History CentralTheme / ComicBooks

* ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'': What kind of person would dress up in a costume and beat up bad guys?
** And what would the world be like if they did so?

** Also, explicitly, "Who watches the Watchmen?" (Who protects the people who protect us? And if they go wrong, how will we know, and who'll protect us from them?)

* ''{{Loki}}: Agent of Asgard'': How truth can hurt and be used as a weapon.

* ''Comicbook/FromHell'': The fundamental interconnections that exist between everything and everyone, and how [[JackTheRipper a serial killer]] is both a product of society and culture as a whole and something which goes on to shape that society further.

* ''ComicsBook/DoctorStrange'' - The self-defeating nature of {{Pride}}

* ''ComicsBook/DoctorStrange and SelfDemonstrating/DoctorDoom: Triumph and Torment'': There is a price for every victory.

* WarrenEllis' run on [[{{Gen13}} DV8]]: A really dark take on PowerOfFriendship - World is a harsh place you won't survive in without real friends.

* ''GlobalFrequency'': The extraordinary things that ordinary people can do if given the chance and resources to do them. Also, how no skill or ability is truly worthless, and how even the most seemingly trivial or obscure forms of knowledge can, if applied in the correct setting, do amazing things.

* ''TheKillingJoke'': One bad day can drive a normal man to madness, but we have the choice to stay sane when confronted with tragedy and suffering.

* ''NemesisTheWarlock'': [[HumansAreFlawed Humans can be bastards]], but don't have to be.

* ''FromHell'': The fundamental interconnections that exist between everything and everyone, and how [[JackTheRipper a serial killer]] is both a product of society and culture as a whole and something which goes on to shape that society further.

* '' {{Transmetropolitan}}'': Society has and will alter beyond all recognition, therefore any code of morality is but a product of its time. Technology will open vistas undreamed of, TheSingularity will come and go, but the core problems of human society will never change. All societies have and will always have social underclasses, and people will always be apathetic. "BreadAndCircuses", as the Romans noted, rule the day. It will always be easier to make assumptions about a person based on Race, Caste and Creed.

* ''{{Irredeemable}}'': How far a man has to go to [[MoralEventHorizon become trully irredeemable]]?

* ''NemesisTheWarlock'': [[HumansAreFlawed Humans can be bastards]], but doesn't have to.

* GeoffJohns is found of this trope - he can literally take everything regarding the character or team he writes about and adjust to choosen central theme:
** His ''GreenLantern'' run: overcoming fear.
** His ''JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'' run: family.
** His ''TheFlash'' run: need to slown down
** His ''{{Aquaman}}'' run: being an outsider
** {{New 52}} ''GreenLantern'': accepting emotions.
* ''{{Runaways}}'': Creating your own family.
* WarrenEllis' run on [[{{Gen13}} DV8]]: A really dark take on PowerOfFriendship - World is a harsh place you won't survive in without real friends.
* ''AvengersAcademy'': Choosing to do the right thing, even if other options are easier.

** In particular, practically every member of Batman's Rogue's Gallery either reflects a part of Batman himself and/or like him as a over-arching trauma that has shaped their lives ever since -- except where he has used his trauma to make himself a better man and to defend the innocent to try and prevent what happened to him from happening to others, they have succumbed to despair and evil and use their traumas as an excuse to hurt others.

** In particular, practically every member of Batman's Rogue's Gallery either reflects a part of Batman himself and / or like him as a over-arching trauma that has shaped their lives ever since -- except where he has used his trauma to make himself a better man and to defend the innocent to try and prevent what happened to him from happening to others, they have succumbed to despair and evil and use their traumas as an excuse to hurt others.

* ''ComicBook/AllFallDown'': Bad things happen. You *deal* with them, because they won't magically be reversed.

** ''[[NewMutants New X-Men: Academy X]]'': People and their rivals probably are NotSoDifferent as they belive

* WarrenEllis' run on [[Gen13 DV8]]: A really dark take on PowerOfFriendship - World is a harsh place you won't survive in without real friends.

** Craig Kyle and Chris Yost's run on ''[[NewMutants New X-Men]]'': Lost of trust in your idols and authorities.

** His ''GreenLantern'' run - overcoming fear.
** His ''JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'' run - family.
** His ''TheFlash'' run - need to slown down
** His ''{{Aquaman}}'' run - being an outsider
** {{New 52}} ''GreenLantern'' - accepting emotions.
* ''{{Runaways}}'' - Creating your own family.

** {{New52}} ''GreenLantern'' - accepting emotions.

* ''Comicbook/XMen'' - Choosing to do the right thing, even when faced with prejudice and injustice. More specifically, having to choose between using your abilities to help mankind and using them to rebel against an oppressive establishment.

* ''Comicbook/{{Batman}}'': How the traumas of the past affect the choices we make, and thus how they shape us into the people we are in the present.
** In particular, it has been noted that practically every member of Batman's Rogue's Gallery either reflects a part of Batman himself and / or like him as a over-arching trauma that has shaped their lives ever since -- except where he has used his trauma to make himself a better man and to defend the innocent to try and prevent what happened to him from happening to others, they have succumbed to despair and evil and use their traumas as an excuse to hurt others.

* ''VForVendetta'': What does it mean to have freedom? What price is it worth?

* ''AstroCity'': The ordinariness of the extraordinary.

* ''JudgeDredd'': The law, no matter how harsh, really is there for your protection.

** The post 'New 52' series ([[ComicBook/{{Batgirl 2011}} 2011-present]]) featuring Barbara Gordon is about healing the wounds of the past, whether physical, emotional or psychological.