A Change Of Subject

I'm not going to talk about it.

But, I did stumble upon something yesterday that I thought would be fun to take a look at. Gamer website ugo.com did an article of the Top 50 WTF? moments in comic book history. I thought it might be entertaining to take a look at the list and comment on a few of them.



Number 49 was the resurrection of X-Man Colossus. Personally, I found this one to be a WTF? moment because I thought it was a horrible idea and really ruined a prior story - something most comic writers don't care about at all, I realize. But with Joss Whedon penning it, I had higher expectations. For those unaware, here's the story. Colossus died years ago saving the mutant world from an AIDS-like virus called the Legacy Virus. It was quite the heroic farewell - but in my opinion, it was ruined by the revival of Colossus by Whedon who revealed that Colossus hadn't actually died but was being held captive by an evil villain who was using Colossus to figure out a way to "cure" mutants of their powers. The X-Men universe is full of deaths/revivals but this one came across particularly bad to me.



#39 finds Lex Luthor as the President of the United States in the DC Universe. Now THAT is a WTF? moment. I read very little of that story arc but I remember being more than just a little WTF? when I heard about it. But... well, considering the world we live in today where we've seen elections stolen, civil rights snatched, and bold face lies told to the public to engineer a war... is a super villain as President really that far fetched?



#30 finds the Breaking of the Bat. Ahhh. This is the story that got me back into comics back in the late 90's after years of being out of them. I was always more of a Batman guy than a Superman guy. It's probably something to do with the "normal guy does extraordinary things" theme. So, when on the heels of the Death of Superman story that drove most people into comic stores back then, DC announced the breaking of Batman - I was hooked. I spent an entire summer driving all over Southern California with my friend Danny trying to find every issue of the "Knightfall" story. It was a beautiful idea. Arkham Asylum broken into and all of Batman's worst enemies freed. That made Batman have to work extra hard to put them all back in jail so when he finally met the man who was responsible for the breakout, Bane, he was physically and mentally wrecked and easy prey for the steroid-cooked supervillain. The stories that followed with Bruce Wayne getting back into shape and retaking the Bat mantle from the man who he had picked to hold it in his place were lots of fun and remain one of my favorite arcs in comic history.



Checking in at #25 is another one of my favorite stories ever and another one that makes me remember fondly those days when I used to drive to the comic store once a week after school and grab the latest and greatest. Fatal Attractions was an X-story that crossed all the books [big shock, I know] that all built up to a big showdown between the X-Men and Magneto. In the climax, Wolverine finally gets a shot at Magneto - and gets his adamantium skeleton ripped out of his body by the Master of Magnetism THROUGH EVERY PORE IN HIS BODY! It was amazingly cool - and was only helped by an issue or two later when Wolvie tries to pop his claws and has bone claws rip through his flesh. Simply awesome.



At #23 [and making me wonder what the hell is in the Top 20], Superman dies. Well, not really. Everyone knew Superman wasn't going to die permanently but SUPERMAN WAS GOING TO DIE! I remember going into comic stores with friends searching for that black bagged comic that they would never open. Me? I bought the TPB years later. It was a hell of a story actually but it was all pissed away with the Return of the Supermen story. Ah well.



#21 is the death of Captain America - which I can't imagine how that ranks above the death of Superman or the breaking of Batman but whatever. It was a big one. I remember hearing about this one on CNN and having to race to the comic store on my lunch break to see what the hell had happened. It was another well done death story which is really the last major comic story I read before my current hiatus from comics [which may be ending soon as I'm intrigued by the Ultimatum storyline.]



Let's skip all the way ahead to #8 with the death of Jason Todd, the second Robin. Jason Todd was a fucking prick. He was a punk little bitch and the fanboys hated him. So, in true American fashion, DC gave the fans the choice - should we kill Jason Todd? The voting was clear - Robin must die! And in truly awesome fashion, The Joker got to deliver the fatal blow, just turning up the heat in the never-ending war between The Joker and Batman.

There were lots of other WTF? moments mentioned throughout the story that deserved mention but I didn't want to make this post any longer than it already is. If you want to check out some of the others, hit up the article for the rest.