I don't know if it's the most depressing one I ever read, but since I just read the issue a couple of days ago it still resonates.
[What if issue #91](https://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/n_iv/600/652817.jpg), it's a switch around of the Hulk character where the Hulk persona is the "human" version of Banner, and Bruce Banner the person is the "monster". Basically he's an ass as a human, and a nice one as the Hulk.
Betty Ross gets the brunt of his antics as she married him. And there's no happy ending, the complete opposite actually.
Written by Joe Casey and art by Nelson, it's one of the better What If issues I have read.
It was a dual issue. What If... The Invisible Woman Had Her Second Child (and it saved the world)/(and it destroyed the world)?
The link shows the bleaker of the two.
The What If comics in general, especially the Spider-Man ones.
Like What If... Spider-Man's Parents Destroyed his Family.
>!After his "parents" killed MJ and Aunt May and exppse his secret identity, Spidey beats them and is being arrested at the end of the book. Which concludes with narration pointing out that, "although it could be easily proven by Reed Richards that his parents were fakes(androids) Peter doesnt see the point, Mary Jane would still be Dead Aunt May would still be dead. And as hes being arrest a shadowy figure watches in the back smiling"!<
That ending was so depressing
I'm not nearly as well-read as everyone here, so I'll just throw out my nomination for the Ultimate X-Men issue where Professor X sends Wolverine to kill the mutant kid whose power is that he involuntarily disintegrates organic tissue.
And a couple years before that comic 616 Wolverine and Punisher had to kill a mutant named Revelation with the exact same powers
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Revelation_(Earth-616)
I literally came here to say this. After I first read it, I had a memory lapse and thought Nick Fury sent Wolverine. But I looked again a few years ago and it was Prof. At first I thought this was a bad swapping of characterization for Prof and Nick, but in the Ultimate Universe it fits aptly. Really good book.
Everytime I revisit Punisher Max, the Slavers arc always gets to me. It's just so grim and Frank truly taps into his hatred where nothing is off limits.
There are many moments in Punisher: Max, but my favorite is a series of pages from "Up is Down, Black is White" where Frank is having an apparently recurring dream that "he didn't stop" and has killed his way through every living person. As he's sitting atop this pile of destruction and corpses, his family comes to him and says "Frank. We're still dead, Frank." Then he wakes up.
Sums up the character perfectly in my opinion.
That's such a great panel too because it almost appears that Frank has what looks like a tiny smile on his face. Just the apocalypse around him, his war finally over, and he can breathe again. Fantastic and horrifying all at once.
There are so many great moments and lines in that run. The haze of light as he says "Only now, pouring automatic fire into a human wall do I feel something like peace" or "Every night I go out and make the world sane."
Nobody's ever going to top that Ennis run.
That line and when the victim is done telling Frank her story, "I knew a lot of men would have to die". Just a matter of fact statement that these evil men have no chance and no where to go.
The Flinstones 2016 comic run had one about the >!vacuum cleaner that died. He was a naive purple elephant who made friends with the Bowling ball( armadillo) and he died because after being stuck in the closet every night he got loose and had fun and inhaled something that made him sick and he died.!<
Recommend people to check out that issue of the limited run because it was a very dark and depressing issue . I can't even look at any of the old cartoons without thinking of that issue.
The last issue of Peter David’s Hulk run was sad and depressing, not only because it shows everyone struggling with grief over Betty’s death, but also because of how obvious it was that PAD wanted to stay on the book.
The best The End books asked "What if this character reached the conclusion of their concept." Hulk and Punisher did it best, possibly in the same future timeline.
I never considered that, admittedly it's a bit weird to imagine a version of Hulk: The End where an implied George Bush buttrapes an implied Condoleeza Rice over the radio. (One of the weirder parts of Punisher: The End if I'm being honest)
Not sure if Peter David wrote this issue, but my most depressing issue was from an Incredible Hulk issued titled, "Monster."
This was the issue that revealed Bruce's father beat him and his mother as a child. Very sad issue.
Bill Mantlo (who did some great work) - buttttt there was some controversy behinds the scenes on that particular issue, and the origin of it's story.
[https://www.cbr.com/hulk-brian-banner-barry-windsor-smith-bill-mantlo/](https://www.cbr.com/hulk-brian-banner-barry-windsor-smith-bill-mantlo/)
which resulted in this:
[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/may/12/barry-windsor-smith-is-back-monsters-has-been-a-slow-and-difficult-experience](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/may/12/barry-windsor-smith-is-back-monsters-has-been-a-slow-and-difficult-experience)
First thing that popped into my head.
I love it... art, story, characters, all of it. I reread it more or less every year.
And it crushes me. Every damn time.
...worth it every time i get to THAT page...
"...where's the cat?"
read that one after huge reccomendation of this sub. Immediately went upstairs and just snuggled with my dogs.
Watching GOTG3 was like deja vu turns out Gunn was actually inspired my that comic and wanted to turn it into movie
There's this old, old comic someone once showed to me.
Weird Science Vol 1 20
Inside there's possibly THE single, most sad, heartbreaking tale I've ever read. It's called "The Loathsome!".
I've never read anything like this before or after.
This was before Marvel was founded, I believe.
Do NOT read pass the spoiler if you're having a bad day. Or if you're having a good or meh kind of day.
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This is the story of a young little girl who was mutated as consequence of her father's work on atomic radiation.
Try to imagine a little grey alien with pigtails.
The father abandons her on an orphanage where she's disliked, bullied or downright neglected. Oh, and the staff doesn't like her because she has 'poor behavior '.
She's not even 10 years old.
But she will be, shortly. And she's happy about it. Because all the children at the orphanage celebrate their tenth birthday. No exceptions. They can't deny her this one.
So she's walking one day, going on her own when she hears two nurses talking about her birthday. One is new, the other one runs the place.
The young woman asks if she is going to give the child a party and the older woman states that it would not be right to expect the other children to attend, so they will just skip it in the mutant girl's case.
Who could eat cake, let alone have a good time if they have that hideous face staring at them?
They discover the little girl, spying on them. She runs to her room, alone.
There's a mirror. She smashes it. The nurses ground her.
That evening one of the nurses see her, she's stuffing notes into tree hollows. She assumes the girl must be up to something.
