they may be works of fiction but when
they go to darker taboo places the world
takes notice
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
counting down our picks for the top 10
most controversial comic book moments
before we begin we publish new videos
every day so be sure to subscribe for
more great content for this list we’re
looking at moments from the pages of
major comic books that readers never saw
coming
and couldn’t stop talking about for
better or worse due to the nature of the
subject matter that these moments
addressed she’ll never walk again
number 10 Norman Osborn fathers twins
with Gwen Stacy there’s nothing more
tragic than the death of a super heroes
long-term love interest actually you
know what scratch that there’s nothing
more tragic than digging that character
up and using her as a twisted plot
device various clones of Gwen had
already been seen in the Clone Saga but
in sins past the original Gwen was
revealed to have been having an affair
with none other than spider-man’s
arch-nemesis Norman Osborn also known as
the Green Goblin as if this memory
tarnishing reveal wasn’t bad enough we
also learned that they had twins in one
moment writer J michael Straczynski
undercut Peter Parker’s second most
formative moment the death of his
girlfriend by retro actively making it a
lover’s quarrel
number nine speedball turns into penance
Civil War was controversial in a number
of ways but the fun-loving
happy-go-lucky B Lister known as
speedball was at the very heart of the
event that kicked it off he and his
fellow publicity-hungry new warriors as
part of their reality show confronted a
villain known as nitro and the conflict
ended with the death of six hundred and
twelve people 60 of whom were
schoolchildren as one of the only
survivors speedball who had been an
upbeat character since his introduction
in spider-man in 1988 was transformed
into the sadist
superhero penance Robby went some
seriously dark places out of guilt so
dark that Fabian Nicieza and Dan Slott
actually satirized the transformation in
the Deadpool Great Lakes initiative
summer special number 8 Speedy’s heroin
addiction speaking of taking
light-hearted characters to dark places
this little doozy of a cover an
award-winning story arc released at the
beginning of the 70s when the American
heroin epidemic was in full swing this
tale of addiction showed that not even a
member of the Teen Titans like Roy
Harper was immune to the temptations of
Vice for readers at the time though it
was a pretty tough pill to swallow not
only was it heavy subject matter but
Green Arrow’s response made it that much
heavier the father figure essentially
assaults his drug dependent Ward before
throwing him out Roy would recover but
this moment would continue to define the
character moving forward number seven
one more day poor Spidey he’s really
been through the wringer over the years
it’s tough to keep a character who’s
defined by his youth relevant four
decades after sins past and similarly
odd and damaging additions to the mythos
of Peter Parker a reset wasn’t
necessarily a bad thing but the way the
writers went about it was a
controversial one to say the least
eternal optimist and do-gooder Peter
Parker made a literal deal with the
devil his marriage to Mary Jane Watson
gone the whole him revealing his
identity to the public thing forgotten
somehow sins past survived but that’s
what people wanted to keep suffice it to
say one more day was poorly received
number six the rape of ms Marble note to
any aspiring comic book writers out
there rape is still rape even when you
dress it up with sci-fi concepts it’s
not that comic books can’t address
issues of sexual violence
it’s just that they need to be handled
with care and in this case the general
consensus is that MS marvel was not only
used within the context of the storyline
by Marcus we used a device to bend her
will but used by the writers as well the
art reduced this powerful character to
the role of victim and muddied the
waters by making seduction a part of it
rather than labeling it what it was
sexual assault number five
Alexandre due its demise speaking of the
mistreatment of women in comics let’s
take a look at this much maligned moment
from the pages of Green Lantern
Alex DeWitt was a journalist and
photographer and one-time girlfriend of
Kyle Rayner when he was chosen to be the
next Green Lantern the two reconnected
and she helped him get started as a
superhero just six issues after her
introduction however she was strangled
by the villain known as major force and
unceremoniously stuffed into a
refrigerator for Kyle to find it’s
something out of a horror movie
a comic book and the brutal reduction of
this character to plot device has become
the go-to example of how women should
not be treated in comics number for the
ultimate twincest the Ultimate Universe
was always intended as a safe space to
take risks and explore alternate
storylines for some of Marvel’s biggest
characters but an incestuous
relationship between twins Wanda and
Pietro Lehnsherr also known as Scarlet
Witch and Quicksilver wasn’t exactly
what readers had in mind from day one
they seemed too close for comfort
but in the Ultimates 3 it was made
explicit when Wolverine recounted the
time he caught the two of them together
yikes
number three the death of Jason Todd
so that’s trying to clear this up okay
pumpkin what hurts more Alex DeWitt is
the gold standard of how female
characters should not be killed off as
plot devices Jason Todd is arguably the
male equivalent everything about this
moment in comic book history was brutal
within the world of Batman the death of
Robin was unfathomable had this death
come about organically it would have
made headlines but this wasn’t a
carefully planned death
Jason’s fate was the result of a vote by
the readership who had to phone in to
pass their judgement the fans voted and
Jason got the crowbar a blatant
marketing stunt yes and undeniably one
of the most controversial moments in
comic book history
number two the rape of sue did me by dr.
