10 Best Fakeout Endings In Comics
Those fantastic swerves that totally had us all fooled.
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00:00 The world of comic books is one forever full of false twists and turns as it looks to pull
00:04 the rug out from under its readers. Just when you think a tale is taking a left turn, so often we
00:09 see said tale veer off and take a right. These fake-out endings in comics were so bloody good
00:15 that you had to commend them. So let's take a look at them as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com,
00:19 and these are the 10 Best Fake-Out Endings in Comics.
00:22 10. Superman Can't Save Green Arrow
00:26 This particular fake-out was great in how DC Comics actually went through with killing off
00:31 Oliver Queen. Once the all-powerful Man of Steel arrived on the scene, it was presumed that the
00:35 big blue Boy Scout would fly in and save the day as he had done so time and time again over the
00:40 decades. Superman is Superman, and thus forever does Superman things. For the most part, this
00:45 means always overcoming any odds, always triumphing, and always being the great shining hope of comics.
00:51 This time, though, the last son of Krypton was helpless as Oliver sacrificed his own life to
00:56 save Metropolis. Essentially, this was a fake-out that was the opposite of what we were used to.
01:01 As Green Arrow #100 came to an end, Oliver was in an airplane heading to the home city of Superman,
01:06 with his arm trapped in an explosive device that would detonate and wipe out Metropolis,
01:10 should he remove his limb. The big cliffhanger was how Supes could save the Emerald Archer.
01:15 After weighing up all options, the only way Kal-El can save Queen is to use his heat vision
01:20 to sever the arrow's arm, and then detonate the bomb elsewhere. Shockingly, the concept of
01:24 Superman saving the day was the fake-out here, with Oli setting off the bomb and sacrificing
01:29 himself for the greater good rather than becoming a one-armed archer. That was in 1995,
01:34 and Queen would remain dead for the next six years.
01:36 9. The Not-Quite-Death of Captain America
01:39 While Captain America more recently had the fake-out reveal that he actually hadn't been
01:44 working as an undercover HYDRA agent for the past several decades, a far more engaging fake-out
01:48 relating to the Sentinel of Liberty occurred in the aftermath of 2006's Civil War arc.
01:53 After Steve Rogers and Tony Stark had butted head over Stark's belief that all superheroes needed to
01:58 be registered and governed, the fallout of this saw the does-exactly-as-it-said-on-the-tin-tail-of-fallen-sun
02:03 the death of Captain America. Having handed himself into SHIELD custody after Civil War,
02:08 Cap is assassinated at the orders of the Red Skull. Skull first had Crossbones shoot Rogers
02:12 from a distance with a sniper rifle, and then brainwashed Sharon Carter, who was at this point
02:16 dating Steve, to deliver the fatal shot from close range. With that, Captain America was dead. The
02:21 world of Marvel Comics grieved, two funerals took place, and the world tried to adjust to a life
02:26 without Steve Rogers by having Bucky Barnes take on the Cap mantle as per Rogers' wishes.
02:31 Much like the death of Superman back in 1993, Rogers remained dead for a hefty amount of time,
02:36 and it would be two years later with Captain America reborn that we'd see Steve return,
02:40 what with it revealed that the fatal shot from Sharon Carter had actually phased Cap through
02:45 space and time rather than killed him. Because of course it did.
02:48 8. Wolverine Isn't Dead, He's Death
02:52 1999 saw Marvel Comics make the bold move to kill off one of its most popular characters ever
02:57 in the form of Wolverine. Of course, comics being comics, this death was shown to be a ruse,
03:01 and Logan would be dead for barely a month. Not just that, but Wolverine himself would be revealed
03:06 as his own killer. To clarify this point, September '99's astonishing X-Men #3 has
03:11 Wolvie murdered by the latest new horseman of the apocalypse, Death. With this taking readers by
03:16 genuine surprise, the rest of Charles Xavier's merry band of mutants discovered that the dead
03:20 Wolverine is actually a shape-shifting Skrull who had been serving undercover as Wolverine for
03:25 months. By the time of X-Men #95 a month later, the mysterious Death would eventually be unmasked
03:30 to reveal themselves to be… Wolverine. In an explanation typical of the time, it would be
03:34 detailed how Apocalypse had orchestrated the plan to have Old Knucklehead replaced in the X-Men by
03:40 a doppelganger. The real Logan would be kidnapped and brainwashed in order to serve as Death under
03:44 the charge of Apocalypse. This may have been a tad too convoluted once the truth was spotlighted,
03:50 but it was still a great rug pull to find Wolverine as the person parading as Death.
