History GoryDiscretionShot / ComicBooks

* This trope in action is probably the reason for the naming of the trope StuffedIntoTheFridge. In ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'', the SacrificialLion death of Alex was made ''worse'' by censoring the view of her body. [[https://64.media.tumblr.com/94ef0ca78fd877799cfd7fe9c6a764b9/tumblr_mm1xt9ZfPZ1qccr72o1_1280.jpg The original uncensored version]] showed her corpse intact; obscuring the view with the fridge door made many readers think she'd been dismembered.
* In the ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'' issue ''Confessions of an Irish Rebel'', John and Brendan return to their hotel suite to find a friend tied from the light fixture being held hostage [[spoiler:with a shotgun stuck up his arse. {{Squick}}]]. The hostage-taker loses the plot and accidentally fires. Cut to John looking horrified with a blood-spattered face. Admittedly, two pages later you do see what remains of their friend, asking, quietly, "What's that on your coat?" Very nasty.
* In ''ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet'', when the Earth heroes confront Thanos, his captive brother Eros narrates the issue and watches as the Mad Titan kills the heroes in various creative ways. However, when Thanos turns his attention to the Scarlet Witch, the only woman in the group, Eros looks away, not wanting to see her death.

* ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'' was much more open with dark and edgy topics but still refrained from graphic violence, being a mainstream comic aimed mostly at teens and young adults. However, one discretion shot in particular stands out, when the Kingpin executes an insubordinate... subordinate by [[HeadCrushing crushing his head]] between his massive hands. Most of the event takes place in a panel that shows only Fisk's tower viewed at a distance, though later on in the comic a clip of security footage does show the moment where the man's head caves in (still a discretion shot, however, because Fisk had put Spider-Man's confiscated mask over his head).

* Creator/ScottMcCloud mentions this technique in ''ComicBook/UnderstandingComics''. Since in a comic book, a gory discretion shot is nothing but two divorced images that rely on the reader to make the connection, it is through the conscious effort of the reader to combine the two images into a violent act. [[YouBastard "All of you held the axe and chose your spot. To kill a man between panels is to condemn him to a thousand deaths."]]
* ''ComicBook/DeadpoolKillsTheMarvelUniverse'' : [[spoiler:Tom Sawyer's death. A white fence, some amused reactions to "that pigsticker".....and then a slash, and a BIG splotch of red (with brain matter) on the otherwise white fence.]]
* In ''ComicBook/Eternals2021'', Thanos invades Lemuria and grabs an unfortunate Deviant by the jaw, demanding directions to his enemies’ hiding place. The narrator (the great Machine) apologises and cuts away, but not before telling the reader what’s about to happen when Thanos squeezes.
* Creator/GarthEnnis' ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'' is heavy enough on the directly-portrayed bloodshed, but one scene is particularly notable: When Jesse's friend Billy-Bob is attacked by T.C. in the second volume chapter "How I learned to love the Lord", the comic cuts to T.C.'s bloodied knife... And then, two panels later, we see Billy-Bob clutching his slit throat. This is sometimes used straight, though [[spoiler:such as when Tulip is killed by Jesse's family]], but for style rather than for censorship. The only instance where this might be used for censorship is the death of [[spoiler: God]]. Even Garth Ennis might not have been able to get away with showing ''that'' particular messily-killed corpse.
* Garth Ennis did this again in the ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'' issue ''Confessions of an Irish Rebel''. John and Brendan return to their hotel suite to find a friend tied from the light fixture being held hostage [[spoiler: with a shotgun stuck up his arse. {{Squick}}]]. The hostage-taker loses the plot and accidentally fires. Cut to John looking horrified with a blood-spattered face. Admittedly, two pages later you do see what remains of their friend, asking, quietly, "What's that on your coat?" Very nasty.

* In the last comic of the ''ComicBook/XWingRogueSquadron'' series, [[ManipulativeBastard Isard]] got rid of one of her superiors by having a left-handed shopkeeper kill him with a Sith lanvarok he'd been wanting to buy. We never see the lanvarok or the death, but Isard [[http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/7309/swrsmr413.jpg looks through]] a little, bloody window and muses that being left-handed is a distinct advantage when using a lanvarok.
* Happens many times in ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', most notably during [[spoiler: Rorschach's prison break.]] After Big Figure's attempt to kill him fails, Rorschach follows him into the men's room, to the annoyance of Laurie and Dan, who are trying to rescue him. A few moments later, he exits the restroom and leaves with them, and we see blood flowing under the door. It's far more disturbing than the violence that's actually shown. Even more impressive is the fact that, even though they turned the gore up to eleven in the movie, this scene remained intact, and was still way more unsettling than anything they actually showed. Keep in mind, those included a man's forearm bone puncturing through the skin as his arm was broken, Dr. Manhattan ''literally'' exploding people with his mind, and a mook getting his arms sawed off with a grinder. The gore is relatively easy to accept once the shock value wears off; trying to imagine what happened is far more likely to keep you up at night.
* When [[spoiler: Gammid rips Javi's sigil-enhanced arm off]] in ''Negation'', a silhouette is used to imply the action.
%%* Features in [[http://www.garfield.com/comics/vault.html?yr=2005&addr=050430 this]] ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' strip, where the cartoonist elects "not to show this panel due to its graphic nature".
* The ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'' comics were much more open with dark and edgy topics but still refrained from graphic violence, being a mainstream comic aimed mostly at teens and young adults. One discretion shot, in particular, stands out, though, when the Kingpin executes an insubordinate...subordinate by crushing his head between his massive hands. Most of the event takes place in a panel that shows only Fisk's tower viewed at a distance, though later on in the comic a clip of security footage does show the moment where the man's head caves in (still a discretion shot, however, because Fisk had put Spider-Man's confiscated mask over his head).

