasha Romanoff is truly a complicated character. Her backstory is remarkable in her own right and working as a spy for the Russian government did make her kill a lot of people. Just in MCU, while being a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative and an Avenger, Black Widow’s kill count went as high as more than few hundred.
In the comics, she did kill multiple enemies including some of the allies, like Hawkeye’s family in the Ultimate comics, and Jasper Sitwell, who was a top S.H.I.E.L.D agent and Fury’s right hand. She even killed her step-father Ivan Petrovich who, took care of her in her youth but turned insane and developed a weird crush on her. It was a tough blow for Natasha, but she did not have a better choice.
11. Hal Jordan (DC Comics)
What is a DC superhero who does not go on a killing spree once in a while? Well, Hal Jordan did and boy did he do it thoroughly. After a catastrophe destroyed his hometown Coast City, Hal Jordan was stricken with grief and became a Parallax, a being that destroyed almost the whole world.
Jordan killed almost everyone, including the Green Lantern Corps, Guardians of the Universe, and even his close friends! Well, besides one Guardian who provided Kayle Rayner a left-over Green Lantern Power Ring. Hal Jordan became the strongest being in the DC universe, and he was only stopped because of his power of will – no one could stop him or defeat him beside himself.
10. Deadpool (Marvel Comics)
Deadpool is a special superhero. By special, we mean he has his own rules, only he follows, like breaking the fourth wall, and just other Deadpool signature shenanigans. Of course, he is not impartial to the killing which we see in comics nonstop, and Deadpool movies.
However, the ultimate murdering session Deadpool achieved in a special comic book series called “Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe” was inspired by “Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe”. Deadpool kills everyone in sight in that comic, which, thankfully is not canon. Regardless of that Deadpool kills because he just does not care, and if someone has a problem with that… well, he will kill them.
9. The Spectre (DC Comics)
The Spectre is a really cool DC character that had few versions, but the oldest and at the same time the most recent one Jim Corrigan, is the most notable one. The Spectre is a cosmic entity and the physical embodiment of God’s vengeance on Earth which leads to the reason why is he on this list. Spectre newer fooled around and his killings are quite notable from the Golden Age of comics.
He once turned a man into the wood and sawed him in pieces, but that is not his biggest murder. In one comic during the 1990s, the Spectre destroyed the whole country after finding out that there will always be fighting and bloodshed, and nothing can stop the people from doing it. He spared the lives of two leaders who led the war to teach them a lesson, and boy did it do it properly.
8. Psylocke (Marvel Comics)
X-Force is usually not impartial to murdering, and Psylocke is one of them. In the first version of Psylocke before she switched bodies with Kwannon, Betsy Baddock was ruthless in the mild sense of the word. Being part of the X-Force, which is more ruthless than X-Men and is not holding back if they think something is right, made her quite brutal.
She was “forced” to kill her older brother by using her twin brothers’ bodies and that particular even changed her a lot. But still, that did not stop her from doing good.
7. Red Hood (DC Comics)
Jason Todd’s version of Red Hood is the most prominent one today, even though some fans consider Joker as the more known one. However, Joker’s Red Hood did not have an impact on Batman like Jason Todd did – he is Batman’s adopted son. After being resurrected into Red Hood, Jason was ruthless with his enemies – he did become a violent vigilante trying to “clean out” Gotham of criminal scum.
He was more of an anti-hero than a superhero but he still fights with the forces of good. He is working closely with Robins of the Gotham and thoroughly ignoring Batman in the process – Batman opposes the Red Hoods type of “heroism”, murdering people in cold blood.
6. Wolverine (Marvel Comics)
Besides Wolverine Kills the Marvel Universe, Logan, before joining X-Men fully was really violent. An alternate version of Logan did once kill X-Men accidentally, but when it comes to the main universe, more precisely, Earth-616, Wolverine killed a lot of his opponents. Sabretooth comes into mind, Magneto during Age of Apocalypse Arc, Jean Grey in form of Dark Phoenix who wanted to destroy the world and more.
He is an amazing superhero but sometimes ruthless when he needs to be.
5. Green Arrow (DC Comics)
In the Arrowverse, at the start of the CW’s Arrow, Oliver Queen was seen being a vigilante in Starling City. He killed a lot of people before realizing this was not the way and intervention from Diggle and Felicity. In the comics, he is more held back but had to be vicious at times – he killed Prometheus after he kickstarted an Earthquake that destroyed the whole city and killed Roy Harper’s daughter Lian and his granddaughter.
Let’s just say he was not happy. Even though he is not bloodthirsty like the rest of this list, he had more instances where he would use his lethal arrows,
4. Aquaman (DC Comics)
Aquaman is quite powerful and his ruling of Atlantis is always threatened by underwater enemies who want to take over this underwater continent. Because of that, Arthur is not gentle and merciful – he is quite opposite when saving his friends and home. Black Manta is a supervillain from DC comics and one of Aquaman’s biggest foes.
In one comic issue, young Aquaman kills Black Manta’s father after an attack on his father. He did regret it later, but that burden is something he needs to carry with him all his life. Also, he kills individuals he thinks to deserve it.
3. Punisher (Marvel Comics)
We can safely say, Frank Castle a.k.a. Punisher is one of the most brutal characters in the Marvel Universe. He has dodgy alliances, but is mostly good, at most a kill-thirsty vigilante who protects New York from crime scum. This antihero killed a lot of people, including Spider-Man! In one comic book run, he brutally murdered Wolverine by shooting in his face and literally steamrolled him like a pancake.
Besides killing allies, he is actually killing enemies, and one of the most notable ones was Kingpin. He is a good guy, right?
2. Superboy Prime (DC Comics)
Even though he is essentially an alternate version of “our” Superman, Superboy-Prime played a huge part during the huge DC comics event Crisis on Infinite Earths. He was originally living on Earth-Prime and was the only superhero and individual with superpowers on the planet. He felt invincible, but all came crashing down when the Crisis on Infinite Earth happened and destroyed his reality. Superboy-Prime was stuck in the “paradise” dimension but could not let go of his past life and destiny of being Earth’s mightiest hero.
He slowly became murderous, unpredictable, and overall went insane in his convictions of being the only true Superman. Because of that, Superboy-Prime is actually one of the most powerful villains in the DC universe.
1. Star-Lord (Marvel Comics)
Only in MCU, did Guardians have more than 80,000 kills in total, which was the highest total of killed individuals in the movie ever. That is absolutely nothing in comparison to how many Peter Quill a.k.a. Star-Lord killed alone. According to Nova Corps, believe it or not, Star-Lord killed more than 350,000 individuals.
He has been a part of the conflict since his young age and it truly shows in his kill count total. The rest of the Guardians are not that innocent either – Gamora, Rocket Racoon, and Drax alone killed countless people. We could’ve put the whole team in this entry but we will leave this for the next time.
