10 Times Supervillains Killed Other Villains

10. Ruin Kills Mister Mxyzptlk - Rack & Ruin

It might be unfair to label Mister Mxyzptlk as a straight up villain, given he's more a mischievous imp in the vein of a mythological trickster god, but it's equally fair to say that he's caused a lot of grief for Superman over the years, and has skirted into supervillain territory more than once or twice.

The character's main goal has always been to torment and test the Man of Steel, but Kal-El has proven more than capable of outwitting Mxy and banishing him back to the fifth dimension by getting him to say his own name backwards. Over time, the pair even came to respect one another, becoming friends, and during the events of the 2006 storyline, Rack & Ruin, an amnesia-afflicted Mxyzptlk was cast in unquestionably sympathetic terms as he struggled to get back home.

But a villain he once was, and during the Greg Rucka, Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir and Renato Guedes comic, Mxy and Supes' friendship came to a tragic end.

During a fight with Ruin (a new villain on the block who was later revealed to be Emil Hamilton), everyone's favourite fifth dimensional imp is impaled by a kryptonite spear meant for Superman, and effectively dies saving the Man of Steel's life. Mxy tries to save himself by saying his own name backwards, before vanishing, and does later return in Countdown to Infinite Crisis, but there's no getting away from just how tragic a sacrifice his was.