Comic Book Events That Shocked You! *heavy spoilers*

[AcidDragon]

As the title says, this topic is for "Comic Book Events That Shocked You!". Bum bum BUM!! This could be for:

1) You thought you knew the character pretty well, then some upstart writer tosses you a curve ball!
2) A plot twist that you never saw coming.
3) An artist rendered something that sent shock waves down your spine. For a moment, you forgot that it was a still panel and you felt like you were watching it happen.
4) The story touches upon a subject matter that you never thought you'd ever see in the pages of a comic book!
5) Any other valid reasons to be SHOCKED!

For me, one of the most shocking things I've ever seen in comics was in Legends of the Dark Knight: Venom when Dr. Porter and the General goad Timothy into murdering his girlfriend by smashing her head into a wall. I think I was about 11 years old and a friend of mine lent me the stack. That scene stuck with me for the better part of a decade.

What are some comic book events that shocked you for one reason or another?

[Crazy Jetty]

The only one that shocked me, was when Magneto ripped the adamantium out of wolverine, charles brainwiped maggy, and wolverine popped his bone claws for the first time.

[beastovjudgement]

First, great topic idea. The events which come to mind are:

Jean DeWolff's murder in Spectacular Spider-Man. The "Death of Jean DeWolff" story title was not listed until the final page, and I for one did not see the killing of a major supporting character, one with unresolved subplots, coming. Because she was written as having so much potential as a major permanent character, Captain DeWolff's murder was especially jarring. It seemingly came out of nowhere (with Sin-Eater's reasoning being "because I felt like it"), and was a precursor to some of the sudden deaths in books like The Walking Dead. Speaking of which...

The events between the Governor and Michonne in The Walking Dead. This remains one of the most brutal and hard to read sequences in all of mainstream comics. Few things can make the reader cheer on what Michonne did in retaliation, but the Governor really had it coming. TV series Governor actually seems like he's not that bad a guy in comparison to the source material.

The execution of John Walker's parents by the Watchdogs in Captain America, and Walker's subsequent murderous rampage (while acting as Captain America, no less). This event set up the long-running story of the future US Agent's instability. His extremely violent revenge on his former partners, who publicized Walker's identity and led directly to the Watchdogs' capture of his parents, was also something of a shock.

Tulip O'Hare being shot in the head in Preacher. This one had some gaping plot holes - if God could block the Genesis power, why didn't he do it all along? - but still hit very hard and unexpected. Her later resurrection by God to prove a point, unlike most gratuitous comic book resurrections, actually furthered the story. God biting out Jesse Custer's eyeball also warrants mention, if for nothing else than being a scene of God biting out a guy's eyeball. I don't like to describe myself with the word "fan", but I am a fan of Garth Ennis's writing.

[packerbacker180]

Sadly, few things can shock you in comics anymore because if anything really shocking is going occur, like a death, it's leaked to the media days or weeks in advance. I know the idea is to make people more aware to sell more issues, but it sort of ruins the whole surprise factor.

[Bo-rilla Grodd]

Hmmmm............
Good topic. First off the whole prison battle in the walking dead. (Spoiler!!!!) Specifically, Tyrese and Lori.When I read that, I was was stunned.
Identity Crisis, another turn of events that were just shocking and heartbreaking to me.
I believe its ASM 698, I had no idea Doc Ock was in Pete's mind, so that was out of left field for me.
Emerald Twilight. I was watching one of my fav characters ever lose it right in front of me, watching him unravel and slowly become completely insane.
The last page reveal in 1st issue of Sinestro Corps war. This was shocking, but a real wtf moment for me. Cyborg Superman, Superboy prime, and Anti-monitor?! I was like holy $#!+!!!!!!
Anything that happens in Crossed usually shocks me.

These are just some that came to mind just now, Im sure theres plenty more I havent remembered yet.

[packerbacker180]

Good call on the Anti-Monitor. I remember getting to that page and thinking "woah, this just went up a notch." Of course, it made zero sense that he was around, but still.

Also, was pretty happy to see Wild Dog in the alternate reality in Booster Gold, then Max Lord had him kill himself.

[Avalon]

The whole story line where the Sharon Ventura Ms. Marvel's boyfriend sells her out to the Power Broker and he lets his henchmen torture and assault her. It was horrifying to read that.

[Idiot Savant]

For me, even through it was mentioned for 6 issues but death of the big blue Boy Scout ("you're my boy, blue!"), Hal's descent into madness, Kyle's girlfriend turned into refrigerator left-overs, but I think the most surprising to me was death of Cap...I also had to find that out when I was in Spain on vacation from a friend of mine after we picked them up at the airport...that blew me away and I couldn't wait to get home to find that book.

The most shocking to me was Jean Lorings rape and death...even though it was left to the imagination, the images shown (Jean's painful grip on the railing, shadows and tears) still has an effect on me.

[Caleb]

Spoilers, obviously, and great idea for a topic. Preacher is chock-full of shock / WTF moments (Jesse's grandma, Tulip gets shot, Saint kills God, etc, etc).

The biggest shock to me - and this was before Facebook came along to allow assholes to spoil everything willy-nilly - in comics was when Kirkman's "other" series, Invincible, had the Invincible Universe's equivalent of Superman (Invincible's father) slaughter the entire Justice League in one fell swoop. The series had its moments to that point, but that whole thing really was an "Oh, this just got real..." page for me. And then to have him take on his son a few issues later? Really, the whole "Mark's dad is a bad guy" storyline was a nice gut-punch from Kirkman.

In recent comics, I'd also single out the Buffy Season 9 arc that had Buffy getting an abortion (seriously), only because it's not the kind of thing that normally pops up...well, anywhere. They spent a few issues on this, and it was dark stuff on par with when they axed her mother on the show proper.

I know death in comics doesn't mean dick anymore, but I was still surprised when Whedon brought Colossus back to life in Astonishing X-Men. I can't remember how long the Tin Man stayed dead for (three years?), but I remember Whedon led everyone to expect Jean's umpteenth return, and seeing Piotr instead was cheer worthy.

I'm not sure if anyone read the whole Old Man Logan storyline Marvel put out a few years back, there's a moment where Wolverine is attacked by dozens of supervillains and he slaughters all of them - and then realizes that the whole thing was an illusion concocted by Mysterio, and he's actually killed off all of the X-Men. Definitely a huge "WTF" moment for me; the whole thing is pretty dark, but that moment in particular was just shocking.

Oh, and the moment in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 2 when Hyde rapes The Invisible Man to death is really, really gruesome and shocking. IM had it coming, but the way it's executed is phenomenal.

[Idiot Savant]

I completely forgot about Logan ex-ing the X-Men...I felt bad when that happened! Never read the Moore LoEG; looks like I need to!

Oh yeah, what about the Miracleman 9 very visual birth scene?!? Messed up...and I've been in the delivery room twice...ugh