In case this needs to be said: SPOILERS AHEAD! Originally introduced in the 1940’s, Hawkman died in a series aptly named, “Death of Hawkman” released in 2016/17. In typical Superhero fashion, he sacrificed himself to save others. In this case, specifically sacrificing the Nth metal in his body and being vaporized. So…in the mid-80’s, DC comics had a problem…and that was continuity. DC confused readers so much with their multi-universe story arcs and several versions of the same character that readership dropped. To help solve this, they ran a 12-issue series called Crisis on Infinite Earths. The series used basically every DC character ever and killed many of them. The main villain, Anti-Monitor, was destroying the parallel universes where the alternate versions of DC heroes lived. While attempting to save Superman and other members of the Justice League, Anti-Monitor hits Supergirl with so much raw energy that her body cannot handle it and she dies. In later comics, a different villain basically drains the power of the sun, and most of the heroes were at a loss. Luckily, they came up with a plan. Unfortunately for this plan to work, in order to restart the Sun, a super being would have to die. Hal Jordan sacrificed himself and used the power he had obtained from destroying the Green Lantern Corps to restart the sun and save the Earth. Blue Beetle was later picked up by DC Comics and had his own series at DC from 1986-1988. In a large special issue called “Countdown to Infinite Crisis,” published in 2005, Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle at the time, refused to join Maxwell Lord’s evil organization. He said, “Go to H#%^, Max,” and Maxwell shot him in the head. (As most superheros do, he came back later.) As a side note, Todd’s character is later resurrected in a different series, and he becomes the Red Hood. He became so popular as Red Hood that he was voted one of the “50 Sexiest Male Characters in Comics” in 2013. Hey, sometimes life is just about finding the costume that fits.
