For many fans of the franchise, living in the DC universe might seem like a dream come true. A world filled with powerful superheroes, aliens, magic, and all sorts of fantastical elements would be amazing for any fan of comic books.
However, living in a superhero-filled world is not as enjoyable as it seems. The Earth is always facing a crisis, and normal civilians may get caught up in the danger and die. In this incredibly dangerous world, nobody is truly safe — not even the all-powerful superheroes, many of whom have faced dire misfortune. Of course, among all these different characters, there are some who get it much worse than others do.
10 Michael Jon Carter (Booster Gold)
Booster Gold is a hero from the future, and he hopes to use future technology to turn himself into a hero more famous than Superman. His arrogance and overconfidence often has often led him into misadventures during his time in the Justice League.
Still, he goes through a lot, including the death of his best friend the Blue Beetle. Booster Gold then joins Rip Hunter in working to keep the timeline from nefarious villains. However, this job must be done in complete secret, meaning Booster Gold will never get the recognition he wants so badly.
9 Guy Gardner (Green Lantern)
Guy Gardner is one of many of Earth's Green Lanterns, and one who was selected to be Hal Jordan's backup should he not be able to perform his duties. His troubles start when he is trapped in the Phantom Zone due to an accident with a Green Lantern power battery. The incident leaves him comatose for a long time, and when he eventually awakens, his personality changes into one that is aggressive and selfish.
Guy Gardner's personality would change again after an incident with the Justice League, causing him to obtain a innocent, child-like personality which would sometimes switch around with his aggressive personality. These problems would eventually cause him to quit the Justice League later on.
8 Carter & Shiera Hall (Hawkman & Hawkgirl)
Hawkman and Hawkgirl's backstory is already laden in tragedy. Beginning their lives ancient Egyptains killed by an enemy, Prince Khufu and his consort Chay-Ara are reincarnated in the modern era as Carter Hall and Shiera Sanders. They reunite and become the superheroes Hawkman and Hawkgirl.
During the Zero Hour event, Carter Hall and Shiera Hall end up fusing with another version of Hawkman, Katar Hol, to become an even greater version of Hawkman. This ends up killing the both of them, and this new version of Hawkman soon goes insane and is banished to Limbo.
7 Kent & Inza Nelson (Doctor Fate)
Kent Nelson is known as the original legendary sorcerer Doctor Fate, and his lover and later wife Inza Cramer would accompany and assist him as well. She herself would even become Doctor Fate for a time, after an incident that left them with younger bodies.
During Zero Hour, Kent and Inza were stripped of their powers, restoring them to their true ages. While they managed to retrieve the artifacts necessary to become Doctor Fate once more, they were killed by the villain Kingdom before they could restore themselves.
6 Ralph Dibny (Elongated Man)
Ralph Dibny's life with his wife Sue was mostly uneventful, especially for a superhero such as the Elongated Man. This would change during Identity Crisis, when Sue was killed by Jean Loring (Eclipso) in an attempt to regain the attentions of Ray Palmer, the Atom.
This sends Ralph into a dark spiral as he attempts to find a way to ressurect Sue. His travels ultimately lead him to the helmet of Fate, but it is actually Felix Faust in disguise. Ralph manages to trap Felix Faust with a binding spell, but loses his life in the process.
5 Hal Jordan (Green Lantern)
Hal Jordan is the classic Green Lantern, and the main protector of Earth. His hometown is Coast City, which is why it devastated him when this city was destroyed by Mongul during the Reign of the Supermen story arc. In his grief, he used his powers to completely recreate the city.
In order to maintain the recreation, he became twisted, stealing power from the main power battery of the Green Lanterns and killing many of them during Emerald Twilight. He would eventually become the villain Parallax in his madness, and would attempt to recreate the world during Zero Hour.
4 Superboy-Prime
Superboy-Prime hails from an alternate Earth where superheroes (including Superman himself) are merely fictional comic book characters. He was the lone superhero on that Earth, with powers identical to Superman. During Crisis on Infinite Earths, he alone is saved by Earth-One Superman as his world is destroyed by the Anti-Monitor.
When the worlds are combined at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superboy-Prime heads to a parallel dimension, where he slowly grows unhinged as he angsts over the loss of his home world. This causes him to join forces with Alexander Luthor, Jr. and Earth-One Superman to attempt to revive the previous universes in Infinite Crisis. This attempt fails, and Superboy-Prime is detained.
3 Wally West (Flash)
Wally West is the third of many characters to take on the name of the Flash, the embodiment of speed. As the Flash, Wally experienced several hardships, including the adverse effects of his speed powers on his body.
When the DC timeline was rebooted during the events of Flashpoint, Wally was removed from the main timeline, but restored in the later DC event Rebirth. However, his restoration did not come with his history, and his close friends and loved ones could not remember him.
2 Barry Allen (Flash)
Barry Allen's misfortunes start early on, as he loses his mother as a child. Then, when he is about to marry his fiancee Iris West, she is seemingly killed by Professor Zoom. After a series of misadventures, he manages to find his wife again, only to die at the end of Crisis of Infinite Earths. However, due to time shenanigans, he is restored at the end of Final Crisis.
Barry Allen's biggest mistake occurs in Flashpoint. After traveling back in time to stop the death of his mother, he awakes in a bizarre timeline where the Justice League is non-existent. While Barry manages to restore the timeline to normal, it comes at the cost of allowing his mother to be killed. This also causes changes to the timeline anyway, though not ones as radical as the Flashpoint timeline.
1 Garfield Logan (Beast Boy)
Garfield Logan may be the most unfortunate character in the DC Universe. When he was young, he contracted a rare illness, and the cure ended up turning his skin green while also giving him the ability to transform into any animal. His parents would later die in an accident that would haunt him for years.
Garfield later came under the care of the Doom Patrol, but is scarred by their eventual deaths. Afterwards, Garfield became a somewhat successful actor using his abilities, and would also join the Teen Titans. There, he would fall in love with Terra — who would ultimately turn traitor and die in battle. Yet, while Garfield has faced many hardships, he still remains cheery and bright.