History ParentalAbandonment / Comics

** Other examples in ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' are Jason Todd (Post-Crisis; Robin II), whose long-lost mother [[ParentalBetrayal betrayed]] him to the Joker and was killed in the same explosion that killed him, Cassandra Cain (Batgirl III), whose abandonment by [[MissingMom her mother]] was part of the bargain between her parents to turn Cassandra into the perfect killing machine, and arguably Stephanie Brown (Spoiler), whose villain father was in jail for most of her childhood and who threatened to kill her should she act against his plans. Oh, and Kate Kane ({{Batwoman}}), whose mother was murdered when she was a kid.

* ''ComicStrip/LittleOrphanAnnie''. She soon had a very strong father figure in Daddy Warbucks, but the earliest stories had her on her own in the world, and she never really has a mother figure.
** Except in ''Theatre/{{Annie}}'', the stage musical adaptation and the film musical, where she has Warbucks' secretary Grace acting as a mother figure.

* Skywise in ''{{ElfQuest}}''. In a backstory episode it is revealed that [[spoiler: two teenage humans who only wanted to prove their manhood by playing a prank on the "demon" elves accidentally started a chain of tragic events that led to his parents' deaths, but not before his mother had set the newborn Skywise adrift on a river. He was found on the riverbank by the other elves and raised by the entire tribe]].

* In ''ComicBook/TheOrder'', Mulholland Black's grunge-rocker parents overdosed on drugs when she was only a little girl, causing her to become a ward of the state and spend most of her childhood passing through a number of foster homes.

* Superman's clone, ComicBook/{{Superboy}} (Connor Kent), is close to ''one'' of his [[HasTwoMommies fathers]], but the [[LexLuthor other]] rarely if ever has anything to do with him, other than occasionally trying to use him as a weapon against the father Connor ''is'' close to.

** In TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks and TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, both Ma and Pa Kent died before he moved to Metropolis -- [[UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]] canon expressly stated that the death of his foster parents was the trigger that caused Superboy to adopt the name Superman instead.

** In most continuities Xavier himself is a less than stellar father. It's especially blatant in ''UltimateXMen''. He abandoned his family to work for mutant rights with Magneto, and barely gave his son a second thought. When Magneto (not a great father himself) called him out on this, Xavier justified it by claiming that he and his son had nothing in common so the boy wouldn't miss him. Xavier really believed that his son wouldn't suffer abandonment issues just because they didn't have common interests.

* Torr and Tarra from ''ComicBook/{{Swordquest}}'', whose parents (and foster parents) are long dead at the start of the story.

* The post-Zero Hour version of Brainiac 5 was abandoned by his mother a few minutes after he was born due to her not being able to feel any emotions.

* As with the games, there's a noticeable lack of parents in ''SonicTheComic''. Tails is the youngest, at least under fourteen by the final arc, but his parents are never mentioned even when he went to his home zone or when we have flashbacks.

** In TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks and TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, both Ma and Pa Kent died before he moved to Metropolis -- [[TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]] canon expressly stated that the death of his foster parents was the trigger that caused Superboy to adopt the name Superman instead.

* {{Subverted}} with Battle Guy in ''ComicBook/KickAss Volume Two'' - his {{origin story}} is that [[Franchise/{{Batman}} his parents were killed on the way home from the opera]], and the criminal then forced him to watch as he cooked and ate his parents, then spent all the father's money on pay-per-view porn. However, Dave recognizes the voice of his friend, Marty Eisenberg, whose parents are alive and well; turns out he just thought superheroism would be fun, but (mistakenly) believed Justice Forever wouldn't accept him unless he had a cool background.

* {{Subverted}} with Battle Guy in ''{{Kick-Ass}} 2'' - his {{origin story}} is that [[Franchise/{{Batman}} his parents were killed on the way home from the opera]], and the criminal then forced him to watch as he cooked and ate his parents, then spent all the father's money on pay-per-view porn. However, Dave recognizes the voice of his friend, Marty Eisenberg, whose parents are alive and well; turns out he just thought superheroism would be fun, but (mistakenly) believed Justice Forever wouldn't accept him unless he had a cool background.