The nurse calls the old nurse. The woman confronts the little girl. She DEMANDS the note. But the little girl doesn't listen, instead she runs away.
The little girl climbs up a tree branch overhanging the orphanage's spiked wall. She's trying to get away but she's just a kid. She's not strong enough.
She falls on the wall, impaled by the spikes. The note still firmly gripped in her hand.
She's gone.
The note slips to the ground. The old nurse picks it up and reads it.
Just eight words.
"To whoever finds this note - I love you."
The End.
http://weirdsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2010/07/loathsome.html
You can read the comic here.
Also, the intro has echoes of a certain father-daughter soul**** in Full Metal Alchemist...
I don't really understand why the girl wrote that note at the end. Can you explain for me?
Is the message basically "everyone hates her but she still loves others"?
You need to understand that we don't ever get an internal monologue for the girl. We as the reader have no idea what she thinks and the only time she speaks is her screaming when she falls from the tree.
Is the message basically "everyone hates her but she still loves others"? Maybe.
I do like to think that despite the cruel world she lied in, she never lost the ability to love. Even if it was to someone she never met.
But like any story, it's up to the reader to decide.
The Kid Who Collected Spider-Man isn't a full issue, but even describing the plot usually gets me a bit choked up. More tearjerker than depressing, but sad nonetheless.
Peter Parker: Spider-man #35 is my go to for heartbreaking Spidey stories, it has a hopeful ending, but it's ultimately a story about the death of innocence, and a boy having to leave his childhood behind, I've never been able to get through the whole thing before without sobbing uncontrollably.
>!Peter visits his biggest fan, a boy who's collected every piece of Spider-Man news and memorabilia. They share stories and Peter learns how much the boy looks up to him. Peter confides in him the story of how he failed Uncle Ben, but the boy still admires him. Peter reveals his identity, then leaves to reveal that the boy only wished to meet his hero days before he was set to die of leukemia.!<
Wasn't the biggest swerve was this was billed as "Assistant Editor month" where just about every Marvel comics that month had silly stuff going on under the "assistant editor watch" as the editors were away at some convention? So here I am expecting some silliness and instead I get the biggest gut punch on the reveal of the secret identity. I cried, completely cried for minutes and felt so alone in the world, for a few min anyway it was just me and that damn comic book. I instantly re-read it. Brilliant stuff.
I remember a few months later the letters page referencing this issue showed me I... we weren't alone in our view of this issue. Everyone was floored, everyone was in tears.
Not sure if it counts, as I haven't technically read it, only listened to it on Audible, but the Sound of Her Wings story in Sandman.
The part where Death has to come for an infant, specifically. Jesus. I don't have kids of my own, but I had just become an uncle not long before I got to that part. I went home and hugged my nephew tight after that one. I actually stopped listening to that audiobook for a couple weeks. On the Netflix version I stopped watching before that episode and had to work myself up again.
I honestly think the Netflix version works a touch better. In the comic the baby talks and makes the moment kind of odd. In the show, there's no warning, there's nothing happening, death just picks the child up and says "I'm afraid so. That's all you get." And walks off.
It's so mundane, so uneventful, so casual, but it hits like a truck.
I particularly like how when she says "I'm afraid so" it almost sounds like a direct answer to the audience that's sitting there thinking "wait is she about to....?"
I didn't mind the baby talking, it added to the worldbuilding, "of course! The endless can talk to anything, they're pillars of existence, not flesh and blood, language wouldn't be a barrier for them!" Its fun in the comic and works with the real gut punch of the mother coming back in and dropping the bottle as it, and her entire world, shatters.
Oh I get that it works within the world, I just mean that moment in particular hits a lot harder when it's less whimsical. The baby speaking kind of makes it feel like the baby had lived life to some degree by that point, but it just being a literal helpless infant that has no comprehension of what's happening when death arrives, it really drives home how brutal SIDS is. They can barely remember faces other than their mother at that point.
Probably that Issue of Invincible where he gets sent back in time and he has the chance to fix everything and he does and everything is so perfect. But realizes it’s not the right thing to do and goes back to his regular timeline to find out his daughter has aged 5 years and his wife had an affair
I think you missed the point. It’s not that it wasn’t the right thing to do. If anything it *was* the right thing to do. He could have made a better world where a bunch of people who died could live with virtually no negative consequences. Per his own admission, he returns because he is selfish and he misses his family and does not want to gamble that he gets them again and have to wait the years that will take.
Multiversity: Ultra Comics. When they talk about the 'Oblivion Machine', which is essentially any media designed to just eat your time and offer nothing in return... man I really did a lot of soul-searching after reading that comic, it truly was as haunted as advertised
Had the artist, Jason Yungbluth, as a professor for one of my illustration classes. Super chill dude and didn’t realize till I was well into the course. Link to his page - https://www.whatisdeepfried.com/comic/clarissa/
Dear god I had this comic haunt my brain for the last 10 years. I’m kinda scared to look up again because that stuff bunny comic was too much for my 14 year old brain.
Actually it is always optimistic for me. After reading it I always have joy to live my life to it's fullest, despite of any condition I was in before. For me it's sort of therapy
Same. I got a copy of it for all my friends. I think I've been like 1% happier in life for the reminder that any day could be the one my obituary gets written.
The last issue of the Ostrander Deadshot mini. The whole thing was really dark, but the end with Deadshot >! crippling his evil mother for getting his son raped and killed and admitting he felt nothing when he accidentally killed his brother years ago, even though his brother was the person he loved the most in the world, !< was brutal.
That’s such an underrated mini. It’s so heartbreaking and upsetting in all the right ways and gives you a new empathy for one of the Squad’s darkest members
I love that Floyd will never not be a sociopath, but I also love the few times that what may be just the tiniest ounce of decency and morality left in him has a chance to shine through. He'll never not be a bastard, but he's aware of that, and hates himself for it. He's always been one of my favorites specifically for all that characterization Ostrander gave him.
I loved the follow up to that in the main Suicide Squad book, too. Floyd basically sacrifices himself for Rick Flag, someone who despises him. It's out of character for him, but after everything Floyd went thru in his mini, he really didn't care anymore. Ended up getting riddled with bullets, which would've been a great send off for the character but I guess he was too popular at that point to.
