10 Comic Book Deaths You Never Saw Coming

10. Blue Beetle - Countdown To Infinite Crisis #1 (2005)

Ted Kord was a millionaire who used his fortune to become a crimefighting spy called the Blue Beetle. Throughout his career, the bug-inspired vigilante broke into corrupt organisations, hacked computers, and gathered intel to bring down criminals, especially crooked businessmen.

While looking into Amanda Waller's intelligence agency, Checkmate, Kord discovered she had files on nearly every superbeing on Earth. Checkmate's leader, Maxwell Lord, then confronted Kord and informed him that he was intending to wipe out every metahuman on the planet.

Because Lord was once friends with Kord and worked with the Justice League, you'd assume he'd would just imprison Blue Beetle to stop him from telling his teammates. Instead, Lord blew Blue Beetle's head off then and there.

What makes Kord's death so tragic is that it could've been avoided if the superheroes took him seriously. Unfortunately, the Justice League was on the verge of collapse at the time and Batman had severe trust issues (more than usual), causing all of Kord's warnings to be ignored.

Also, Kord wasn't 'Comic Book Dead'. He was 'Dead Dead', since we never saw this incarnation of Blue Beetle return until the New 52 reboot.