The 10 Most Controversial Comic Book Stories Of All Time

Due to the serialized nature of comic books, publishing companies sometimes feel the need to take risks and feature story lines designed to shock longtime readers. These stories often wind up being simple smoke and mirrors because, at the end of the day, not much usually changes in the world of the superhero genre. But every once in a while, a company will generate enormous controversy with a world-changing new story that fans loathe.

Oftentimes, these stories reveal a shocking twist from a hero’s past, deal with the death of a classic character, or the resurrection of a long-dead one. Sometimes these tales succeed despite the controversy, but they usually just come across as cheap publicity stunts that exist solely to boost sales.

This Wednesday, DC Entertainment is releasing another installment in its controversial, and highly enjoyable, Before Watchmen project, titled Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre #1. This project, which tells prequel stories to the comic classic Watchmen, but without writer Alan Moore or artist Dave Gibbons, has been debated up and down the industry, and everyone with knowledge of the situation seems to have an opinion on whether or not it should even exist. So we decided to reflect upon the stories that have gained the ire of fans everywhere in our list of The 10 Most Controversial Comic Book Stories of All Time.

Written by Jason Serafino (@serafinoj1)

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When the Ultimate Universe was created in 2000, its main objective was to re-imagine the Marvel heroes for the 21st century. Origins were updated, personalities were fleshed-out, and stories were more down to Earth. For a while this line of comics was the best thing happening at the company. Unfortunately, Marvel then decided to destroy the entire universe in a blood bath of a miniseries titled Ultimatum.

Written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by David Finch, this storyline features Magneto shifting the magnetic poles of the Earth in order to cause a series of disasters that destroyed much of the planet's population. Civilians die, heroes die, and readers are forced to watch Loeb unleash this ultra-violent torture porn upon a cherished stable of characters. Cheesy plot points and gruesome character deaths abound here as the whole miniseries revolves around one shocking death after another with little substance in between.

At one point he was the best writer in the industry, so it completely shocked everyone when Loeb came out with this. We’re all for a little gore in our comics, but the non-stop barrage of cannibalism and decapitations simply became too much to bear after a while.

Over the years, Superman’s villains have transformed the Man of Steel into a whole variety of bizarre things, including a Super-Baby, King Kong, and the leader of an army of Super-Ants. But John Byrne topped all of that when he created a villain named Sleez, who turned Supes into the most unexpected thing of all time: a porn star. In the story, Sleez—who was kicked off of the planet of Apokolips for being so depraved—captures superheroine Big Barda and brainwashes her into starring in highly-sexualized dance videos in order to make enough money to fund his war against Darkseid.

Looking to make even more bank, Sleez then brainwashes Superman into starring in a sex tape with her to truly hit it big, so to speak. But as the duo are in the middle of filming an awkward make out session, Barda’s husband, Mister Miracle, breaks through the ceiling of the shabby porn set and stops Superman before Big Blue does work on her. That’s right: We were about five minutes away from witnessing Superman lay pipe on a fellow Justice League member’s wife on tape.

Wanting desperately to please Nightwing, Catalina Flores, a.k.a. the second Tarantula, decided to kill her crush's most violent nemesis, the monstrous Blockbuster, in cold blood. You would think that snuffing out his adversary would be enough to win his heart, right?

Well, Tarantula decided to ratchet up the creepiness to another level in the aftermath of the murder. As Nightwing lay prone on a rooftop after suffering the physical and mental exhaustion of his previous battles, Tarantula straddled him like a love-sick sorority girl and the two had sex.

Unfortunately, a weakened Dick Grayson was muttering “Don’t touch me,” the whole time. Thus, one of the first cases of male rape in the DC Universe was recorded. Some fans still argue whether or not this was truly rape, but we’re pretty sure Dick’s pleas for her to stop don’t fall into any sort of gray area. Think about the same exact details if the genders were swapped and you have your answer.

Poor Spider-Man—the dude just couldn’t catch a break during the 2000s. Marvel seemingly felt pressure to keep pushing the envelope with the character in order to inject life into The Amazing Spider-Man’s slumping sales, but instead of giving creators the freedom to craft great plots, overwhelming editorial interference led to some of the worst stories the company ever put out. And one prime example of this is 2004’s “Sins Past.”

Written by J. Michael Straczynski, this story revealed in a flashback that Norman Osborn, a.k.a. the Green Goblin, had impregnated Spider-Man’s old girlfriend, the late Gwen Stacy, with superpowered twins while the two were still dating. Of course, the twins eventually came after Spider-Man in the present after they aged at an advanced rate, thanks to the Green Goblin serum in their blood. In retrospect, this sordid tale ruined the beautifully tragic story of Gwen Stacy’s death from Amazing Spider-Man #121 by making her seem like a complete hussy here.

Believe it or not, there was a time when some people believed that rape and murder made superhero comics more enjoyable. The gritty, dark storytelling of the '80s made this type of ultra-violence trendy, but other talent eventually came along and mistook violence for deep storytelling. That’s where writer Brad Meltzer’s Identity Crisis comes into play. It’s not that it’s a bad story—because it’s actually a very enjoyable read—but some of the plot points are tough to stomach.

