You Killed My Father / Comic Books

• 2000 AD:
  • Nemesis the Warlock: Played for laughs when Nemesis and his allies are about to kill Torquemada. Everyone wants a piece of him for killing one of their loved ones: Nemesis for his wife, Purity for her father, and Mekquake for his mother. When Torquemada is confused because he never even met Mekquake's mother, he admits that he just made her up.
  • Button Man: As a young girl, Adele witnesses a group of men murdering her father while she hides in the closet, apparently including a man named "Harry X". She grows up swearing to get revenge against her father's killers and Harry in particular.
  • Nikolai Dante: Some time after Dante kills Sir Richard Hawksmoore, his daughter, Elizabeth, joins the royalist faction for the chance to avenge him. She is appointed commander of the Order of the Dragon by Konstantin Romanov, and on her first mission, she attacks a refugee convoy commanded by Elena Kurakin — whose father she killed. And yes, there is taunting involved.
• Age of Reptiles: The main Allosaurus in The Hunt attacks the Ceratosaurus pack because they killed his mother. At the very end, when he kills the last Ceratosaurus by feeding it to a pod of plesiosaurs, it turns out that the Ceratosaurus was a father... and that his mate and children just watched the Allosaurus kill him.
• In the New 52, Aquaman blames Black Manta for his father's death. Interestingly, the reverse is also true. Aquaman's father had a heart attack while trying to defend his son from Black Manta. When Aquaman tracked Manta down for revenge, he was attacked by Manta's father, whom he killed in self-defence.
• Astro City:
  • Aubrey Jason, a Pyramid agent, killed Royal and Charles Williams' parents during a fight with the Silver Agent. When Royal learns his identity twenty years later, he uses that information to give his dying brother Charles the will to live on.
  • The Gunslinger is a murderer whose targets were all members of a squad of Vietnam War soldiers. His father was the squad sergeant, and the men had killed him to hide their heroin ring.
• Atomic Robo: Skorzeny reveals to Robo that he killed Tesla. It's an attempt to get the latter to kill him and spare him a slow, painful death due to cancer. Robo opts for Cruel Mercy.
• Batman:
  • Batman lost both his parents to a random mugger by the name of Joe Chill. Although this is the major cause for Bruce's decision to become a superhero, he's able to focus on the big picture. Naturally, Batman never kills Chill, but Chill is killed by his fellow mobsters, who blame him for creating Batman.
  • Batman Beyond: Terry nearly says this to Blight before Bruce interrupts him.
    Batman: You killed my...
    Bruce: McGinnis!!
    Batman: You killed a good man.
    • Subverted in the cartoon where Terry actually does say the trope, only for Blight to briefly pause before mentioning in an annoyed tone of voice "Do you have the slightest idea of how little that narrows it down?"
  • Robin (1993): Eventually Tim confronts his mother's murderer Obeah Man after the man bribes his way out of jail. Tim doesn't kill him, of course, but tracks him all the way to Haiti, defeats him, and ensures that he won't get away with such bribery again.
  • Red Robin: Tim actually arranges Captain Boomerang's escape from jail and sets up a scenario where Boomerang will likely end up killing himself because he can't stand being in the same city as the man who killed his father as a test for himself on Batman's Thou Shalt Not Kill policy. Tim ends up saving Boomerang from his own plot and returning him to police custody. The culmination makes it unclear whether he was testing himself or Bruce's and Dick's trust in him, since he knew they were watching the whole time.
• Black Moon Chronicles: Haazheel Thorn and the Baron of Moork arrange the violent death of Wismerhill's dark elf father (actually, the demon Urmarcht in disguise) just before he can finally meet him and blame it on the empire to incite Wismerhill's fury against the emperor.
• Black Panther: In most versions of the origin, his father (the previous Panther) was killed by Ulysses Klaw. The young T'Challa manages to injure Klaw in the process, and later "kills" him after assuming his father's mantle.
  Black Panther: Do you have any children?
  Klaw: No.
  Black Panther: Good. Because then I'd have to kill them, too.
• Bodie Troll: After Miz Bjou explains to Hokum how her tribe was transformed into Butt Truffle by an evil fairy and Bodie lets slip that he unknowingly ate the truffles, Hokum instantly goes after him. Surprisingly, he willingly offers himself up as an apology to her. She can't go through with killing him, however, which winds up working out for everyone in the end.
• Bone: Kingdok tries to invoke this in Thorn, whose parents he killed, to make her kill him, but the attempt fails.
