Genuinely touching comic book moments (open spoilers likely)

Cafe Society
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If we’re allowed to add comic book TV shows, then when Darkseid kills Turpin, and the first Bizarro episode for some reason in the Superman Animated series. Gets me every time.

Also many points on JLU:

[Spoiler] “For the Man Who Has Everything”. Just the dreams they had and Superman’s anger when he wakes up. He and Batman had everything they ever wanted, and they had to throw it away to save the world.

The League vs. the Ultimen army. The normal humans of the Watchtower making a stand, and Red Tornado shows his power.

And Shining Knight against the General. A normal guy against a super-powered criminal, and he keeps getting back up. The whole episode is fun to watch, but his fight made me believe he belongs in the League.[/spoiler]

If we can’t pick animated shows, then I’ll mention New Frontier, which I highly recommend. Hal as a kid, Martian Manhunter fitting in and his transformation at the end, the loss of Wonder Woman and the return of Superman. Just a really good book.

Also Golden Age, another Elseworlds by the same guy. Chilling stuff in it, but good., especially the reveal of the Big Bad.

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Nitpick: Darwyn Cooke wrote and drew New Frontier, but The Golden Age is written by James “Starman” Robinson and drawn by Paul Smith. Two of my all-time favorite stories, though, and definitely one would appeal to fans of the other.

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New Frontier was Darwyn Cooke, story and art, Golden Age was James Robinson writing, Paul Smith on pencils.

Both are great books, however.

edit - heh…simulpost…all still true, though.

44

D’oh…why did I think they were the same guy?

45

Meh…I’ve seen worse. Remember Bill Jaaska, circa 1994?

46

I ran back in here to mention:

There’s this moment in the Batman series

where a villain from hell or the underworld (I can’t remember his name) is trying to get Batman to join him. He summons the spirit of Jason Todd, who says Bruce’s name, very softly, and the villain promises Batman he can have Jason back. Batman refuses with a visible effort. The villain departs and Jason vanishes as Batman runs towards him, trying to call him back, and there’s the sound of the Joker’s crowbar thudding down…

I can’t find it anywhere and it nearly brought me to tears. :frowning:

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The entire *Sound of her Wings * episode of Sandman.

48

I’ll contribute “Mad as a Hatter” for B:tAS. Roddy McDowell as the Mad Hatter: perfect casting, excellent script, and so pathetic and sad at the end. “Would not, could not join the dance. Would not, could not…”

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The Incredible Hulk annual 13 (Nov 1984) - Hulk is travelling to other dimensions and becomes friends with a spinal cord parasite that attaches itself to him, making Hulk able to eat the poisonous fruit there.

The original Superman annual where Mongul puts some kind of alien on Superman’s chest, making him dream that he is still on Krypton (Batman gets a dose of a life with his parents too).

A collection of Superman stories that are elseworld-like before they came up with elseworlds. The original Superman Red and Superman Blue story (super happy ending). Superman of the future (several different stories). Etc.

The issue of the original Outsiders where they crashland on an island and can’t get off, and have to deal with the various interpersonal issues that have been simmering for the last year.

50

Oh, crap. Yeah. Gaby has some really good lines in that one.

I nominate The Fantastic Four Vs. the X-Men. All the stuff with Kitty in danger of dissipating, blowing away, & Franklin, I think, watching her. I was roughly the same age as Kitty at that point, & that’s when I fell in love with Kitty Pryde (in a not at all healthy way).

Actually, between that, Crisis on Infinite Earths, & Doug Ramsey dying in New Mutants, I think it’s fair to say that it was comics drove me insane.

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It’s from The Flash. Jay Garrick stands alone before an army of villains escaping from prison.

“Oh God, Joan baby, I’m so sorry.
Come on then! ALL OF YOU!”

The very human fear makes the badass so much more badass.

52

Remember the hilarious “Sergio Aragones’ Groo the Wanderer”?

Groo was a stunningly stupid barbarian, but also an incredible swordsman. As he was presented to the reader, he was the epitome of “buffoon”. Utterly brainless, and utterly violent. Everybody around him reacted to him with either fear, amusement, or both. He was typically treated with contempt, sometimes veiled, mostly not.

