"For all my powers, I could not save _____": An image thread

this has gotta count, right?
http://metropolisplus.com/Supergirl/SupergirlCrisis1.jpg

and this is another gold standard of the trope:
http://members.tranquility.net/%7Ebenedict/spiderman121.jpg

I think Emma Frost might have one of these in the issue where she swaps brains with Iceman and realizes that for all her powers, she could not save the Hellions from all being pointlessly slaughtered in a shit Whilce Portacio story.

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081222025444/marvel_dc/images/a/a0/Flash_v.1_305.jpg

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081222030129/marvel_dc/images/7/7f/Flash_v.1_336.jpg

ooh that's a good one

that is a very awkward vibrating hand.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-siN_pCe0to0/TcMhlBn55TI/AAAAAAAAF9E/88sBI0h9rlo/s1600/Aquaman-%25281962%2529-62.jpg

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/supermankills4.jpg

and this oldie but goodie
http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/cov3-superhero-psas-fighting-the-good-fight.jpeg

Superman/Pa Kent is maybe the classic version of this, been done many times. In the movie: "All those things I can do. All those powers. And I couldn't even save him. I was looking to see how John Byrne drew it in Man of Steel but - of course - he thought it was a drag and decided Jonathan Kent would just stay alive.

I can't find an image of that from a comic is the weird thing - the movie seems to be referenced way more often

http://media.comicbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/superman-jonathan-kent-heart-attack.jpg

also, it's not a perfect fit her but LOL 70's DC
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pu6Gmejl5j0/UoA2BwE-S4I/AAAAAAAAr3s/vgpQjKcqphI/s1600/img099.jpg

lol

here's a recent-looking one -

http://media.comicbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/superman-jonathan-kent-deathbed.jpg

haha wtf at that suicide one! that is fucking dark!

Jonathan Kent is almost strangled by a rope, vines, and a garden hose, and tells Superboy the attacks are a manifestation of the Kent family curse. A 16th century ancestor, judge Julian Kent, handed out a death sentence to a poacher, who cursed a member of the Kent family to die once every 50 years on the anniversary of his hanging. The attempts are secretly being made by the Phantom Zone villains, who focus their mental powers on a metal head from the “weird ESP planet” of Psyk, which enables them to telekinetically control the objects that almost strangled Jonathan Kent. But even after Superboy destroys the Psyk head, he later has to save his foster father from being strangled by a metal cable--just before the curse is lifted at midnight.

like if you think morrison is opaque and bizarre, you should really look at the source material

that is so great, dying over here. a lot more people were under terrible mystical curses in the 70s.

jesus between the cover and the description that is one of the best ILC finds ever

And here's the next ish, where things get back to reality

http://www.newkadia.com/Covers/L/S/Superboy%201949%20series/superboy1949series190.jpg

looks boring, what was Superbaby up to in that issue

no superbaby, just an LoSH backup but man, the description of that story

Clark Kent takes a summer job as a counselor at Camp Bravo and, as Superboy, discovers the children there are being hypnotized into searching for hidden Civil War gold chests in tunnels beneath Dwarf Mountain.

i don't mean to threadjack but my god, superboy in the early 70's
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090111160212/marvel_dc/images/a/a8/Superboy_Vol_1_191.jpg

and, in an utterly unrelated storyline, we get this!

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090111160215/marvel_dc/images/4/48/Superboy_Vol_1_194.jpg

just a few more:
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090111155800/marvel_dc/images/4/42/Superboy_Vol_1_175.jpg
http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/0/3125/428273-sboy177.jpg
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090111155901/marvel_dc/images/8/81/Superboy_Vol_1_179.jpg
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090111155902/marvel_dc/images/d/d4/Superboy_Vol_1_180.jpg

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/superboy/164-1.jpg

not quite as grim as the hanging one, but still

"and it's all my/your fault!" seems to be fairly common on these old dc books

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/superboy/151-1.jpg

christ, someone stop him

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/superboy/169-14.jpg

http://superdickery.tumblr.com/

Superbly is kind of a clumsy oaf

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/0/3664/251242-19154-119470-1-superboy.jpg

okay, that one is a literal LOL, what the teetotal fuck

http://blogs.evtrib.com/nerdvana/files/2013/07/Superboy167.jpg

they did a superboy wolfpack cover TWICE
http://www.newkadia.com/Covers/L/S/Superboy%201949%20series/superboy1949series116.jpg

i can't even
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v416/foldedsoup/Blog/AC_0251_web.jpg

tbf that's a shop of course
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130323010351/marvel_dc/images/3/39/Adventure_Comics_251.jpg

Synopsis for "Superboy's First Mission"
At a time in which Superboy has received his costume, but has still not received parental permission to start his Superboy career, the Kents pay a visit to the Crowleys, who have bought their old farm. Unknown to them, the Crowleys are nuclear scientists who are being held prisoner by a spy named Lobko, who is in search of their energy pills. Clark becomes Superboy and frees the Crowleys, but they are struck by flying concrete and later believe the “flying boy” they saw was a dream. Lobko takes one of the pills and disintegrates. When Superboy later refuses to tell his parents about the nuclear secrets he discovered in the case, Jonathan Kent judges him worthy of becoming Superboy.

