Okay so this is to follow the wonderful Robert’s Favourite Comic Book Covers post and keep in the spirit of talking comic books on a comic book geekdom website so it’s not all just trailers and review of all media BUT comic books! This article is about those BEST Comic Book Moments for ME which made me go WHADAFUQ?!
#1 New Avengers – Death of Elektra turns out to be a Skrull.
Not since the 1980’s comic book gimmicks was I really caught off guard like I was when I first read this. I was seriously floored. I did a complete WHADAFUQ inside a comic book store and even asked the owner at the time, “Whaaa… what does this mean?” He shrugged, smiling and didn’t know either. We were both like WTF? It was the biggest shocker for me in comic books in over 20 years and I loved it. Now that said, it took a while for this story to be fully told but it kept me glued and guessing as to WTF was going to happen next in the comic book.
#2 Superman – Death of Pa Kent.
A tragic, well written story of the death of Pa Kent in the early DC Universe pre-52 junk. Pa Kent died and we all had our heart strings pulled as Superman became and grieving son. This was how you did it NOT that crap in the Man of Steel movie.
#3 Justice League – Batman. Guy Gardner. One punch.
This was one of the best moments of the 1980’s Justice League comic book. It had been brewing since Batman walked in and setup the new team. Guy Gardner was ALWAYS confronting Batman about being leader and suddenly, in ONE PUNCH, Batman took down Guy. Of course, half the team missed it while others couldn’t believe their eyes.
#4 Batman: The Killing Joke.
The Joker in his full glory goes after Commissioner Gordon’s daughter, Barbara who in turn was Batgirl, unbeknownst to either Gordon or The Joker. The whole issue is the Joker at his very finest, darkest and most cruel given the true nature of what happened to Barbara beyond just being shot & paralyzed forever. It brought both a rage in comic book fandom AND a new appreciation for Barbara Gordon as DC Comics turned her into a very empowered hero into her own right as Oracle, another communication and set of eyes for Batman & other heroes.
#5 Batman: A Death in the Family. Death of Jason Todd.
Until this point, there weren’t many death of super hero characters, esspecially not big name characters like the Robin to Batman. Top this off, the asked the fandom to CALL a 1-800 phone number to decide Jason Todd’s fate. Overwhelming the fandom wanted annoying young Jason Todd dead and Joker came to do the job. Thankfully great writers brought the character back as Red Hood and back with the Bat family.
#6 Astonishing X-Men – Wolvie smells that Peter & Kitty had sex.
Not everything needed to be tragic, sometimes it was that little thing that made me laugh If you collected X-Men comic books long enough, you knew this had to happen and of course it was Joss Whedon who wrote it. It wasn’t much, just enough of Peter & Kitty coming down in the morning and Wolverine smelling that they had sex… FINALLY!
#7 Death of Captain Marvel
Not the first death in the Marvel comic book universe but the hardest hit given the story. Captain Marvel dies from cancer and nothing anyone can do can save him. It was that time in the 1980’s when comic books started to stop being silly fun books & became more adult, mature and respected story-lines that you could relate to in some level. Touching.
#8 X-Men – Angel losing his wings & becoming Arch Angel / Death
At the time, when I was a punk teenager, this was a HUGE story-line for me. I couldn’t believe it happened (or much of how the X-Men got taken down) and what happened next with Angel, his battle of depression and then becoming the Arch Angel of Death of Apocalypse was a great shocker of a story. One that the character’s history still hasn’t lived down today.
#9 Alpha Flight – Death of Guardian
MARVEL’S CANADIAN SUPER HERO TEAM BOOK! It was John Byrne, who at the time was a BIG DEAL. It was FINALLY a Canadian super hero team book and yet the writing was on the wall / foreshadowed for it’s 12th issue which also had a big gimmick cover “Someone will die” to help sales. The death rocked the many versions of Alpha Flight and gave light to an early, original woman superhero for Marvel Comics in Heather MacNeil Hudson when she became a better Guardian / Vindicator and leader of Alpha Flight than the original James MacDonald Hudson.
#10 X-Men – Death of Jean Grey via the Dark Phoenix Saga
I was too young to really understand this until much later but it’s another powerful story for a wonderful character who I believe Chris Claremont (writer of X-Men at the time) didn’t know how to write Jean Grey anymore so he found a way not to and focus on other important X-Men women until much later in his life. Very powerful story in the X-Men history and enough that Marvel has gone back to this well many times since.
I’m sure I’m missing a TON of other moments (like Ozymandias reveals he already “did it”, Magento becoming apart & running the X-Men, Emma Frost joining Astonishing X-Men and…) but these were one’s that recently came to me and had me thinking.
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