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Even the Justice League have faced their fair share of trauma and heartbreak.
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00:00So the Justice League, to many, are the gold standard when it comes to superhero teams.
00:04In fact, when it comes to pop culture significance, they are probably the benchmark for any kind of team-up.
00:10They are the ultimate collection of elites, an unstoppable force for good that no evil could ever bend.
00:17Except, of course, all the times that evil totally has corrupted and broken them, but that is not the point.
00:21So let's take a look at them today.
00:22So I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are the 10 most heartbreaking moments in Justice League history.
00:2810. Red Tornado Loses His True Self
00:32During Infinity Crisis, Red Tornado, or his body at least, was destroyed during a mission in space.
00:38After the pieces of his former mechanical self do return to Earth, they're repaired and looked after by Kathy Sutton.
00:43Unfortunately, unlike previous times, Tornado's soul does not return to the body once it's repaired.
00:48Then it's revealed that Solomon Grundy, of all people, was behind this.
00:52He, along with Professor Ivo, wanted to steal Tornado's body and fuse it with a number of special components
00:57so as to create the ultimate vessel for housing Grundy's soul.
01:01In the end, the Justice League is able to overcome the bad guys, of course,
01:04and Zatanna undoes the spell that's keeping Tornado away from his mechanical body.
01:08However, that's when the real tragedy strikes.
01:11Because, after re-inhabiting his old form, Red Tornado is no longer who he used to be.
01:16His consciousness appeared to have been altered, and he no longer cares about his friends and family,
01:20and even his powers become erratic.
01:22To see a character that had been one of the shining examples of how kindness and heroism are always a choice
01:27and can come from anyone, become a cold, heartless being, was absolutely heart-shattering.
01:339. Nightwing's Death
01:35Kinda
01:35The highly anticipated follow-up to Trinity War, Forever Evil,
01:40saw the Justice League battle it out with the crime syndicate from Earth-3, led by their Alfred Pennyworth.
01:45As the storyline proceeds, it's revealed that the bad guys held Nightwing as their prisoner,
01:50and the climax sees Batman, together with Lex Luthor and others,
01:54arrive at the watchtower where the syndicate has been camped.
01:56They find Dick placed in a murder machine, which in turn served as the trigger switch for a bomb.
02:01The only way to prevent it from detonating was if Grayson's heart were to stop.
02:05Despite Batman's best efforts, Luthor is able to prevent the Dark Knight from saving his original protégé,
02:11leaving the once-boy wonder to die in order to save everyone else.
02:14Now, yes, this eventually gets overturned as Lex himself revives Dick,
02:18but the emotional trauma and impossibly high-stakes nature of this moment still makes it intensely emotional.
02:248. Martian Manhunter is Killed
02:27During Final Crisis, John Jones, aka Martian Manhunter, who had been captured before while undercover,
02:33is brought before the secret society of supervillains.
02:36There, the newcomer Libra, in reality under instructions from the Human Flame,
02:40stabs him with a special staff in order to establish his villainous worth.
02:43The strike proving enough to slay the mighty Martian.
02:47Before leaving the material world, he takes up his true form one last time,
02:51and even manages to communicate with the Justice League,
02:53passing on the knowledge of his people so that it doesn't die with him.
02:57Afterwards, the League arranges a funeral on Mars, one truly befitting their friend,
03:01with Superman himself sharing a final tribute to their fallen comrade.
03:057. Sue Dibny's Murder
03:08Sue Dibny's death remains one of the most tragic and critically panned in all of comics.
03:13The wife of Elongated Man, aka Ralph Dibny, Sue enjoyed a lovely marriage with her husband,
03:18and even served on the Justice League herself.
03:20During the Identity Crisis arc, while Ralph was away on a mission,
03:24Sue is mysteriously murdered in her own room.
03:26Ralph comes home to make the heartbreaking discovery,
03:29with burn marks the only clues relating to the cause of death.
03:32This kicks off a full-blown murder mystery, with the entire League determined to find the killer.
03:37In reality, though, this was all about the cruel nature of her passing,
03:40and the taste that it left in our mouths.
03:42Subsequently, the storyline has also been bashed by sections of the fanbase,
03:46with many calling out DC for simply using one character's death
03:49as a means of furthering the persona of another, i.e. Ralph.
03:53But even beyond that, it is still a heart-wrenching moment then, and most definitely now.
03:576. Superman Burns Out Shazam's Eyes
04:00The Injustice games and their tie-in comics were DC at its most violent.
04:05While superheroes losing sight of the line between right and wrong is surprisingly common,
04:09very rarely does it lead to this level of brutality.
04:12It's worth prefacing this by explaining that the premise of Injustice
04:15is that the Joker has managed to trick Superman into killing his wife and their unborn child.
04:20Normally, this would drive any man to true despair.
04:22However, when said man is also the Man of Steel,
04:25the potential after-effects can be catastrophic.
04:27Following the killings, the Man of Steel completely flies off the handle
04:31and decides it's time to change the world by force.
04:34Sensing that Clark was heading towards establishing a totalitarian regime over the Earth,
04:38Shazam squares up to his once-brother-in-arms,
04:40and Superman's response is to burn his eyes out with his heat vision.
04:44It was a direction-setting moment for how the rest of the story would go,
04:48and boy oh boy did it deliver on that, and then some.
04:515. The Atom Walks Away From Gene Loring
04:55Identity Crisis was, without a doubt, one of the most emotionally stunning comics ever.
05:00Even aside from the central tragedy surrounding Sue Dibney's murder,
05:03there were a number of other revelations and moments that made readers wince,
05:07and none perhaps more so than this one right here.
