10 Immortal Comic Characters (Who Actually Died)
7. The Monitor - Crisis On Infinite Earths
The death of the Monitor was perhaps the biggest comic death of the 80s, and remains one of the most surprising demises in DC history.
As a being who is able to access almost limitless amounts of energy, the Monitor is about the most powerful a character can get, and thus his death came completely from left field in Crisis on Infinite Earths. This is made doubly surprising due to the person who killed him, as his murderer was none other than a hero named Harbinger, who the Monitor had raised since she was a child.
After being manipulated by the Anti-Monitor's forces, Lyla blasts the Monitor to death, traumatising herself in the process. This trauma would be made yet worse by her later discovery that the Monitor had actively wanted her to kill him, because he would be able to use his spirit to move both Earth-1 and Earth-2 to a place safe from the Anti-Monitor's attacks.