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Which is the first comic where we see a superhero killing the villain?

Started by comicwiz,

70 posts in this topic

comicwiz

comicwiz

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I was always under the impression (help me someone, to establish the exact issue) that wolverine was the first superhero to be seen killing a villain (might have been a member of the hellfire club), where he raises the chumps chin with his fist and retracts his claws 893whatthe.gif

 

Although I don't remember which issue, I can remember that cell drawing almost like its drawn on the back of my hand.

 

So which is book/comic is the first; where we see the age-old remedy of offing a villain by placing them behind bars completely replaced by enraged superheroes who turn to the dark side, and off the villain in whatever way they please?

 

I would have said Spidey in 122, but Gobby was too dumb to not have had a kill switch for his crotch rocket tongue.gif

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OldSchoolTerry

OldSchoolTerry

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That X-Men issue was somewhere between 132-134, I think, definitely in the early 130's. Even there, don't you just see Wolvie coming down on the fat guy, and then in the next panel, you just hear the scream? And, I think actually before that,you see Wolvie slicing all those guards with his claws, right?

What was the first book where you actually saw the hero committing the act of killing itself?

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ArnoldTBlumberg

ArnoldTBlumberg

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Depending on how you interpret what he does, Superman also facilitates the death of some of his earliest villains, such as the Lightning Master, and has a similar disdainful response. I recall one early tale (which I think is in SUPERMAN Archive Vol. 2) where he literally lets two hoods go in mid-air over a crowd. Doubt they make it.

 

Arnold

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comicwiz

comicwiz

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WOW! I'm pretty surprised at these responses, especially in light of what I always regarded as the "soft" ages of comics (SA and earlier); I really thought that it wasn't until the 70's that comic publishers starting pushing the envelope on heroes that were brasher, nastier, with a persuasion of foregoing justice, and taking matters into their own hands. But maybe its because I regard a killing at the hands of a superhero, not as a circumstance killing (ie. Bats and Joker fighting on a sidewalk, and Bats pushes the Joker in traffic and as a consequence, the Joker is killed -- or even the classic death of Gobby in ASM 122).

 

It would be great if some of us could locate some scans of these "firsts" in comics, and maybe even give us an idea what the exact issues were. So far, FD's dates back to late 30's to Tec 27.

 

I'd sooner regard Wolvie's claws retracting into a Hellfire baddies skull as a "first" in superheroes actually performing the act of "killing" a villain in comics, but some good examples have been brought up in this thread that contest this view. Terry1, do you have access to those issues? I think your right that it is in that range.

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OldSchoolTerry

OldSchoolTerry

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Still, Wolvie didn't kill the fat guy (Leland? Wasn't he one of the Bishops or Knights?). Yeah, he came down on the guy, but he didn't kill him. He was around for the next X-Men/Hellfire tussle around 210 or so...

 

Oops, I stopped reading X-Men just before that...... boo.gif

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comicwiz

comicwiz

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Still, Wolvie didn't kill the fat guy (Leland? Wasn't he one of the Bishops or Knights?). Yeah, he came down on the guy, but he didn't kill him. He was around for the next X-Men/Hellfire tussle around 210 or so...

 

I distinctly recall that cell drawing where Wolvie is holding the guy up with his fist from his chin; it was defnitely a Byrne drawing, so I'm pretty sure it happened during the Byrne run of the X-Men.

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minutekev@50

minutekev@50

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Maybe you're talking about one of their red and blue clad soldiers...

I remember Wolvie grabbing the guy, putting a fist under the guy's chin and saying something like "Where are the others? On the count of five I'm popping my claws..one, four, fi...." Then the guy starts talking...

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awe4one

awe4one

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Still, Wolvie didn't kill the fat guy (Leland? Wasn't he one of the Bishops or Knights?). Yeah, he came down on the guy, but he didn't kill him. He was around for the next X-Men/Hellfire tussle around 210 or so...

 

I distinctly recall that cell drawing where Wolvie is holding the guy up with his fist from his chin; it was defnitely a Byrne drawing, so I'm pretty sure it happened during the Byrne run of the X-Men.

 

Well I think the intention was for Wolverine to kill him. But in a Marvel Universe where no one stays dead other than maybe Capt Marvel and Gwen Stacy (they haven't figured out how to revive them yet apparently) Leland did return to the land of the living....

 

Jim

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