10 Times DC Went Too Far
9. Maxwell Lord Murders Blue Beetle - Countdown To Infinite Crisis
The life of Ted Kord is one of the most fascinating in comic history, not just of DC. After being adopted into the DC universe during Crisis on Infinite Earths, Ted hung around, helping out where he could. Sure he wasn't as smart as Batman, but he was definitely more approachable and better with people.
And then they killed him.
And they didn't just kill him. Oh no, they had Maxwell Lord pull one of the most confusing heel turns into villainy comics readers are likely to see, and then had him blow Ted's brains out, the next panel hyper focusing on his mangled death mask staring off into space as blood oozes from his skull.
Countdown to Infinite Crisis really is a good story, but killing off Ted Kord, and doing so in such a gratuitously brutal way, was just stepping over the line.
This is definitely not the last we'll be seeing of the Infinite Crisis event on this list. But Ted Kord's death was about as perfect a sign of what readers were in for.