X-Men: Days Of Future Past - 11 Awesome Moments That Have Been Wiped Out

2. Wolverine Kills Phoenix - X-Men: The Last Stand

Though the ultimate battle at the end of the Last Stand misses its mark thanks to the imbalanced decision to send in an army of pawns who really don't matter at all, and holding back the genuinely threatening mutant villains until the end (despite the fact that Phoenix could basically blink and wipe out the X-Men), the full-stop on the end of it is one of the best moments of the franchise. Newly convinced of his duty to kill Phoenix at all costs, Wolverine is forced not only to wrestle with his own emotions but also with the apocalyptic tornado of mutant evil that the object of his attention attempts to rain down on him as he approaches her. And for all the franchise's attempts to make Rogue's attempt to be able to love Bobby Drake in a very physical manner the emotional heart of the story arc, it is in Wolverine's struggle in this moment that that heart is realised. The sight of Phoenix attempting to flay Wolverine's flesh away from his body is an enduring one, and though the whole sequence opens a lot of questions (how does Wolverine heal that fast? Why doesn't Phoenix simply manipulate her own atoms to make being stabbed non-fatal?), it's a great conclusion to the otherwise mishandled Dark Phoenix arc.