That's not to say, though, that a good comic can't get me all teary-eyed in another way. Kill off a supporting character, and there's a pretty good chance they'll stay gone. Show a vulnerable side to a formerly-impregnable character? Yeah, that'll get my attention. Since for some reason this idea is stuck in my head, here's my personal top ten emotional moments in comics and their related media. (In no particular order.)
10. The Green Goblin Gets His
Yes, yes, "The Night Gwen Stacy Died" was a classic story, but it's hard to read it after its publication with any sort of suspense. We know what happens; heck, it's in the title of the story! And most of the emotional value of Gwen's death has been drained long ago by revisiting it every chance possible.
But what's rarely covered is the immediate aftermath of this event. Yes, Norman Osborn "dies", but how does it get to that point? First, Peter Parker goes looking for him, and finds Harry, instead. Harry is recovering from an LSD overdose at the time, and barely knows what's going on. When faced with the choice of getting revenge or staying with his best friend in a time of need...well, like Peter says, it's not really a choice at all. And he leaves Harry in the throws of withdraw in order to track down and kill his father.
Harsh.
Spider-Man finally finds the Goblin, and tries to tear into him. The Goblin tries to take the high ground while on his glider, but when Spidey disables it, much to the Goblin's irritation. Spider-Man is amazed that the Goblin, who hours before had murdered Gwen Stacy in cold blood, would care more about his stupid technology, which starts the Goblin off on a typical monologue about how Gwen was just "some useless girl", while he-
Whoops, bad move.
Spider-Man completely loses it, and proceeds to kick the Goblin's ass up and down the street, brutally pounding and berating him at the same time, accentuating each word with a fist.
"I loved her, Goblin, and you! Took her! Away! Filthy! Worm-eating! Scum!"
(For a comic printed in the seventies, this was harsh language.)
Of course, Spidey calms down before he can deliver a killing blow, and the Goblin's attempt to kill Spidey backfire, taking Norman Osborn out of the picture for the better part of twenty years. But still, holy cow.
9. Jim Gordan Rings in the New Year
"No Man's Land" was a Batman storyline running through all the bat-family titles in 1998 and 1999, about a catastrophic earthquake and the chaos that followed. Most of Gotham evacuated shortly after the quake, and those who stayed inside were living in a different world, where society had broken down, food was a rare commodity, and criminal gangs led by Arkham's best and brightest ruled the streets. There's a lot more to the story than that, and it's worth checking out, but that's all you need to know for the purposes of this example.
After spending a year trying to establish order in the city, Batman and his allies are happy to hear that Gotham will be re-opened to the public on New Year's Day, 2000. Unfortunately...no one can find the Joker. And the Joker isn't about to let such a momentous event occur without putting his own spin on it.
It turns out that the Joker and his gang have been kidnapping all the babies born to Gotham's surviving citizens during the one-year period of NML, and plan to do something absolutely horrible to them if they aren't found by Christmas Day. And who should find them but Sarah Essen-Gordan, Commissioner Jim Gordan's wife?
She draws her gun on the Joker and tells him to back away from the babies; Joker gladly obliges, and shoots Sarah instead, killing her. Joker allows himself to be captured, wanting to see if Gordan, who spent a year trying to re-establish law and order in Gotham, will take the law into his own hands right now. Of course, Gordan doesn't, and a pall is cast over the otherwise optimistic affair.
The last official issues of the NML storyline takes place on New Year's Eve, and shows how all of the characters are spending the evening. The last few panels on the last page show Commissioner Gordan at his wife's grave, pouring chapaign for two as Aud Lang Syne is heard in the background.
"Happy New Year, darling."
...sniff....
8. Sociopaths Need Love, Too
I'm counting these two moments as one, since they occur very close together within the same storyline, and are essentially the same problem for two different characters. During the recent "Blackest Night" crossover, we found out a bit more about Sinestro, rouge Green Lantern, fascist, and rising super-villain star. Specifically, we find out a bit more about his family life: for one thing, he had a family life!