• Baron Zemo initially blames Captain America for the death of his father, despite the fact that his father accidentally caused his own death while firing his pistol blindly. He eventually gets over it.
• Avengers: The Children's Crusade: Stature says this line word for word to Doctor Doom when she assumes that his attack killed her newly revived father again.
• A variation occurs in ElfQuest, where Cutter's parents are among several elves killed by a monster. Since his father was chief of the Wolfriders, Cutter inherits the title, and the first thing he does to prove himself worthy of it is to devise a strategy to kill the monster. However, whatever desire for revenge he has is mixed with the necessity of stopping the menace that threatens all life in the Holt. In addition, unlike his father, who wanted to kill the monster all on his own, Cutter relies on the whole tribe working together to trap it. (He both acts as bait and deals the lethal blow, though.)
• In Gotham City Garage, Batman doctors evidence to trick Barbara Gordon into believing her sister Kara murdered their father. She believes him and intends to get justice for her father until Harley Quinn — of all people! — reveals that she's been lied to.
• Hound: King Connor bears a grudge against Morrigan for causing the death of his sister, Detira, to steal his nephew away as a baby.
• Lament of the Lost Moors: Bedlam defeated Sioban's father's army and personally killed him in the lost moors.
• Lands of Arran: Elfes: Ora, or Sybil daughter of Azewën, mistakenly thinks that Eliseii killed her father in cold blood and seeks Eliseii to kill her. However, Eliseii explains the exact circumstances of Azewën's death and then gets bitten by a ghoul, robbing Ora of her revenge.
• In the comic adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Link wants to take Agahnim down because the sorcerer killed his uncle right in front of him.
• In Legion of Super-Heroes, Cosmic Boy, usually one of the most level-headed and rule-abiding members and their leader, leaves the team seeking revenge after his mother is killed in a terrorist attack that also badly wounds his father and little brother. He's only prevented from murdering in revenge when his girlfriend knocks him out with super-strength when he has the terrorists, who are in police custody when he catches up, at his mercy.
• The Mighty Thor: In an inversion, it was the good guys (the Asgardians) who killed Loki's father Laufey when he was a young child. Loki did vow to kill them all that day, but then again, it was mostly an act in an attempt to get Odin to adopt him. At the time, young Loki did not understand the grander scheme in which the whole thing operates, but don't be too surprised; he didn't have any real tears to shed for Laufey...
• Raptors: Drago and Camilla's motive for targeting the other vampires in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge is the murder of their parents at the hands of Don Miguel's followers.
• Sherwood, Texas: Rob Hood's Roaring Rampage of Revenge is kicked off when he returns from a stint in the navy to find that his father has been murdered by John Prince, leader of the Nobles motorcycle gang.
• Sojourn: Arwyn would probably have lived her life in peaceful retirement if Mordath's forces had not razed her hometown and killed her husband and daughter. Now It's Personal.
• Spider-Man:
  • Peter Parker was raised by Uncle Ben and Aunt May. When Uncle Ben is killed, Peter wants to get even, but when he realizes that the murderer was the same thug he let go earlier, he gives up on revenge because he realizes it was his own fault. In fact, Spider-Man 3 is largely about his need to let go of his vengeful feelings.
  • When he finds out that the second Red Skull killed his parents (who were SHIELD agents), he wants revenge as well. The second Red Skull ends up escaping... only to be killed later by the original Red Skull. However, Spider-Man does kill the Finisher (inadvertently and in self-defense, but without any tears), the Skull's agent who actually did the deed. The Finisher's dying confession proves that Peter's parents weren't traitors after all, which was what he really wanted.
  • Gwen Stacy isn't exactly thrilled when she thinks Spider-Man has killed her father. She doesn't end up killing him, but she does try to help a politician start a crusade against him.
• Starman: Frankie Soul's father (a villain named No Mercy) died fighting Mikaal Tomas, and in spite of their complicated relationship, Frankie seeks to avenge him.
• Star Trek (IDW): In the "Mirrored" arc, Mirror Kirk greets Mirror Nero for the first (and last) time by announcing this.
• Star Wars:
  • Star Wars Expanded Universe:
    • Star Wars (Marvel 2015): In "Skywalker Strikes, Part II", Luke Skywalker confronts Darth Vader, both of them unaware of their blood relationship. Luke accuses Vader of killing his father without revealing any information. Vader says he's killed many fathers and the young boy will have to be more specific.