In the story, the Elongated Man’s wife, Sue Dibny, is brutally murdered by an unknown assailant in the miniseries’ opening pages. The tale then evolves into a Watchmen-esque murder mystery that keeps opening ugly doors from the Justice League’s past. This includes one memorably sleazy scene that reveals that the supervillain Doctor Light once broke into Justice League headquarters and raped Dibny. The poor girl couldn’t catch a break.

It’s an uncomfortable scene to flip through to say the least. When it all comes down to it, the rape itself isn’t controversial, but the fact that Dibny’s murder and sexual assault were used as a shocking plot device is what really makes this story land on this list.

The wedding between Peter Parker and Mary Jane was a happy occasion back in 1987, but when the 2000s came along, Marvel was looking for ways to split up the power couple. Apparently, writers and editors had found it hard to keep a married Spider-Man interesting when so much of the character’s career had depended on the romantic drama in his life. So, the company launched the storyline "One More Day," which was designed to put an end to his marriage and begin a new era for the Wall Crawler.

The bad part? The story was absolutely illogical. Simply put, in an attempt to save the life of his Aunt May, Spider-Man cuts a deal with Mephisto, a.k.a. The Devil. In the deal, Mephisto demands that Spider-Man give up his marriage as payment for his aunt’s life. Of course, Peter Parker and Mary Jane agree, and voilà, the Spider-Man marriage was over.

The story itself was a hodgepodge of flat plotting and editorial interference that made the whole thing feel like it was written at gunpoint by the otherwise stellar J. Michael Straczynski. This is the perfect example of how, at times, editorial interference can completely overshadow the creative aspects of the superhero genre. It also led to the vilification of then-Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, who many fans still believe is more diabolical than Mephisto himself. It's just another example of how people will always remember the bad over the good.

When DC announced its “New 52” reboot last year, longtime comic book fans had grown accustomed to a storyline coming out every few decades that re-envisioned the company’s most popular characters. Why? Because they had already seen it in 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Designed as a way to streamline the company’s overly-complicated stories, this mega-event was extremely controversial at the time. Years of stories, personalities, and characters were erased in a flash, and there are still people who debate whether it was all necessary.

The story itself is quite complicated for people who aren’t intimately familiar with DC, so we’ll try our best to simplify it. Basically, a villain named the Anti-Monitor attempts to erase the Multiverse from existence and it’s up to the heroes from various universes to stop him.

The end result radically changed the characterizations and backstories of nearly every DC hero, including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Flash. The body count was enormous and the comic landscape had changed irrevocably. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is up to each individual fan to decide.

Batman’s greatest failure was always his inability to save the Jason Todd version of Robin from being killed by the Joker during "A Death in the Family." It loomed over the head of the Caped Crusader for years, and it marked an indelible moment of weakness for one of the world’s greatest heroes. Then, in an effort to stir the pot, DC decided to bring the poor kid back from the dead and turn him into a supervillain/vigilante known as The Red Hood.

With the impact of Todd’s death all but negated, the "Under the Hood" storyline dominated the pages of Batman for over a year. And while it wasn’t terrible, it felt like an unnecessary addition to the Dark Knight’s universe. What’s worse was how the company explained Todd’s miraculous resurrection. Get this: Superboy-Prime (a homicidal version of the Man of Steel) super-punched reality, which miraculously brought Todd back from the grave. We’re completely serious.

When Marvel relaunched Captain America in 2005, writer Ed Brubaker was tasked with making Cap’s personal and masked life more interesting for a far pickier generation of fans. Brubaker decided to make a splash in the most controversial way that a Captain America writer possibly could—by bringing Bucky Barnes back from the dead. For those who don’t know, Bucky was Cap’s WWII sidekick, and his tragic death in the waning days of the war was the driving force for Steve Rogers’ heroics when he got thawed out in the modern world.

As the Winter Soldier, Barnes was brought back as a brainwashed Soviet assassin that made Cap’s life a living hell. Eventually, he broke free from his programming and is now a hero once again. Needless to say, this resurrection didn’t sit well with fans who thought Bucky should stay dead, and the story was met with an uproar that was nearly deafening. Fortunately, once Brubaker settled into a groove, the story evolved into one of the company’s best. This is one controversy that we’re glad panned out.

The fact that this storyline has barely begun doesn’t mean that it can’t land the top spot on our list. Earlier this year, DC announced that it would be releasing seven interconnected prequel miniseries designed to expand upon the world of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen, which is widely considered the greatest comic book work of all time. Fans everywhere were up in arms when it was further learned that Moore and Gibbons wouldn’t even be working on this project.

This is utter blasphemy, right? Apparently so. In fact, some comic book creators have become so outraged over this project that they have decided to stop accepting work from either DC or Marvel, which itself has come under fire because none of its Avengers proceeds have gone to the heirs of creator Jack Kirby. Unfortunately for fans of Moore, the writer has no legal recourse because his contract was a work-for-hire one, so that means all of his creations belong to DC.

Listen, we all knew that DC would put out new Watchmen material eventually, and the first installment from the project far exceeded our expectations. But there is no denying that this is a comic that plenty of people will be talking about over the next year. And for better or worse, that’s exactly what the industry needs.