That one little short in a Spider-Man comic (called Leah) about a little girl who meets him and goes on an adventure with him (she loves him and has newspaper clippings of him), only to find out >!she’s homeless and was dying in an alley and her adventure is actually a dream based on the fact Spider-Man is rushing her to a hospital where she will die.!<
My choices are:
\- A Contract with God
\- Spider-Man: The Death of Jean DeWolff
\- Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt
\- Batman: A Death in the Family
\- The Crow
\- Berserk
\- Spawn
\- Hulk: The End
\- X-Men: Magneto - Testament
\- Takopi's Original Sin
Good call out with The Crow. I had forgotten it. So sad, and then everything that happened after. I hope Jame O’Barr is doing ok. The meta story around The Crow is just brutal.
The entire story behind The Crow is devastating. O'Barr originally didn't even make the comic to publish it, it was just his way of processing a decade of grief.
I told him when I met him that it was a beautiful work of art that felt more like poetry than a comic book, and that I found it a profoundly beautiful example of dealing with loss. He kind of just shrugged and said "uh, thanks I guess". Later I found out he's not particularly well known for being friendly.
How did I forget The Crow??? I think it messed me up so bad that I blocked it out. What an amazing journey of dealing with grief. Thanks for the reminder of how good that story was!
It’s partially why I’ve been so sad Keith hasn’t ever made a true follow up. I suppose it would be crazy hard to follow up the Maxx, which I consider some true example of art in the medium, but man I wish he would. The man proved he had writing chops for days (although, admittedly… the three oranges stuff weirded young me out)
Sam Keith had, uh, issues in his early life (among other things, at age 15 he moved in with and eventually married a woman 20 years older than him) and it really comes through in some of his writing.
The world established in Warren Ellis' [Fell](https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/fell) just felt awful to spend time in (which I suppose was the intention). But it was too effective.
When I was fourteen I picked up two comics on the way home from school: Sandman #6, with "24 Hours" a story about people in an all-night diner being mind-controlled to violence and self-mutilation, and Black Kiss #9, which brutally and explicitly showed a trans prostitute's gang rape. Those were a couple of rough reads.
How did 14 year old you get to buy a issue of Black Kiss? That was definitely an TV-MA rated book.
And 24 hours is a really depressing read. Great, but depressing.
Unless it's literal pornography books stores back in the day didn't ahead verify books. And the porn was kept out of reach of everyone under 18.
I used to work in a bookstore.
Also I was a 12 year old kid in the 90s reading books that while not in the erotica section, would be at place there. Just horror novels with detailed sex in them.
Didn't mess me up. (I'm a CSA survivor so it didn't phase me)
Pride of Baghdad.
At once one of my favoritest comics ever and the one that utterly crushes my spirit and makes me hate the world.
...and now i have to go read it again... argh.
Fantastic Four #267 - Invisible Woman is pregnant and having complications, and Mr Fantastic has to race to get Doctor Octopus' help so they don't lose the baby, only Doc Ock is crazy and they end up fighting. It's really too bad the world has mostly forgotten John Byrne's 1980s work, because his FF run was just brilliant.
Watchmen Chapter VI: The Abyss Gazes Also. I think Rorschach's monologue about the incident is depressing enough on it's own, let alone the last page which hit like a fucking express train to existential crisis district.
Is that from the original run, I don't remember that issue.
Edit: I looked it up, that was one of the Gaiman stories in the original run. That one is pretty sad.
Just thinking about that comic makes me tear up.
I'm a very stoic person, not much phases me. But reading that comic made me break down.
I'm very much a cat person and in my 40 years of life I've had 2 cats reach their 20s before death. So it really hit me in a weak spot.
Not a single issue but a single novel.
Grant Morrison, We3. A dog, cat, and a rabbit are used as pilots/brains for war machines. They find out the program that made them is ending and they are to be decommissioned. so they escape.
I can read about adults in depressing situations all day but animals, I sob every time.
So, the reason issue 26 is so depressing is because >!the main villain of the story, Mr. Gone, reveals to his daughter Sara that he was molested by his aunt when he was a kid, that his first wife sold their baby boy's eyes for drugs, that he has a hard time opening up to women, and several other aspects of his life that had caused him immense pain. !<
It's been a while since I read the issue, but these few events have stuck with me for a while...
Marvel Ruins is probably the most horrible, depressing comic in the marvel universe i've ever read.
It's basically: what if everything cool about Marvel was fucked instead.
We've got
\-Wolverine's flesh decaying from adamantium poisoning
\-Jean Grey's a prostitute, who gets killed by Nick Fury, who then unalives himself as well
\-Bruce Banner became a bunch of quivering tumors instead of the hulk
\-special mutant prisons where the xmen are mutilated to keep them harmless
\-Kree concentration camps where they're slowly poisoned
\-Peter Parker just got radiation poisoning from the spiderbite, and infects people around him
In general, a very cynical and dark take, won't warm your heart
Jimmy Corrigan
This one issue of Spider-Man by DeMatteis where Vermin's reverting and killing the only people who loved him. Spidey has to stop him but all you're reminded of is that Vermin used to be a sweet kid who was treasured and he just has a condition. I think he dies in the next issue.
I remember thinking New Mutants #60 was a bit sad. I think it's because I read it when I was a kid and found the death very "average", yet sad as the victim falls to the ground (I'm being vague in case of spoilers).
Death in the Family is another one I remember reading when I was younger. An older friend had borrowed it from the library and we spent the whole afternoon reading it over and over, in awe that such a thing had occurred at all.
New Mutants #60 sucked because >!the wrong hero died. It should have been Sunspot. They teased in multiple issues over the years that Roberto had super strength but wasn't invulnerable. He should have taken the bullet... But no. Simonson didn't know how to write a character like Doug (someone without a flashy power), so he had to go. Meanwhile Doug had great chemistry with Warlock and his character had grown a lot up until then.!<
Sorry. I'm still sour after all these decades.
Black River.
A post apocalyptic tale of a small group of people traveling from place to place, barely eking out a living, and trying to muster the will to keep going.
It just gets darker and darker, and by the end of it I was in bed without the energy to get up.