The lone dissident was his faithful companion, his dog, Mulch. Mulch saw Groo through rose-colored glasses, you might say. To the idealistic Mulch, Groo was a mighty, valiant warrior, a brilliant tactician, an exalted hero, and of course, the beloved source of food. Groo could do no wrong in Mulch’s eyes, and much of the story was related through Mulch’s reactions to the rude treatment Groo received at the hands of the people around him. It was just inconceivable to Mulch that any of the insults Groo received might actually be true, and Mulch was always urging Groo (through thought balloons, of course, since dogs can’t talk) to retaliate against those who insulted him, but unfortunately Groo was so stupid that insults always went right over his head (unless somebody called him a “mendicant” - then heads would roll, despite the fact that Groo didn’t know what the word meant). Mulch loved Groo unconditionally, even though Groo was often mean to him.

Anyway … I can’t remember the issue number, but near the end of one issue Groo and Mulch were sitting on the seashore, hungry, and Groo decided to catch a fish. Lacking a fishing pole, a net, a boat, or any other piece of fishing gear, Groo took the most logical (to him) action he could under the circumstances: wade out into the ocean and try to catch a fish with his bare hands. And so Groo waded out, and kept walking until he disappeared beneath the waves.

Mulch sat on the beach, staring out at the spot where his master vanished, and waited. And waited. The sun went down. The moon came up. The moon went down. The sun came back up. There was still no sign of Groo. The last panel of the comic showed Mulch still sitting in the same spot, staring expectantly at the ocean.

This was a comic that I had grown accustomed to laughing my ass off at. But that last page left me with the biggest lump in my throat I’ve ever felt.

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Those issues don’t exist. Trust me.

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That is “For The Man Who Has Everything” by Alan Moore, it was the basis for the JLU cartoon that Love Rhombus mentioned earlier.

Ranks right up there with “Whatever Happened to the Man of Steel” the final 2 part story done right before Byrne’s Superman reboot.

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In a post featuring spelling pedantry, there’ll be spelling errors. In a post with comics pedantry…

That’d be Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow

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I knew that was the wrong title, but I also knew someone here would correct me. :smiley:

57

I’ll concur with “The Wake” from Sandman. Gaiman draws you, the reader, into the work by addressing the narration to you: “You remember. You were there…” (Paraphrased.) A surprisingly effective technique; and coupled with the various dialogues and speeches of the characters, you are indeed touched.

My contribution comes from Jon Sable, Freelance, by Mike Grell, and published by First Comics in the 1980s. For the first few issues, very little is known of the hero except that he is a self-appointed vigilante in New York who writes children’s books under a pseudonym. One day, his illustrator gets a little curious, and from his literary agent, gets the full story.

Open spoilers begin…

Sable had been a modern pentathlete for the United States at the 1972 Munich Olympics. There, he met a Kenyan gymnast named Elise. In a very touching story involving the Munich Olympics Massacre, they fell in love. Sable joined Elise in Kenya, married her, and they ran a safari business. Along the way, he and Elise had two children, whom he entertained with stories about leprechauns in New York’s Central Park. These stories became the material he would use as an author of children’s books in later years.

Sable may have been a Great White Hunter, but he was also devoted to the conservation efforts of African governments towards their wildlife. When a group of poachers begin slaughtering local elephants for their ivory, Sable got involved. In retaliation, the poachers went to Sable’s home one day, and brutally slaughtered Elise and the children before torching the house.

Sable’s reaction to the slaughter was touching enough, and hs resolve to bring the perpetrators to justice provided a reason for his anger and vigiliantism. But through the series, his efforts to place flowers on the graves of Elise and the children annually in spite of being declared persona non grata by various African dictators and governments only add to the emotion. He may have been an extremely effective vigilante and mercenary, but he had a human side, and Grell was perfectly willing to trot that out if the current story demanded it.

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In Alan Moore’s Watchmen, when Kovacs is in prison and telling the psychologist how he became Rorschach. He’s tracking down a kidnapped girl, enters the kidnapper’s house, and there are several panels switching back between Kovacs’ masked face, some knives and a cutting board, and two dogs fighting over a bone in the yard. Suddenly, Kovacs realizes what happened to the girl - there’s one panel where he’s touching his face, and even through the mask, you can see the pain and horror he’s undergoing. Then, the mask changes, and he’s Rorschach.

Then he pulls a Mad Max on the kidnapper, which was fantastic.