1975: Iron Fist & Misty Knight Interrupted Flight

Iron Fist #3

You, Danny Rand, are Iron Fist, and you are still pretty new on the scene. The Ravager, soon to be revealed as Radion, the Atomic Man, attacks a Canadair flight to London with 211 people aboard. Fortunately for everybody else, you and Misty Knight are on this flight. You are minding your own business, on a mission to aid a friend, when all this happens!

Your friendly Watcher is going to ditch the weird dungeon master narrative, telling you everything happening to you and going through your mind. It is addictive and enjoyable in this series, though.

Statistically speaking, it's still the safest way to travel.

Ravager takes out the landing gear of the plane as it is landing. His stated purpose is that he's after nuclear materials and wants the British government to see that he is serious.

Her right arm is stronger than her left, but not for the same reasons as yours is.

Danny Rand and Misty Knight are a pretty cool pair, especially in these days. For the first time, we get a glimpse of Misty's true capabilities, yet wonder why she doesn't just open the emergency exit normally? Iron Fist gets people out the door and hangs back inside a burning airplane to get into his fighting togs, demonstrating serious costumed superhero commitment. The good news is, our heroes save many lives between the lines of these panels.

This is 1975, bright-eyes, anything's possible.

Iron Fist, though, is still something of a rookie, and Ravager gets the best of him. Misty jumps in and again shows what she can do by getting Ravager into a hold that no normal person could achieve. Before Iron Fist can take advantage, Misty is hit with the full force of the Ravager's energy beam, which ends up burning away the flesh of her bionic arm, yet not at all her wonderful hair.

You are Iron Fist, and you did not do so well in this fight.

Now it's Iron Fist's turn. And although he pulls off some impressive ju-jitsu moves against the heavily armored Ravager, he is cut down by the energy beam also, and then physically slammed into the airplane debris.

Good guy, Danny Rand

D'oh, the Ravager escapes! Now you are Iron Fist and you are waiting at the hospital, feeling the impact of all the lives lost and impacted this day. You befriend a little girl and try to give her hope. Casualties are light, so probably she won't die.

No more Mister Nice-Guy Danny Rand

D'oh! Well then she dies. Now you are vowing to avenge her! This comic is exceptional in the extent to which the writer exposes the hero, and us, to the trauma of the civilian casualties. The little girl is a cliche that would be hard to pull off every time without it becoming comedic. In this case, Iron Fist's adventures are still very new, and he is portrayed as really being aware and feeling the unfolding disaster.

The good news is, Iron Fist does indeed end up facing off with the Ravager. He carries the death and destruction he's witnessed forward into the story, and goes after Ravager with a vengeance. The issue ends with an explosion in a very tall building that consumes both hero and villain, because Chris Claremont loves a good cliffhanger.

As far as deaths go, the pilot is killed, and other casualties are referred to as "light," but there are no hard numbers. The Watcher is going to figure a 5% casualty rate from the initial crash of the airplane, which landed on its belly. Add another 10% casualty rate from the ensuing fire, which burst out as soon as it had landed. Any time you see our heroes escaping through burning fuselage, we know it's even worse for the civilians.

You are Pilot Michael Kramer, and you are about to die.

This tale is an excellent depiction of heroes doing what they can to lessen the loss of civilian life in a hellish situation, and later acknowledging the loss of life that could not be prevented. The Watcher watches with a hankie to one eye for the little girl who perished. The Watcher sees what you did there, Claremont/Byrne.

Body Count: 20-30, with many injured

Iron Fist #3

Writer: Chris Claremont

Artist: John Byrne

2010: The Sentry loses it

Dark Avengers #14

Toward the end of the era known as Dark Reign, the villainous Norman Osborn had been presidentially appointed to a position akin to Secretary of Defense on steroids. His assembled Dark Avengers includes the Sentry, a man with the power of a million exploding sons who is cursed with a darker side, the Void. Tension around the Sentry's dwindling sanity has been steadily growing, and now...

Bob. What are you doing? Bob. Stahp.

