The Honored Dead

In honor of Bart Allen's death in the pages of The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #13, Wizard has put together a list of the fifty greatest deaths in comic book history. Not surprisingly, you'll find the late, great Barry Allen near the top of the list. The Flash comes in at number two on the countdown chosen by the magazine's staff, losing first place to the man of steel--for whom, of course, death was only a temporary inconvenience. Barry's longtime foe Captain Boomerang--who died facing off against Jack Drake in Identity Crisis #5--also makes the list at number twenty-four.

For its first major crossover event, DC swore that its Crisis would have serious consequences. But not even the most jaded fan believed that the publisher would sacrifice longtime DC mainstay the Flash in the process. Deemed a wild card due to his ability to travel between alternate universes, the Anti-Monitor imprisons Allen in the antimatter universe of Qward. Freeing himself, he uses his super-speed to destroy the Monitor’s equipment, pushing his acceleration to unheard-of levels against power-draining antimatter. The exertion is too much, and Allen dies the quintessential hero’s death, sacrificing himself to save countless others.