05:09Right at the end, the heroes are able to deduce that Atom, i.e. Ray Palmer's ex-wife,
05:14Gene Loring, is the one behind Sue's death.
05:16The truth turns out to be more disturbing than anyone had predicted,
05:19as Sue wasn't killed as part of some grand supervillain plan designed at targeting the League,
05:24it was orchestrated by Loring to get Ray to come back to her.
05:27It was incredibly convoluted, and meant that Sue's death was even sadder than initially felt,
05:32because she didn't die for some great plot.
05:34She died for absolutely no reason at all, thanks to Loring's misguided quest for love.
05:38Atom then proceeds to bring his former spouse crashing down to reality,
05:42describing her as insane and leaving her to be carted off to Arkham.
05:46A depressing affair all around.
05:484. Supergirl's Sacrifice
05:50Crisis on Infinite Earths did not lack for brutality and sacrifices,
05:55one of the most prominent of which was the death of Supergirl,
05:58aka Superman's dear cousin, at the hands of the Anti-Monitor.
06:02The heroes were of course fighting to save the multiverse from annihilation,
06:05and during the culmination of this iconic arc,
06:07Kara was forced to do battle with the evil cosmic entity in order to try and save her friends,
06:12ultimately resulting in them watching her die.
06:14In terms of storyline, this was the perfect sacrifice that helped with the continuity
06:18clean-up that was the main point behind Crisis.
06:21In terms of tugging on our heartstrings though, this exerted way more strain than many of us could bear.
06:263. Batman Receives a Letter from His Father
06:28The Flashpoint comics had absolutely everything you would want from a good superhero story.
06:34Heroes battling their past demons, people having to redeem themselves,
06:37and the good guys overcoming insurmountable odds.
06:40But the best, and saddest part, was saved for last.
06:43Right at the end, after the alternate universe Thomas Wayne is able to get Barry to run back in time to change everything,
06:49he also gives the Scarlet Speedster a letter.
06:52The letter is addressed to his son Bruce,
06:54who in this timeline was killed in the alleyway instead of his parents.
06:57After straining every fibre of his speed-force being,
07:00Flash is able to put the world back to the way it was.
07:02Kind of.
07:03And then, he went to visit Batman.
07:06Barry gives Bruce the letter where Thomas tells his son how much he loved him,
07:09how much he wished he could be there to see him,
07:12and how happy he was with the kind of man and the kind of hero that Bruce became.
07:16It's not uncommon to shed a tear at this moment.
07:182. The Fight Against the Black Lantern Zombies
07:21Blackest Night was a refreshing yet brutal update to the Green Lantern mythos,
07:26and gave us one of the biggest friends turning into faux storylines in comic book history.
07:30The premise focused on a mysterious presence that is awakened after two Green Lanterns interact
07:35with the Black Central Power Battery.
07:37Then, an ominous group of asteroids appear,
07:39which release a massive number of Black Lantern rings into the universe.
07:43The Guardians see this, but they can't act, because they're attacked by the evil Scar.
07:48The rings arrive and flood a crypt of deceased lanterns,
07:51reanimating them as bloodthirsty zombies, powered, of course, by the Black Rings.
07:56Inevitably, the fight reaches Earth, where the rings start reviving dead superheroes,
07:59as the army of zombie lanterns continues to expand.
08:03Eventually, the League and pretty much every other superhero must unite to stand even the
08:07remotest of chance. Now, while the universal level stakes were nothing uncommon, the sight of
08:11these heroes having to battle the demonized version of their friends, whose losses they
08:15once mourned, was equal parts jarring and heartbreaking.
08:191. The Death of Barry Allen
08:21Crisis on Infinite Earths is seen by many as the single greatest DC crossover event in history.
08:26Sure, these days DC seems to do a continuity reboot every other Sunday,
08:30but back then this was a never-before-seen kind of grand storyline.
08:34And to this day, it holds a place of its own in the pantheon of iconic comic book arcs.
08:39The central figure in this crossover was, of course, the Anti-Monitor,
08:42determined to destroy all matter universes and become the sole ruler of a new anti-matter
08:47universe slash universe kind of thing. Standing in its way is his counterpart,
08:51the Monitor, joined by a collection of the greatest heroes from across the multiverse.
08:55After leading a successful attack on the Anti-Monitor's base, the heroes manage to bring
08:59about a temporary end to the battle. However, the big bad Anti-Monitor uses this time to create
09:04a new body and find himself a new weapon, the Anti-Matter Cannon. Just as he is about to use
09:09it to destroy the remaining Earths, in swoops Barry Allen, aka The Flash, aka The Scarlet Speedster.
09:15Faced with impossible odds, Barry has no choice but to sacrifice himself in the process of stopping
09:20the Anti-Monitor's plan. But what makes his death so significant is that unlike most comic book
09:25demises, which typically last less time than the expiry date of sliced bread, this one actually
09:30stuck. Barry was gone from the DC continuity for 23 whole years. For the sheer weight of the moment
09:37and the subsequent consequences, this was perhaps the most heartbreaking moment in Justice League
09:41history. And there we go, my friends. Those were the 10 most heartbreaking moments in Justice League
09:46history. I hope that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down
09:49in the comment section below. As always, I've been Jules. You can go follow me over on Twitter
09:52at RetroJ with a zero, or you can swing by Liv and Let's Dice, where I do all of my streaming
09:57outside of work, and it'd be great to see you over there, my friends. As always, I've been
10:00Jules. You have been awesome. Never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.
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