It had been revealed a few issues prior in the "Emerald Twilight" story that Green Lantern Corp member Soranik Natu had been told by Sinestro that she was his daughter, hidden away by her mother out of fear of Sinestro's political enemies. Of course, this raised the next question: who's Soranik's mother? It turned out to be Arin Sur, sister of Sinestro's best friend and Hal Jordan's predecessor, the deceased Amon Sur. Unfortunately, we only discover this when Arin and Amon are revived as Black Lanterns and attack Sinestro, Hal, Indigo-1 and Carol Ferris.
Suffice it to say, Sinestro takes this very personally. He attacks the Black Lantern Arin very viciously, slamming her beneath the streets and away from the others. On the outs, the Black Lantern alters her appearance back to when she was alive, and asks Sinestro a very simple question about his quest for power, control, and order in the universe.
"Was it worth losing the only woman you've ever loved?"
For once, Sinestro doesn't have an answer. Indigo-1 arrives to help him and the two destroy the Black Lantern. Hal Jordan, who'd met Amon but not Arin, asks Sinestro, "Who was she to you?"
"No one."
And poor Atrocitus has a similar moment when the assembled Lanterns head to Ryuuk in search of the Black Lantern's power battery. Centuries ago, that entire sector of space had been wiped of all life when the Manhunter robots, the Guardians' first police unit, had one Hell of a malfunction and killed everything. Atrocitus and his fellow survivors (all four of them) were understandably pissed, and Atrocitus formed the Red Lantern Corp as a means of gaining revenge.
But when finally brought back to his home, Atrocitus understandably rages against former Guardians Ganthet and Sayd. And in the process, the seven foot-tall blood-spewing red demon actually breaks down.
"Your robots came for us! They came for us and we...we did nothing...we did nothing..."
And the irony is, out of all the assembled Corpsmen, it's Saint Walker, the Blue Lantern, who is actually able to talk to Atrocitus. It only takes a minute for Atrocitus to start spewing red and vowing to kill the Guardians again, but still...man.
7. A Deep Conversation Not About Wheatcakes
Keeping up with last week's theme of Mark Millar being surprisingly subtle when he puts his mind to it, there's a scene in the last part of his "Marvel Knights: Spider-Man" run that's always stuck with me. Okay, so Aunt May's been kidnapped, and Spider-Man's going nuts trying to figure out who did it. (Spoilers: It was Norman Osborn and the Scorpion, back in a weird period where just about everything bad that happened to Spidey was Norman's doing.)
While looking for her, and vowing he wouldn't lose her like he did Uncle Ben, Peter thinks back to a conversation he'd had with Ben years ago, before Peter was even in high school. Peter was upset because he'd come to the realization that Ben and May were a lot older than the parents of his peers, and subsequently, they'd die sooner, leaving Peter alone. Ben reassures him that's not going to happen, because he'd promised his brother they'd look out for Peter, and he wasn't the type of guy to let down his little brother. This seems to cheer younger Peter up, and in the present, Pete's resolve is strengthened.
It's a short scene, but it really rings true, and it's a concern that would never have crossed my mind, especially knowing that Aunt May is never going to die ever. (We think.) And it really does allow you to look at Peter Parker in a different light; he's deeply afraid of being alone, without friends or family. It gives a new twist to his self-imposed mission; his arrogance allowed a member of his then-small family unit to be taken from him, and he doesn't want that to happen to anyone else. Kudos, Millar.
6. Nostalgia Critic is right; some cartoons will mess you up
Ahhh, the DC Animated Universe. Isn't it awesome? And here are the three most moving scenes from it.
Solomon Grundy gets his soul back.
To set the stage, Solomon Grundy is the resident big bruiser for Lex Luthor's Injustice League; he's a super-strong zombie reanimated by magic. Because of his magical origins, Dr. Fate enlists his aid to try and stop Cthulu (yeah, that Cthulu) from invading our dimension. Solomon befriends Hawkgirl, who has her own bone to pick with Cthulu, seeing as her people used to worship him. Throughout the episode, it's established that Hawkgirl is an atheist (which raises questions, considering that they spend the whole episode fighting her people's god!), and that Solomon Grundy, realizing that as a zombie he has no soul, wants to get it back.