* ''{{Tintin}}'' is especially impressive, because with the exception of the Thom(p)son brothers (who are only pretending to be twins, being unrelated lookalikes), and one fleeting reference to Captain Haddock's mother, it would appear that no one in the series has any relatives whatsoever. Whenever Tintin runs into kids, they are orphans. And no one, but no one, falls in love or gets married or is portrayed as being married. Pure TrueCompanions.

* The title character in the newspaper strip ''Dondi'' was an Italian WW2 orphan adopted by an American GI, although this was de-emphasized after the strip's first few years.

* DC's ''Comicbook/TeenTitans'' are prone to this as well -- at one point in the '80s, they had exactly one member with biological parents who weren't dead, evil, or on another planet/dimension (possibly in an effort to keep up, in the first couple years of [[{{Flash}} his own book]] his father [[TheMole turned out to be evil]] and then committed a HeroicSacrifice, although it was reversed a few years later.) Changeling went through four different parental figures (not counting the ones who were evil) and eventually wound up with a stepfather who spent a significant amount of time going missing and/or insane. And he was ''still'' one of the most attentive parents in the book.

* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehog'' is this in spades. Name a character. Chances are that they went parentless or are missing a parent or two. Of the main Freedom Fighters, only Antoine and Bunnie are parentless after the initial war with Robotnik. The Chaotix aren't so fortunate - nothing is mentioned of Vector's family or Espio's father, Mighty and Ray's parents are MIA, Julie-Su's parents were killed by her stepsiblings, Charmy's presumably died when Eggman attacked Mobius after Sonic's disappearnce and Knuckles' parents got divorced with his father performing a HeroicSacrifice to save him.

** Tim Drake (Robin III), who previously only had a case of {{missing mom}}, becomes a full-fledged orphan in the ''IdentityCrisis'' mini. Made all the more poignant in that he and Franchise/{{Batman}} hear the whole thing over the phone while in the Batmobile, interspersed with the son of his father's murderer, [[spoiler: Captain Boomerang]] listening to, in effect, [[spoiler: a suicide message from Captain Boomerang]]. The whole sequence ends with a very heart-wrenching two-page splash of Batman cradling Robin in his arms over his father's body.

* A major inspiration for the ''{{Smallville}}'' series was an avid Superman fan describing to the producers that Superman is unique to comics because his parents being there for him when he was a young child growing up with the powers of a god made him the man he is today. Early seasons of ''Smallville'' averted this trope many times and has been argued to be more about Jonathan and Martha raising the world's greatest hero rather than about Clark. Then they left the show and it [[JumpedTheShark leaped tall sharks in a single bound.]]

* Superman's clone, {{Superboy}} (Connor Kent), is close to ''one'' of his [[HasTwoMommies fathers]], but the [[LexLuthor other]] rarely if ever has anything to do with him, other than occasionally trying to use him as a weapon against the father Connor ''is'' close to.

* For {{Wild Child}}ren like Tarzan to be raised by animals (or gods or spirits or whatever), their parents ''have'' to be missing or deceased. This also happens to Nävis (in the French ComicBook ''{{Sillage}}'', a.k.a. ''Wake'') -- the only survivor of a spaceship crash, raised by a robot and a tiger; and also to the eponymous ''Pyrénée'' from another French comic, raised by a bear after her mother dies in an earthquake; and to numerous other characters. TheOtherWiki has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_children_in_mythology_and_fiction a list]], but it's probably far from comprehensive.

* Though they're adults in the series, most of John Byrne's team ''AlphaFlight'' have parental abandonment issues. In particular, the twins Northstar and Aurora are orphans, and didn't even know each other until adulthood.

** Damian Wayne hadn't met his father until recently. [[spoiler: That changed when Batman "died".[[hottip:*: He was displaced in time by Darkseid's Omega Beam to gather more Omega energy]]]] And since [[spoiler: he chose his father and Dick Grayson's ideals over his mother's]], Talia has abandoned him also.