03:54 #7. Robin is forced to kill Batgirl
03:57 The daughter of assassins Lady Shiva and David Kane, Cassandra Kane spent her younger days
04:02 solely being trained in brutal fashion to become a master martial artist. While she became well-versed
04:07 in a plethora of fighting styles, part of the strict training regime meant that she wasn't
04:11 allowed to speak, and thus she was a mute when readers were first introduced to her as the new
04:16 Batgirl in 1999. As part of 2005's Fresh Blood Story, Cass and the Tim Drake incarnation of Robin
04:22 find themselves caught up in one of the Penguin's schemes. Forced by Cobblepot and his cohorts to
04:27 fight to the death or both be killed, these two heroes get surprisingly brutal with one another.
04:32 The violent, aggressive Ante upped by Kane mocking Tim for how he'll never be Batman,
04:37 and Robin responding by slating Batgirl's off-brutal methods. With Cass knocked unconscious,
04:42 Penguin wants to make sure the deed is done, and so he gives Robin a gun to make sure Batgirl
04:47 really is dead. And, jarringly, Drake doesn't hesitate in putting a bullet into his teammate.
04:52 The brilliant part of this is that Batgirl's intense training means that she's remarkably
04:56 able to not flinch after being shot. The tragic part of this, of course, is that it shows how
05:01 disturbing that training was. Regardless, Kane soon gets to her feet, as our two heroes then
05:06 take out the bad guys.
05:07 6. Jean Grey Doesn't Return
05:10 Death is famously far from a permanent arrangement in the world of comics,
05:14 and few characters have had as many encounters with the Grim Reaper as the X-Men's Jean Grey.
05:18 Jean has died, been resurrected, died again, had fake-out deaths, had fake-out resurrections,
05:23 had alternative versions of herself surface, and a whole lot more since she debuted in September
05:28 1963 as part of the original X-Men lineup, created by the legendary duo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
05:34 At the times that Jean was dead in the main 616 Marvel canon, it always felt like yet another
05:39 return from the grave was only just an issue or two away. So, when Joss Whedon and John
05:44 Cassidy's run on Astonishing X-Men began with a mutant cure being tested out on unwilling subjects,
05:49 it seemed as if Jean was back from the dead when Beast pondered "why does nothing ever stay buried?"
05:54 In response to Beast's troubled comment, even Cyclops believed that Jean had returned.
05:58 Skip ahead to the end of Astonishing X-Men #4, and it was actually Colossus,
06:02 who died four years prior, who was back from the grave. And thank God for that,
06:06 because another return of Jean Grey was so not needed at that point in time.
06:09 5. There's Still Life Left in The Dark Knight
06:13 Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns is widely regarded as one of the greatest comic book tales
06:18 in the history of the medium. Picking things up ten years after Bruce Wayne has hung up the old
06:22 capon cowl, the battered, broken, older Bruce is forced to suit up once more when the brutal
06:27 mutants gang surfaces to terrorise Gotham. But with the re-emergence of the Caped Crusader,
06:32 the US government sends Superman to politely talk Wayne out of returning from retirement.
06:37 Of course, once the threat of the mutants is finally quelled, not to mention a battle with
06:41 the Joker that would see the clown prince of crime take his own life and frame Bats for his murder,
06:45 readers got the inevitable match-up of Batman vs Superman. In a war that saw both men beat the tar
06:51 out of each other, this legendary fight was only brought to a halt once Bruce's heart failed on
06:56 him. Here we get the image of the Man of Steel cradling the dead body of his longtime friend/foe,
07:01 before the scene then cuts to Wayne's funeral. As Clark Kent, Selina, Kyle, and Jim Gordon stand
07:06 at the grave of Gotham's greatest protector, it's then that Clark and his super-hearing picks up the
07:10 murmurs of a heartbeat. This led to the revelation that Bruce had slowed his heart down by using
07:15 certain chemicals, and that Carrie Kelly, his new Robin, was able to dig up Wayne's air-quote "dead
07:20 body". 4. Doc Ock's Superiority Over Spider-Man Kills Peter Parker
07:25 While he often uses his smarts for nefarious means, there's absolutely no doubting the vast
07:30 intelligence of Otto Octavius. Likely the greatest example of said smarts came during the Dying Wish
07:35 Tale, where Doctor Octopus was able to change the very fundamentals of the Spider-Man books of the
07:40 time. And how did he do this? Why, Ock managed to switch bodies with the one and only Peter Parker.
07:45 After years of tormenting the wall-crawler, and obviously continually getting bested by
07:49 the old web-head, the terminally ill Otto put into place one final master plan in an attempt
07:54 to save his life. Said master plan saw Octavius swap consciousness with Peter, just as Doc's body
07:59 was about to take its final breath. Thus, Parker died in the body of Ock, and the spirit of Otto
08:04 was placed in the alive and very well body of Spider-Man. With that, readers were left to
08:09 believe that Peter Parker had died in the body of Otto Octavius, as Ock, now proclaiming his
08:14 intention to prove himself as the superior Spider-Man to Peter Parker, encouraged his
08:18 long-time rival to embrace a life of heroism. The complete demise of Peter was a fake-out here,
08:23 with his consciousness eventually resurfacing in his own body to serve as something of a good angel
08:28 to Otto. Still, Octavius would parade as Spider-Man for over a year before voluntarily letting Parker
08:34 regain control of his own body in order to stop Norman Osborn as part of the Goblin Nation arc.
