10 Most Tragic Deaths In The History Of Marvel Comics
3. Charles Xavier
The Avengers vs X-Men crossover event was either totally epic or an epic fail, depending on who you talk to, but there's no mistaking that it made for some huge changes in the status quo of both teams. Sparked by the return of the Phoenix Force, an interplanetary fiery god...thing that likes to bond with powerful people and turn them into planet-destroying maniacs - we suppose as an immortal, immutable essence of destruction you have to fill your days somehow - that this time had it sights set on X-Man Hope Summers, the battle suffered casualties on both sides. The mutants, still smarting by Avenger Scarlet Witch's curing the majority of their population, refused to give Hope up without a fight. As it turned out, the worst fatalities happened to the X-Men themselves.
Now, Charles Xavier has died before. Sometimes it's faked (because he's a jerk), sometimes it's the result of some time travelling shenanigans that all get ironed out eventually (like Age Of Apocalypse) and sometimes it's a for real death...which will eventually get undone, obviously, but so far that hasn't been the case with Avengers vs X-Men. Under the semi-control of the Phoenix Force having intercepted it on the way to his future daughter or whatever Hope isn't, Cyclops kills his longtime mentor and father figure, the man who practically raised him, when he is confronted about what he's going to do with his interplanetary death powers. Fair question, we reckon. Scott Summers didn't think so.
The effects of this death are still being felt, within the X-Men titles and beyond. It's basically fuelled the first year of All-New X-Men, Uncanny Avengers and Uncanny X-Men, as Cyclops and the Jean Grey School split into separate factions and everybody remains really, really mad at Scott Summers for killing Professor X. Despite all his own dodgy antics, Xavier represented the hopeful, pacifist paragon for a future where mutants and humankind get along. Seeing him murdered, and by the guy he treated like a son? Pretty tragic, guys.