Dick Grayson dons a costume consisting of green short shorts and a yellow cape. He’s beaten to death by a gang of homophobes.
Rip Hunter, Time Master…
Dies of smallpox.
Child prodigy Terry Sloane graduates from high school at twelve, and from college at thirteen, before racking up multiple gold medals at the Olympics and earning his first million while still in his twenties; lacking any challenges and bored with life, he was about to commit suicide when – nothing else happened, so he went through with it.
Scientist Henry Pym discovers a new subatomic particle that he labels “Pym Particles.” Deciding to test the particles on himself, Pym reduces his size to that of an ant. At this size, he is attacked by ants from a nearby anthill, is killed, and his body is dragged away for food.
When their wealthy fathers die in an accident, estranged childhood friends Woodrow van Chelton and Eric Henderson meet for the first time in more than a decade at the funeral. Van Chelton is dismayed to learn that his father’s will specifies that he will not inherit for twenty years, and that in the meantime Henderson is to be the executor of the estate. Putting these tensions aside, the two investigate the circumstances of their fathers’ deaths, but in a freak accident are locked inside an experimental reactor chamber and die.
Karen Starr is diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder when she claims at various times to be from a planet that blew up, a city inside a bottle, Atlantis, and a parallel universe.
District Attorney Harvey “Apollo” Dent scores a number of high profile convictions against organized crime figures in Gotham City. He parlays his fame and public good will as a crusading DA into a successful gubernatorial campaign. He is expected to run for POTUS in 2016.
Alternately:
Dick Grayson dons a costume consisting of green short shorts, a red shirt and a yellow cape. He’s quickly spotted and shot by criminals as he and his darkly dressed mentor lurk in the shadows.
Batman catches Jason Todd trying to steal the tires off the Batmobile. He turns him over to the police to be charged with the attempted theft.
Tim Drake, boy detective, cleverly deduces Batman to be Bruce Wayne. Wayne bribes him to keep his mouth shut. Tim Drake is currently attending a very expensive private school and plans to start attending an even more expensive college in the fall.
Baby Kal-El’s rocket lands in Smallville, Kansas. His infantile Kryptonian immune system is completely unprepared for the threats of terrestrial bacteria and viruses. He quickly sickens and dies within a week.
Baby Kal-El’s rocket lands in densely populated Metropolis. The landing site is cordoned off and the rocket and its occupant are taken into federal custody. Kal-El spends the rest of his life undergoing extensive and invasive testing. Between his alien biology and the technology of his spacecraft, mankind’s scientific knowledge advances by leaps and bounds.
An alien spacecraft crash lands on Hal Jordan.
A planetary cataclysm splits the world of the Old Gods into two: the lush New Genesis and the dark Apokolips. The inhabitants, of course, are entirely wiped out.
He’s a beloved figure as the drum major in Gotham’s annual Gay Pride parade.
“Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and was proven wrong.”
Yeah, but then there will be that famous photograph of a smiling woman holding up a newspaper that says “DENT DEFEATS PALIN”.
“I realized I would succeed if not for those meddling kids, so I killed them.”
Buddy, wantiong to be a crimegighter like Mr. Incredible, fires up his Jet Boots for the first time and sends his femurs through his lungs.
Tony Stark, with shrapnel near his heart, builds a device to keep his heart going using those newfangled transistors, and dies when it turns out transistors don’t work that way.
(YYears later, he dies in a similar fashion trying to get room temperature superconductors to do the same thing.)
Christopher Walker, vowing to avenge his father’s death, dons a skintight purple costume in the jungle of Bengali.
Years later, they discover the remains of a purple-clad man in the jungle who died of heatstroke.
Four turtles mutated by a srange ooze are raised by a similarly mutated rat, who teaches them the ways of the ninja. Together they initiate a successful career of industrial espionage and murder-for-hire.
Brilliant chemist Rex Tyler develops a miracle serum that grants him inhuman strength and speed for one hour a day; he decides to fight crime and save lives as a costumed superhero, but of course doesn’t call himself “Hourman,” because no one could possibly be that stupid.
Katar Hol, Thanagarian policeman and nobleman, is sent to Earth to apprehend a Thanagarian fugitive hiding there. He dies quickly from exposure to Earth bacteria.
Oliver Queen, mayor of Star City, is arrested for assault and recalled from office after several wrongly accused bank robbers readily identify the costumed man who attacked them as having a long blond beard.
Barbara Gordon, having been rendered a parapalegic, gets a job with the Oracle Corporation and becomes a senior IT manager.
Schoolteacher John Hanley comes upon a UFO crash site, where a dying alien gives him a suit that grants its wearer super powers. Not being able to read the manual, he kills himself when his first attempt to fly results in him smacking into a cliff face at Mach 3.
Erik Lehnsherr, a Holocaust survivor who emigrates to America after the war, discovers he has the ability to control and manipulate metal with his mind. He introduces himself to George Romney, CEO of American Motor Company, who fires his entire workforce and replaces them with the single man. AMC becomes the highest-grossing auto company in the world, and the Romney/Lehnsherr ticket is elected to the White House in 1968. Romney’s son Willard, feeling overshadowed by his father’s achievements, focuses on honing his preternatural dexterity, and begins a career fighting crime under the name Quicksilver.
Barbara Gordon is inspired by the dark figure of Batman to create a new identity for herself - Batgirl. For several months, she attempts to ally herself with him, but after a series of screaming arguments, the two are permanently estranged.
Barbara Gordon retires from crime fighting, and makes a comfortable living for several years selling her pictures to fetishists. She then writes a best-selling roman a clef about a mysterious crime fighter who is unable to perform sexually unless his partner wears white pancake make up and a green wig.
Regards,
Shodan
And then a few years later, Barry is taking his fiancee’s nephew Wally West on a tour of the police lab and points out the since-restored rack of element samples (used for calibrating spectrometers) when unbelievably it happens again. A bolt of lightning comes in the window and strikes the shelf. Wally isn’t as lucky as Barry and dies in agony several hours later in the burn unit. An investigation reveals a lightning rod has been surreptitiously placed to draw lightning to the window, and a building maintanance worker named Mopee is charged with murder and attempted murder.