History MyGreatestFailure / ComicBooks

** Batman himself has blamed himself for a lot of things over the years:

** Hal Jordan, UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|OfComicBooks}} Green Lantern, was away in space when his home city of Coast City was destroyed. He went crazy and became a villain, Parallax, dedicated to undoing the destruction through gaining cosmic power, time travel, or just rebooting the universe itself. (It was [[{{Retcon}} later revealed]] that the great failure had let an ancient evil trapped in the Central Power Battery of the Green Lantern Corps get a foothold on his mind.)
** Additionally, John Stewart, UsefulNotes/{{the Bronze Age|OfComicBooks}} Green Lantern, had this moment with the [[EarthShatteringKaboom destruction of the planet Xanshi]], being way too overconfident with his power, apparently forgetting the [[AchillesHeel weakness to yellow]], as the bomber painted the planet-killing bomb yellow. This depressed him so much that he contemplated suicide. (The ComicBook/MartianManhunter thankfully prevented that, through ReversePsychology). The end result was a guilt that would haunt him forever, and the creation of Fatality, the [[LastofHisKind sole survivor of Xanshi]], who was off-world at the time, who now [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge hunts Green Lanterns as revenge]].

** During UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} and UsefulNotes/{{the Bronze Age|OfComicBooks}}, Superman's biggest failure was arguably when he destroyed Lex Luthor's protoplasmic lifeform that he created as well as causing his hair to fall out when he was trying to rescue Luthor from a lab fire when they were teens in ''ComicBook/HowLuthorMetSuperboy''. Sure it was an accident and mostly not his fault (Luthor caused the fire and Superboy had no way of knowing what was inside at the time), but it didn't help that before the fire, Superboy jokingly said he could spy on Luthor to find out what he was working on. Luthor wrongly believed Superboy destroyed his experiment out of jealousy and dedicated his life to destroying him and proving he was better. Luthor had the scientific genius to make a cure for Kryptonite as well as unshrink Kandor, so if things had gone differently, Superman would have had a lot fewer problems in his life and an ally against evil as well.

** During his tenure on ''Comicbook/TheAvengers'', Creator/KurtBusiek did a good job of finally making Ultron into a credible threat, up to and including having him wipe a country's population off the map. Pym's destroying the primary unit with a metal disruptor, and a subsequent character arc that involved quite literal split personalities were ''supposed'' to finally put Pym's demons to rest and let him start growing as a character again without the existence of Ultron and his other failures to continue hindering him. Yeah... not so much. Later writers actively regressed his sanity, brought back Ultron ''more than once'', and had him replaced by an alien who [[spoiler:tried to kill his ex before Thor accidentally turned her into a dimension, which Pym is obsessively trying to fix at the cost of his relationships with his team and Jocasta]]. As of the most recent Avengers stories, he's possibly even more screwed up now than he was then.

** Nightwing also feels guilt over not only the crippling of Barbara Gordon but the death of Jason Todd. Both of them stemming from the fact that at the time both events happened Dick and Bruce had a falling out which resulted in Dick leaving Gotham and establishing himself as Nightwing. He has notably taken a [[BigBrotherMentor far more proactive role]] in mentoring subsequent members of the Bat-family (as well as serving as leader of the [[ComicBook/BatmanAndTheOutsiders Outsiders]] and a key ally to the ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey).

** A painful one for Superman happened just after his resurrection in ''Comicbook/TheDeathOfSuperman''. After the excitement and relief of him returning from the dead, he and Lois raced off to Paris for a getaway to catch up. While he was gone, the Toyman kidnapped a bunch of kids, including the son of co-worker Cat Grant, Adam. Adam attempted to lead the other kids away, but Toyman caught them and slew them all. Superman was so distraught over this, it led to him vowing never to take another vacation again.

** ComicBook/{{Gambit|MarvelComics}} has the fact that, to repay a debt to Mr. Sinister, he was forced to help gather a group for Sinister to execute a task -- that being Remy got suckered into helping form the Marauders for the fateful massacre of the Morlocks and maiming of Angel in ''Comicbook/MutantMassacre''.

*** Bruce blamed himself for the death of sidekick Jason Todd aka the second Robin. In the animated ''WesternAnimation/BatmanUnderTheRedHood'', he specifically uses the phrase "my greatest failure" in reference to Jason's death. Some versions of Batman's story have him blaming himself for the death of his parents. (In ''Film/BatmanBegins'', Bruce blames himself for the death of his parents, as they encountered Joe Chill after leaving the opera ''Mefistofele'' due to the performers triggering Bruce's fear of bats.)