** In the milestone issue #225, Sonic and Sally infiltrate the newly-built Death Egg Mark II, where they are then immediately confronted by Silver Sonic Mark II. Sonic decides to fight, while Sally runs down a corridor to trace Eggman's intercom signal, where she encounters [[spoiler: a giant gun turret that pops out of the wall and blasts her off-panel. (The reader's imagination about the fate of Sally is possibly made worse by the art detailing in the onomatopoeia of the blasts.) The only thing we see afterward of her is her shattered goggles and a silhouette on the floor of her lifeless hand, while Mobius reboots.]]

* Subverted in an issue of the Creator/ArchieComics ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesAdventures'' series. Bebop and Rocksteady are at the zoo when they see all the animals trapped in cages. They point their guns and start shooting, and it ''looks'' like they've killed the animals...but when they meet the Turtles we see that Bebop and Rocksteady actually shot out the bars of the zoo cages to free the animals. They take the animals back to a Garden of Eden-like alien planet that they've decided to call home, stopping off only to drop the villains the Turtles have defeated back on the prison planet they escape from.
* Shows up in, of all places, Issue #3 of ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW''. Chrysalis grabs one of the luvcats and taunts the CMC for their "innocence". What she does with the luvcat in the following panel is never shown, but the splattered black amongst the blank white panel, the "THUMP" and the CMC's screams make it clear that it is for the best. In the same issue, right after Fluttershy points out a natural species rivalry in the monsters that were chasing the ponies, the ponies look epically horrified while said monsters presumably disembowel each other just off-panel.
* In ''ComicBook/PocketGod'', the more gory deaths tend to be obscured.
* Many ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' comics offscreen fights or block them with big dust clouds. In one comic the ''narrator'' pulls an actual curtain over the fight, explaining that it is entirely too violent to watch.
* In issue #4 of Garth Ennis's run on ''ComicBook/TheShadow'', the Shadow and co. encounter a village that has been massacred by the Japanese. There are plenty of male corpses, but the females... All we get to see are the horrified reactions of two characters.

* ''ComicBook/NemesisTheWarlock'': After Torquemada successfully ousts Mazarin as the new ruler of Termight, he tortures his rival to death in a way so gruesome that the comic explicitly leaves it off panel.
* ''ComicBook/{{Revival}}'' does not shy from gore ''at all'' through its run except for when November Dismember takes a knife to his own genitals, which mercifully switches to Em's reaction panel.

* In ''ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet'', when the Earth heroes confront Thanos, his captive brother Eros narrates the issue and watches as the Mad Titan kills the heroes in various creative ways. But when Thanos turns his attention to the Scarlet Witch, the only woman in the group, Eros looks away, not wanting to see her death.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': Mayfly's messy death is not actually shown, just a bit of the splatter and the reaction of the prison guards who are revolted and worried about whose job it's going to turn out to be to clean up what's left of her.
* In the elseworlds story ''ComicBook/TheNail'' when the Joker traps Robin and Batgirl in a force field using Kryptonian gauntlets while Batman is powerless to stop him, he then begins to torture them by twisting and contorting their bodies while they scream in pain, he then describes to Batman that he is going to tear them apart piece by piece, we then cut to Batman's horrified reactions as he kills them, we don't see their bodies afterwards but Batman describes their conditions, the act traumatized him so much that he eventually beats The Joker to death.
* This trope in action is probably the reason for the naming of the trope StuffedIntoTheFridge. In ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'', the SacrificialLion death of Alex was made ''worse'' by censoring the view of her body. [[https://64.media.tumblr.com/94ef0ca78fd877799cfd7fe9c6a764b9/tumblr_mm1xt9ZfPZ1qccr72o1_1280.jpg The original uncensored version]] showed her corpse intact; obscuring the view with the fridge door made many readers think she'd been dismembered.
* ''ComicBook/StabbityBunny'': In Issue #1, when [[FatBastard Larry]] is chasing Grace with a knife, the scene cuts to his shadow on the wall behind him... noticing the even bigger, more menacing shadow behind him. Said shadow knocks Larry to the ground, and we see a bloody knife and blood splattering appear in the foreground.

