The Comet, The First Dead Superhero

You would think that any character by Jack Dole who also created Plastic Man would be somewhat lighthearted. MLJ's tragic superhero The Comet was instead someone endowed with great powers that doesn't really instill with him great responsibility. John Dickerson is a scientist working a new kind of gas when he inhales it gives him ability to fly, as well as laser vision. This made him one of the first comics characters to actually have that power with only a glass plate over his eyes to stop him from disintegrating everything in sight. He slaps together an outfit made of lucky charms and starts calling himself The Comet who had no problem offing bad guys by either blasting them to death or dropping them from the sky. Through his entire 17-issue run, Comet caused mass property damage, resentment from the police, and is even temporarily brainwashed into killing innocents as he racked up a ton of misdemeanors. In his last case, Comet tries to save his brother Bob from a mob hit, but is instead shot to death, leading Bob to take up the mantle of the non-superpowered hero Hangman who despite the name never actually hung anyone. The Comet is a landmark character as being the first superhero to canonically die which lead into another hero's origin, also making it one the original legacy characters in comics. However, just because your main superpower is shooting people with optic blasts might mean you're better off keeping your life-ending skills a secret as an average citizen.