With the global pandemic ongoing, 2020 has been a nightmarish year for everyone. While the superheroes of DC Comics exhibit abilities far beyond those of mortal men, even they are not immune to the effects of this terrible year.
In fact, a handful of DC’s most beloved characters didn’t make it out alive. As 2020 comes to a close and a new (and hopefully better) year draws nigh, it seems only appropriate to commemorate the comic book crime fighters and diabolical bad guys who lost their lives in the last twelve months.
Witchfire
Rebecca Carstairs was created by Kurt Busiek and Tom Grummett for JLA #61 in 2002. Carstairs was a successful pop star, actress, and model under the stage name Witchfire. After becoming an accomplished magic user and Power Company team member, Witchfire learned she was not the real Carstairs but a homunculus recreation. Witchfire was forced to choose between going to hell and living in a purgatory-like realm called the Collective Conscious. She obviously chose the latter. While attempting to help Wonder Woman save the world in Justice League Dark #18, the Upside Down Man tore open Witchfire’s throat.
Wally West
Former Kid Flash Wally West grew up to don his mentor’s moniker and became arguably the most popular hero ever to do so. West made his debut in John Broome and Carmine Infantino’s The Flash #110 in 1959. Wally’s heroic deeds and multiversal exploits are too numerous to document in a single paragraph. That said, the recent events of Heroes in Crisis left Wally a broken and embarrassed man. In Flash Forward #6, he decides that the only way to redeem himself and save his family is to sit on the Mobius Chair. This sacrifice stops Dr. Manhattan but erases Wally’s identity in the process.
King Shark
Nanaua, aka King Shark, first appeared in Superboy #0 in 1994 and was created by Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett. While there was initially some controversy surrounding Shark’s origins, Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis has definitely established that Nanaua is not a mutation but the son of the Shark God, Kamo. Originally a Superboy villain, Nanaua was later forced to join the Suicide Squad by Amanda Waller. In Suicide Squad #1, King Shark eviscerates the brother of a new squad member named Fin. Two issues later Fin takes his revenge by stabbing Nanaua in the side while swimming amongst a shiver of sharks. A feeding frenzy ensues and King Shark is consumed by his subjects.
Starfire
Princess Koriand'r is an alien from the planet Tamaran whose homeworld was enslaved and eventually destroyed by a group of fascist alien conquerors known as the Citadel. Kori eventually settled on Earth and took the superhero mantle of Starfire. She defends her adopted planet and others like it from suffering the same fate as her own. She made her first appearance in DC Comics Presents #26 in 1980 and was created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez. In Justice League Oddysey #19, Kori falls under the control of the evil Darkseid. She is killed in self-defense by her sister, Komand'r, who trusts that Epoch will use the Revision Mechanism to put things back the way they were.
Azrael
Azrael, whose real name is Jean-Paul Valley, has a complicated history for a younger character. Created in 1992 by Dennis O'Neil and Joe Quesada, Azrael debuted in Batman: Sword of Azrael #1 and was revealed to be the sacred protector of a centuries-old religious organization known as the Order of St. Dumas. Azrael’s most high-profile vigilantism came in the wake of Batman: Knightfall when he was asked to temporarily fill in for Bruce as Gotham’s Dark Knight. In Justice League Odyssey #20, Blackfire (Starfire’s villainous sister) disintegrates a mind-controlled Azrael before he can kill Jessica Cruz and Epoch in the name of Darkseid.
Hal Jordan
Hal Jordan was the first human being ever inducted into the Green Lantern Corp. That said, Hal has gone by many names since his first appearance in Showcase #22 in 1959. In 1994's Green Lantern #50, Hal became the host for the embodiment of fear; a demonic parasite called Parallax. After he sacrificed his life to save the universe, Hal's restless spirit was freed from Parallax but commandeered by The Spectre. He later separated his soul from The Spectre as well. In Green Lantern: Season 2 #6, Hal is killed by an Anti-Matter Lantern and again becomes the host of The Spectre. Dead, alive, dead, alive. Hal needs to make up his mind, already.
Captain Atom
Captain Atom was created by Joe Gill and Steve Ditko for Charlton Comics in 1960. Charlton folded in the early ’80s, and Nathaniel Adam made his DC Comics debut in 1985. Since then, Adam's life has been a rollercoaster. Captain Atom’s successes include helping the Justice League stop Maxwell Lord in the Justice League: Generation Lost limited series. He has also endured tragedy in the form of two dead spouses and a doomed marriage to Plastique. The recent Dark Knight Death Metal Guidebook explains that Dr. Arkham detonated Captain Atom to destroy the West Coast and help Perpetua and the Batman Who Laughs take over the world.
Deadshot
Floyd Lawton has been around far longer than casual readers may realize. He made his debut in Batman #59 in 1950 as a top hat-wearing sharpshooter who tries to usurp the Dark Knight. Since then, Deadshot has carved out a niche as a part-time-villain part-time-hero associated with such groups as the Secret Six and Suicide Squad. Lawton was recently shot in the head by Black Mask in Suicide Squad #9 when he discovers that Black Mask has been impersonating Ted Kord and manipulating Task Force X from behind the scenes. This is particularly tragic as Lawton had only recently reconnected with his estranged daughter, Zoe.
Swamp Thing
Swamp Thing began as an environmental scientist named Alec Holland who had developed a Bio-Restorative formula that would solve world hunger. In an act of corporate sabotage, Alec was caught in an explosion and subsequent chemical fire that transformed him into the plant-like Swamp Thing. Swamp Thing was created in 1971 by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson as the protector of all Earth’s plant life. In Justice League Dark #27, Swamp Thing sacrifices himself to help stop the Upside Down Man. In the following issue, Kirk Langstrom, AKA Man-Bat, reveals that there is “evidence of some gamma-wave synchrony,” and that there is hope for Swamp Thing’s resurrection.
Giovanni Zatara
Like Hal Jordan, Giovanni Zatara has been dead before. The stage-magician-turned-sorcerer was created by Fred Guardineer in 1938 for Action Comics #1, the same comic book in which Superman premiered. Forty-eight years later, Zatara would die in the pages of Swamp Thing #50 while battling the Great Evil Beast alongside Constantine, Mento, Sargon the Sorcerer, and his daughter, Zatanna. Zatara willingly took the Beast’s fiery wrath in his daughter’s place, but Constantine blamed himself for Zatara’s passing. In Justice League Dark #28, Zatara is resurrected in the wake of the Upside Down Man’s defeat but immediately sacrifices his life to resurrect the fallen John Constantine, proving that there were no lingering hard feelings between these two DC Comics legends.