10 Comic Characters Who Actually Stayed Dead

3. Alexandra DeWitt

death of captain marvel
DC Comics

Alexandra DeWitt's death is one of the most infamous in comics, even coining a whole new term.

Alex was a photographer and the girlfriend of Kyle Rayner. When Kyle was chosen to be the last remaining Green Lantern after an insane Hal Jordan wiped them out, she agreed to help him learn to control his powers.

Alex wasn't around for long though. When the supervillain Major Force discovered Kyle's identity, he killed her. Force strangled Alex and shoved her body in a fridge, leaving her for Kyle to find.

The abruptness of Alex's death led writer Gail Simone to create the website Women in Refrigerators, a list of female characters who are killed or maimed, just to give a male character motivation. The phrase has since become a popular way of describing any time something traumatic happens to a character but the focus is instead on how it affected the main character. Alexandra's death is also cited by many as an example of how badly women are often treated in comics compared to their male counterparts.

Alex was also reanimated as a Black Lantern and, in probably one of the most inappropriate uses of black comedy ever, attacked Kyle in the form of a giant fridge.

Contributor

I was just a mild-mannered NCTJ accredited journalist until one day I found out the truth... that I could share my nerdy ramblings with people on the internet! It's just like mumbling to myself on the train, but without all the strange looks.