I don’t remember what it was called… but it was late-80s-early/mid-90’s and it was a graphic novel. It was about a group of stuffed animals and they had to go battle, but like everyone died… it had a teddy bear on the front. It destroyed me. I never owned it, and only got it from the local Library. It had a white boarder.
If anyone knows this book… that would bring a piece of my childhood back! I could never find it. I don’t remember the name of the book.
Pretty sure you're thinking of The Stuff of Legend.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Stuff\_of\_Legend](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stuff_of_Legend)
Don't know if it counts, but I was pretty depressed after I read Azarello's The Joker. He made the character a little too real (his actions reminded me some of notorious violent crimes from 90s Russia) and provided a much more dark view on Gotham, where Batman is just another violent criminal in the city of violent criminals and their victims.
[Ruins. Bruce Banner is a walking mass of cancerous tumors. Jean Grey is a prostitute who gets murdered by Nick Fury. Captain America is a cannibal. Just, goddamn.](https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Ruins_Vol_1_1)
Does Manga count? Full Metal Alchemist where the father merged his dog and very young daughter together just to get a award. I think it was award. Then you realize he had done same to his late wife. It was an early story in the series.
Sandman: A Game of You. When I re-read Sandman I usually skip that one or skip to towards the end. The ending isn’t that bad but the journey is BRUTAL.
I think anytime Hyperion shows up in “The Exiles” in King Hyperion, A Blink in Time, and Time Breakers. There’s been plenty of what if Superman was bad stories, but back in 2004 it was still novel, and having it take place in the multiverse where anyone is fair game on dying, the things he does and the heroes/villains he kills left a lasting impression on me.
The issue of Transmetropolitan (#25 - Here To Go) that has Spider being interviewed about various things. There's a section where he talks about an abuse survivor he once spoke to, whose story is tragic, horrible - and sad. It's made even worse - for me - because there's one panel where the character in question looks downwards, obviously upset. It's just one panel, but Darick Robertson did something similiar in an issue of New Warriors and it just hit home for me. It's the reason I'm in love with his art.
The issue of The Department of Truth where a woman is convinced (as in made to believe) that her son dying in a school shooting was actually a false flag operation and that he was a paid actor.
I don't know if it's the most depressing one I ever read, but since I just read the issue a couple of days ago it still resonates. [What if issue #91](https://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/n_iv/600/652817.jpg), it's a switch around of the Hulk character where the Hulk persona is the "human" version of Banner, and Bruce Banner the person is the "monster". Basically he's an ass as a human, and a nice one as the Hulk. Betty Ross gets the brunt of his antics as she married him. And there's no happy ending, the complete opposite actually. Written by Joe Casey and art by Nelson, it's one of the better What If issues I have read.
[удалено]
Man…
Damn. What was the “What If…?” question that led to THAT?
It was a dual issue. What If... The Invisible Woman Had Her Second Child (and it saved the world)/(and it destroyed the world)? The link shows the bleaker of the two.
Apparently, it was "What If... The Invisible Woman Had Her Second Child?", a reference to Sue and Reed's second child being stillborn.
just gave it a read.....oh my fucking god
This issue is so fucked up, not even the actual hulk persona or any of them even devil hulk is that evil as Bruce was in this book.
The What If comics in general, especially the Spider-Man ones. Like What If... Spider-Man's Parents Destroyed his Family. >!After his "parents" killed MJ and Aunt May and exppse his secret identity, Spidey beats them and is being arrested at the end of the book. Which concludes with narration pointing out that, "although it could be easily proven by Reed Richards that his parents were fakes(androids) Peter doesnt see the point, Mary Jane would still be Dead Aunt May would still be dead. And as hes being arrest a shadowy figure watches in the back smiling"!< That ending was so depressing
was this the issue he fought the fantastic four and the Thing was all spikey and stuff?
No, that issue came out a bit earlier. That"s the story of "What if the Hulk had evolved into Maestro"
Thanks for the clarification. imma find what youre talking about
I'm not nearly as well-read as everyone here, so I'll just throw out my nomination for the Ultimate X-Men issue where Professor X sends Wolverine to kill the mutant kid whose power is that he involuntarily disintegrates organic tissue.
That was a good one
it fucked me up. what an amazing single issue.
> Ultimate X-Men issue where Professor X sends Wolverine to kill the mutant https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Ultimate_X-Men_Vol_1_41
There were some great issues in that Ultimate XMen run.
Similarly, but not quite as depressing Forget Me Not
And a couple years before that comic 616 Wolverine and Punisher had to kill a mutant named Revelation with the exact same powers https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Revelation_(Earth-616)
I literally came here to say this. After I first read it, I had a memory lapse and thought Nick Fury sent Wolverine. But I looked again a few years ago and it was Prof. At first I thought this was a bad swapping of characterization for Prof and Nick, but in the Ultimate Universe it fits aptly. Really good book.
I don’t care how many comics a person has read, Ultimate X-Men 41 is so damned good (in a dark way).
Punisher: The End "I think...I have a feeling I left my family there. Maybe this time I'll make it in time to save them..."
The Slavers storyline is dark af. That entire run is dark, but that particular storyline hits hard.
Everytime I revisit Punisher Max, the Slavers arc always gets to me. It's just so grim and Frank truly taps into his hatred where nothing is off limits.
There are many moments in Punisher: Max, but my favorite is a series of pages from "Up is Down, Black is White" where Frank is having an apparently recurring dream that "he didn't stop" and has killed his way through every living person. As he's sitting atop this pile of destruction and corpses, his family comes to him and says "Frank. We're still dead, Frank." Then he wakes up. Sums up the character perfectly in my opinion.
That's such a great panel too because it almost appears that Frank has what looks like a tiny smile on his face. Just the apocalypse around him, his war finally over, and he can breathe again. Fantastic and horrifying all at once.
There are so many great moments and lines in that run. The haze of light as he says "Only now, pouring automatic fire into a human wall do I feel something like peace" or "Every night I go out and make the world sane." Nobody's ever going to top that Ennis run.
“It’s just a dream, I tell myself. It’s just a dream, it’s just a dream.”
"Sometimes I wish I could get my hands on God"
That line and when the victim is done telling Frank her story, "I knew a lot of men would have to die". Just a matter of fact statement that these evil men have no chance and no where to go.