And then Solomon Grundy beats Cthulu out of our dimension with his bare hands. Holy crap. Unfortunately, it cost him his un-life to do so.
Batman proves Waller wrong about super heroes.
This scene is being told to Terry McGuiness, AKA Batman Beyond, by an elderly Amanda Waller, explaining what caused her to stop viewing the Justice League, Batman in particular, as a potential threat to world security.
In the DCAU, the original Royal Flush Gang were super-soldiers created by Waller's Project: CADMUS as a potential deterrent against the Justice League. Unfortunately, the Joker recruited them instead, thematically dressing them like playing cards and using them in a plot against the League. Ace was appropriately designated, however, because she was Joker's ace in the hole. With thousands of people watching the battle between the League and the Royal Flush Gang in Las Vegas, Joker took the opportunity to get Ace on the airwaves, trying to use her powers to drive all the viewers mad.
It didn't work out so well.
Regardless, the Royal Flush Gang goes away and isn't heard of for two seasons, until this episode. I really think the clip speaks for itself.
Of course, we, as the viewers, already know that Batman was capable of such compassion; Waller is the only one who was surprised. But still, moving stuff.
Darkseid is a sore loser.
The mood whiplash on this is absolutely insane. It's a fairly simple set-up: intergalactic despot Darkseid has brought his forces to Earth, despite Superman's best efforts. However, Orion, Darkseid's biological son, gathers the forces of New Genesis, Darkseid's most powerful rival, and intervenes, placing the Earth under New Genesis' protection. Darkseid doesn't want to go to war with them just yet, and retreats.
But not without a final bit of spitting in Superman's eye. Darkseid kills hard-nosed detective and Superman ally Dan Turpin, for no reason other than spite. (When later confronted by Superman, Darkseid would admit that he barely remembered killing the human.) And Superman just loses it, which seldom happens for obvious reasons.
Aside from being a tear-jerker, this would really haunt Superman, and shaped every future encounter with Darkseid.
5. In Which the Rhino is Actually Scary
Long-time Spider-Man villain Rhino, Aleksei Sytsevich, has never been much more than an obstacle; he's not particularly smart, and his strength doesn't count for much against an opponent that won't sit still long enough for you to hit him. And, admittedly, his costume can look goofy if an artist isn't careful. So, imagine my surprise when his story as part of the Gauntlet banner turned out to be one of the most moving scenes in the whole book.
The original Rhino is trying to stay on the straight and narrow after being released from prison on good behavior. He's got a job, hidden away his super suit, and even got married to a doting wife, Oksana. When approached by mad scientist-type Dr. Trauma, the Rhino turned down her offer to improve his suit, happy with the life he now led.
Not deterred in the slightest, Dr. Trauma simply continues her work and put a new guy in her "MechRhino" suit. Unfortunately, MechRhino is absolutely coo coo for Cocoa Puffs, showing a psychopathic disregard for human (and animal) life, and deciding that he can't really be the Rhino unless he defeats Sytsevich in combat. Sytsevich refuses to fight, saying that MechRhino can have the mantle if he wants it so badly. Only Spider-Man's intervention drives MechRhino away.
Spidey stops Sytsevich from re-donning his rhino suit, encouraging him to remain on the path he's already chosen. Inspired by Oksana, Sytsevich decides he can "be a good man, for her", and the couple walks away happily.
And that was it. For seven months.
This was actually a clever storytelling move on Marvel's part, because it ran afoul of how the Gauntlet event had worked until then. The purpose of the Gauntlet was to revive and revitalize Spider-Man's classic rogues gallery, who'd been on the back burner for a couple years. Immediately after the Rhino story, they moved on to Mysterio, then Morbius, then the Vulture. And, in fact, the Vulture who took part in the Gauntlet was actually the new Red Vulture, who had appeared a few months before. It was assumed by many fans that the MechRhino was taking Sytsevich's place in Spidey's roster of foes.
