10 Most Devastating Comic Book Endings

[Music] the nature of comics is that of a serialized narrative but the unfortunate truth about serial art forms is that they must at some points come to an end and even if that ending is nowhere in sight individual stories issues and subplots need to be resolved to satisfy the audience a story that never ends is unsustainable and doesn't allow for character resolution and growth but another unfortunate truth is the endings even the happy ones are usually pretty sad as they indicate that whatever was worth reading about to begin with is now over this hits much harder in the realm of comics as they are built around characters the audience's are meant to identify with or idolize on one level or another seeing them go through these gut-wrenching endings makes it all the more devastating for the reader who has to experience it alongside them with that in mind I'm will for culture and here at the ten most devastating comic book endings ten all-star Superman one of the most quietly beautiful offshoots from the regular DC continuity all-star Superman is known not only for having one of the most iconic opening pages in the history of the comic medium but for also being the perfect case study on why Superman is such an important enduring character the story follows the last hours of Superman after he's poisoned by an overdose of solar radiation stronger than ever but with numbered days he does his best to prepare himself and his loved ones for his departure the comic climaxes with one final confrontation with Lex Luthor who has stolen a chemical recipe that lets him copy Superman's powers after getting to feel superior to the Kryptonian Luthor has an epiphany as she starts seeing the world from Superman's perspective as his body begins to disintegrate Superman flies off towards the Sun which Solaris has turned blue as the humans look on below the Sun turns yellow again much later Lois and Jimmy Olsen reconnects in a park during their talk Lois states that Superman isn't gone he's just fixing the Sun Jimmy and readers are left broken by her words unsure if she could not come to terms with his death or if she knew something we didn't nein invincible despite comics really going off the rails in some places the invincible comic line is one of its better success stories it finished up in 2018 with one final issue wrapping up all the major storylines while leaving open a few tantalizing loose ends invincible aka mark graison tells his son the story of their people before leaving him behind with his stepfather mark takes the remaining members of his alien species along with his immortal wife and their daughter into space to establish an empire of galactic peacekeepers the story ends with Mark and his family relaxing at their house content with their lives while seemingly just a happy ending this hit longtime readers heart a big element of the series was that whenever something good happened to mark it was immediately followed by a devastating events that changed his life so for mark to have such an extended period of contentment meant that he was either finally being rewarded for his heroism or that the apocalypse was right around the corner eight for the man who has everything in Alan Moore's lauded for the man who has everything story Batman Wonder Woman and Robin travelled to the fortress of solitude for Superman's birthday only to find him enslaved by the black mercy an alien plant that treats its victims to illusions of their greatest dreams and then feeds on their comatose body as the heroes tried to fight off the alien warlord Mongol and pry the black mercy off Superman kal-el dreams of a world where Krypton was never destroyed and he got to live out a simple but happy life as an average unremarkable citizen when Superman is eventually released he fights Mongol across the fortress until Robin is able to trap the war monger with the black mercy the heroes begin cleaning up from the battle and Superman receives his gifts a model of the city of Kandor and a new strain of Rose named after his home planets that was destroyed in the fight Superman decides that this is probably for the best as the flower would only have reminded him of the carefree life he could have had ouch 7 why the last man why the last man follows the adventures of Yoric Brown who along with his pet monkey ampersand is the living male on earth following the spontaneous death of everything in the world with a y-chromosome he travels a semi dystopian earth with a sardonic doctor who may know more than she's letting on and the secret agent 355 who he slowly falls in love with you're exert ventures end in Paris where he reunites with his lost girlfriend only to realize their feelings for each other have died off in favor of new relationships he returns to agent 355 and they managed to finally confess their feelings for each other before she's abruptly assassinated by an Israeli extremists the final issue comes after a 60 year time jump it's revealed that Yorick's DNA was cloned to make a new generation of men and that he married his girlfriend and had a daughter with her however he'd spent the rest of his life more or less alone and he only lost more of his companions to death or circumstances as an old man he relates his life story to a clone of himself before escaping protective custody it's only after 60 years of mourning that he's finally ready to be free six the