* As the spirit of the 20th Century, Jenny Sparks, eventually founder and leader of ComicBook/TheAuthority, [[BeenThereShapedHistory influenced a lot of the century]] -- [[NiceJobBreakingItHero including inspiring]] UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler to go into politics, his rise to power, and [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom subsequently,]] UsefulNotes/{{the Holocaust}}. Naturally, she was horrified by all of this.
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':

*** That's not the only form of blaming himself for his parents - in some comics versions, he convinced his mother to wear pearls to the show, and those pearls are the reason they get robbed and shot.
*** He also blames himself for the creation of Comicbook/TheJoker, since he knocked him into the acid; the torture of Stephanie Brown, because he lost control of Gotham during "War Games"; and the death of [[ComicBook/BlueBeetle Ted Kord]] by Max Lord who hijacked Batman's creation, Brother Eye, to find Ted.
*** In some continuities, at least, there's also Harvey Dent, who Batman saw as a friend and ally that could really clean up Gotham in ways he himself could not - until Harvey became Comicbook/TwoFace.
*** For a time, he considered making Jean-Paul Valley Batman this, saying that it was done at a moment of weakness and it was a mistake. Really, this guy has so many of these that he's got a full-blown GuiltComplex.

** Alfred has always regretted that he didn't do more to help Bruce emotionally work through his parents' deaths, culminating in Bruce becoming Batman. In one particularly poignant scene in ''Dark Victory'', he resolves not to make the same mistake with the recently orphaned Dick Grayson.

** In ''Comicbook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'', Scrooge once hired a group of thugs to chase away an African tribe and burn down their village in an attempt to claim their land. This was the only time he ever made money dishonestly, and the resulting guilt (and zombie -- as in Bombie the Zombie) has haunted him ever since. He even became a depressed shut-in for the better part of twenty years until his nephews were able to re-ignite his spark, leading to the adventures we all know.
** Parodied in a Carl Barks comic; In one story, Donald Duck, Scrooge, and the nephews learn that Gladstone Gander has ''something'' locked in a safe that he never lets anyone see. They believe it's a charm that is the source of Gladstone's uncanny good fortune, but after much pressure, Gladstone admits its anything but; it's just a nondescript dime, the only salary he has ever earned from working, which he did during an unusually long dry spell in his luck. Gladstone is so smug about his luck providing him with everything that he considers the dime to be a symbol of his MomentOfWeakness and actually breaks down crying bitter tears as he tells the Ducks about it. (Who, BTW, are very close to caving in Gladstone's head at that point.)

* In the ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'', Reed Richards' own miscalculation and arrogance are what led to the titular team being hit by gamma rays and given superpowers. In the case of Reed, Sue, and Johnny, this is no big deal. But Ben's powers leave him a freakish rock monster and being trapped like that put a huge barrier between the two of them for years, in spite of being best friends. It wouldn't have been so bad if Ben could just change back from being The Thing, but StatusQuoIsGod so any changes back to a human are doomed to be short-lived. The fact that Reed is responsible for his friend's condition and cannot permanently cure him is something that has weighed heavily upon him his entire career. [[spoiler:When the team finds out that their transformation was caused by the ruler of a planet who was scared of their arrival and tried to force them back, Ben goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge because he realized that he'd blamed the wrong guy all along. Even when Ben finally buries the hatchet with Reed, Reed himself refuses to let it go privately and resolves to protect his family better.]]
** Also from the ComicBook/FantasticFour is the supervillain Doctor Doom. Doom built a machine that would allow him to communicate with the spirit of his dead mother and was told beforehand by Richards that it would critically fail. But when he ignored this, that's exactly what wound up happening and left his face scarred. [[NeverMyFault Years later he still can't accept that it was his fault it happened]], and [[DisproportionateRetribution devotes his life to killing Richards after convincing himself he must have tampered with the machine]].

