More often than not, when it comes to comic book movies, at least one character dies. Usually (but not always) it's the villain - look at Jack Nicholson's Joker (Batman), Jeff Bridges' Obadiah Stane (Iron Man), Christopher Eccleston's Malekith (Thor: The Dark World) and Lee Pace's Ronan (Guardians Of The Galaxy) - because it wraps up a good old fashioned moral arc. But it really could be anyone, given the volatile and violent nature of what tends to go down in movies with superheroes and villains in them. Sometimes, characters get exactly what they deserve. They got their comeuppance for their nefarious deeds and the method of death was perfect - Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin died when his glider killed him, after he had aimed it at Spider-Man, for instance - but often you can't help thinking certain characters should have died in "better" ways (if that's the right term for it) and that their actual deaths were somewhat harsh. Whether their death was far more painful than they deserved, far too underwhelming or simply came at the wrong time, a number of comic book movie characters' deaths just haven't sat right with audiences.
12. General Zod (Man Of Steel)
General Zod might have been the villain of the piece (and a pretty nasty one at that, given that he wanted to wipe out humanity), but the fact is his death in 2013's Man of Steel was pretty crappy - he had his neck snapped by Superman. That's not to say he didn't deserve it in terms of his character's behaviour - he absolutely did - but the fact is that he's an iconic character who should neither have died so early in the DCEU franchise or in such a controversial fashion. His death at the hands of Superman had fans in uproar. "Superman doesn't kill!" were the cries. That aside, Zod is a character with so much to offer and he could have been used in a Loki-esque manner several more times in future movies. To have killed off one of Superman's most iconic villains in his first appearance was a crying shame - especially given that his corpse is now strongly expected to be used as a means of creating Doomsday in a future DCEU movie. Having him banished with the option of returning to be killed off at a later date would have been a better option.