 The Sentry has finally lost his marbles completely, and is being taken over by the Void, his evil half. This has been a long time coming, so the potential for death and destruction has been well established. It is an effectively horrifying development for the book's cast and for the rest of the Marvel Universe.

Major turning point in the Sentry's tale.
We know he has gone too far.

Sentry/Void cuts loose on Manhattan, sending dark tendrils of death into the street. Cars are thrown and explosions are everywhere, sending bodies flying.

Buildings crumbling! Vehicles exploding! Emergency rescue poses go!

The Dark Avengers are deployed and are seen in various tableaus as they do what they can to combat the vast threat. Other heroes make cameos, striking one-panel appearances in the middle of the mayhem.

"Sue, darling, did you hear something?"

Not even the Baxter Building is spared, as one of the mid-level floors explodes.

The obvious toll of death and destruction in this story is never addressed, since the event called Siege starts virtually on the heels of this incident. From the number of bodies being thrown, and cars and buildings being destroyed, amount of sheer shrapnel flying everywhere, the number of city blocks affected, this Watcher estimates fatalities in the 20-100 range.

This stands as a perfect example of massive civilian deaths at the heart of the Marvel Universe - Manhattan - with no subsequent consequence or even notice... save that of your faithful Watcher!

Body Count: 20-100 (unmentioned)

Dark Avengers #14

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Mike Deodato

2007: The Inhumans Attack

SILENT WAR #1: 

The Terrigen Mists, the catalyst that gives the Inhumans their mutagenic powers, have been stolen and subsequently recovered by the U.S. government. However, when the U.S. refuses to return the sacred Mists, the Inhumans decide to take drastic action.

A contingent of Inhumans are dispatched to... a theater?? Yes, that's right, in order for their demands to have maximum impact, Black Bolt sends a team of Inhumans straight for a swanky performance of The Tempest.

Because Shakespeare audiences appreciate tragedy.

The Inhumans manifest roots through the floor to grab the humans in attendance, holding them in place and attempting to terrify them.

Shortest performance of The Tempest ever.

They then take the stage and the television cameras (because theater performances are so often televised) and proceed with their demands.

That's Gorgon. These are not your daddy's Inhumans.

When this doesn't work with 100% efficiency - some of the humans get mouthy - the Inhuman using plant powers strikes back and rips them to shreds.

Statistically speaking, theater is still
one of the safest forms of entertainment.

According to the comic, 47 theater patrons are killed outright, and certainly dozens more are badly injured. This limited series gets pretty bloody, with an attack on Washington D.C., Marines volunteering for suicide missions at the request of superior officers, and culiminating with a suicide bombing by the U.S. that takes out the entire city of the Inhumans.

The idea that the U.S. sees its soldiers as so disposable, and of Marines being so eager to die that they sign right up for it, is definitely extreme. Yes, Marines face death and go into dire straits as a matter of course... but this plotline reduces the U.S. to a terrorist state and U.S. Marines to the level of suicide bombers. Incidents from the rest of the series may yet be included in this blog, though the death of military members is so cheap in the Marvel universe that it would be difficult to record every incident.

Body count in issue 1: 47 civilians

Silent War #1

Writer: David Hine

Artist: Frazer Irving

2013: Massacre in Manhattan

Superior Spider-Man #4:

A villain named Massacre manages to somehow escape Arkham Ravencroft Asylum. This villain is evidently a mass murderer of some kind, and if he has any super powers I'm not sure what they are. The intro describes him as a mass murderer with no empathy. I guess this sets him apart from all those other more empathic mass murderers.

He kills eight people at the asylum in his escape. The first, graphically depicted, is a security guard.

Security guard: epic fail!

Another of the eight dead at the asylum is this woman, Ashley Kafka, who had been a supporting character in the Spider-man cast.

This time... it's personal.

Later, Massacre is holding the patrons of a burger joint hostage, because how else is a mass murderer going to get a happy meal?

Right away we know this will not end well.

One of them tries to alert the authorities, causing Massacre to utilize his superpower of mass murder.

