"No resurrections this time."
— Thanos to Thor after murdering Loki, Avengers: Infinity War
Even in a franchise based on comic books where death is occasionally cheap, Many of the bad guys die, as do quite a few of the mentors (often via Death by Origin Story), as well as a few other established characters who die over the course of the franchise as well and stay deadnote :
Films
Iron Man
- Ho Yinsen dies as early as the film's opening scene after he sacrifices himself to let Tony Stark escape.
- Raza is stunned by Stane after the latter betrays him, which is followed up by Stane ordering his men to have the former and his group killed.
- Obadiah Stane (AKA Iron Monger) is killed in the film's climax when he (and his suit) fall into the overloaded arc reactor.
- Anton Vanko dies early on in the flick, leading to his son, Ivan, swearing vengeance against the Stark family.
- Ivan himself commits suicide as a kamikaze attempt to take Stark and Rhodey with him.
- Laufey is killed by his biological son, Loki, as a means to impress his adoptive father Odin enough to claim the throne of Asgard.
- Abraham Erksine's death in Captain America: The First Avenger is very similar to the aforementioned Yinsen, being a mentor figure who was also killed prior to the protagonist emerging as a superhero.
- Maya Hansen is shot to death by her boss, Aldrich Killian, after she questions the latter's motives and begins to side with her former lover, Stark.
- Killian himself is blown to pieces from an Extremisis-powered Pepper Potts who uses one of Stark's armors to finish him off.
- Thor's and Loki's mother and Odin's wife, Frigga, is murdered by Malekith and Kurse in Thor: The Dark World.
- Kurse and Malekith themselves are killed off in the film's later scenes.
- Arnim Zola was already dead physically prior to Captain America waking up from his slumber, but his mind continues to live on within the computers of an old HYDRA base until the STRIKE team (led by Brock Rumlow) blows it up.
- Jasper Sitwell is thrown out of the car to his death by the Winter Soldier after his undercover S.H.I.E.L.D persona is compromised.
- Alexander Pierce is shot to death by Nick Fury after his ultimate plan via Project Insight is foiled. Prior to that, the former murders the rest of the World Security Council via badges rigged with poison.
- Meredith Quill is a benign example as she succumbs to brain cancer prior to Peter Quill's abduction. It's later revealed in Vol. 2 that her lover, Ego was the one who implanted a brain tumor on her, fearing she may be a distraction to his ultimate plan of universal expansion.
- The Other is swiftly killed by Ronan when the former tries to warn him of Thanos's threatening presence.
- Groot sacrifices himself to save the Guardians (Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket) when the Dark Aster was crashing down. Since the new Groot introduce in the mid-credits is a completely different one, this Groot we know of in the first movie is truly dead.
- Ronan is killed by the combined efforts of the remaining Guardians, who use the power stone to finish him off.
- Dr. List is killed by Iron Man when the latter and the rest of the Avengers invade HYDRA's Sokovian base.
- Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker is later killed by Ultron after he is captured and Ultron is "born."
- Pietro Maximoff, a.k.a. Quicksilver, is killed by Ultron in a Heroic Sacrifice to save Hawkeye, soon after he and his sister join the Avengers.
- Ultron is later destroyed by Vision after he uploads himself into the last sentry.
- Brock Rumlow blows himself up to death as a kamikaze attempt to kill Captain America. Captain America survives thanks to Wanda.
- Peggy Carter is a benign example, as she dies from old age.
- King T'Chaka is killed by Zemo after he blows up the building where the UN Conference is held in Vienna.
- While she makes a re-appearance via Time Travel in Avengers: Endgame, the death of the Ancient One was central and permanent for the story of Stephen Strange going forward. The Ancient One is also on of the few characters permanently dead in the comic books for similar reasons, so this fits.
- Soon after Yondu Udonta officially joins the Guardians, he makes a Heroic Sacrifice for his adoptive son Peter and dies from exposure to space.
- Ego is completely destroyed after Groot places a bomb on the planet's brain-like core. It's Laser-Guided Karma for him after he was the one who planted the tumor in Meredith Quill's brain.
- Odin is a benign example like Peggy Carter, as he also dies from old age, though his death was likely accelerated due to Loki abandoning him on Earth shortly before the ending of Dark World, where Loki usurped him and posed as him.