    • Oh, it gets even better with Vader: In the same series, he returns to Tatooine for Imperial business... and you remember how the Tusken Raiders killed his mother in Attack of the Clones? Well, Vader hasn't forgotten either◊. In fact, Vader slaughters so many of the Sand People they begin to worship him as a god.
  • Star Wars Legends:
    • Jango Fett lost two fathers. His biological father (and his mother and sister) was murdered by a group of mercenaries, and his adoptive father who trained him to be a Mandalorian (and whom he was possibly closer to) was gunned down before his eyes by the same man who killed his original family. Needless to say, Fett devotes a great deal of time to hunting down the murderer and finally enacts vengeance in a brutal fistfight.
    • In a way, the traitorous Mandalorian Montross is also responsible for Jango's second father's death: He abandoned him on the battlefield because he wanted to take his place as leader of the Mandalorians. Then years later, Montross kills Rozatta, a female Toydarian who acts as a mother-figure to Jango and is one of the few people he cares about. Shortly thereafter, Fett defeats Montross and leaves him to a particularly nasty death.
    • X-Wing Rogue Squadron: The big reason why Wedge Antilles hates Loka Hask is because Wedge's parents sacrificed themselves to save the refueling station after Hask took off without unhooking, letting his thrusters ignite the fuel, in order to stall the police. Hask makes it worse by rejoining The Empire and telling Wedge that he did him a favor and gave him what all boys secretly want — to be rid of their parents! If only he'd had someone to do that for him — but no, he had to do it himself!
• Superman:
  • In The Death of Superman (1961), Lex Luthor manages to kill Superman. Supergirl captures him and brings him to the Bottle City of Kandor, where he is judged and banished to the Phantom Zone. As she takes Luthor away, Kara warns a group of gangsters that while they may have succeeded in treacherously murdering her cousin, they will have to deal with her now.
    Supergirl: My name is... Supergirl! I'm Superman's cousin from Krypton! I've been his secret emergency weapon for years! Luthor, in the name of planet Krypton, I arrest you for murder!
  • World's Finest (1941): In issue #166, set in the 25th century, the current Batman Bron Wayn wants to capture the current Joker to beat out of him the identity and location of the former Joker, who murdered Bron's whole family when he was a baby.
  • Pre-Crisis supervillain Tobias Manning (a.k.a. Terra-Man) was raised by the alien known as the Collector, who had killed his father: wiping Manning's memory of his father's death. Manning travelled with the Collector for years, stealing for him as he had for his real father, but eventually his memories returned and he murdered the Collector to avenge his father.
  • Post-Crisis Supergirl bears a grudge against Reactron, who murdered her father, and Superwoman, who helped Reactron out. In Who is Superwoman?, as she lays a beatdown on the titular villain, Kara declares that her father's murderer shouldn't expect gentle treatment from her.
    Supergirl: You're asking for mercy? Like Agent Liberty got?! Like poor Mister Henderson!? Like my father!? You don't deserve mercy, you deserve a beating!
  • Superwoman and Reactron also tricked Kara into believing her friend Thara "Flamebird" Ak-Var helped them murder Zor-El. In The Hunt for Reactron, Kara still believes Thara murdered her father, and even when she is proved wrong, she still blames Thara for failing in protecting him as was her duty (since Thara was chief of security). It took a while until Kara understood Thara was not to blame.
    Supergirl: He was my father and you killed him!
  • In Reign of Doomsday, Supergirl screams that she hasn't forgotten who killed her cousin as she's fighting Doomsday.
  • In New Krypton, the Guardian says this verbatim to Codename: Assassin, who killed his genetic donor.
  • The plot in The Killers of Krypton revolves around Supergirl seeking and punishing the ones were behind of Rogol Zaar killing her family and friends.
  • In Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl, Batgirl wants to take Lex Luthor down because he hired the hitman who accidentally murdered her parents. And Supergirl wants to kill Lex after finding out that he murdered her cousin.
  • At the end of Superman: Brainiac, the titular villain kills Superman's adoptive father, Jonathan Kent, causing Superman to have dreams of going to Brainiac's containment chamber to lay a beatdown on him.
  • In Crucible, Tsavo reacts badly when his brother Roho wounds their parents to the death.
    Tsavo: I'll have your hide for that!
  • In Two for the Death of One, Syrene is not only driven by her thirst for power. She also wants to become powerful enough to kill Lord Satanis, the man who murdered her father Ambra.
