10 Comic Book Movie Deaths That Should Never Have Happened

Released in 2012, the first Kingsman film tells the story of local hoodlum Gary "Eggsy” London who, in a bid to make a name for himself and follow in the footsteps of his deceased father, decides to become a Kingsman agent rather than a drug dealing, tracksuit-wearing thug, encountering a strange villain or two along the way.

As career changes go, it is rather drastic, but Eggsy does a stellar job in the film, knuckling down and surviving several close calls to rise up the ranks and earn his stripes, eventually foiling a plan hatched by Samuel L. Jackson’s Richmond Valentine and popping the villain’s head off in the process - in a scene so surreal you don’t know whether it's intended to be serious or amusing. It’s colourful, at least.

Yet the first film makes a huge error by killing off Eggsy’s mentor, Colin Firth’s Harry Hart, who is given a rather fitting finale of being shot at point-blank range by Valentine - only to return in the sequel as it emerges as he wasn’t dead in the first place.

Consequently, the second film appears disjointed and Hart’s return from the afterlife feels forced, a decision that may have paid off in the marketing department but one that makes the film less stylish and smooth than its predecessor. In the sequel, The Golden Circle, Mark Strong’s Merlin gets the chop instead. Hopefully, though, the people in power behind the third film opt against another miraculous comeback...