- The same film also sees all three of the Warriors Three murdered by Hela, with Fandral and Volstagg being killed right off the bat when Hela arrives at Asgard, and Hogun being finished off last after Hela wipes out the Asgardian Army.
- Avengers: Infinity War has most of its deaths—all of those caused by The Decimation Snap—undone in the following movie; however, Thanos directly kills four other characters before performing the Snap, whose deaths all stick:
- Heimdall and Loki are both murdered for trying to save the Hulk and Thor, respectively. Since Loki has faked his death multiple times in the past, Thanos explicitly states "No resurrections this time" to hammer it home. (though in the latter's case, his actor was surprised that soon after filming his character being killed, he was approached to learn Marvel was planning a Loki TV show - and indeed, the follow-up showed it was an Alternate Self created by Time Travel, just like the example below)
- Gamora is thrown off a cliff and falls to her death in a sacrifice for Thanos to obtain the Soul Stone. Though an alternate timeline version of her is brought into the main timeline in Endgame, the Gamora who underwent the Character Development of the two Guardians movies truly is dead.
- Vision has the Mind Stone violently ripped out of his forehead, essentially destroying his brain. Once the body is repurposed and revived in WandaVision, there is downright an extensive discussion about it's not the same entity because the revived corpse doesn't have the pre-death personality.
- All of Thanos's Black Order are killed off in their first appearance. Ebony Maw dies early, as Iron Man has him sucked into space by blowing part of a ship off. The rest of the order meet their doom in the Battle of Wakanda: Cull Obsidian is blown up by a collision between the Wakanda force field and the piece of the Hulkbuster armor attached to him, Proxima Midnight is shredded by a tank after Wanda telekinetically lifts her in the way, Corvus Glaive is stabbed to death from his own spear by Vision.
- While the film restores the victims of the Snap, it ends up kills off two founding members of the Avengers:
- Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow dies to obtain the Soul Stone in the exact same ritual that killed Gamora in the previous film. In Nat's case, though, she willingly makes the sacrifice, and in fact has to physically fight Hawkeye to prevent him from doing it himself.
- Tony Stark/Iron Man uses the Infinity Stones to perform his own Snap to kill Alternate Timeline-Thanos and his forces, and dies soon after thanks to the immense strain this puts on his body.
- Thanos is beheaded early on in the film by a vengeful Thor, though it's meaningless as he already succeeded in making his snap seemingly preventable and resigned to his fate. The Thanos that is later fought in the climax is a past version from 2014.
- Speaking of 2014 Thanos, he and his forces are dusted by Iron Man. And since the stones in the Sacred Timeline were destroyed by his 2018 counterpart and the stones obtained in the Time Heist were brought back to their timelines, the Thanos from that universe is dusted for good.
- Prior to that, the Nebula from that same timeline as Time Heist-Thanos is shot by her present-day counterpart.
- May Parker is fatally impaled by the Green Goblin's glider in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
- Jane Foster was already dying of Stage 4 cancer in Thor: Love and Thunder, but wielding the powers of Thor only accelerated her mortality further to the point where she succumbed to the disease after transforming one last time to stop Gorr.
- Gorr himself dies from the Necrosword curse, but not before successfully convincing Eternity to revive his daughter.
- In-line with the death of Chadwick Boseman due to colon cancer, T'Challa dies from an unspecified illness and Shuri failing to find a cure from him due to the Heart Shaped herb destroyed by Killmonger. All of this is preceded by T'Challa's initial death from Thanos's snap. And with Kevin Feige being completely adamant on NOT recasting T'Challa after Chadwick's passing, it is very unlikely he will ever be revived in some shape or form.
- Ramonda sacrifices herself to save Riri Williams by letting herself drown from Namor's attack on Wakanda.
TV Shows
- Phil Coulson is stabbed to death by Loki in The Avengers (2012), but is revived by Kree blood prior to the events of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1 and becomes one of the main protagonists. However, a deal with the Spirit of Vengeance in Season 4 has the effects of the blood slowly wear off, and he ultimately resigns to his fate by Season 5's conclusion. The Phil Coulson clones (Sarge/Pachaqutik, Coulson's Chromicom LMD) that appear in Season 6 and 7 are two completely different entities.
- In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Lemar Hoskins (aka Battle Star) is killed off by Karli Morgenthau when she punches him into a stone pillar, causing death by brain damage.
- Maria Hill, who had been resurrected from the Snap, is fatally shot by Gravik early in Secret Invasion (2023).
