Comic books that have made you cry
 

Anyone who watches Comic Book Men may have seen cast regular Mike Zapcic confess he cried when he read the death of Jean Grey (he was 12, but still). He got a lot of crap from the other guys on the show.

This got me to thinking... has a comic book ever made me cry. I've been reading comic books for 25 years and I'm sure it's happened more than once, but the only story I can remember making me cry was "What Ever Happened to the Cape Crusader" by Neil Gaiman from 2009. I recall weeping like a little bitch at the end of that one.

Anyone else?

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

I know you tie it into a tv show, but from the title alone I was a bit confused.

I don't remember actually crying, but I probably did in Crisis when Supergirl died. Barry, eh, but Supergirl!

I was shocked by Jean Grey too. But nowadays nobody stays dead in comics, so it's hard to feel emotional when there are no lasting repercussions. The last death I really remember was papa Knight in Starman.

We3

Berserk (manga): it's basically just a longform tale of being miserable in general, but man the Griffith flashback arc (which is where the anime comes from) really shows the rise and fall of the Band of the Hawk.

Vinland Saga (manga)

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

The death of Barry Allen in Crisis. A little part of me died that day, it was so shocking to my young mind. DC could have easily sacrificed a second-stringer like Aquaman, but they had to kill my favorite DC hero at the time.:sad: It took me years to accept Wally as the Flash.

The only other one I can think of is Alan Moore's magnificent send-off for the real Superman, in Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? I don't think we've ever really seen that character again from DC and it was a love letter to the hero most responsible for keeping the industry afloat for many years. DC really should have let Moore run wild with a Superman series, he proved on Supreme he understood the character better than anyone actually working at DC.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

I cried more for Supergirl's death than The Flash's during the Crisis.

Rorschach's death also made me tear up. “No. Not even in the face of Armageddon. Never compromise.” That just blew me away.

Recent comics - When the shadow image of Jean Grey talked Cyclops-Phoenix down at the end of Avengers Vs. X-Men.


Can't really think of any other time off the top of my head.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

The death of Krypto in Alan Moore's "Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow". Hits me every time.

I can't read Maus without getting choked up on more than one occasion.

There are some REALLY emotional moments in "Strangers In Paradise"... but then I have this weird crush-on-a-literary figure thing going on with Francine.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

Death of Supergirl got to me. I was about 7 and the cover freaked me out with Superman crying.

GI Joe 155, didn't make me cry, but it was a powerful issue with the first time narration by Snake Eyes about life in the miltary.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

Are you girls being serious?

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

I'm not going to read this thread closely for fear of spoilers. I'm an emotional weakling every since my father died, I well up at commercials at least once a week. But with comics I think it's ingrained in me to expect a resurrection or other 'trick' on any death. I remember being upset by the two biggie deaths in Crisis, and I'm pretty sure Alan Moore's last Superman story got me teary once or twice.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

The end of Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader by Neil Gaiman left me all teary-eyed.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

Barry was a second stringer. Leading up to Crisis, the long running Trial of the Flash storyline seemingly killed his ongoing series, and he retired (and was cancelled) shortly before Crisis, I think he was living in the future or something like that. It seemed like Wally was going to take up the mantle anyway, even if Barry didn't die. So it's not like they took a character at the height of his popularity. Even though the tv show was Barry, that was years after Crisis IIRC.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

I haven't cried and can't see myself ever crying over the death of a superhero in a comic since they never stay dead. I guess the closest I have come would be in Superman: Earth One when his cat dies. It was very cool and touching the way he goes about burying it.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

It's a testament to Terry Moore that I too had a mad crush on Francine.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

Yeah. After his trial, Barry went into the future to "live happily ever after" with Iris. The entire DCU thought he was MIA so they were in the process of trying to find him before the Crisis hit.

Wally wasn't going to replace Barry at that point because he was having problems with his powers. Every time he ran, he was killing himself. This was fixed at the end of the Crisis before he took the Flash mantle.

There was no reason to resurrect Barry Allen as the Flash during Final Crisis (outside of Silver Age fans being in charge of DC). His death was poignant and hammered home that the Silver Age was over. Wally more than replaced him.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

Sandman got me multiple times. Strangers in Paradise as well. A few moments in the Alan Moore run of Swamp Thing.

I've never cried for the death of a big name superhero because they're all such obvious gimmicks.

I remember when Marvel announced their Ultimate comics and one of the things they said was that people who died in those comics would stay dead. IIRC, they killed off Beast early in the run of Ultimate X-Men, and I was like, "Okay! They're really taking this to new places. Then they brought him back a year later. Fuggedaboutit.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

Have you read Ultimate Spider-man? Or (done much worse) ultimatum?

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

Seeing and imagining Krypto slowly die of kryptonite poison in Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow is tough. Especially since he came back to be by his master's side during his greatest hour of need.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

I can't think of a comic book story which made me cry, but in the late 80s, a person with physical deformities wrote a letter to The Uncanny X-Men stating that they really identified with Nightcrawler and his issues. That really tore me up.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

Earth-2 Supes reuniting with Lois at the end of the original Crisis, after he was told she was erased from existence entirely... that was a bigtime touching moment.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

OH FUCK! Speaking of which, I forgot about Astro City 1/2. That one goes right for the jugular...