https://goo.gl/maps/viQ7i

Also, sorry derail derail http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090108155134/marvel_dc/images/5/5d/Animal_Man_Vol_1_39.jpg

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/green-lantern-1960/71-1.jpg

The thing that's such a drag is that I'm 95% sure all of these comics would be boring as hell to read, at least based on my experience with random old Legion comics with similarly batshit premises. Like, the pencils and the layouts and the script never goes half as far into batshit territory as those great covers. The latter, though... I mean, I'd get a poster of that one with the blind guy.

That Neal Adams car crash cover is beautiful

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/0/3664/251242-19154-119470-1-superboy.jpg

I love the subtle ableism in this one: "Of course someone with normal eyesight could stop a tornado, but how can a blind person do it?! Read to find out!"

Good old skool ILC thread this.

THIS is the "your power cannot save them" cover that i couldn't quite remember and it's a doozy

http://https%3A//comiclists.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/heroes-against-hunger.jpg

with a special Stephen King writer credit iirc

http://comiclists.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/heroes-against-hunger.jpg

if we wanted to keep going on the LOL DC Covers, there's the treasure trove of Lois Lane, which vacillates between bondage and... well, there's a lot of bondage
http://www.comicbookdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/ll73cover.jpg

http://bargaincomicreviews.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/lois_lane_1331.jpg
http://www.comics101.com/guestlecturer//images/view.php%3Fsrc%3D../news/Guest%20Lecturer/64/11lois.jpg%26w%3D
http://www.comicbookbrain.com/_imagery/2014-09-03/lois-lane-129-cover-bob-oksner.jpg
http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081220201926/marvel_dc/images/7/70/Lois_Lane_122.jpg
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081220201822/marvel_dc/images/c/cd/Lois_Lane_120.jpg

close enough
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FOivK-zbREE/WcxNuojszUI/AAAAAAABZWs/w6C_80utKJANv-pLRwbfPTtEdkeudpzPgCLcBGAs/s640/RCO003_1467789079.jpg

i'll allow it

Young Giffen doing a pretty good Neal Adams impression there.

Can't see a great deal of Adams there myself, and at this stage of his career Giffen was generally more of a Kirby Kopyist (though it's true that throughout the 70s Marvel encouraged their artists to 'emulate' Kirby, while DC encouraged their artists to 'emulate' Adams.)

i can see adams in it, but looks a bit more like joe kubert to me

Well the inker, John Celardo, was an old newspaper strip hand who took over the Green Beret comic strip from... Joe Kubert, so I think that might account for the similarity, more than Giffen's pencils.

close enough
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_RqQX6TJreU/WzBKLNsqUAI/AAAAAAABeXw/bghAjGIYaUo9wQ6hM_4S8miJ5Iy4CQD2wCLcBGAs/s640/8009.jpg
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-env6Mi6qLlA/WzBKKzHKAKI/AAAAAAABeXo/m7znH1t1QoIyiot_7VpXdqi3fL944oMAgCLcBGAs/s640/3933.jpg

wow, that Hawk & Dove cover is great. went to GCD to see who inked it, and they have it as Ditko, which surely can't be right?

(I agree with their assessment of Gaspar for letters, and the logo looks like him too - wonder if the overall design came from Ditko, Gaspar, or someone inhouse)

That looks like a Ditko to me.

did Ditko not ink his own stuff?

he usually inked his interiors, but the drapery and black-spotting on that cover look more fluid and shadowy than he tended to do, and the varying lineweight on Dove and the top heads is a heavier brush than I think of him doing.

I'm no expert though, and have only seen his stuff in non-reprint form from the 1980s on.

hmm, just saw it full-size at Spurge's, and the inking on the "Don" legs is totally Ditko's shading style

I had no idea that Hawk & Dove went back that far!

They were in Showcase first.

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZAM7HvgXEJ4/Wz2I2D8U3OI/AAAAAAABef4/cYosKpS364Qq1q8hqJ7XqwJvnSDVBkDNQCLcBGAs/s640/18244.jpg

https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/60351981_2117804144933758_705667851196825600_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&_nc_ht=scontent-lht6-1.xx&oh=959612ca58d0676575ae29e90ee9c4a5&oe=5D9EBEAA

^^^^ the alpha and the omega

LOL Gil Kane really loved this pose:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwj2tJO7kdXiAhVJURoKHfehAV8QjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdc.fandom.com%2Fwiki%2FDC_Comics_Presents_Vol_1_56&psig=AOvVaw3h5zmiBqtJArZw8Soug0YI&ust=1559920113591120

https://www.google.com/urlsa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwj2tJO7kdXiAhVJURoKHfehAV8QjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdc.fandom.com%2Fwiki%2FDC_Comics_Presents_Vol_1_56&psig=AOvVaw3h5zmiBqtJArZw8Soug0YI&ust=1559920113591120

Sorry!