light the rape of Carol Danvers is
Marvel’s cross to bear but DC’s use of
rape is even harder to handle this
moment from identity crisis is widely
cited as one of the most questionable
editorial decisions in the history of
comics the arc begins with Sudanese
death and by working through the events
of the past goes on to reveal in a scene
that pulls no punches
that she had previously been raped by
dr. light once perhaps most upsetting is
the fact that she was seemingly selected
because of her be list status alongside
her husband the elongated man she was
made the central figure of this story
and for many it was the ultimate
objectification number one Joker’s
attack of Barbara Gordon
[Music]
blah blah it’s considered one of the
most important Batman stories ever told
it’s also arguably the most
controversial the crippling of Batgirl
would have been a big moment had it
happened in costume but many took issue
with the fact that it was done to her as
Barbara Gordon reducing her worth to
that of a prop in Joker’s attempt to get
a Commissioner Gordon and by extension
Batman after shooting her he stripped
her naked and photographed her to
torture her father
Joker didn’t even know she was Batgirl
she was just a means to an end and that
has earned the Eisner award-winning
story plenty of retrospective criticism
even from the creator himself Alan Moore
do you agree with our picks check out
these other great clips from WatchMojo
and subscribe for new videos every day
[Music]
they go to darker taboo places the world
takes notice
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
counting down our picks for the top 10
most controversial comic book moments
before we begin we publish new videos
every day so be sure to subscribe for
more great content for this list we’re
looking at moments from the pages of
major comic books that readers never saw
coming
and couldn’t stop talking about for
better or worse due to the nature of the
subject matter that these moments
addressed she’ll never walk again
number 10 Norman Osborn fathers twins
with Gwen Stacy there’s nothing more
tragic than the death of a super heroes
long-term love interest actually you
know what scratch that there’s nothing
more tragic than digging that character
up and using her as a twisted plot
device various clones of Gwen had
already been seen in the Clone Saga but
in sins past the original Gwen was
revealed to have been having an affair
with none other than spider-man’s
arch-nemesis Norman Osborn also known as
the Green Goblin as if this memory
tarnishing reveal wasn’t bad enough we
also learned that they had twins in one
moment writer J michael Straczynski
undercut Peter Parker’s second most
formative moment the death of his
girlfriend by retro actively making it a
lover’s quarrel
number nine speedball turns into penance
Civil War was controversial in a number
of ways but the fun-loving
happy-go-lucky B Lister known as
speedball was at the very heart of the
event that kicked it off he and his
fellow publicity-hungry new warriors as
part of their reality show confronted a
villain known as nitro and the conflict
ended with the death of six hundred and
twelve people 60 of whom were
schoolchildren as one of the only
survivors speedball who had been an
upbeat character since his introduction
in spider-man in 1988 was transformed
into the sadist
superhero penance Robby went some
seriously dark places out of guilt so
dark that Fabian Nicieza and Dan Slott
actually satirized the transformation in
the Deadpool Great Lakes initiative
summer special number 8 Speedy’s heroin
addiction speaking of taking
light-hearted characters to dark places
this little doozy of a cover an
award-winning story arc released at the
beginning of the 70s when the American
heroin epidemic was in full swing this
tale of addiction showed that not even a
member of the Teen Titans like Roy
Harper was immune to the temptations of
Vice for readers at the time though it
was a pretty tough pill to swallow not
only was it heavy subject matter but
Green Arrow’s response made it that much
heavier the father figure essentially
assaults his drug dependent Ward before
throwing him out Roy would recover but
this moment would continue to define the
character moving forward number seven
one more day poor Spidey he’s really
been through the wringer over the years
it’s tough to keep a character who’s
defined by his youth relevant four
decades after sins past and similarly
odd and damaging additions to the mythos
of Peter Parker a reset wasn’t