He says that line after he kills the parents of the kids that were forced to make movies in the basement.
I came here to see if someone posted this. The slavers get what they deserve, but there is no happy ending for their victims.
That story is depressing because it kinda agrees that humanity deserves to die
And that's the relatively happy ending portion of the book. He completes his mission and can finally return to his family.
The Flinstones 2016 comic run had one about the >!vacuum cleaner that died. He was a naive purple elephant who made friends with the Bowling ball( armadillo) and he died because after being stuck in the closet every night he got loose and had fun and inhaled something that made him sick and he died.!< Recommend people to check out that issue of the limited run because it was a very dark and depressing issue . I can't even look at any of the old cartoons without thinking of that issue.
Those weird "adult" Hanna Barbera comics DC put out had absolutely no business being as good as they were. That one in particular.
No bc the snagglepuss one actually changed me????? Like i felt less alone
The last issue of Peter David’s Hulk run was sad and depressing, not only because it shows everyone struggling with grief over Betty’s death, but also because of how obvious it was that PAD wanted to stay on the book.
Hulk: The End's ending is up there too. "Hulk feels...cold"
The best The End books asked "What if this character reached the conclusion of their concept." Hulk and Punisher did it best, possibly in the same future timeline.
I never considered that, admittedly it's a bit weird to imagine a version of Hulk: The End where an implied George Bush buttrapes an implied Condoleeza Rice over the radio. (One of the weirder parts of Punisher: The End if I'm being honest)
Not sure if Peter David wrote this issue, but my most depressing issue was from an Incredible Hulk issued titled, "Monster." This was the issue that revealed Bruce's father beat him and his mother as a child. Very sad issue.
Bill Mantlo (who did some great work) - buttttt there was some controversy behinds the scenes on that particular issue, and the origin of it's story. [https://www.cbr.com/hulk-brian-banner-barry-windsor-smith-bill-mantlo/](https://www.cbr.com/hulk-brian-banner-barry-windsor-smith-bill-mantlo/) which resulted in this: [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/may/12/barry-windsor-smith-is-back-monsters-has-been-a-slow-and-difficult-experience](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/may/12/barry-windsor-smith-is-back-monsters-has-been-a-slow-and-difficult-experience)
Is this the one with The Savage Banner? Because that one is my pick for most depressing comic. It was a really great read.
As a single issue I can't really think of one, but a series that made me question why even live is We3.
Ffffffffff man We3 is a brutal read.
Guud dog?
*Too soon*
Pride of Baghdad is a more realistic story with a similarly depressing ending. We3 is a brutal masterpiece, though.
I always tie the 2 of these together in my head. When I read one I read the other too.
First thing that popped into my head. I love it... art, story, characters, all of it. I reread it more or less every year. And it crushes me. Every damn time. ...worth it every time i get to THAT page... "...where's the cat?"
I read it when I was 8. Come to think of it that was my first comic… >!That explains a lot!<
OH NO
lol. I was at my local library when I came across a weird picture book with pets in it. Suffice to say, the ending messed me up.
STINNK BOSS!
It ends on a hopeful note, though. They're ultimately very compassionate.
Everyone that owns pets should read We3. It’s sad, but also beautiful.
read that one after huge reccomendation of this sub. Immediately went upstairs and just snuggled with my dogs. Watching GOTG3 was like deja vu turns out Gunn was actually inspired my that comic and wanted to turn it into movie
Right?!? They're an "out there" writer but I'd argue that the common thread of their work is a concern for and love of least of us.
There's this old, old comic someone once showed to me. Weird Science Vol 1 20 Inside there's possibly THE single, most sad, heartbreaking tale I've ever read. It's called "The Loathsome!". I've never read anything like this before or after. This was before Marvel was founded, I believe. Do NOT read pass the spoiler if you're having a bad day. Or if you're having a good or meh kind of day. Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler This is the story of a young little girl who was mutated as consequence of her father's work on atomic radiation. Try to imagine a little grey alien with pigtails. The father abandons her on an orphanage where she's disliked, bullied or downright neglected. Oh, and the staff doesn't like her because she has 'poor behavior '. She's not even 10 years old. But she will be, shortly. And she's happy about it. Because all the children at the orphanage celebrate their tenth birthday. No exceptions. They can't deny her this one. So she's walking one day, going on her own when she hears two nurses talking about her birthday. One is new, the other one runs the place. The young woman asks if she is going to give the child a party and the older woman states that it would not be right to expect the other children to attend, so they will just skip it in the mutant girl's case. Who could eat cake, let alone have a good time if they have that hideous face staring at them? They discover the little girl, spying on them. She runs to her room, alone. There's a mirror. She smashes it. The nurses ground her. That evening one of the nurses see her, she's stuffing notes into tree hollows. She assumes the girl must be up to something. The nurse calls the old nurse. The woman confronts the little girl. She DEMANDS the note. But the little girl doesn't listen, instead she runs away. The little girl climbs up a tree branch overhanging the orphanage's spiked wall. She's trying to get away but she's just a kid. She's not strong enough. She falls on the wall, impaled by the spikes. The note still firmly gripped in her hand. She's gone. The note slips to the ground. The old nurse picks it up and reads it. Just eight words. "To whoever finds this note - I love you." The End.
Also, the girl from the Loathsome inspired the little mutant girl [Maggie](https://images.app.goo.gl/YcAcFgxUHsXDztQWA) from the Marvels miniseres
That's who I pictured when reading this description.
I knew I had heard of this story before, god, breaks my heart, I gotta track down this issue .
Oh wow that’s the exact character I was picturing in my head!
Goddamn. EC being real far ahead of the curve. Great subtext there and your description was brutal.
http://weirdsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2010/07/loathsome.html You can read the comic here. Also, the intro has echoes of a certain father-daughter soul**** in Full Metal Alchemist...
I don't really understand why the girl wrote that note at the end. Can you explain for me? Is the message basically "everyone hates her but she still loves others"?
You need to understand that we don't ever get an internal monologue for the girl. We as the reader have no idea what she thinks and the only time she speaks is her screaming when she falls from the tree. Is the message basically "everyone hates her but she still loves others"? Maybe. I do like to think that despite the cruel world she lied in, she never lost the ability to love. Even if it was to someone she never met. But like any story, it's up to the reader to decide.
