10 Comic Book Catastrophes That Killed Millions
9. Nitro Detonates, Destroys A School Bus - Civil War
Death toll: 612
A notch up from that is the inciting incident that eventually kicked of Civil War, the Marvel crossover event orchestrated by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven that saw the superhero population being divided over whether or not they should acquiesce to a new law that demanded they disclose their secret identity to the US government and essentially work as a trained-up, responsible agent for them.
Unsurprisingly, many weren't happy about that.
The whole reason for that about-turn from the government occurred right at the start of the main Civil War series, when the New Warriors (or at least a bunch of young upstarts calling themselves the New Warriors) launch a sneak attack on a C-list group of supervillains hideout whilst being filmed for their reality TV show. The untested, rookie group of heroes cant quite handle the situation, with explosive bad guy Nitro detonating himself.
He destroyed several city blocks, including an elementary school at the epicentre, resulting in the death of over 600 civilians, 60 of whom were children, with just Speedball of the Warriors and Nitro himself surviving. And then Speedball became the emo-as-heck vigilante Penance, with 612 spikes inside his costume, the pain constantly reminding him of the deaths he caused. Okay dude.