Dredging up memories about stories that evoked tears may seem like a painful and depressing exercise in some folks eyes, but I think that such stories deserve showcasing simply on the merits that if their words and images illicited that powerful of a physical, real emotional response, then there's something powerful happening in a medium that for decades was thought of as worthless trash fiction ti be consumed by children and thrown away. Try telling that to the bug shots at Disney who are raking in about a BILLION DOLLARS a movie on all those Marvel films these days....
1.) THE NEW TEEN TITANS #38 ( 1983) "Who Is Donna Troy? "
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Artist: George Perez
The character of Wonder Girl, Wonder Woman's representative sidekick amongst the Teen Titans roster has always had, shall we say, a complex and confusing history. Her canon amongst the DC Comics superheroes has always been kinda half assed and weird, changing at least every decade or so to fit the storytelling whims of whatever the current DC creative talent happens to be.
When the character first appeared in the late 1950s/early 60s, her stories were relegated to back ups in the regular monthly WONDER WOMAN title, and were presented as being tales taken from Princess Diana's teenage years, much like how the pre-CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS Superboy was supposed to be the tales of a teenage Clark Kent in Smallville, pre-Metropolis.
This was all fine and dandy until at some point in the early 1960s, the TEEN TITANS debuted and someone decided that there needed to be a female member, so they put her on the team. Now, chronologically, this makes no sense: if her teammates are Robin, Speedy, Kid Flash and Aqualad (the teenage sidekick contingent of the then current JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, how can the teenage Diana be running around with the Titans, while the adult version of Wonder Woman be hanging out as a member of the JLA....AT THE SAME TIME?
This problem was solved by then claiming Wonder Girl was a completely different character: Donna Troy, teenage ward of Princess Diana. And, this worked for about a decade and a half....
In the early 1980s, DC had successfully relaunched the Teen Titans property as THE NEW TEEN TITANS, under the supervision of writer Marv Wolfman (always loved his name) and artist George Perez, changing the direction slightly of the cast of characters and adding some new cast members (Starfire, Cyborg, and Raven). Now, the Titans were pretty much only "Teen" in name, advancing their ages a few years to the vague 19 to 24 range, and tackling much more soap opera character dynamic driven style stories. Sure, they still fought supervillains and wore costumes, but there was a WHOLE LOT of youthful angst and pathos being spread around. Then, those pesky fans (myself included) began writing in, asking things like:
"Why haven't we seen an origin story for Wonder Girl? And....what was up with those weird-ass stories back in the day when you guys claimed she wasn't Donna Troy, but a teenage Diana? And.....WTF is up with Wonder Tot?*"
* This is an actual thing....a baby Wonder Woman that ran around in several stories in the 60s. Google that shit.
So, Wolfman and Perez (names to remember, because of their status of being the architects of the aforementioned canon reboot, 1985's CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS) decided to tackle this story....and the results were particularly poignant and moving, moreso than superhero comic books have any right to be.
First, there's the structure of the story....it's pretty inventive. It's basically a procedural detective story, with twentysomething Dick Grayson, just a few issues away from giving up the Robin alter ego and taking on the popular guise of Nightwing that all the kids these days seem to dig, serving the role of investigator. He's been tasked by Donna Troy and her fiancee Terry in figuring out Donna's true identity, it's origins being a shroud of mystery due to her adoption as an infant by the Amazons of Paradise Island.
This leads Robin and Wonder Girl on a path littered with an old toy doll of Donna's from her infancy, involvement in child trafficking, a set of adoptive parents she had forgotten, and an elderly woman who ran an orphanage who knows who Donna Troy's real name.
Now, this was the first scene when I was a nine year old reader in 1983 that made me start to well up as if I'd just fallen and skinned my knee. It was due to the sudden realization that....I'm sure this is an experience that any adopted child goes through whenever they choose to see out their true origins, but the shock and astonishment that comes with discovering one's true given birth name, especially if one's had been altered during the adoption process, must be completely overwhelming.
I'd imagine it'd be like discovering one possesses a completely different identity separate from the one they know.
The second set of waterworks came later in book during a point in the plot in which Donna is reunited with the woman who was her adoptive mother prior to being taken in by the Amazons.
Wolfman and Perez would go onto collaborate, respectively writing and providing the art for the later NEW TEEN TITANS story arc "The Judas Contract" (which recently was adapted into an animated feature ) and the aforementioned 1985 DC Comics crossover event/ continuity cleaning exercise CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.
2. GREEN LANTERN #55 ( August 2010) "Tales of the Red Lantern Corps: Dex-Starr"
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Shawn Davis
I'm a big softie for animals. Not to the point where I've given up a carnivorous lifestyle (because, let's face it, some animals are delicious), but I've taken in my share of strays. I've always had a soft spot for cats (as well as superheroes, but more on this later), simply because I dig their personalities. I've always said that dogs may be man's best friend....but cats tolerate us. Tolerating the rest of humanity seems to be a gig I've had going for four decades now, so I can identify.
As a GREEN LANTERN fan of long standing, I was extremely happy during the property's most recent peak in popularity amongst comic book nerds during the last decade, with writer (and now DC Comics CCO) Geoff Johns' introduction of the multi-colored Corps and such.....and nothing made me smile more than the rage driven Red Lantern fuzzball from Earth, Dex-Starr. There's just something inherently equal parts fucked up, adorable and terrifying about a house cat with an anger driven WMD attached to his tail. But, the story of how Dex got his Red Lantern ring is absolutely heartbreaking, and it's told pretty brilliantly in a six page back up feature in the August 2010 issue of GREEN LANTERN #55....
Upon reading three simple words in poorly constructed misused grammar, I was done for. " I GOOD KITTY.", indeed....I think it was artist Shawn Davis' inclusion of little cat tears that sends it over the top....
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