25 most heartbreaking Arrowverse deaths of all-time

3. Professor Martin Stein

Professor Martin Stein was like a fountain of knowledge for anyone in need on either The Flash or DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, willing to drop whatever he was doing and unleash a tale from his well-lived life or a theory from his field of expertise. To say that everyone loved Martin would be a major understatement.

A worthy other-half to both Ronnie Raymond and Jefferson Jackson as the brains of Firestorm, he put his brilliant mind to work in the field to save countless people and even mend the timeline. But his journey came to an end in the Arrowverse’s Crisis On Earth-X crossover when he was shot by a Nazi solider.

Ever the noble man, Professor Stein refused to take down Jefferson with him, sharing an emotional farewell with his partner-in-crime-fighting –  telling him that it was a father’s duty to allow his son to life – and, with that, drinking a drug that would free his biology from his own, allowing Jax to live and “Gray” to die.

Jefferson and Stein’s kinship went through many phases during their time fused together, but they clearly cared about each other a great deal. And this came across beautifully in the pair’s final scene together, as Victor Garber had us all screeching with his incredibly emotional performance.

We’re not sure we’ll ever get over how good he and Franz Drameh were here but, even more than that, we know we’ll never get over Stein’s death.

We miss you, professor.