They make me cry no matter how many times I read the same story. And let me tell you, the end of INFINITE CRISIS had plenty of tear inducing moments. Call me a softie. Or call comic books just that good. (You totally should. Go with option 2.)
SPOILERS, BLAH BLAH BLAH, BEWARE, LA LA LA, ONWARD!
Okay, so Batman and Nightwing split up to do their business: Bats to take out Brother Eye and Nightwing to call some allies together (only Superboy and Wondergirl show up -- the others are busy) to free the heroes being held captive by Alexander Luthor and Superboy-Prime. So Batman's working to dismantle Brother Eye and the stupid robot thing says to him:
Brother Eye: You friends will fail, creator.
Batman: My friends can take care of themselves.
Brother Eye: Not the ones here. The others. On your earth. Martian Manhunter. Power Girl. And your favorite. Subject Beta -- Grayson, Richard -- Nightwing.
DID YOU HEAR THAT? DICK IS HIS FAVORITE! I weep a little bit for Tim, because he's my favorite but it just makes so much more sense for it to be Dick cause they've been together the longest and, like, they understand each other and stuff, you know? I just really really really love how in this graphic novel, the relationship between Bruce and Dick is really emphasized and played up. I wish the same care would have been taken with the Superboy/Robin relationship but, alas. We do get a panel that kind of makes up for it.
Bringing me to... the death of Superboy. Conner does his best against Superboy-Prime but the dude is not only totally insane but, like, way overpowered cause he has this suit that absorbs yellow sunlight or something for him yadda yadda go home Superboy-Prime, no one likes you (that was mean of me because all Superboy-Prime wants to do is go home...). Anyway, Superboy dies taking him down and then his girlfriend, Wondergirl, finds him and it's really sad cause Conner's like:
Superboy: He said I wasn't the real Superboy. kff... He was wrong. I just forgot for a little while... we all forgot... don't let them forget again.
Wondergirl: Just hang in there, okay? You did it, Conner. You saved the Earth. You saved everyone.
Superboy: I know, Cass. Isn't it cool?
AND THEN HE'S DEAD AND IT'S SHOWN WITH LITTLE PANELS SHOWING HIS EYEBALL ROLLING BACK INTO THAT DEATH STATE AND I'M LIKE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. And then I'm going to cry just cause he's dead and I have developeda sudden overwhelming affection for Superboy the last couple of days (makes me tempted to buy the new 52 graphic novel about him... Any thoughts, Reed?) but then BUT THEN they have a panel showing Robin, aka my boy Tim Drake, appearing and finding the dead body and falling to his knees over Conner and crying. Cause Conner is his BEST FRIEND (Bart too). As if Tim hasn't lost enough already. I'm too lazy to check chronology cause that's just how I roll... but then I realized: Hal is in this and he isn't in IDENTITY CRISIS, so this means that the death of Conner, Tim's best friend, comes after the death of his mother and the murder of his father (the latter shown in IDENTITY CRISIS, the former is not). But I don't know if this is before or after his girlfriend, the Spoiler, dies too. I think it's after. THE POINT IS! Of all the Robins, Tim Drake loses the most. Well, unless you count Jason losing his life but I don't, not in this case. Dick loses his parents at a young age: traumatic. Jason does too or whatever and then finds his mom or whatever I don't know I never really cared for Jason. Damian doesn't really have anyone to lose except Bruce, who he kinda lost I guess but then Bruce came back so... Tim loses the most and I just feel so bad that Conner dies.
But then the fighting isn't over and it gets worse for Tim (whyyyy). They're fighting or whatever against people and it's super dramatic and complicated and, like, five different fights are going on at once. The important one is the one that Batman's in. Duh. So the Bat family, aka Batman, Nightwing and Robin, subdue Slade. And then Alexander Luthor pops up because no one wants him so OF COURSE he has to show up. Then he shoots a purple energy beam at Batman, intending to kill him I guess but then NIGHTWING JUMPS IN THE WAY, screaming, "Batman! Look OUT!" And he takes the shot for him and I'm like, "NO DICK WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME?! (But, also, thanks for saving Bruce)" Then Batman's like "NIGHTWING!" and he goes after Luthor. Then this giant guy knocks the ground down and they all fall to this area below the road and Tim's left alone over Dick's limp body and then he screams, my heart breaks looking at the panel even now, "BATMAN!" Cause his big brother might be DEAD. That is NOT OKAY, if you were wondering.
A few pages later, Batman is battling Alexander Luthor, aka winning, obviously, and Luthor is making this speech about how Batman is too narrow minded blah blah blah. And over top those panels in little mini panels, you get a shot of Dick all bloody and unconcious. In the other one you a get a picture of Tim leaning over him, mouth open in what I assume are shouts along the lines of "Nightwing! Nightwing!" with tears sliding over his mask. Then Alexander Luthor says the line that wins the idiot award:
Luthor: You need to learn to take shortcuts to justice.
Like, no. You are an idiot Alexander Luthor. Seriously. You're so stupid. Stop talking. Batman, shut him up.
[cue Batman punching Alexander Luthor]
Thank you. Now, Batman goes ahead and breaks whatever is left of my heart with this:
Batman: I know what Superman is going through. He doesn't deserve that. Superboy didn't deserve that. What do you deserve? [as he holds a gun up to Alexander's head]
DON'T WORRY Batman doesn't use it! The gun I mean.
But do you know what he's referring to up there? He's referring to the death of Jason Todd. He's referring to the lose of a child. Because Batman was too late to save Jason and that haunts him for the rest of life, even, I think, after Jason comes back as the Red Hood (that's not a spoiler right?) He held the lifeless body of a young boy he put in danger, a young boy he loved, in his arms. You don' get to experience that a lot. And Batman did (because the readers hated Jason. I'm sorry
Don't worry, Nightwing makes it.
So the good guys beat the bad guys and Superman loses his powers and Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman step down from the JL for a while. And it ends with Batman "[retracing] the steps I first took when I left Gotham. I'll be rebuilding Batman. But this time it's going to be different."
Tim: "Hey Bruce! C'mon! Let's go!
Bruce: I'm not going alone.
BECAUSE HE AND HIS BOYS GO ON A FAMILY VACATION (sort of) and I just love it too much for words.
The point of this post, beside more gushing over the Bat family (you'll have to get used to that, Reed, it happens a lot) is to say that comic books make me cry and get kind of emotional and I think that might be embarrassing but I'm learning to not be so embarrassed by myself.
Soon I will tell you all about IDENTITY CRISIS. That one makes me cry, like, so much. The end, don't EVEN get me STARTED on the end.
Seriously, all of THAT ^ is why I love comic books.
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