I have a few! Karate Kid from the Legion Of Superheroes. He was my all time favorite hero from his introduction in Adventure Comics # 346 - 347 in summer 1966 to his "death" in sumer 1984. Val Armorr - his real name..was born on Earth and adopted by Sensei in Japan, and taught many forms of self defense and hand to hand combat, super karate being just one of them. He could karate chop through solid steel! He was brave, a good friend, and a caring person. Kieth Giffen hated him so he killed him off in a really lame way, smashing into a power grid thingie and getting all burned up. That was SOOO lame! It was as meaningless as Tasha Yar's death!
Killing him off was a TERRIBLE waste of a terrific and highly original character!
Illyana Rasptutin..I loved her from the first issue when Belasco kidnapped her back in X Men. He kept her a prisoner for 7 years, and she learned the dark arts and discovered her mutant power.. to be able to summon "stepping disks" that enabled her to teleport through both time and space. Her control over this power is haphazard, at best, which is partly what makes her so interesting!
She can summon up her soul sword, which has the ability to disrupt all things of a magical nature. She has a "Dark Child " persona, which is where she is in touch with the evil nature that the nefarious sorcerer Belasco imparted to her against her will.
She has evil in her thanks to this, but has a good soul and has done much good, including saving her friends in the New Mutants many times.
She became a metaphor for the dark nature within us all that we constantly have to struggle with, as we are after all, only human.
I had quit buying comics a few years before she was killed by the " Legacy Virus". That was lame, too.
They have brought Karate Kid back, sort of..but the character is not the same....
They have a loophole for bringing Illyana back, as well, she can always pop back into Marvel reality again from an alternate Limbo, but unless Chris Clairemont writes her character again, she won't be the same ...unless a VERY competent writer who loves sword and sorcerery heroes and who is sensitive to this character can do a more than adequate job of bringing her back to life.