    Syrene: My father, Ambra, possessed the fabled Runestone created by Merlin, but you killed him to take the Stone as yours. But before you could claim it and before he died, he sent the Gem hurling into the past. Well, now I have reclaimed my family heritage. The Stone and its powers are mine! And with it I shall kill the man who slew my father!
  • Last Daughter of Krypton: As soon as she sees Reign, Kara assumes she killed her father and charges head-on.
    Supergirl: Did you do this?! Did you kill my father!?
  • In Starfire's Revenge, the titular queenpin fools her minion Rodney Ames into believing Supergirl killed his brother Derek, prompting Rodney to seek revenge.
    Rodney Ames: No! No! You won't get away from me— You killed my brother without giving him a chance! You won't get away with it— Or from me!
  • In Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, a girl named Ruthye asks Supergirl to help her hunt her father's murderer down.
    She asked if I was still determined to track down the murderer of my dear father and kill him dead. I said I was and always would be.
  • In Adventures of Supergirl, Rampage wants to kill Supergirl and her sister Alex because the latter is responsible for the death of Moyer, Rampage's own sister.
    Rampage: "I heard [your sister] Agent Danvers in the tunnels, "Supergirl". She said my sister was dead. Which means so are you!"
• The Sword: After three demigods kill Dara Brighton's parents and sister in search of the titular mystical sword, she finds it and sets out to use it to avenge the death of her family.
• Tangent Comics: The third Atom confronts the Fatal Five for murdering his father the second Atom.
• Torpedo: The boy in chapter 2, son of Pietro Mottolo, as well as a few other characters, most of which have their parents killed by Luca, naturally.
• Usagi Yojimbo:
  • A samurai gets permission to kill the four bad guys who killed his father, but the last one has repented and become a priest, so the samurai takes his Samurai Topknot as a trophy instead.
  • "One cannot live under the same sky as their lord/father's murderer." The Space Usagi version gets both personally.
  • Sadly, Miyamoto Usagi has yet to fight Lord Hikiji, who killed both Miyamoto senior and Lord Mifune.
• Varmints: Opie's motivation for the story is to confront the man who killed her and Ned's mother.
• In Venom (Donny Cates), this was the reason for a Let's You and Him Fight moment between Eddie Brock and Miles Morales as the latter mistook Eddie for the Venom who got his mother killed back on Earth-1610.
• We Kill Monsters: Vanessa decides to join Jake and Andrew on their mission against the monsters invading Kern County to get revenge against the giant insect monster that took her father before her eyes.
• In Werewolf by Night, Jack suspects that Philip Russell is responsible for his mother's death.
• X-Men:
  • Magneto saw his parents and sister shot dead before his eyes during World War 2, and for a time became a Nazi hunter. This phase of his career ended when the American intelligence agency for which he worked betrayed him and killed his Brazilian lover.
  • X23 is a victim of this trope when Xander Rice does this to Wolverine by proxy. Wolverine killed Rice's father, Dale Rice, during his escape from the Weapon X facility where he was being experimented on. Two or three decades later, Rice is part of a civilian offshoot program attempting to recreate Weapon X. When Sarah Kinney successfully creates an Opposite-Sex Clone of Wolverine, Rice immediately projects his hatred of Logan onto the poor girl, leading to absolutely horrific physical and emotional abuse. He makes it absolutely clear to a seven-year-old X-23 that his surgically removing her claws one-by-one without anaesthesia is in retribution for his father. What makes this even more twisted is that Xander, owing to his part in the program, was arguably one of the closest things Laura/X-23 had to a father growing up.
  • Apocalypse, of all people. After being abandoned as an infant due to his obvious mutations, En Sabah Nur was rescued and adopted by Baal, the leader of a tribe of nomad raiders named the Sandstormers. Then one day the forces of Rama Tut (a.k.a. Kang the Conqueror) attacked the Sandstormers. Baal and En Sabah Nur survived the initial attack by hiding in a cave that collapsed. Baal eventually starved to death, but not before telling En Sabah Nur of Rama Tut's arrival and subsequent conquest of the land, and that he believed Nur was destined to stop him. Nur's desire to avenge his foster father, one of the only people who ever really cared for him and vice versa, is the main reason Nur rejects Rama Tut's We Can Rule Together offer (especially ironic, since Rama Tut's goal for traveling to Ancient Egypt in the first place was to recruit the future Apocalypse). That, and Nur wants to rule the world by himself.
  • James Proudstar comes after Xavier, blaming him for his brother John's death. He doesn't kill Charles, however, and moves on from this, eventually going on to join X-Force, and the X-Men themselves.