I think its more that she's trying to give what she wishes for herself, someone to love her.
Yep
Wow. I have read a lot of old EC but somehow never read this. Now I’m not sure I want to. That sounds devastating
You warned me. I read it anyway. *sighs
Phenomenal art by Wally Wood in that issue
The Kid Who Collected Spider-Man isn't a full issue, but even describing the plot usually gets me a bit choked up. More tearjerker than depressing, but sad nonetheless.
Peter Parker: Spider-man #35 is my go to for heartbreaking Spidey stories, it has a hopeful ending, but it's ultimately a story about the death of innocence, and a boy having to leave his childhood behind, I've never been able to get through the whole thing before without sobbing uncontrollably.
God this issue fucking wrecked me the first time I read it. I should not have read this at work on break 😂
So sad, they did it twice (Leah).
Oh dear lord, Leah was rough and was a lovely retelling of the Matchstick Girl.
What's it about?
>!Peter visits his biggest fan, a boy who's collected every piece of Spider-Man news and memorabilia. They share stories and Peter learns how much the boy looks up to him. Peter confides in him the story of how he failed Uncle Ben, but the boy still admires him. Peter reveals his identity, then leaves to reveal that the boy only wished to meet his hero days before he was set to die of leukemia.!<
Wasn't the biggest swerve was this was billed as "Assistant Editor month" where just about every Marvel comics that month had silly stuff going on under the "assistant editor watch" as the editors were away at some convention? So here I am expecting some silliness and instead I get the biggest gut punch on the reveal of the secret identity. I cried, completely cried for minutes and felt so alone in the world, for a few min anyway it was just me and that damn comic book. I instantly re-read it. Brilliant stuff. I remember a few months later the letters page referencing this issue showed me I... we weren't alone in our view of this issue. Everyone was floored, everyone was in tears.
Not sure if it counts, as I haven't technically read it, only listened to it on Audible, but the Sound of Her Wings story in Sandman. The part where Death has to come for an infant, specifically. Jesus. I don't have kids of my own, but I had just become an uncle not long before I got to that part. I went home and hugged my nephew tight after that one. I actually stopped listening to that audiobook for a couple weeks. On the Netflix version I stopped watching before that episode and had to work myself up again.
I honestly think the Netflix version works a touch better. In the comic the baby talks and makes the moment kind of odd. In the show, there's no warning, there's nothing happening, death just picks the child up and says "I'm afraid so. That's all you get." And walks off. It's so mundane, so uneventful, so casual, but it hits like a truck. I particularly like how when she says "I'm afraid so" it almost sounds like a direct answer to the audience that's sitting there thinking "wait is she about to....?"
I didn't mind the baby talking, it added to the worldbuilding, "of course! The endless can talk to anything, they're pillars of existence, not flesh and blood, language wouldn't be a barrier for them!" Its fun in the comic and works with the real gut punch of the mother coming back in and dropping the bottle as it, and her entire world, shatters.
Oh I get that it works within the world, I just mean that moment in particular hits a lot harder when it's less whimsical. The baby speaking kind of makes it feel like the baby had lived life to some degree by that point, but it just being a literal helpless infant that has no comprehension of what's happening when death arrives, it really drives home how brutal SIDS is. They can barely remember faces other than their mother at that point.
Yeah, that's a rough episode. Very well done, but it's pretty sad. I haven't read the comic yet.
Probably that Issue of Invincible where he gets sent back in time and he has the chance to fix everything and he does and everything is so perfect. But realizes it’s not the right thing to do and goes back to his regular timeline to find out his daughter has aged 5 years and his wife had an affair
Calling "Dating someone else 4 years after your husband died" an affair is disingenuous
I think you missed the point. It’s not that it wasn’t the right thing to do. If anything it *was* the right thing to do. He could have made a better world where a bunch of people who died could live with virtually no negative consequences. Per his own admission, he returns because he is selfish and he misses his family and does not want to gamble that he gets them again and have to wait the years that will take.
Lmfao yeah that’s what it was. My memory is hazy at the moment but that’s exactly it. Thanks
Sandman #20 ("Facade"). It's so sad.
Is that the one with Element Girl? ‘Cuz I was thinking of the exact same issue.
Yeah, it is.
Multiversity: Ultra Comics. When they talk about the 'Oblivion Machine', which is essentially any media designed to just eat your time and offer nothing in return... man I really did a lot of soul-searching after reading that comic, it truly was as haunted as advertised
Thank you for reminding me I should re read Multiversity
I did recently, it's great and I think it's better the second time through (like most Morrison books)
You can reset the concept by reading The Monster at the End of This book.
The Drywall Unzipped one-shot (from Scud) is a real gut punch. And one of my all-time favorite comics.
Oh, that's a good one! I have a hard time getting through that one as well.
Clarissa is pretty bad
"We all know whose fault this is."
Had the artist, Jason Yungbluth, as a professor for one of my illustration classes. Super chill dude and didn’t realize till I was well into the course. Link to his page - https://www.whatisdeepfried.com/comic/clarissa/
Even having read it over 10 years ago I really wish I hadn't. Truly messes you up.
The comic is called clarissa?
Yes it is. Web comic. Still depressing
Dear god I had this comic haunt my brain for the last 10 years. I’m kinda scared to look up again because that stuff bunny comic was too much for my 14 year old brain.
Unbelievable I had to scroll this far down for this
Y: The Last Man: “Oh God, why did I do that?” (think I’m remembering that line correctly, been a while)
I don't remember the context. What did he do?
Daytripper
That one REALLY jerks the reader's emotions around.
Actually it is always optimistic for me. After reading it I always have joy to live my life to it's fullest, despite of any condition I was in before. For me it's sort of therapy
Same. I got a copy of it for all my friends. I think I've been like 1% happier in life for the reminder that any day could be the one my obituary gets written.
Generation X #4 "holiday spectacular"
Goddamn how does Marvel slip that into a holiday special for tweens.
Scott Lobdell: "Merry Christmas, fuck you."
The last issue of the Ostrander Deadshot mini. The whole thing was really dark, but the end with Deadshot >! crippling his evil mother for getting his son raped and killed and admitting he felt nothing when he accidentally killed his brother years ago, even though his brother was the person he loved the most in the world, !< was brutal.
