I really shouldn't be posting this, but my willpower is null
You know what, screw it. In this case, pictures are worth more than a thousand words - triple that and you get close to the gut punch they carry.
In the Comics That Made Us Cry post I cited some of my own examples -- and wow, flist, you stepped up to the plate and cited examples that I either should have thought of or clearly need to read.
So, without any more preamble in the form of verbal clutter, I thought I'd back up a few items on my list with - gasp! - the actual examples. This might be fun for the folks reading who generally don't dabble in comics - there are some fine examples of what the medium can be when it shines.
1. The Authority #12: The perfect death of the incomparable Jenny Sparks. Picture my face screwed up in earnestness when I type the following: this is one of the most perfect character moments that I've ever read.
Jenny Sparks electrocutes the Almighty:
"Be seeing you."
I DEFY you to come up with a better character death.
2. Avengers vol. 3 #76: The tragic suicide of Jack of Hearts.
This issue? A mess. It was Geoff Johns' last issue under his contract for his Avengers work, it was rushed, bits and pieces were forced together without any smooth edges, but then we got to this - and it's all due to Steve Sadowski's art. He put so many subtle touches in these pages that enriched what happened. Like this panel:
So many touches on those pages that I didn't notice until the second time I read it. Look at Jack's armor burning up because he's going so fast as he exits the atmosphere - it shouldn't burn up, of course, because it's spaceworthy, built by Torval - but to me, I read that and thought "of course, because he's finally losing ultimate control - he's willing it apart by letting go." (The other possibility is that neither Johns nor Sadowski knew or cared that Jack actually spent years flying around in space in that suit, which would be both writerfail AND artistfail, but I prefer my explanation.) And that Jack turns all purple, as if his Contraxian heritage finally takes over as he suicides in that last explosion - that made me wonder if Jack maintained his vertically-split-half-human-half-Contraxian appearance by sheer force of will. There's no canon to support that, but it's very poetic, very Jack.
Like I said, delicious ambiguity in that sequence, and sad.
This panel also jumped out at me:
That's a visual reinforcer for how explosively dangerous Jack's power set was - all he's trying to do is get the gun out of that murderer's grasp and he winds up vaporizing the guy's arm. And that's Jack with his power purposely dialed down to 0.00000000001% - that's Jack not even trying.
3. The Hawks. Hawkman vol. 4 #49, to be precise, and what made me cry is that we got THIS:
When I read those panels, I immediately thought of Cordelia and Aral Vorkosigan in Barrayar: "My home is a PERSON."
That? That is beautiful.
(Also, uh, Carter, that's QUITE the parcel you're packing around there. Um. Yeah.)
It took over forty issues of Kendra soulsearching before us Hawk shippers could finally relax and luxuriate in our OTP rightfully coming back to center stage; we all heaved a sigh of relief, all was right in the Hawk world, and now we could get back to old school romance interspersed with major asskickings in exotic locales interspersed with incisive anthropological discourses about ancient civilizations interspersed with the Dalai Lama interspersed with everything else that makes the Hawks great. It helped that we got this at the end of issue #49:
...Because she accepted his eternal and undying devotion. FINALLY. Yes, I cried at both of those pages. And you know what happened then? Huh? HUH? You want to know what happened then? Then DC promptly ignored their five-thousand-year-long OTP relationship entirely so stupid Brad Meltzer could go write his stupid JLA book with his stupid Roy/Kendra and his stupid Arrow vs. Hawk wars-via-coupling-that-should-never-have-coupled and his stupid hope that Carter would come rough up Roy or something - as IF Carter would stoop to something like that - and Meltzer's stupid everything. Thanks, DC! Ahem. I think I'll save the rest of that rant for a Ship Manifesto EXTREEEEME Edition.
4. Captain Britain & MI13 Annual: Meggan. This was all Meggan alone, Meggan soujourning in hell, and it was heartbreaking.
Meggan, Meggan, Meggan.
I didn't catch what was on the seal of her letter until the third reading, but it makes perfect sense - Cornell spent a lot of time in this issue underscoring Meggan's spiritual connection with the moon.
That one page drives straight to the heart of the character with incredible skill. You would not think that you'd see Meggan of all people in a story where she would be exiled in hell, form an army, fight battle after battle with unspeakable evil, plow through the inferno like a shining juggernaut of hope, and then create a sanctuary for tortured souls. But with Cornell writing? It makes perfect sense. Of course she would, she's Meggan.
But the first page of the Annual also captured Meggan perfectly.
Wee!LittleGirl!ShapeshiftingMeggan!
A poor little girl whose only friend is television, a girl who didn't realize how alone she was until she went out into the world? That's also inescapably Meggan.
Also, IS THAT NOT THE CUTEST THING EVER? Meggan loves old skool Dr. Who!
5. MAX Punisher: The final pages of The Slavers.
6. Green Lantern: Rebirth #4. For those who have not seen it, and I don't think that even Hal haters can deny the absolute BEAUTY of this moment:
GO, HAL!! GO!