*** DisproportionateRetribution indeed. In the original telling at least (Lord knows how many retcons may have flip-flopped since then) Doom didn't create the mask to hide a hideously mauled hamburger-face; he did it because the explosion left a ''thin, barely noticeable'' mar on his supposedly "perfect" facade. A man that vain, you could almost understand making some sort of covering... unfortunately in his haste, he didn't wait for the mask to cool before putting it on, which (DependingOnTheWriter) either DID hideously scar his face, or ''permanently bonded the mask to his skin''. He might not admit the accident itself, but he DOES (very rarely) admit to the fact that putting the mask on so fast wasn't his smartest idea.
*** Actually all this was based on John Byrne's retcon of the Lee/Kirby origin, based on an idea by Kirby that either Creator/StanLee had discarded or Creator/JackKirby only had it after the original version was published in ''Fantastic Four Annual'' #2 (1964). There, Doom's head is completely bound up and hidden beneath bandages and in the caption Stan Lee unequivocally states: "As for Victor Von Doom... his face was hopelessly disfigured!" Also on the page after that, even though the mask is not completely cooled when it is put on Doom's face, it is cool enough for the monk to hold it in his bare hands (you can easily discern his fingernails, etc.) By the evidence of that Annual, all the mask likely did was singe Victor's eyebrows.
*** It now turns out that Doom's disfigurement is actually Ben's greatest failure. After years, he admitted that he had purposefully sabotaged Victor's machine after seeing how badly he treated Reed, and thus was presumably the one responsible for his transformation into Doctor Doom. During ''Comicbook/AgeOfUltron'', Ben claims he's wrestled with the guilt for years but is too terrified to tell anyone what he did.

* From ''Franchise/TheFlash''

** Back in his Kid Flash days, Wally West had a {{Muggle}} girlfriend called Frances Kane. When he found out she had MagnetismManipulation powers he basically strongarmed her into becoming a superhero and joining the ComicBook/TeenTitans so they could be a superhero BattleCouple. Frances wasn't remotely cut out to be a hero and was terrified throughout, and because manipulating electromagnetic fields screw with your brain, she went crazy like DC's other major magnet-powered character Dr. Polaris and became the supervillain Magenta. Wally pretty much ruined her life and it haunted him for years afterwards.
* From ''Franchise/GreenLantern'':
** Hal Jordan, UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} Green Lantern, was away in space when his home city of Coast City was destroyed. He went crazy and became a villain, Parallax, dedicated to undoing the destruction through gaining cosmic power, time travel, or just rebooting the universe itself. (It was [[RetCon later revealed]] that the great failure had let an ancient evil trapped in the Central Power Battery of the Green Lantern Corps get a foothold on his mind.)
** Additionally, John Stewart, UsefulNotes/{{the Bronze Age|OfComicBooks}} Franchise/GreenLantern, had this moment with the [[EarthShatteringKaboom destruction of the planet Xanshi]], being way too overconfident with his power, apparently forgetting the [[AchillesHeel weakness to yellow]], as the bomber painted the planet-killing bomb yellow. This depressed him so much that he contemplated suicide. (The ComicBook/MartianManhunter thankfully prevented that, through ReversePsychology). The end result was a guilt that would haunt him forever, and the creation of Fatality, the [[LastofHisKind sole survivor of Xanshi]], who was off-world at the time, who now [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge hunts Green Lanterns as revenge]].

* In the ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'', ComicBook/CaptainAmerica originally was plagued with guilt about his sidekick, [[ComicBook/BuckyBarnes Bucky]], being killed when he could have spared him by not allowing him to be his sidekick. However, the writers realized how old that got and had Cap's later protégé, Rick Jones, demand he get over it and move on. Furthermore, that guilt was replaced by the writers with Cap troubled by [[BadPresent the state of the nation]], which is at least more sophisticated and flexible a concern to use. Having said that, Bucky's death still influenced his interaction with younger [=superheroes=], notably Franchise/SpiderMan. His guilt came back when it turned out that Bucky survived, only to have been found by the Soviet Union and [[ReforgedIntoAMinion turned into the Winter Soldier]]; an elite assassin responsible for multiple murders. Cap considered this a fate worse than death and did his best to break his mental conditioning. Even afterwards he felt responsible for Bucky's well-being and [[spoiler:put in his will that Tony should do his best to save him after he died]].
** His [[ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Ultimate version]] ends up feeling just as guilty if not more so, due to [[spoiler:telling teenage Peter Parker that he wasn't ready to be a hero, causing him to [[HeroicSacrifice be more heroic than he ever had been before]]. The fallout, coupled with [[WhatTheHellHero a lecture from an angry Aunt May]], made him retire from superheroics altogether]].
** Bucky himself feels that his time as the Winter Soldier can be summed up as this, but the biggest seems to be his killing of the Bucky that replaced him. Not only because he killed the guy, but because, if Bucky had never become Steve's sidekick, then he wouldn't have inspired his replacement to begin with.
* ''ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}'' had a moment revealed following ''ComicBook/ZeroHourCrisisInTime''. When he was Robin, it was up to him to rescue Batman and the DA that replaced Harvey Dent when he became Two-Face. When he confronted the aforementioned villain, he was planning to hang both of them for their "crimes". Two-Face attempted to hang the DA and Robin responded by cutting the line with a Batarang. However, he didn't realize that Two-Face's MO applied to everything - he saved the DA from hanging, but couldn't save him from ''drowning''. Batman freed himself and saved the day, but the event haunted Dick until the first time he took up the Mantle of the Bat, finally making the save when confronting Two-Face again.

* ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'' 's greatest failure was [[DeathByOriginStory the loss of his family]], for which he blames himself as much as the mobsters who gunned them down, believing that he should have been able to protect them. His war against criminals is as much to punish himself as it is to punish them.

* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', the immortal Hob Gadling will never forgive himself for having made his fortune in the slave trade.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':
** Spider-Man didn't stop the burglar that would shoot his Uncle Ben (in various tellings, because of spite, laziness, or arrogance); later, he was [[ComicBook/TheNightGwenStacyDied unable to prevent his girlfriend Gwen Stacy from being killed]] by the [[ComicBook/NormanOsborn Green Goblin]]. The latter is not helped by how his using his webbing in an attempt to save her caused her neck to snap from the recoil, a fact Marvel initially attempted to gloss over but has recently admitted (through, among others, ''What If?'' - where he saves her by diving in after her instead - and ''ComicBook/SpiderGirl''). It's made pretty clear that he at the very least thinks this is what happened, as he makes it a point to use multiple weblines when saving people, and Iron Man recalls Peter telling him of the incident.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

** ComicBook/{{Rogue}} for a long time lived in deep guilt and remorse over what she had done to [[ComicBook/MsMarvel Carol Danvers]]. She was able to finally work past it, especially after Ms. Marvel was reintegrated with the stolen thoughts and memories through AppliedPhlebotinum.
** ''ComicBook/{{X 23}}'' continues to be haunted with guilt and remorse over killing her mother in a trigger scent-fueled rage during her escape from the Facility, to the point that when Logan finally manages to bring her to the Xavier school, Emma Frost tries to drive her away by taunting her with a psychic ghost of her mother's dead body blaming Laura for her death. The illusion is shattered when the "Sarah" calls her "X-23," but it's still enough to drive the [[NotSoStoic normally stoic Laura to tears]].
** ComicBook/{{Gambit}} has the fact that, to repay a debt to Mr. Sinister, he was forced to help gather a group for Sinister to execute a task -- that being Remy got suckered into helping form the Marauders for the fateful massacre of the Morlocks and maiming of Angel in ''Mutant Massacre''.

* As the spirit of the 20th Century, Jenny Sparks, eventually founder and leader of ComicBook/TheAuthority, [[BeenThereShapedHistory influenced a lot of the century]] -- [[NiceJobBreakingItHero including inspiring]] UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler to go into politics, his rise to power, and [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom subsequently,]] UsefulNotes/{{the Holocaust}}. Naturally, she was horrified by all of this.

** Additionally, John Stewart, UsefulNotes/{{the Bronze Age|OfComicBooks}} Franchise/GreenLantern, had this moment with the [[EarthShatteringKaboom destruction of the planet Xanshi]], being way too overconfident with his power, apparently [[WhatAnIdiot forgetting]] the [[AchillesHeel weakness to yellow]], as the bomber painted the planet-killing bomb yellow. This depressed him so much that he contemplated suicide. (The ComicBook/MartianManhunter thankfully prevented that, through ReversePsychology). The end result was a guilt that would haunt him forever, and the creation of Fatality, the [[LastofHisKind sole survivor of Xanshi]], who was off-world at the time, who now [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge hunts Green Lanterns as revenge]].