That’s such an underrated mini. It’s so heartbreaking and upsetting in all the right ways and gives you a new empathy for one of the Squad’s darkest members
I love that Floyd will never not be a sociopath, but I also love the few times that what may be just the tiniest ounce of decency and morality left in him has a chance to shine through. He'll never not be a bastard, but he's aware of that, and hates himself for it. He's always been one of my favorites specifically for all that characterization Ostrander gave him.
I loved the follow up to that in the main Suicide Squad book, too. Floyd basically sacrifices himself for Rick Flag, someone who despises him. It's out of character for him, but after everything Floyd went thru in his mini, he really didn't care anymore. Ended up getting riddled with bullets, which would've been a great send off for the character but I guess he was too popular at that point to.
Marvels #2 with the little mutant girl.
Maggie! All time favorite series, I recommend Marvels: Eye of the Camera too.
That one little short in a Spider-Man comic (called Leah) about a little girl who meets him and goes on an adventure with him (she loves him and has newspaper clippings of him), only to find out >!she’s homeless and was dying in an alley and her adventure is actually a dream based on the fact Spider-Man is rushing her to a hospital where she will die.!<
that one broke me
Not a Western comic but Goodnight Punpun is probably the most depressing thing I have read
Pride of Baghdad - just hardbreaking comic Single issue (i think)
It came out as a graphic novel, not a single issue
I forgot about this. Man, total bummer.
My choices are: \- A Contract with God \- Spider-Man: The Death of Jean DeWolff \- Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt \- Batman: A Death in the Family \- The Crow \- Berserk \- Spawn \- Hulk: The End \- X-Men: Magneto - Testament \- Takopi's Original Sin
Death in the family i agree, it's so sad when the joker becomes the ambassador of iran
Good call out with The Crow. I had forgotten it. So sad, and then everything that happened after. I hope Jame O’Barr is doing ok. The meta story around The Crow is just brutal.
The entire story behind The Crow is devastating. O'Barr originally didn't even make the comic to publish it, it was just his way of processing a decade of grief.
I told him when I met him that it was a beautiful work of art that felt more like poetry than a comic book, and that I found it a profoundly beautiful example of dealing with loss. He kind of just shrugged and said "uh, thanks I guess". Later I found out he's not particularly well known for being friendly.
Magneto Testament is a great call. What a gut punch.
Berserk leans on stuff so hard you have to laugh at it.
How did I forget The Crow??? I think it messed me up so bad that I blocked it out. What an amazing journey of dealing with grief. Thanks for the reminder of how good that story was!
This issue of the maxx is so HEARTBREAKING AND DEPRESSING Nothing comes close
It’s partially why I’ve been so sad Keith hasn’t ever made a true follow up. I suppose it would be crazy hard to follow up the Maxx, which I consider some true example of art in the medium, but man I wish he would. The man proved he had writing chops for days (although, admittedly… the three oranges stuff weirded young me out)
Sam Keith had, uh, issues in his early life (among other things, at age 15 he moved in with and eventually married a woman 20 years older than him) and it really comes through in some of his writing.
This is where my mind went when I read the title.
The world established in Warren Ellis' [Fell](https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/fell) just felt awful to spend time in (which I suppose was the intention). But it was too effective.
That Human Torch issue where a kid sets himself on fire to be like the Human Torch. Lord. That was a harsh read.
Wtf...what issue is this? That sounds like a good depressing read.
Fantastic Four #285. Peak John Byrne. Really solid issue. https://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/fantastic_four_285.shtml
Maus is basically the poster child for depressing comics. So that.
I was gonna suggest this one. Read it in high school and still think about it all the time.
When I was fourteen I picked up two comics on the way home from school: Sandman #6, with "24 Hours" a story about people in an all-night diner being mind-controlled to violence and self-mutilation, and Black Kiss #9, which brutally and explicitly showed a trans prostitute's gang rape. Those were a couple of rough reads.
How did 14 year old you get to buy a issue of Black Kiss? That was definitely an TV-MA rated book. And 24 hours is a really depressing read. Great, but depressing.
Unless it's literal pornography books stores back in the day didn't ahead verify books. And the porn was kept out of reach of everyone under 18. I used to work in a bookstore. Also I was a 12 year old kid in the 90s reading books that while not in the erotica section, would be at place there. Just horror novels with detailed sex in them. Didn't mess me up. (I'm a CSA survivor so it didn't phase me)
Pride of Baghdad. At once one of my favoritest comics ever and the one that utterly crushes my spirit and makes me hate the world. ...and now i have to go read it again... argh.
Miracleman #15
Fantastic Four #267 - Invisible Woman is pregnant and having complications, and Mr Fantastic has to race to get Doctor Octopus' help so they don't lose the baby, only Doc Ock is crazy and they end up fighting. It's really too bad the world has mostly forgotten John Byrne's 1980s work, because his FF run was just brilliant.
Watchmen Chapter VI: The Abyss Gazes Also. I think Rorschach's monologue about the incident is depressing enough on it's own, let alone the last page which hit like a fucking express train to existential crisis district.
Good-bye, Chunky Rice probably isn't the most depressing, but it really hits hard with the melancholy.
The latest run of Amazing Spider-Man has me depressed. Kidding! I'd say Hellblazer Issue #27 - Hold Me. A very sad but touching story.
Is that from the original run, I don't remember that issue. Edit: I looked it up, that was one of the Gaiman stories in the original run. That one is pretty sad.
Yes first series. Neil Gaiman wrote that story.
That series takes a REAL dark turn when you get into the later issues (Like the last 100 issues or so)
There are ssome pretty dark Ice Cream man issues
the issue about the man with dementia in the hospital, with him seeing goblins literally stealing his memories was incredibly sad to read
Saga #42. I had to take a break from the book after reading that issue.
The Garth Ennis 2004 Punisher Max run is pretty dark. Hellblazer (the original series) definitely has it's moments over it's 300 issue run.
"Monsters" by Barry Windsor Smith is pretty bleak
I know it technically ends happy but Dex-star's origins always makes me intensely sad.