necessarily a bad thing but the way the
writers went about it was a
controversial one to say the least
eternal optimist and do-gooder Peter
Parker made a literal deal with the
devil his marriage to Mary Jane Watson
gone the whole him revealing his
identity to the public thing forgotten
somehow sins past survived but that’s
what people wanted to keep suffice it to
say one more day was poorly received
number six the rape of ms Marble note to
any aspiring comic book writers out
there rape is still rape even when you
dress it up with sci-fi concepts it’s
not that comic books can’t address
issues of sexual violence
it’s just that they need to be handled
with care and in this case the general
consensus is that MS marvel was not only
used within the context of the storyline
by Marcus we used a device to bend her
will but used by the writers as well the
art reduced this powerful character to
the role of victim and muddied the
waters by making seduction a part of it
rather than labeling it what it was
sexual assault number five
Alexandre due its demise speaking of the
mistreatment of women in comics let’s
take a look at this much maligned moment
from the pages of Green Lantern
Alex DeWitt was a journalist and
photographer and one-time girlfriend of
Kyle Rayner when he was chosen to be the
next Green Lantern the two reconnected
and she helped him get started as a
superhero just six issues after her
introduction however she was strangled
by the villain known as major force and
unceremoniously stuffed into a
refrigerator for Kyle to find it’s
something out of a horror movie
a comic book and the brutal reduction of
this character to plot device has become
the go-to example of how women should
not be treated in comics number for the
ultimate twincest the Ultimate Universe
was always intended as a safe space to
take risks and explore alternate
storylines for some of Marvel’s biggest
characters but an incestuous
relationship between twins Wanda and
Pietro Lehnsherr also known as Scarlet
Witch and Quicksilver wasn’t exactly
what readers had in mind from day one
they seemed too close for comfort
but in the Ultimates 3 it was made
explicit when Wolverine recounted the
time he caught the two of them together
yikes
number three the death of Jason Todd
so that’s trying to clear this up okay
pumpkin what hurts more Alex DeWitt is
the gold standard of how female
characters should not be killed off as
plot devices Jason Todd is arguably the
male equivalent everything about this
moment in comic book history was brutal
within the world of Batman the death of
Robin was unfathomable had this death
come about organically it would have
made headlines but this wasn’t a
carefully planned death
Jason’s fate was the result of a vote by
the readership who had to phone in to
pass their judgement the fans voted and
Jason got the crowbar a blatant
marketing stunt yes and undeniably one
of the most controversial moments in
comic book history
number two the rape of sue did me by dr.
light the rape of Carol Danvers is
Marvel’s cross to bear but DC’s use of
rape is even harder to handle this
moment from identity crisis is widely
cited as one of the most questionable
editorial decisions in the history of
comics the arc begins with Sudanese
death and by working through the events
of the past goes on to reveal in a scene
that pulls no punches
that she had previously been raped by
dr. light once perhaps most upsetting is
the fact that she was seemingly selected
because of her be list status alongside
her husband the elongated man she was
made the central figure of this story
and for many it was the ultimate
objectification number one Joker’s
attack of Barbara Gordon
[Music]
blah blah it’s considered one of the
most important Batman stories ever told
it’s also arguably the most
controversial the crippling of Batgirl
would have been a big moment had it
happened in costume but many took issue
with the fact that it was done to her as
Barbara Gordon reducing her worth to
that of a prop in Joker’s attempt to get
a Commissioner Gordon and by extension
Batman after shooting her he stripped
her naked and photographed her to
torture her father
Joker didn’t even know she was Batgirl
she was just a means to an end and that
has earned the Eisner award-winning
story plenty of retrospective criticism
even from the creator himself Alan Moore
do you agree with our picks check out
these other great clips from WatchMojo
and subscribe for new videos every day
[Music]
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