In the Comics That Made Us Cry post I cited some of my own examples -- and wow, flist, you stepped up to the plate and cited examples that I either should have thought of or clearly need to read.
So, without any more preamble in the form of verbal clutter, I thought I'd back up a few items on my list with - gasp! - the actual examples. This might be fun for the folks reading who generally don't dabble in comics - there are some fine examples of what the medium can be when it shines.
1. The Authority #12: The perfect death of the incomparable Jenny Sparks. Picture my face screwed up in earnestness when I type the following: this is one of the most perfect character moments that I've ever read.
Jenny Sparks electrocutes the Almighty:
"Be seeing you."
I DEFY you to come up with a better character death.
2. Avengers vol. 3 #76: The tragic suicide of Jack of Hearts.
This issue? A mess. It was Geoff Johns' last issue under his contract for his Avengers work, it was rushed, bits and pieces were forced together without any smooth edges, but then we got to this - and it's all due to Steve Sadowski's art. He put so many subtle touches in these pages that enriched what happened. Like this panel:
So many touches on those pages that I didn't notice until the second time I read it. Look at Jack's armor burning up because he's going so fast as he exits the atmosphere - it shouldn't burn up, of course, because it's spaceworthy, built by Torval - but to me, I read that and thought "of course, because he's finally losing ultimate control - he's willing it apart by letting go." (The other possibility is that neither Johns nor Sadowski knew or cared that Jack actually spent years flying around in space in that suit, which would be both writerfail AND artistfail, but I prefer my explanation.) And that Jack turns all purple, as if his Contraxian heritage finally takes over as he suicides in that last explosion - that made me wonder if Jack maintained his vertically-split-half-human-half-Contraxian appearance by sheer force of will. There's no canon to support that, but it's very poetic, very Jack.
Like I said, delicious ambiguity in that sequence, and sad.
This panel also jumped out at me:
That's a visual reinforcer for how explosively dangerous Jack's power set was - all he's trying to do is get the gun out of that murderer's grasp and he winds up vaporizing the guy's arm. And that's Jack with his power purposely dialed down to 0.00000000001% - that's Jack not even trying.
3. The Hawks. Hawkman vol. 4 #49, to be precise, and what made me cry is that we got THIS:
When I read those panels, I immediately thought of Cordelia and Aral Vorkosigan in Barrayar: "My home is a PERSON."
That? That is beautiful.
(Also, uh, Carter, that's QUITE the parcel you're packing around there. Um. Yeah.)
It took over forty issues of Kendra soulsearching before us Hawk shippers could finally relax and luxuriate in our OTP rightfully coming back to center stage; we all heaved a sigh of relief, all was right in the Hawk world, and now we could get back to old school romance interspersed with major asskickings in exotic locales interspersed with incisive anthropological discourses about ancient civilizations interspersed with the Dalai Lama interspersed with everything else that makes the Hawks great. It helped that we got this at the end of issue #49:
...Because she accepted his eternal and undying devotion. FINALLY. Yes, I cried at both of those pages. And you know what happened then? Huh? HUH? You want to know what happened then? Then DC promptly ignored their five-thousand-year-long OTP relationship entirely so stupid Brad Meltzer could go write his stupid JLA book with his stupid Roy/Kendra and his stupid Arrow vs. Hawk wars-via-coupling-that-should-never-have-coupled and his stupid hope that Carter would come rough up Roy or something - as IF Carter would stoop to something like that - and Meltzer's stupid everything. Thanks, DC! Ahem. I think I'll save the rest of that rant for a Ship Manifesto EXTREEEEME Edition.
4. Captain Britain & MI13 Annual: Meggan. This was all Meggan alone, Meggan soujourning in hell, and it was heartbreaking.
Meggan, Meggan, Meggan.
I didn't catch what was on the seal of her letter until the third reading, but it makes perfect sense - Cornell spent a lot of time in this issue underscoring Meggan's spiritual connection with the moon.
That one page drives straight to the heart of the character with incredible skill. You would not think that you'd see Meggan of all people in a story where she would be exiled in hell, form an army, fight battle after battle with unspeakable evil, plow through the inferno like a shining juggernaut of hope, and then create a sanctuary for tortured souls. But with Cornell writing? It makes perfect sense. Of course she would, she's Meggan.
But the first page of the Annual also captured Meggan perfectly.
Wee!LittleGirl!ShapeshiftingMeggan!
A poor little girl whose only friend is television, a girl who didn't realize how alone she was until she went out into the world? That's also inescapably Meggan.
Also, IS THAT NOT THE CUTEST THING EVER? Meggan loves old skool Dr. Who!
5. MAX Punisher: The final pages of The Slavers.
6. Green Lantern: Rebirth #4. For those who have not seen it, and I don't think that even Hal haters can deny the absolute BEAUTY of this moment:
GO, HAL!! GO!