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)

1939: Namor's debut

MARVEL COMICS #1: 

Oops! Thought they were robots.

In his first act in his first appearance ever, the Sub-Mariner cuts the air hoses of two divers, then violently stabs and crushes them to death. 

The terrifying premise of encountering a man who exists in the ocean's depths is later dramatized in the appropriately-titled modern graphic novel, "Sub-Mariner: The Depths".

Oops! Thought it was
a ship full of robots.

He then destroys their ship, the SS Recovery, by forcing it to wash up on a coral reef in frigid waters. All hands lost – no official body count, but from the size of the vessel and the date, approximately 30.


Body count: approximately 30

Marvel Comics #1

Writer/Artist: Bill Everett