08:39 3. The Joker as Gotham's Eternal Prince
08:43 Having been absent for over two years following the events of 2012's 'A Death of the Family',
08:47 the Joker resurfaced in magnificent fashion in 'Batman Endgame'. When the disguised clown
08:52 Prince of Crime comes face to face with Bats, he lets the cat out of the bag that he is an
08:57 Eternal Prince, who has tormented Gotham City for centuries. For Jim Gordon and Batman,
09:01 this bold claim is given further credence when they discover Joker in countless images
09:05 from Gotham's past. Despite it sounding impossible, the excellent storytelling of
09:10 the arc makes the reader, in addition to Gordon and the Dark Knight, start to believe that the
09:14 gesture of genocide's claims of being immortal are actually genuine. This is only further
09:18 emphasised when the Joker rises up after being fatally shot by Gordon. All of this plays out
09:23 over the backdrop of Gotham City being infected by a new strain of the Joker virus, and we're
09:27 led to believe that Mr J really has got the better of Batman this time out. The world's
09:31 greatest detective would eventually deduce that his long-time rival is actually just
09:35 full of bullsh*t, and that the Joker has merely beefed up his immune system using a ton of drugs.
09:39 As for the images of Joker from decades past, that was all merely a well-constructed ruse.
09:44 2. The Death of Deadpool is Far More Than We Thought
09:47 The 250th of Deadpool's collective solo titles, also known as Deadpool Volume 5 #45,
09:53 was heavily billed as the death of the famed Merc With a Mouth. This issue involved an all-out war
09:58 that pitted Wade Wilson against Flag Smasher and the Ultimatum Group. Promoted as Deadpool's final
10:04 stand, reading through the issue really did have you leaning towards Marvel being serious about
10:08 killing off the regenerating Degenerate. And while Wilson's death would eventually happen,
10:12 the fake-out element was that his demise was a whole lot more than we were led to believe.
10:16 Wade actually overcame the odds to topple Flag Smasher and Ultimatum, and readers got
10:21 somewhat of a fake-out when Wade Wilson discarded his Deadpool costume and weapons
10:25 before declaring Deadpool was dead. This was a part of Wilson leaving behind his superhero/antihero/
10:30 supervillain alter-ego as he and his nearest and dearest stole a yacht to start a new life.
10:36 Was this really what was meant by "the death"? It seems so, well, until not only was Wade killed
10:41 off, but the entire population of Earth died as the incursion between the main 616 Marvel
10:46 Universe and the Ultimate Marvel Universe happened in order to set up the Secret Wars crossover
10:51 event. 1. James Gordon Jr. Is Not His Sister's Knight in Shining Armor
10:56 One of the great comic book runs of the modern era is Gail Simone's time writing Batgirl as
11:01 Barbara Gordon successfully underwent experimental surgery to regain her mobility. And with said
11:06 regaining of mobility came Babs once more suiting up to protect the streets of Gotham City. With
11:10 Barbara still haunted by what the Joker did to her so many years ago, it's not long before Batgirl
11:15 once again finds herself butting heads with the jester of genocide. After taking her mother hostage,
11:20 the Joker insists Batgirl become his bride in order to spare Mrs. Gordon. Just when it looks
11:25 like Babs has no choice but to give in to the harlequin of hate's demands, her brother James
11:29 Jr. arrives on the scene to put a stop to the Joker's scheme. As this issue, Batgirl Vol. 5 #16,
11:35 rolls to a close, these strained siblings look to be on the same page, only for this in itself to
11:40 be a fake out, as James Jr. sneakily ambushes his sister with a chemical attack. With that,
11:45 Jimbo leaves Batgirl for the Joker in order that Mr. J let his mother go free. Having often been
11:51 a menacing presence himself, we were all fooled into thinking that James Gordon Jr. had finally
11:55 changed his spots. Only he hadn't, the sinister little prick. And there we go my friends, those
12:00 were the 10 best fake out endings in comics. I hope you enjoyed that, and please let me know what
12:04 you thought about it down in the comment section below. As always, I've been Jules, you can go
12:07 follow me over on Twitter @RetroJWithA0, or you can swing by Live and Let's Dice where I do all
12:12 of my streaming outside of work, and it'd be great to see you over there. As always, I've been Jules,
12:16 you have been awesome, never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.