THE SHOCKERS:
No I’m not talking about a group of villains called the Shockers, though that might work out to give Spider-Man a headache if tried. What I’m talking about are the moments in comic books that have had shocking events happening or being a shocking comic itself. There’s been a bunch and with the way comics are made today there seem to be more shocking moments then just normal action. I’m not going to talk about all of them, there’s way too many to list, got to remember the comic book has been around for over 60 years, they’ve been through some major moments in world history that’s been used, so there’s a lot of shocking moments, like Hitler being punch by Captain America, yeah that one might not seem like a big thing today but back in 1941 America still hadn’t entered into WWII yet so having Captain America on issue #1 dressed in the flag punching Hitler was a huge deal.
So let me give a few shocking moments in the comic book industry that have stayed in my mind.
WOLVERINE GETTING HIS ADAMANTIUM RIPPED OUT – this happened in 1993 in X Men vol 2 #25 during the storyline Fatal Attractions. Magneto pulls out all the unbreakable adamantium from Wolvies skeleton and for a few following years were were left with a Wolverine that had the normal skeleton of anyone, just bones, but we were also given the answer to, what happens to his claws if he don’t have adamantium, well he has bone claws.
JOKER KILLS ROBIN – oh you know this was going to be on the list and it’s also one of the reasons why I’m not numbering these. When Death in the Family happened it was a huge deal and very shocking. It was not only big because of Robin being killed off but it was done because the readers voted for it to happen. Add in the fact that the Joker first beat the living snot out of Robin with a crow bar before being blown up with his mother next to him. Yep pretty shocking.
SPEEDY IS ON THE DOPE – back in the 70’s all kinds of stuff was happening and being done about drugs and the comic book world got into it as well. There was the LSD thing over in Spider-Man but that was nothing compared to having Green Arrows ward and partner in crime Speedy hooked on heroin. It was one thing to have some normal person in the story on drugs being approached by the heroes but having one of the actual heroes being hooked on drugs was a huge deal, still is actually.
I BROKE THE BAT – it’s the only time that Batman has actually been beaten, hurt, and taken out of the hero game. Sure he had been beat up before but in the storyline Knightfall he was beaten up over a period of issues that lead to Batman #497 where Bane beat Batman, lifted him above his head, and promptly broke his back. What followed was not the best stories for Batman, well it wasn’t really Batman but still the breaking of the Bat was a shocker.
GWEN STACY – do I need to say anymore than her name? If you read comics even a little bit you know about this, even people that don’t that have watched the movies know about this. I wasn’t born when it had happened, wish I had the issue, not for the amount it’s worth, though that would be nice, but just for the simple fact that it is when Spider-Man lost his first love. Even after knowing about Gwen’s death and reading it in a reprint the story has an impact on me. Even as I read the collected issues from the beginning of Amazing Spider-Man where I’m about to reach her death, just knowing that she’s going to die is not sitting right for me.
THE OTHER HUGE DEATH IN COMICS – Superman, wow I thought just giving Gwen’s name would be enough to explain why it was a shocker but come on, you don’t get no more in the face shocking than the Death of Superman. As big as a deal as Gwen dying was, Superman being killed off made world news -->WORLD NEWS<-- that’s right not just local talk around the comic book shop but it was talked about everywhere by everyone. I remember when it happened, I remember friends who laughed at me cause I read comics was coming up to me begging me to let them read the issue where Superman got beat to death by Doomsday, oh I didn’t let them even touch that issue, I had 2 of the black bagged issue #75, I remember having to fight to get my issues of this comic, even when I was at the comic a few days a week each week (this was before Wednesday was the set day). Man what a day that was in comic books.
Now there’s been a bunch of other moments that have happened, House of M, the death of Colossus, the return of Colossus, Luthor becoming the president, the death of Johnny Storm, we get the history of Wolverine and it’s the truth, death of Captain America, DC vs. Marvel (horrible stories but the cross-over was a huge deal. But you get the idea there’s a lot of them.
But that’s not all I wanted to talk about, there’s one title I just finished, it took me awhile to finally get around to reading it (I thought that there was going to be more than 4 issues but come to find out there wasn’t, just the 4). That title is the creator owned comic Nemesis by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven. These two guys know how to weave a story that’s so captivating that I can’t put it down. I went through these 4 issues like I had only read 1 but by the end I felt like I had been reading for days.
Nemesis is something that I was not expecting, which is to say shocking. The title is the main character, Nemesis, the ultimate super-villain (though I’m thinking in this world where it’s set there are no super powered people) though as far as I can figure he has no powers he’s just smart and very evil. What the story is about is this guy Nemesis killing off cops and doing it in very brutal fashions. Why is he doing it? Well, that answer is at the end of issue 4 but it’s not an answer either. So I won’t give it away but I will say this comic is freaking intense. This guy is basically Batman but completely evil and sadistic.
I’ve not read a comic like this since Kick-Ass and if there is any creator owned characters that should get a movie, Nemesis should be number 1 on the list. In fact I would love to see this title be turned into the next movie, I still want my Spider-Man and Superman and Batman flicks, but Kick-Ass opened up a whole different style of comics and comic movies, Nemesis would take on a even different level for the industries.
CHARACTER OF THE WEEK NO 5
Troll or her other name that was given to her by the Asgardians, Gunna Sijurvald.
Her history is a wild one and short, her mother was captured by the Magzi who got her pregnant, the mother was a normal Asgardian, and though she looks like a regular girl, Gunna lived with the Magzi and was raised as a troll. She has the strength of an Asgardian, nothing on the levels of Thor but she is extremely strong. This character hasn’t appeared in many titles, just in the Thunderbolts so far and only for 21 times and in those 21 times some have only been for a panel or few. But she has made an impact, with her short grunts, choppy speaking, and wearing a fur troll suit, but that’s only a few things that make her so fun to read, there’s also the fact that when Thor was talking to her about being an Asgardian she bit him. Troll is the reason why I continue to read the Thunderbolts title, well actually she was why I first continued to read, now I still read cause it’s actually a really good title. At any rate, Troll is one to keep an eye on.