* This trope in action is probably the reason for the naming of the trope StuffedIntoTheFridge. In ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'', the SacrificialLion death of Alex was made ''worse'' by censoring the view of her body. [[https://64.media.tumblr.com/94ef0ca78fd877799cfd7fe9c6a764b9/tumblr_mm1xt9ZfPZ1qccr72o1_1280.jpg The original uncensored version]] showed her corpse intact; obscuring the view with the fridge door made many readers think she'd been dismembered.

* Happens many times in ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', most notably during [[spoiler: Rorschach's prison break.]] After Big Figure's attempt to kill him fails, Rorschach follows him into the men's room, to the annoyance of Laurie and Dan, who are trying to rescue him. A few moments later, he exits the restroom and leaves with them, and we see blood flowing under the door. It's far more disturbing than the violence that's actually shown. Even more impressive is the fact that, even though they turned the gore UpToEleven in the movie, this scene remained intact, and was still way more unsettling than anything they actually showed. Keep in mind, those included a man's forearm bone puncturing through the skin as his arm was broken, Dr. Manhattan ''literally'' exploding people with his mind, and a mook getting his arms sawed off with a grinder. The gore is relatively easy to accept once the shock value wears off; trying to imagine what happened is far more likely to keep you up at night.

* In issue #4 of Garth Ennis's run on ''Radio/TheShadow'', the Shadow and co. encounter a village that has been massacred by the Japanese. There are plenty of male corpses, but the females... All we get to see are the horrified reactions of two characters.

* ''Comic/BookWingsOfFire: The Hidden Kingdom'' has Starflight's body blocking most of the dying sloth and the panel only shows Glory when he asks Clay to [[MercyKill end its suffering]].

* This trope in action is probably the reason for the naming of the trope StuffedIntoTheFridge. In ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'', the SacrificialLion death of Alex was made ''worse'' by censoring the view of her body. [[https://img.purch.com/h/1400/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5uZXdzYXJhbWEuY29tL2ltYWdlcy9pLzAwMC8yODAvMzM4L29yaWdpbmFsL2dsX3BhZ2UuanBnPzE1ODgyODI5ODU= The original uncensored version]] showed her corpse intact; obscuring the view with the fridge door made many readers think she'd been dismembered.

* ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'' is exempt from most forms of gory violence, but it's not immune when discretion shots are involved:

* Subverted in an issue of the Creator/ArchieComics ''Comicbook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesAdventures'' series. Bebop and Rocksteady are at the zoo when they see all the animals trapped in cages. They point their guns and start shooting, and it ''looks'' like they've killed the animals...but when they meet the Turtles we see that Bebop and Rocksteady actually shot out the bars of the zoo cages to free the animals. They take the animals back to a Garden of Eden-like alien planet that they've decided to call home, stopping off only to drop the villains the Turtles have defeated back on the prison planet they escape from.
* Shows up in, of all places, Issue #3 of ''Comicbook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW''. Chrysalis grabs one of the luvcats and taunts the CMC for their "innocence". What she does with the luvcat in the following panel is never shown, but the splattered black amongst the blank white panel, the "THUMP" and the CMC's screams make it clear that it is for the best. In the same issue, right after Fluttershy points out a natural species rivalry in the monsters that were chasing the ponies, the ponies look epically horrified while said monsters presumably disembowel each other just off-panel.

* In ''{{ComicBook/Violine}}'', several scenes of crocodiles eating mooks are offscreen, however, we see them with bloodied jaws later. A lion that attacks the main villain is mauled offscreen, and we see it covered in blood later.

* Subverted in an issue of the Franchise/ArchieComics ''Comicbook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesAdventures'' series. Bebop and Rocksteady are at the zoo when they see all the animals trapped in cages. They point their guns and start shooting, and it ''looks'' like they've killed the animals...but when they meet the Turtles we see that Bebop and Rocksteady actually shot out the bars of the zoo cages to free the animals. They take the animals back to a Garden of Eden-like alien planet that they've decided to call home, stopping off only to drop the villains the Turtles have defeated back on the prison planet they escape from.

* In the elseworlds story ''ComicBook/TheNail'' when the Joker traps Robin and Batgirl in a force field using Kryptonian gauntlets while Batman is powerless to stop him, he then begins to torture them by twisting and contorting their bodies while they scream in pain, he then describes to Batman that he is going to tear them apart piece by piece, we then cut to Batman's horrified reactions as he kills them, we don't see their bodies afterwards but Batman describes their conditions, the act traumatized him so much that he eventually beats The Joker to death.

* In the last comic of the ComicBook/XWingSeries, [[ManipulativeBastard Isard]] got rid of one of her superiors by having a left-handed shopkeeper kill him with a Sith lanvarok he'd been wanting to buy. We never see the lanvarok or the death, but Isard [[http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/7309/swrsmr413.jpg looks through]] a little, bloody window and muses that being left-handed is a distinct advantage when using a lanvarok.