Bane "breaks" Batman
In the midst of the powerful "Knightfall" storyline, we have our first moment. Through the evil machinations of Bane, all of Batman's major foes are set free from Arkham and he has to gather them all again. With no rest and one fight after another, Batman is worn down by the time Bane shows up for the beat down.
As he finishes this first encounter, Bane picks up the Caped Crusader and slams him across his knee. With a sickening "KRAKT", Batman's back breaks and Bane leaves him crippled (temporarily).
You have to admit, that's one bad moment in Batman's life. Just looking at that panely you can tell it HURTS! It was a level of brutality Batman had never been subject to before, and it was a major turning point in the storyline for years to come. Even though Batman's replacement (Azrael) faced Bane and beat him down a few issues later, Bruce never faced Bane for a rematch until much later.
Magneto takes Wolverine's Adamantium
Wolverine and Magneto had fought before, and Magneto had used Wolvie's metal skeleton to throw him around a bit here and there. Nothing could prepare comic readers for just how brutal Magneto could be in the right circumstances. Having had enough of the X-Men's meddling, Magneto chooses to pull the adamantium off Logan's skeleton--through the pores in his skin!
Take a moment to glance at your arm. See those hairs? Now imagine adamantium oozing through each one and every spot in between. Just look at that picture and you see the pain on Logan's face. It's obvious this is worse than anything he's had before and hurts me just looking at it.
Fortunately, quick thinking by Jean Grey kept him alive long enough to get him to the mansion and get the rest of the adamantium out of him. The cool little plot twist from this storyline was the revelation that Logan's claws were bone covered in adamantium, and not the metal itself as we'd been led to believe over the years. He eventually got it all back again (thanks to Apocolypse) and carried to true hatred for Magneto from that point on.
In the recent Ultimatum storyline, Magneto killed Wolverine--but not before Wolvie stabbed him through with his claws...while missing half his face. A very grusome ending to this bitter fued.
Captain America stops Baron Blood
Captain America 253 and 254 forever hold a special place in my heart. Those two issues introduced the new incarnation of Union Jack (one of my favorite heroes) drawn by John Byrne (one of my favorite artists). However, one of the big jaw-droppers for me was what happened at the end of the two-part tale.
Cap and Union Jack are attempting to take down Baron Blood as the sun is setting. Though they've fought hard, time is running out and Blood is getting stronger while our heroes are weakening. In the heat of the battle, Captain America is forced to make a hard decision that changed this character forever for me. Using his shield as a Ginsu, Cap slams it down and takes Blood's head...the only way to kill a vampire (according to the story). Cap had never purposefully killed any of his villains before, so the moment had a bit impact for me.
What got me here was the look on Cap's face as it dawned on him what he would have to do. It really pained him to make this decision, whereas today it would have been the first thing most of the heroes would have done.
Another thing to mention was how this occured: off panel. There was no graphic scene of the head flying off with blood spurting everywhere or anything like it...and yet we are easily able to tell what took place. If this had been drawn today there would have been a splash panel of Blood's head flying away trailing blood as Cap looked on with a smile on his face. It would have robbed the story of its impact.
Well, those are three moments I thought looked like they hurt. What about you? Any from the older days of comics that stayed with you over the years?
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