And we were wrong. Because seven issues later, MechRhino kills Oksana.
It's horrible, and made worse by the fact that MechRhino didn't even target Oksana; she was just one of many victims of "collateral damage" to the chaos MechRhino was aiming at Systsevich to draw him out. Spider-Man tries to stop the rampage, but he's unable to save everyone, and Systsevich decides to do what he almost did before. He retrieves his Rhino suit, and tells Spider-Man that Oksana's blood is on their hands; Spidey's, for stopping him from doing this sooner, and Systevich himself, for tying to be something he's not.
Systevich, now the Rhino once again, has absolutely no problem handing the pretender; he brutally kills MechRhino and disappears. This action is all narrated by Peter Parker's reporter co-worker Norah Winters, usually a cynical wise-ass; this time, however, she's somber, almost fatalistic about the entire tragedy. And, as hinted at above, the scene is enhanced by the artwork, which makes the classic Rhino appear as this inhuman, bestial thing.
It's a moving story, equally tragic and terrifying, and it's about the freaking Rhino.
4. You Just Can't Trust Lana Lang
Yeah, yeah, the TV show "Smallville" is a bit ridiculous. (Okay, a lot ridiculous.) But it's still incredibly entertaining, if nothing else. In their quest to sanitize every Superman foe for the WB generation, they eventually got to Bizarro. And like most good Bizarro stories, it's tragic as well.
When he first appeared, Bizarro was an escapee from the Phantom Zone, the result of a cruel genetic experiment. (Because on this show, Kryptonians are dicks.) Having no physical body of his own, Bizarro jumped from human host to human host, usually killing the host in the process. Finally finding Clark Kent, he possesses him long enough to create a physical body, a complete duplicate of Clark.
The two battle, Bizarro having understandable resentment for Kryptonians, and he kills anyone who gets in his way. With the help of the Martian Manhunter, Clark is able to beat Bizarro, who is then imprisoned on Mars.
Initially, I wasn't too keen on Smallville's Bizarro, mostly because in his initial appearance, he was completely unsympathetic. However, in one of the show's most clever twists, (and a mid-season finale to boot), we find out later that Bizarro has escaped and replaced Clark between episodes; Clark had been trapped in his Fortress of Solitude for weeks, and Bizarro simply slid in and took over his life. And he did a damn good job, patching up Clark's troubled relationship with Lana Lang, saving Chloe and Jimmy from a bomb, and generally being awesome. The episode didn't reveal that a switch had happened until the very end, so Bizarro did a damn good job of being Clark; arguably, he did a better job than Clark did.
Bizarro didn't let the mask slip until he was desperate about being discovered; direct sunlight revealed his true form, and he knew it was only a matter of time until someone discovered him. He turned to the reconstituted Brainiac for help, but Brainiac just played him and Clark off each other for his own ends. Clark decided, for some reason, that the thing to do was kill Bizarro, and procured blue Kryptonite; blue Kryptonite took away Clark's powers, but would have an opposite effect on Bizarro, giving him so much energy that his body wouldn't be able to contain it.
And the result? See for yourself. This is incredibly said, because in addition to arguing for Lana's love, Bizarro is literally begging for his life. And neither Clark nor Lana ever once consider that there may be another option that brutally killing the poor guy. Yes, he'd killed people as a Phantom, and tried to kill Clark, but the circumstances were different. He'd clearly changed, and Lana kills him horribly. Seriously, Clark, what the hell?
I can't decide if this is a better or worse fate than being lobotomized like poor Bizarro was in Justice League Unlimited.
3. Skeets Died For Your Sins
In the totally awesome maxi-series 52, it turns out that there was a traitor in the heroes' midst the entire time, and that traitor was Skeets. Skeets is a cool floating robot dude from the future who hangs out with Booster Gold. Booster Gold is a time-traveler who, having screwed up his life in the future, stole some tech and came back to the past to try and make it big as a super hero. Over time, Booster actually became a real hero, instead of playing one on TV. He brought Skeets back to the past with him because of the little gold robot's encyclopedic knowledge of history. Skeets, for his part, constantly tries to encourage Booster to do the right thing. Skeets is like if R2-D2 could talk and have a deadpan sense of humor. Skeets is awesome.