Don't worry, true believer, you are intangible.

I guess these days even Spider-Man needs to have that edgy mortality cred. One of the modern trends exhibited here, and in many modern superhero comics, is to portray the deaths of innocents in graphic detail.

Can I finish my @#$@% fries now?

Another current trend on display here is the fact that the carnage cannot be prevented by our hero. More often in modern Marvel comics the hero finds out about villainy after the fact, is horrified, then delivers a smack-down upon the perpetrator. What is unusual in this particular comic book series is that Spider-Man's uncharacteristic lack of drive in hunting down the villain is actually a major part of the plot's conflict.

Body count: approximately 15

Superior Spider-Man #4

Writer: Dan Slott

Artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli

1973: Cage arrives too late!

Hero For Hire #5

Sweet Sister! It's been a few months since Luke Cage first launched his company, Hero For Hire, and for the first time he faces a fatality. A mysterious dude named Frank Jenks calls Luke for protection... too late!

Cage calls everyone "babe", even himself.

Cage arrives in time to put the thugs down, but not in time to save Jenks.

I still miss the tiara and chain belt.

I liked this panel. Cage is not unaffected by the violence. He even tells the man's widow that he'll avenge him for free. By the end of the comic, Jenks' murder is solved, and Nicolas Coppola is inspired to change his name.

Body count: 1

Hero For Hire #5

Writer: Steve Englehart

Artists: George Tuska & Billy Graham

1963: Giganto!

Fantastic Four #4

Marvel's Silver Age is four months old, with no fatalities in sight. "In sight." Looking at this fantasy superhero comic book realistically (trust me, I know how silly that might seem), I would suggest that there are civilian fatalities that Stan & Jack aren't mentioning. When the Sub-Mariner directs his ultimate pet, Giganto, to swerve through Manhattan's waterfront, the destruction being wreaked rivals anything Godzilla might accomplish.

Call me a cynic, but I don't think everyone made it out.

Look at the size of the buildings compared to Giganto! Wow! And Giganto keeps this up off-panel while the FF gets their act together. In the story, the military has enough time to gather its forces along a defensive line, and the Fantastic Four delays the creature's arrival, so we can assume there was enough time to evacuate a lot of people. But looking at the sheer scope of destruction being wrought by Giganto, one can realistically assume the deaths of many vagrants, squatters, and rubber-neckers who stayed too close. It's simply impossible to fathom that this much destruction would not be accompanied by civilian deaths. No body count to be had, or even recognition within the book itself that any death had occurred (it's the Silver Age, natch), but it's a damn good thing Ben Grimm forced a hydrogen bomb down Giganto's gullet before it got any further!

Body count: unmentioned

Fantastic Four #4

Writer & Artist: Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

1940: Human Torch vs Sub-Mariner

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #8

This is only being included as a prime example of comic book action where you know there would certainly be civilian fatalities, yet the writer tells us there are not. So no body count here, but an early example of what I like to call the "bloodless catastrophe."

The people... where are the people? Don't ask.

Sub-Mariner attacks the elevated rail, sending 3 cars to the pavement below. An elevated commuter train crashes to the street, but no mention of the engineer or passengers?

It's a funny book, kids! Don't ask.

Seriously, the Sub-Mariner hurls the top of the Empire State Building to the street, trapping people beneath it; without fatalities?  Well okay, it's not just a funny book; it's a mighty funny book.

Although the purpose of this blog is to catalog the deaths of innocent civilians in the Marvel Universe, it's hard to believe this story contains no fatalities just because the narrative tells us so. If the Torch had perhaps reached the train in time to stop it from crashing, or swooped down and pushed pedestrians to safety before the top of the Empire State Building landed on them, the comic surely would have been more dramatic and fun to read anyway. The device of the bloodless catastrophe, seen here in a simpler time, is not uncommon in subsequent comics history.

Body count: bloodless catastrophe

Marvel Mystery Comics #8

Writer/Artist: Carl Burgos 

(Bill Everett illustrates Namor in the comic itself)