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

Issue 12 of The Invisibles, "Best Man Fall", which I consider one of the best comics of all time. Issue one of The Invisibles features an action scene where the hero battles it out with a bunch of prison soldiers. "Best Man Falls", published a year later, recounts the life of one of these anonymous, "action fodder" characters, from childhood to his death.

I also cried over a story in an early issue of Drawn and Quarterly by Carol Taylor about her mother's memories of an earlier child who died. It wasn't so much the death of the child that makes the story emotional, but the ending, how Taylor's mother has finally found the strength to speak about this after decades and accept her greif. A beautiful piece of work, in both its story telling and art. Probably the finest thing Drawn and Quarterly has ever published.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

Wasn't "whatever happened to the Man of Tomorrow" just an "imaginary tale" and not part of the silverage Superman continuity?

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

Aren't they all? ;)

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

I had never cried at a comic book until recently. I was reading The Walking Dead compendium and turned the page when . I have never felt such emotion after reading a comic book like I did then.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

A handful here and there but the one that really stands out is We3.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

The story takes place post COIE. It even ties up a few loose ends from the regular series. I still wonder why they did not include his robots?

The Supergirl and LOS part comes as a close second of being really tough to not stop and take a moment before reading again.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

:hscratch: Dunno...had a lot of movies or tv episodes that choked me up but don't remember being too affected by comics that way. Maybe some imaginary tales ("Robin Dies At Dawn!") or something like that. Later on, got really absorbed in graphic novels (Watchmen) or DD story arcs, etc., but don't remember getting weepy. Probably blocked it out.

It seems that I was affected by the more "realistic" stories such as Robert Kanigher's war books for DC. Stories such as "What's the Color of Your Blood?" that addressed racism, etc...and, of course, stories in which soldiers sacrificed their lives for others or innocent children were killed...those probably brought a few tears.

If we're just taking the thread title literally, though, plenty of comics have made me cry. Seeing Frank Giacoia's inks wreck Barry Smith's pencils on Conan brought out the waterworks. Lots of examples like that (favorite artists/writers being replaced; cancellation of Kirby's Fourth World, etc.). Then again, gnashing of teeth was also a common reaction to those travesties.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

I'd forgotten about that story! I don't know if I cried, but I know it chocked me up at the end.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

Nobody has mentioned Aunt May's death in Amazing Spider-Man #400? That was just a beautiful final story for Aunt May. The later retcon that made it a genetic actress that died instead of the real Aunt May is one of the main reasons I quit reading Marvel. That retcon pissed me off that much.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

Another one "ruined" by the meddling in Infinite Crisis.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

Rorschach was pretty rough.

For some odd reason this Magneto/Scarlet Witch moment hit me:

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/...neto_super.jpg

But Y: The Last Man ending did it for me. I was ok until the epilogue bit with Elvis.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

I can't remember crying at a comic book but then I remembered Amazing Spider-man #400. I didn't even read it at the time and thought killing off Aunt May was stupid and that Marvel was right to bring her back. Then I saw a couple scans from the issue a year ago and I got teary eyed. They should have kept that story in continuity.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

Well played, sir.:D

The thing with Aunt May's death is that I think people are kidding themselves if they thought such a prominent character was going to stay dead. That is why the death of Superman in the 1990s barely affected me, I knew that in a couple of years the Big S would be back.

I did foolishly believe that DC would bring Barry Allen back after a few years, which was the only thing keeping my animosity against them in check. I never understood why Jay got to hang around and Barry was dead for so long.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

When Starr got his cock and balls bitten off in Preacher.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

What role did Aunt May have at that point, though, with Peter being an adult and married and everything? And when they finally brought her back, they let her know Peter's identity anyway. (plus if she had stayed "dead" we wouldn't have had the choice he made in One More Day).

DC was reluctant to change anything that Crisis had changed for years and years. At the time (as a Legion fan) I thought it was dumb, but I'm glad they stuck it out for so long; it allowed the new origins/powers of Superman and Wonder Woman time to breathe, allowed Wally to grow into his role, and the lack of the multiverse meant that they had to come up with a way to integrate the JSA and the golden age heroes into the same continuity (eventually, after placing them in limbo for so long to get them out of the way), which I think worked out great (except for Byrne's Hippolyta thing, which I never liked). And I liked the "Five Years Later" Legion, even the convoluted replacing of Superman's mythos with Valor/Mon-el and Andromeda/Laurel Gand replacing Supergirl.

Then all of a sudden they decided screw all of that, lets undo all of Crisis, have a multiverse again, try to keep it all in one continuity until boom, it all reset again.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

I forgot all about that one because of the way Marvel ruined it. Yes. I did cry reading that issue. "Second star on the right..."


I really enjoyed that retcon. It made sense to me (at the time).

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

I have Aunt May's death issue somewhere. Part of me thought that one would stick, because although Aunt May is a major supporting character, she wasn't ever part of the action, and if you can justify permanently killing anyone, it's an old woman.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/$(KGrHqQOKp0...d351g~~_35.JPG

that this wasn't in color as it initially appeared in Heavy Metal magazine as such. ;)

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

Oh come on now. Aunt May is nowhere near as prominent a character as Superman. Aunt May is a supporting character like Gwen Stacy, and Gwen stayed dead.

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

Never cried from a comic, but I did well up a bit at the very end of this one:

http://images.darkhorse.com/covers/300/13/13907.jpg

Re: Comic books that have made you cry
 

I found "Hulk: The End" to be really depressing. Not really a "cry" moment, but a haunting sort of sadness.