In the course of the series, Booster starts having problems because Skeets' knowledge of past events seems to be out of whack, and the lil' guy is acting increasingly erratic. At the end of the series, it turns out that Skeets had been infested by the deceptively cute cosmic alien horror called Mr. Mind, who took control of Skeets from the inside. Mind used Skeets as a crysalis to protect him while he evolved to his adult form, which turned out to be pretty bad.
See, as a larva, Mr. Mind ate brainwaves, a side-effect of which allowed him to control the actions of his host, leading to his innocuous human name. As an adult, he feeds on space/time. Yeah, that's bad. Oh, and he plans to spawn. Ew. That's also bad. The end result would be a swarm of "hyperflies" that feed on not just the Earth, the galaxy, or the universe, but the multiverse itself, thus destroying everything anywhere ever, forever, on every plane of existence.
Obviously, this did not come to pass. Booster and his allies managed to trap Mr. Mind back inside of Skeets, and sent Skeets hurling back through time, de-evolving Mind back into a larva. Unfortunately, Skeets wouldn't survive the trip.
And I was almost moved to manly tears when Booster had to say goodbye, telling Skeets how sorry he is, and that everything he'd tried to do right has failed. Skeets just tells him that Booster Gold is the hero about to save reality itself, and he couldn't be more proud of him.
Skeets' body is destroyed, but Booster had made a back-up copy of his memory back when he'd first started acting buggy, so he was able to restore Skeets as he was before Mind had really taken hold. But, reading the story for the first time, I didn't know that was coming. And this isn't Batman or Superman, this is Skeets, who could feasibly be killed off for reals. I'm certainly glad he wasn't, but if he had been, that really would have been the perfect way for him to go out.
2. Optimus Prime's Deaths Don't Phase Me Anymore
The Transformers spin-off series "Beast Wars" had a number of good episodes, but this is one that everyone talks about. Dinobot, a Predacon, had in the first episode switched sides to join the Maximals once he realized his commander, Megatron (not the same Megatron from the original series; this Megatron is actually competent.), had screwed up and gotten them all stranded in time and space. Although nominally a Maximal, Dinobot still acted like a Predacon, and reminded his allies of his nature at every opportunity, what with his brutality, love of combat, cannibalism, and general ruthlessness. However, he wasn't an idiot, and he was one of the first to realize when and where the Transformers had landed.
It turns out they were on planet Earth, thousands of years in its past. Consequently, the Golden Disc Megatron had stolen, which had been records of Earth history, now served as the ultimate source of information about the planet and its future. Seeing the potential to avenge the loss of the Decepticons in the Great War with the Autobots, Dinobot returns the Disc to Megatron and briefly rejoins him. However, it doesn't take long for Dinobot to realize that Megatron has grown reckless and power-mad since the war began, and would risk the complete destruction of the time stream itself to achieve his goals. Dinobot returned to the Maximals, but the Golden Disc remained with Megatron.
Determined to get the Disc back, Dinobot accidentally came upon Megatron's plan: to eliminate the very first human beings, so our species would never aid the Autobots in the future. Knowing back-up wouldn't arrive in time, Dinobot engages the entire Predacon cell himself, fighting through each of them to get to Megatron.
Incidentally, when I say "engaging the entire Predacon cell", what exactly do I mean? I mean a sadistic mad scientist with ninja-like abilities, a fem fatale with a crossbow and machine guns on her arms, an aerial marksman who can reassemble himself from just about any injury, an underhanded street thug who fires lasers from his hand, a towering pyromaniac masochist with zealous devotion to his cause, and a hulking, sophisticated cannibal literally built and armed like a tank.
He kicks all of their asses.
Then he finally gets to Megatron.
See, Optimus Prime? This is how you die. It doesn't count if you come back to life ten minutes later.