** Green Lantern Tomar-Re's greatest failure was failing to stop Superman's home planet of Krypton exploding. Krypton fell under Tomar-Re's jurisdiction, so he gathered a bunch of Stellarium to absorb the explosion, but got blinded by a solar flare and did not make it in time. [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre Fortunately for him, the Guardians of the Universe reassured him that]], [[NecessaryFail though he didn't save Krypton, his failure still led to the rise of Earth's greatest superhero]], [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre so he was able to retire in peace]].

** Green Lantern Tomar-Re's greatest failure was failing to stop Superman's home planet of Krypton exploding. Krypton fell under Tomar-Re's jurisdiction, so he gathered a bunch of Stellarium to absorb the explosion, but got blinded by a solar flare and did not make it in time.

** In the ''[[ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Ultimate]]'' universe, he considers his treatment of Spider-Man to be his greatest failure. He was visibly distraught when the hero sacrificed his life to stop ComicBook/NormanOsborn, and later admitted that he spent all that time and money essentially hounding a good kid who just wanted to make the world a better place. His guilt over Peter's death is what later motivated him to protect the identity of [[AffirmativeActionLegacy Miles Morales]], the new Spider-Man.
** ComicBook/MaryJaneWatson felt incredibly guilty over having essentially abandoned her sister when their mother died and left her to take care of two children by herself because MJ was afraid of spending the rest of her life sacrificing her own dreams for everyone else like her sister and mother had.

*** That was Kyle's ''second'' Greatest Failure. The first came early in his career when his girlfriend Alexandra [=DeWitt=] was killed by Major Force in the original StuffedIntoTheFridge incident. Up until then, Kyle thought having a super-powered ring would be fun and a lot of laughs, but when that happened, Kyle grew up pretty fast.

** In ''Comicbook/WarWorld'' Superman blames himself because he has the power to do nearly anything... but saving Krypton or his foster parents. Even when he's got the chance to save them, he failed.
** During UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} and UsefulNotes/{{the Bronze Age|OfComicBooks}}, Superman's biggest failure was arguably when he destroyed Comicbook/LexLuthor's protoplasmic lifeform that he created as well as causing his hair to fall out when he was trying to rescue Luthor from a lab fire when they were teens. Sure it was an accident and mostly not his fault (Luthor caused the fire and Superboy had no way of knowing what was inside at the time), but it didn't help that before the fire, Superboy jokingly said he could spy on Luthor to find out what he was working on. Luthor wrongly believed Superboy destroyed his experiment out of jealousy and dedicated his life to destroying him and proving he was better. Luthor had the scientific genius to make a cure for Kryptonite as well as unshrink Kandor, so if things had gone differently, Superman would have had a lot fewer problems in his life and an ally against evil as well.

*** The very different reactions of two characters who had initially been NotSoDifferent to their respective greatest failures exemplify the fundamental difference between them: Reed acquires a long-lingering GuiltComplex and dedicates himself to WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility, which frequently torments him with ItsAllMyFault. Doom descends into a spiral of GreenEyedMonster and {{Revenge}}, unrelenting in his insistence that it's NeverMyFault.

* ''ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}'' had a moment revealed following ''ComicBook/ZeroHour''. When he was Robin, it was up to him to rescue Batman and the DA that replaced Harvey Dent when he became Two-Face. When he confronted the aforementioned villain, he was planning to hang both of them for their "crimes". Two-Face attempted to hang the DA and Robin responded by cutting the line with a Batarang. However, he didn't realize that Two-Face's MO applied to everything - he saved the DA from hanging, but couldn't save him from ''drowning''. Batman freed himself and saved the day, but the event haunted Dick until the first time he took up the Mantle of the Bat, finally making the save when confronting Two-Face again.

*** In a ShockingSwerve, it now turns out that Doom's disfigurement is actually Ben's greatest failure. After years, he admitted that he had purposefully sabotaged Victor's machine after seeing how badly he treated Reed, and thus was presumably the one responsible for his transformation into Doctor Doom. During ''Comicbook/AgeOfUltron'', Ben claims he's wrestled with the guilt for years but is too terrified to tell anyone what he did.

* In the ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehog'' comic, it's recently been revealed that Monkey Khan was [[spoiler: taken control of by the Iron Queen and forced to eliminate the Freedom Fighters in the Dragon Kingdom]]. Understandably, he harbors massive guilt toward himself and hatred for [[{{Magitek}} the Iron Queen]], to the point where he was angry at Knothole for holding a celebration when she had taken control of the Eggman Empire.