In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it turns out that being a bad guy can be bad for your health — and that being a good guy is almost certainly going to mean that you get blood on your gloves sooner rather than later.
A thread on the Marvel Studios subreddit has tracked the deaths in all of the Marvel movies to date, and uncovered that, of all the studio’s title heroes, only Spider-Man and the Wasp have not been complicit in a killing to date — a fact that would, perhaps, be more meaningful had the Wasp not just appeared for the first time in the very last Marvel release.
The thread, and attached spreadsheet, records the surprising numbers of deaths of major characters in the Marvel movies, as well as the method of death (a lot of stabbings) and who helped out with the deadly deeds. That last part is particularly important, as it’s only through assists that some of the heroes earn a place on the kill list: Black Widow, Hawkeye and, surprisingly, Captain America managed to avoid any firsthand murder — which, considering all three are literally government agents trained to kill, seems more than a little odd.
If there’s one thing to learn from the listing, it’s that the Marvel movies are unexpectedly bloodthirsty. With this kind of kill rate, it’s no surprise that Superman ending up breaking Zod’s neck in the controversial 2013 movie Man of Steel. Clearly, he was just playing catch up.