1. To End on a Quiet Note
Finally, when asked by Superman if he's okay, following Bruce Wayne's apparent death:
...well, I need to go punch a bear or something to get my manliness quotient back up.
Okay, you're being way too generous to Waspinator when you call him an " aerial marksman who can reassemble himself from any injury ". He was the laughing stock of the Predacons, he rarely if ever was useful in a fight, and the only reason he could pull himself back together from such gruesome injuries was because the universe hated him. But yes, Dinobot did get an excellent death.
ReplyDeleteAnd as far as great death scenes go, I'll add the following ( across any sci-fi/fantasy media );
-- Zack Fair from Crisis Core, the Final Fantasy VII prequel. Similar circumstances as Dinobot, much worse odds, and made all the more tragic because A.) Zack was a really likable, heroic guy througout, and B.) Cloud doesn't even remember Zack until near the end of the main game, thanks to his dementia.
-- Tony Stark in " World's Most Wanted ". Yes, he came back, but the Tony Stark who was responsible for Civil War is gone, and he did so with such a heroic sacrifice that it actually redeemed his sins.
-- Magneto's daughter Anya in the Claremont/Bolton Classic X-Men backups. The Holocaust has become ( unfortunately ) just another cliche when used in sci-fi, but having Magneto bury a child murdered by local human extortionists, and having his wife abandon him when he uses his powers to avenge Anya did much more to justify his descent into evil. Especially when Claremont had Magneto reference it in the X-Men/Fantastic Four series, having his anger conflict with his desire to reform.
-- Ms. Calendar in Buffy Season 2. The sheer cruelty of the way she was killed, without any chance of coming back ( even if as a vamp ), and the pain it caused Giles was just brutal.
--The Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3. I can't say anymore.
I am totally padding Waspy's resume to make Dinobot sound cooler; I have no problem admitting this.
ReplyDeleteI had originally intended this to be "sad moments in general", but somewhere along the line it evolved into a death thread. Yeah. I may be morbid.
I don't play video games, so I can't speak to those examples. I did recall Tony's sacrifice in WMW, but I didn't really feel sad, per se, because a) You already know Tony'll come back, and b) I thought his big "piss off" moment to Osborn was more of a fist-pump moment than a tragedy. The criteria of my list was entirely based on my own personal reaction.
Also didn't read that particular Magneto story, but it's Magneto; you could do a whole list with nothing but tragic moments from his life.
I had, however, forgotten Ms. Calendar; that's another good one. Poor Giles also seemed to have a thing for Buffy's mom, and we know how that turned out. (He should join Kyle Rayner's support group.) Also from Buffy, I'd nominate as generally moving (in a twisted fashion) the videotape the Mayer left Faith in the event of his death. Like I mentioned with Sinestro and Atrocitus, seeing villains get emotional is an easier way to get to me, for some reason.
Other moments that I considered but ultimately didn't make the list: Saint Walker's origin story, Dex-Star's origin story, (it didn't really get me until he said, "I good kitty"), Harvey Dent going nuts when he thought Two-Face had killed his old girlfriend in the last Nightwing story arc, the death of Ravage in Transformers II (Noooo! I love Ravage!), and Spider-Girl convincing Normie Osborn that they don't have to be enemies.
If I expand to geek media in general, I'd also add:
-Beelzemon failing to rescue Jeri in Digimon: Tamers.
-Dean losing all hope (and subsequently getting slapped around by Cas) in the last season of Supernatural.
-Godzilla nudging the dead baby Godzilla in the '98 movie.
Yeah. Weird.
I think I must be a putz or something, because I still break down and get upset when *anyone* dies in comics. Yes, even when you see it coming. :(
ReplyDeleteEither that or I need to read more comics.
Well, I don't have a soul, so I tend to ignore such things. But somewhere along the line of this monstrous post, I had intended to point out that when the likes of Superman or Batman die, who cares? You know it's a fake out. But less important characters...well, with them, there's always the possibility that the death will stick. So, yeah.
ReplyDelete...I should probably counter this post with a list of characters I'm glad are dead, or something similar.
Yes, you should.
ReplyDeletePost more blogs. :P