The Universe of Marvel ComicsOriginally known as Timely Publications and then as Atlas Comics, the comic book publishing company known as Marvel began in 1961 when it launched The Fantastic Four.
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Gory Moments You Can Never Unsee
Total Nerd
Graphic Moments In Marvel Comic History You Can't Unsee
Updated June 23, 2020 7.7k votes 1.3k voters 2.6m views
List Rules
Vote up the gory Marvel Comics moments you won't be able to forget.
For several decades following Marvel's inception, the levels of violence depicted in its comics were fairly tame. The Golden and Silver Ages of Marvel comics contained very little gore; it was mainly fisticuffs, with the occasional shocking demise peppered in to keep the stakes high for our heroes.
But "gore," or really, any high level of brutality now seen in Marvel's books, has only truly emerged in recent decades. While the books have always dealt with relatable issues that us non-superpowered folks face each day (Peter Parker fitting in at high school, Tony Stark's alcohol dependency, etc.), the physical aggression has steadily increased, sometimes to the point of being downright shocking.
In many cases, non-readers still perceive comic books as being nothing more than early-era novelties - the likes of Captain America throwing a haymaker at Hitler, or Spider-Man simply webbing up his foes. But that's not the case with the entries below. No, we're talking about characters getting eaten. Ripped in half. Berserker rampages that end with entire teams of people left in bloody heaps. Indeed, Marvel has shown it's not afraid to get its hands - and other body parts - bloody in the process of storytelling. These are some of the goriest moments in Marvel comics.
This one involves the demise of none other than the Wasp herself.
The Ultimate series of books began interestingly enough in 2000: Marvel took all of its signature characters and gave them an entirely new universe in which to play. Gone were the consequences of the "real-world" characters (i.e., Earth-616, the primary continuity timeline); instead, new storylines were developed without having to rely on events from decades past.
And, perhaps in an effort to rev up the stakes in the Ultimate line, one of the stronger members of the Avengers, Wasp, was knocked off in a most unceremonious way: getting eaten by one of the lamest characters ever drawn up: the Blob, AKA Fred Dukes.
Although Wasp was technically already deceased after drowning in a flood, her character was certainly not given a proper send-off when big Fred Dukes found her in a sewer and, shockingly, began ripping her apart with his teeth in one of the most brutal Marvel moments ever devised.
But for an added bonus, Dukes quickly got his just deserts by Giant-Man himself, who promptly bit Duke's head clean off out of pure, unadulterated rage.
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Mysterio Tricks Wolverine Into Slaying Pretty Much Everyone
From Kick-Ass to Wanted, writer Mark Millar is no stranger to creating hyper-violent scenarios that leave his readers' jaws dropped, all while actual jaws are literally being dropped in his books.
Millar's 2008 mini-series, Wolverine: Old Man Logan, is no different. Here, we find Logan in his twilight years, many decades ahead of then-current continuity. The world has since turned into a dystopia, with various supervillains controlling different sections of the United States.
At first, it appears Logan has moved on from his time with the X-Men and is living in isolation on some land owned by the Hulk's grandchildren - until we realize, via flashback, the reason they're no longer in the picture, and why Logan is reluctant to use his claws at all anymore...
He's killed them all.
Duped by Mysterio, Logan believed he was carving up intruders to the X-Mansion, only to discover he was actually slaying his closest friends instead. The end result? A bloodbath that left countless X-Men six feet under - and Logan alive to live with his guilt.
Is Ares a familiar Marvel character? No. Is his passing going to warrant the same media attention as that of Superman or Captain America? Absolutely not. Was watching him getting torn in half - vertically, mind you - one of the most shockingly gruesome moments in all of Marvel history? You bet your flailing entrails and splash-panel viscera it was.
During 2010's Siege storyline, Norman Osborn, the classic Spider-Man villain, devises a plan to use his H.A.M.M.E.R. technology in order to take over not just our world, but Thor and Ares's homeworld of Asgard as well. In the process, he's also managed to take advantage of emotionally-unstable-yet-dangerously-powerful hero Sentry to use against the other Avengers. As a result, when push comes to shove at the gates of Asgard, shove comes to Sentry taking Ares's body and treating it like a ticket stub at a carnival.
Such an extreme level of mayhem had practically never been seen in such "mainstream" books as The Avengers, but with Ares's blood, guts, and more blood all over their pages, Marvel proved it could shock as well as anyone.
After we find out in Wolverine: Old Man Logan that Wolverine has wiped out all his friends and is living in self-imposed exile on some land owned by the Hulk's grandchildren, Logan returns home after taking a job from Hawkeye. When he gets back, he finds his whole family slaughtered. Devastated, Logan confronts the Hulk, and the Hulk actually eats him.
Although he had sworn off ever using his claws again, Logan and the Hulk engage in one of the greatest fights ever to unfold over the characters' decades-long history, culminating in possibly the Hulk's worst meal choice ever: a man who not only has an indestructible and therefore indigestible skeleton, but one who also has a healing power.
Thus, no matter how hard the Hulk tries to keep his food down, in this case, it has a way of fighting its way right back out.