Archie's demise: A look at the ranks of dead comic characters

CTV News Channel: Comic book icon takes a bullet Albert Ching, managing editor of Comic Book Resources says Archie is dying in one series and will remain alive in another separate series.

The death of Archie Andrews in a new comic book may come as a shock to some, but it's not the first time a popular comic character has been killed off – and it won't be the last.

In a new edition of the comic Life with Archie hitting store shelves Wednesday, Archie is shot saving his gay friend Kevin.

Just one of many Archie-themed comics now in print, Life With Archie is targeted at older readers with its more mature themes of marriage, infidelity, and racism. But the death of its eponymous star is uncharted territory for the series.

Archie now joins a long list of comic characters who have all been killed at one point or another, though he'll live on in the many other Archie comics.

Rob Spittall, owner of the Comic Book Shoppe in Ottawa, said Archie's death was a "fitting end" for the character that provides a new twist to more than 70 years of Archie comics.

"To do something of this magnitude was really bold," Spittall told CTV's Canada AM on Wednesday.

In death, Archie joins a long list of famous characters that have been killed in comics. Sidekicks, superheroes and villains have all been killed off at various points in comics history, only to return through some twist of science, magic, time travel or trickery.

The following comic book deaths earned plenty of attention when they happened, but in most cases, the characters weren't gone for good.

X-Men

X-Men die like it's their job. Red-headed psychic Jean Grey is the most prominent example, as she's been killed and resurrected multiple times, in keeping with her "Phoenix" alter ego.

But she's not the only one. X-Men founder Professor Xavier died in the "Avengers vs X-Men" storyline in 2012, and Marvel Comics has already announced it will kill fan-favourite (and Canadian) X-Man Wolverine in a mini-series slated for September.

Batman

Back in 2009, writer Grant Morrison's "Final Crisis" storyline saw Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the rest of the Justice League take on big baddie Darkseid in a battle to save all existence. The Justice League ultimately prevailed, but Darkseid managed to blast Batman with his eye lasers, reducing him to a shrivelled skeleton.

Former Robin Dick Grayson then took over the role of Batman from Bruce Wayne, but Bruce was soon revealed to be alive – and somehow time-travelled to the past – in a comic released three months later. Bruce Wayne eventually returned to Gotham City and resumed the mantle of Batman.

Gwen Stacey

Spider-Man's first girlfriend famously died while the wall-crawler fought his arch-nemesis, the Green Goblin, in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man #121 in 1973. Gwen fell off the George Washington Bridge and Spider-Man tried to save her with a web line, but the sudden jolt of being caught by the web snapped her neck.

Unlike others on this list, Gwen Stacey has never come back from the dead, and her death has haunted Spider-Man ever since.

Gwen Stacey's death appeared on the big screen earlier this year in "The Amazing Spider-Man 2."

Robins

Sidekick deaths are nothing new to comics. Robin No. 5, Damian Wayne, died last year in the pages of Batman: Incorporated. But he wasn't the first Robin to be killed. Back in 1989, the second Robin, Jason Todd, died in the comics after fans voted to kill him off as part of a phone-in contest.

Jason Todd returned decades later as the adult anti-hero Red Hood, while Damian Wayne appears to be on his way back in July's Robin Rises #1 comic.

Spider-Man

Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man, died at the end of 2012 when the villainous Doctor Octopus swapped minds with him, leaving Peter to die in the bad guy's diseased body while "Ock" became the new Spider-Man.

And it actually stuck, if only for a while. Marvel ran with "Doc Ock" as Spider-Man in its Superior Spider-Man series for well over a year. Doctor Octopus tried to be a good guy but wasn't very good at it, and ultimately, Peter's mind resurfaced and took back control.

Superman

Perhaps the most famous death in comics, Superman took a beatdown from the spikey villain Doomsday in 1992. In Doomsday's debut appearance, he traded blows with the Man of Steel for a full comic issue, and by the end, both characters were 'dead.' Of course, Superman didn't stay dead, and neither did Doomsday. The two characters have clashed many times over the years, but Doomsday is always linked to that first, brutal appearance when he killed Superman.