10 Times Supervillains Killed Other Villains

Jonathan Hickman is a blockbuster comic book writer, and 2015's Secret Wars represents the conclusion of over a decade's worth of his storytelling in the Marvel universe.

Joined for the event by Esad Ribic and Ive Svorcina, Secret Wars pooled together Hickman's work on Fantastic Four and the Avengers, drawing to a close some arcs that commenced in 2013 and others that began a long time before.

With Doctor Doom receiving the power of the Beyonders at the conclusion of Time Runs Out, the Latverian dictator is able to save reality from complete destruction. The catch? Well, Victor merges all reality into a place called Battleworld, which he rules over as God Emperor. Doom's new reality comes with the added bonus (for him) of having no Reed Richards, and Susan Storm being his wife. All in all, ol' Doomy has it pretty made.

But there are still challenges for the omnipotent God Emperor. Certain characters managed to survive the merging of realities and retain their memory of what life was like before, and one of them was Thanos.

Thanos, perhaps naively, challenges Doom's authority on the battlefield. Doom offers him a place as one of Battleworld's barons, but the Mad Titan (living up to his name in this instance), refuses. Doom then plunges his hands deep into his chest and rips out Thanos' spinal column, holding his skull in his hand like a snazzy new bowling ball.

Thanos would return along with the rest of the Marvel universe once Reed Richards and Molecule Man restored reality, but as far as villain-on-villain executions go, this was pretty brutal.