night Gwen Stacy died this story has become the stuff of legend recalling spider-man's secret identity the Green Goblin kidnaps the wall crawlers longtime girlfriend Gwen Stacy and confronts him on the Brooklyn Bridge during the battle goblin tosses Gwen off the bridge and in a desperate bid to safer spider-man shoots his web at her ankle catching her just in time complan escapes as Peter pulled up his limp girlfriend only realizing she's dead when he has her in his arms this was a complete shock to both Peter and the audience who never expected the writers to kill off the then love of spider-man's life the collective grief was only compounded by the revelation that her cause of death was a broken neck from the whiplash of being caught by Spidey's own webbing five flash points now despite it resulting in the reviled new 52 reboot the epic flashpoint storyline is remembered fondly for its creativity and its emotional resonance the first wakes up one day to find himself in a world where he has no powers and the dynamic between heroes and villains has changed dramatically over the course of the story we assume that the world Flash finds himself in was caused by his mortal enemy however during a climactic battle in the remains of Europe reverse-flash finally reveals himself and drops an unholy truth bomb on the flash he didn't create the flashpoint alternate reality flash himself did now that is a devastating reveal but the true tear-jerking moment comes after the flash restores the timeline to prove his insane tale to Batman he presents Bruce with a letter from his father who was the Batman of the alternate universe the letter and the fact his father was able to write it himself moves Batman to tears for the death of Superman in 1991 DC unveiled plans to kill off Superman in a big event comic to increase deflating sales figures but they wouldn't actually do it surely a year later they did the beastly character doomsday was introduced a Kryptonian monstrosity who was the only being capable of defeating Superman in single combats the Man of Steel met the mindless beast in an epic battle that sprawled across the country despite aid from some powerful allies Superman is only able to defeat doomsday with one final blow backed with all of his immeasurable power this however leaves him open to a mortal strike in return which literally knocked the life out of him the story closes with Lois cradling his broken body reassuring him that he saved the day one last time 3 Aquaman death of a prince now death is no stranger to superhero comics as we've just seen but there has only been one notable instance of direct infanticide after an enraged Black Manta kidnaps Aquaman's infant son and holds him hostage he forces Aquaman and Aqualad to fight to the death while they battle the aqua baby drowns in a bubble of oxygen right before his father's eyes what resulted was continuous heartbreak for the king of Atlantis his wife Queen Meera blamed their son's death on him and even though she admitted she still loved him their marriage ultimately could not survive the tragedy and sadly fell apart it didn't help that while all this was going on Aquaman still had to keep busy with his hero work still mourning the death of his relationship and his newborn child to the amazing spider-man for hundreds there are few secondary characters in the history of superhero comics as beloved as Aunt May the one person Peter can count on above all others during the much-maligned Clone Saga pizza takes Aunt May up the Empire State Building with the intent to finally reveal to her his secret identity before he can bring it up though may shocks him with a secret of her own that she knows he's spider-man and always has however May's health quickly begins to fail soon after and she retires to receive hospice care the issue ends with Peter reciting a passage from Peter Pan a book she'd read to him as a child as his last remaining parental figure succumbs to old age now in the end it turned out that this wasn't really made but a clone because the Clone Saga was stupid but the image of pizza weeping over his aunt's body as she dies in bed is still one of the most enduring images in the entire of Marvel comic history one sensational spider-man revelations now as we've already mentioned the Clone Saga was dumb but it is true that one of the spin-off stories revelations featured one of the biggest gut punches in the history of all comics you see The Jackal hired a woman to secretly poison Mary Jane causing her to go into premature labor Peter arrived too late to witness the birth but this ended up not mattering all Peter could do was reassure Mary Jane that their love could see them through the pain of a stillborn baby in the end it was revealed that Aunt May's fake death and the murder of Peters unborn child was the work of the Green Goblin who did it just to mess with spider-man the signature panel of the story just shows the Green Goblin delightedly repeating gotcha as Peter collapses in frankly understandable anguish and there you have it folks - 10 most devastating comic book endings feel free to drop this video I like if you enjoyed it and drop me a follow on Twitter and you sly dog you I'm will for what culture thanks for hanging out and I'll see you next time you

Channel: WhatCulture Comics

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Length: 10min 57sec (657 seconds)

Published: Fri May 01 2020