With the highly anticipated Thor: Love and Thunder out very soon, fans are theorizing that Thor will have a tragic death, as the God of Thunder's formidable-looking new villain is Gorr the God Butcher. However, the fourth installment of the MCU series wouldn't be the first superhero movie that sees the villain lose.
Whether it's mentally or literally, these heroes all lose in their movies. Between failing to stop the antagonist from fulfilling a mass-murdering plot, the villain breaking the hero down mentally, and the heroes being brutally murdered, not all superhero movies have happy endings.
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Zemo is one of the best MCU villains, and he's easily one of the most powerful. Though he doesn't have any powers or supernatural abilities, and he isn't a purple being from outer space, he still managed to drive a wedge between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark and tear the Avengers apart.
In Captain America: Civil War, instead of the Avengers going after Zemo, they split themselves into two separate camps and fought each other. The villain also broke Tony down mentally, causing irreparable emotional damage and forcing him to only see Bucky as a monster. And while all of the characters reconciled in later movies, Civil War ended with some of them on the run, some imprisoned, and others looking for revenge, which isn't exactly a heroic end.
Watchmen (2009)
Watchmen is an ensemble cast full of heroes, but the main superheroes that the bulk of the movie follows, Rorschach and Nite Owl, are on a fool's errand for the entire 2.5 hours. The two of them work together to uncover who is behind the terrorist attack, which they completely fail at. Not only that, but when they visit Ozymandias and he reveals he was behind the disaster the whole time, Rorschach and Nite Owl learn that they were always too late to stop it.
That means that not only did the superheroes lose, but their failure led to three million people being killed, and, ultimately, they had absolutely no effect on the movie's plot.
The Dark Knight (2008)
While the Joker does get turned in at the end of The Dark Knight, and the civilians and inmates on the ships prove him wrong, he still manages to ruin the lives of Gotham's two biggest heroes. At the end of The Dark Knight, Batman takes the blame for Harvey Dent's murder, which leads to cops hunting down the Caped Crusader and Bruce Wayne retiring the alter ego for eight years.
And looking at the film as if Harvey is the hero, as he was effectively Gotham's hero without a mask, he lost as soon as he chose vengeance as the answer. The movie puts it best itself with the iconic line, "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."
Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (2016)
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was massively polarizing when it was first released, but Superman fans must have been disappointed the most. At least Batman fans got to see the Caped Crusader at his best when it comes to combat, as the scene in the warehouse is one of the greatest Batman fight sequences ever. Superman, on the other hand, lost not once but twice.
For starters, when the title fight finally arrived, Batman had Superman's life in his hands, and he would have taken it if it wasn't for Superman yelling "Martha!" But it turned out that Superman's death was merely postponed, as he is killed in the final fight with Doomsday. Even though everybody knew the Man of Steel would return in Justice League, he went from one major loss to another in the 2016 movie.
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Ferris Bueller's Day Off is Homcoming's classic movie counterpart, as the first MCU Spider-Man movie is clearly influenced by the '80s coming-of-age flick. Spider-Man: Homecoming is essentially a coming-of-age film, and that means Peter Parker has to overcome a few obstacles.
The 2017 movie is possibly the most accurate depiction of a superhero in his infancy, as he's terrible at fighting crime. Though he isn't at rock bottom at the end of the movie, Spider-Man loses every consecutive fight and action sequence he's in. He loses to Vulture every time they come face-to-face, and even when it comes to saving the ferry boat from sinking, it's Iron Man who saves the day.
Glass (2019)
Being a direct sequel to 2000's Unbreakable and 2016's Split, Glass is one of the most unexpected superhero movies ever produced. The film is the universe's very own warped version of The Avengers, as it sees the heroes and villains team up to take on a greater threat, a secret society that wants to keep the world from knowing that superheroes exist. Unfortunately, it doesn't end well for anybody but the society.
Though a video is leaked online of the heroes in action, everyone one of them is killed. David is drowned, as water is his one weakness, Kevin is shot by a sniper, and Elijah dies due to blood loss and broken bones. While it looks like Glass wraps up the story, it'd be interesting to learn more about the secret society in another follow-up.
Logan (2017)
Logan is grueling and mortifying from the very beginning, and though he saved Laura, he died from fatal stab wounds in the process. So many iconic characters deserve their own Logan-like swan song, but that might mean even more unbearable heartbreak, as the 2017 superhero movie had fans in tears when Wolverine was killed.
What made his death even more unnecessarily tearjerking was when Laura turned his grave's crucifix on its side to resemble an X. Not only that, but Logan had to witness the death of the person closest to him, Charles Xavier, and as Xavier was killed by X-24, he died believing that his own friend had turned on him. However, fans hope to see Hugh Jackman as Wolverine again at some point, preferably in the upcoming Deadpool 3.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Avengers: Infinity War sees not only half of the Avengers being killed off, but half of the human race. 3.5 billion people are just erased from Earth in one of the most devastating and jaw-dropping endings, as Thanos simply snaps his fingers.
It's such a risky way to end a blockbuster movie that's aimed at all ages, and kids surely had some questions for their parents when Spider-Man faded away into dust. Even though fans knew it was just the first of two parts, the ending still somehow manages to haunt audiences, and it does such a great job at creating an eerie sense of dread.