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/c/c5/DC_Comics_Presents_56.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20081219165634

there's a whole page for pieta-style covers
https://www.cbr.com/i-cant-cover-what-i-am-the-best-pieta-covers/

(although i think that one isn't the original)

ah, apologies...

"For all my powers, I could not save _____": An image thread

https://i.annihil.us/u/prod/marvel/i/mg/6/d0/57d951da7236f/clean.jpg

I mean, if I was him I'd be quite keen to get my normal body back too.

Good lord, is that Angel in the top right? That costume...

It's Nighthawk. He was a Batmanesque character iirc, rich dude fighting crime.

From the Squadron Supreme, an alternative reality superteam who were deliberately created as takes on DC heroes, no?

Yeah, Gerber goes to some weird places w that character

Valkyrie’s boob armor is really... something.

The Kyle Richmond/Defenders Nighthawk is an interesting character in that he is a bit of a loser. He wants so bad to be a hero and the "leader" so bad and really just does not have it down. I know one of the endings of the Defenders is that everybody quits and he cannot get anyone to rejoin with him. I can't remember when that story happened, it might have been a newer one.

That character died at the end of Gruenwald's original Squadron Supreme miniseries. I don't know how Marvel brought him back, but I'm sure it was stupid.

it was.

grim and gritty:
http://i.imgur.com/B7gfq2d.png

gave way to grim and grittier:
http://i.imgur.com/BLhnnhx.png

Sometimes I think Marvel went roughly 40 years w out making a decent comic. I kinda hate everything between 1980 and Immortal Hulk.

I found the JMS super-gritty Supreme Power comics to be pretty amusing actually

That character died at the end of Gruenwald's original Squadron Supreme miniseries. I don't know how Marvel brought him back, but I'm sure it was stupid.

The Nighthawk who was a Defenders member was from Squadron Sinister, not Squadron Supreme. Squadron Sinister was introduced first by Roy Thomas as an parallel universe evil version of JLA, and later on he decided to create a heroic parallel universe version of them called Squadron Supreme. But Squadron Supreme mostly stayed in their universe (until it was destroyed), while the evil Nighthawk stayed in ours, reformed and joined the Defenders. He actually died before the Squadron Supreme Nighthawk, who impersonated him for a short while. I can't blame anyone for getting confused by all this.

Was Squadron Supreme an influence on the original Watchmen series?

The 1970s version? No. The 1985 version, published after the earliest Watchmen promotional material? Also no.

(possibly very very faintly inasmuch as they were an earlier example of filing the serial numbers off a bunch of characters, but Moore very obviously had the examples of Kurtzman and Anglo imprinted on his creative psyche before Roy Thomas even entered comics.)

I was thinking more along the lines of "We are the heroes! But are we? Or are we fascists?" plotline, but it's been a decade since I last read Watchmen, and probably two or more since I read Squadron Supreme.

we have a thread for that
Squadron Supreme (Mark Gruenwald) - C or D?

xxxxp Thx, Tuomas -- I missed that distinction

stevie -- besides my great Squadron Supreme thread (thx, ulysses!), see also Alan Moore's comments in this 1987 interview:

MOORE: I think that when Watchmen was first announced everybody assumed that it was going to be Squadron Supreme, the superheroes take over. We never said that. We said that we were going to try to treat them realistically. (...) I think that while people expected that, we’ve not investigated the idea of superheroes as fascists the same way that Frank Miller has in Dark Knight, or the same thing they’ve done in Squadron Supreme. It wasn’t really our intention. Our intention was to show how superheroes could deform the world just by being there, not that they’d have to take it over, just their presence there would make the difference. It’s what we try to show in Watchmen #4. From the point where Dr. Manhattan appears, it slowly starts to go downhill from there — everything starts to change. He doesn’t take over the country or make people subservient to him, but just his presence there makes everything begin to change. Yet on another level, if you equate Dr. Manhattan with the atom bomb, the atom bomb doesn’t take over the world, but by being there it changes everything. That was more the idea that I was trying to explore. (...)

Ah! Thanks Morrisp... Reread that thread this afternoon and your overview of the series reminded me why I've never reread SS. Watchmen is definitely an infinitely subtler and more effective book.

also that thread gets kind of steamy towards the end, doesn't it?

"Towards the end"? Nothing ends, stevie. Nothing ever ends.

SAD BUT TRUE

Also - I’ll grant you that Watchmen is “subtler,” but I think Squadron Supreme has a brute “effectiveness” of its own.

It’s like saying you prefer, I dunno, Solaris* for being “infinitely subtler” than Alien... I’d rather watch Alien!

(*NB - I’ve never actually seen Solaris)

tbh all i remember clearly of SS is how Tom Thumb's death is announced in a little black panel at the very bottom of the page!