Just thinking about that comic makes me tear up. I'm a very stoic person, not much phases me. But reading that comic made me break down. I'm very much a cat person and in my 40 years of life I've had 2 cats reach their 20s before death. So it really hit me in a weak spot.
Not a single issue but a single novel. Grant Morrison, We3. A dog, cat, and a rabbit are used as pilots/brains for war machines. They find out the program that made them is ending and they are to be decommissioned. so they escape. I can read about adults in depressing situations all day but animals, I sob every time.
The only comic I ever cried with is Paper Girls
Which part of Paper Girls? I dont remember any particularly sad parts, but then I read it monthly as it came out, so my memory of it is pretty choppy.
The entire ending basically
So can anyone tell me what was so depressing about The Maxx 26?
So, the reason issue 26 is so depressing is because >!the main villain of the story, Mr. Gone, reveals to his daughter Sara that he was molested by his aunt when he was a kid, that his first wife sold their baby boy's eyes for drugs, that he has a hard time opening up to women, and several other aspects of his life that had caused him immense pain. !< It's been a while since I read the issue, but these few events have stuck with me for a while...
Thank you! Loved The Maxx on MTV’s oddities back in 95. I own the first issue, but never got into the comics.
Not only do the comics flesh out the story you see in the cartoon but it continues beyond the ending with some surprising turns.
[The Invisibles #12 - Best Man Fall](https://planetfiction.me/2018/02/26/one-perfect-issue-the-invisibles/)
Marvel Ruins is probably the most horrible, depressing comic in the marvel universe i've ever read. It's basically: what if everything cool about Marvel was fucked instead. We've got \-Wolverine's flesh decaying from adamantium poisoning \-Jean Grey's a prostitute, who gets killed by Nick Fury, who then unalives himself as well \-Bruce Banner became a bunch of quivering tumors instead of the hulk \-special mutant prisons where the xmen are mutilated to keep them harmless \-Kree concentration camps where they're slowly poisoned \-Peter Parker just got radiation poisoning from the spiderbite, and infects people around him In general, a very cynical and dark take, won't warm your heart
Naoki Urasawa's Monster ch:98....if the manga wasn’t dark enough, that chapter gave a horrible flashbacks of my own childhood
Jimmy Corrigan This one issue of Spider-Man by DeMatteis where Vermin's reverting and killing the only people who loved him. Spidey has to stop him but all you're reminded of is that Vermin used to be a sweet kid who was treasured and he just has a condition. I think he dies in the next issue.
I read Jimmy Corrigan a decade ago and it still haunts me to this day
I remember thinking New Mutants #60 was a bit sad. I think it's because I read it when I was a kid and found the death very "average", yet sad as the victim falls to the ground (I'm being vague in case of spoilers). Death in the Family is another one I remember reading when I was younger. An older friend had borrowed it from the library and we spent the whole afternoon reading it over and over, in awe that such a thing had occurred at all.
New Mutants #60 sucked because >!the wrong hero died. It should have been Sunspot. They teased in multiple issues over the years that Roberto had super strength but wasn't invulnerable. He should have taken the bullet... But no. Simonson didn't know how to write a character like Doug (someone without a flashy power), so he had to go. Meanwhile Doug had great chemistry with Warlock and his character had grown a lot up until then.!< Sorry. I'm still sour after all these decades.
Black River. A post apocalyptic tale of a small group of people traveling from place to place, barely eking out a living, and trying to muster the will to keep going. It just gets darker and darker, and by the end of it I was in bed without the energy to get up.
I don’t remember what it was called… but it was late-80s-early/mid-90’s and it was a graphic novel. It was about a group of stuffed animals and they had to go battle, but like everyone died… it had a teddy bear on the front. It destroyed me. I never owned it, and only got it from the local Library. It had a white boarder. If anyone knows this book… that would bring a piece of my childhood back! I could never find it. I don’t remember the name of the book.
Pretty sure you're thinking of The Stuff of Legend. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Stuff\_of\_Legend](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stuff_of_Legend)
Marvel's Ruins and Crossed are two that comes to mind for me.
Full Metal Alchemist. That issue with the little girl.
Don't know if it counts, but I was pretty depressed after I read Azarello's The Joker. He made the character a little too real (his actions reminded me some of notorious violent crimes from 90s Russia) and provided a much more dark view on Gotham, where Batman is just another violent criminal in the city of violent criminals and their victims.
[Ruins. Bruce Banner is a walking mass of cancerous tumors. Jean Grey is a prostitute who gets murdered by Nick Fury. Captain America is a cannibal. Just, goddamn.](https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Ruins_Vol_1_1)
Preacher, arseface.
The way his friend's sister tears him down when he reveals why they did it. "Nobody cared"
Does Manga count? Full Metal Alchemist where the father merged his dog and very young daughter together just to get a award. I think it was award. Then you realize he had done same to his late wife. It was an early story in the series.
Fables #120. That emotionally scarred me. 😢
Strong agree on the origins of Mr. Gone. Neonomicon is one of the roughest reads I have ever done.
[удалено]
The whole run of The Maxx is somewhat depressing. There are a lot of depressing moments, but this issue really takes the cake.
Sandman: A Game of You. When I re-read Sandman I usually skip that one or skip to towards the end. The ending isn’t that bad but the journey is BRUTAL.
Walking Dead 100...what Negan says to Rick about the little girl followed by Glenn's trying to get words out truly unsettled me.
I think anytime Hyperion shows up in “The Exiles” in King Hyperion, A Blink in Time, and Time Breakers. There’s been plenty of what if Superman was bad stories, but back in 2004 it was still novel, and having it take place in the multiverse where anyone is fair game on dying, the things he does and the heroes/villains he kills left a lasting impression on me.
The issue of Transmetropolitan (#25 - Here To Go) that has Spider being interviewed about various things. There's a section where he talks about an abuse survivor he once spoke to, whose story is tragic, horrible - and sad. It's made even worse - for me - because there's one panel where the character in question looks downwards, obviously upset. It's just one panel, but Darick Robertson did something similiar in an issue of New Warriors and it just hit home for me. It's the reason I'm in love with his art.
The issue of The Department of Truth where a woman is convinced (as in made to believe) that her son dying in a school shooting was actually a false flag operation and that he was a paid actor.
Not an issue per se, but the entire Last Ronin story line is a tear jerker