* One doesn't necessarily think of {{Batman}} as having ParentalAbandonment issues, mostly because he's not a teen hero and, unlike Spider-Man, never was, but it is worth noting that he his parents were killed right in front of him when he was a child, and thus he was able to spend most of his teen years [[TookALevelInBadass taking about 20 levels in badass]].
** Tim Drake (Robin III), who previously only had a case of {{missing mom}}, becomes a full-fledged orphan in the ''IdentityCrisis'' mini. Made all the more poignant in that he and {{Batman}} hear the whole thing over the phone while in the Batmobile, interspersed with the son of his father's murderer, [[spoiler: Captain Boomerang]] listening to, in effect, [[spoiler: a suicide message from Captain Boomerang]]. The whole sequence ends with a very heart-wrenching two-page splash of Batman cradling Robin in his arms over his father's body.

** Other examples in ''{{Batman}}'' are Jason Todd (Post-Crisis; Robin II), whose long-lost mother [[ParentalBetrayal betrayed]] him to the Joker and was killed in the same explosion that killed him, Cassandra Cain (Batgirl III), whose abandonment by [[MissingMom her mother]] was part of the bargain between her parents to turn Cassandra into the perfect killing machine, and arguably Stephanie Brown (Spoiler), whose villain father was in jail for most of her childhood and who threatened to kill her should she act against his plans. Oh, and Kate Kane ({{Batwoman}}), whose mother was murdered when she was a kid.

* {{Subverted}} with Battle Guy in ''{{Kick-Ass}} 2'' - his {{origin story}} is that [[{{Batman}} his parents were killed on the way home from the opera]], and the criminal then forced him to watch as he cooked and ate his parents, then spent all the father's money on pay-per-view porn. However, Dave recognizes the voice of his friend, Marty Eisenberg, whose parents are alive and well; turns out he just thought superheroism would be fun, but (mistakenly) believed Justice Forever wouldn't accept him unless he had a cool background.

** Applies to the adult members, too. Classic examples include: school founder Professor Xavier (father, mother, and stepfather all died before he was out of his teens), Cyclops (parents threw him and his little brother out of a burning plane [[HeroicSacrifice with the only parachute]] as young children), and Storm (grew up a StreetUrchin after a plane crashed atop her family home, killing her parents and [[BuriedAlive burying her alive]]).

* ''{{Runaways}}'' -- Look at the title! Their parents aren't curiously absent so much as ''a group of supervillains out to help evil supernatural beings destroy the world.'' How's ''that'' for family issues?

* Disney comics has this in tons. Every child of any importance seems to be living with their aunt or uncle. Huey, Dewey and Louie, in particular, whose parents have scarcely been mentioned since Donalds sister dropped them off at his house and drove off with only a note that their father was in the hospital, after the boys put a firecracker under his chair, and asking Donald to take care of them for a bit. That was in 1937. Daisy also has three nieces, Mickey Mouse has two nephews and Goofy has one. DuckTales gives us Webby, who lives with her grandmother. In each case, their parents go practically unmentioned, despite Goofy otherwise having a large extended family.

* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehog'' is this in spades. Name a character. Chances are that they went parentless or are missing a parent or two. Of the main Freedom Fighters, only Antoine and Bunnie are parentless after the initial war with Robotnik. The Chaotix aren't so fortunate - nothing is mentioned of Vector's family or Espio's father, Mighty and Ray's parents are MIA, Julie-Su's parents were killed by her stepsiblings, Charmy's presumably died when Eggman attacked Mobius after Sonic's disappearnce and Knuckles' parents got divorced with his father performing a HeroicSacrifice to save him.

* ''ComicStrip/LittleOrphanAnnie''. Of course, she soon had a very strong father figure in Daddy Warbucks, but the earliest stories had her literally on her own in the world, and she never really has a mother figure.

* ''{{Runaways}}'' -- Look at the title! Of course, their parents aren't curiously absent so much as ''a group of supervillains out to help evil supernatural beings destroy the world.'' How's ''that'' for family issues?

** Damian Wayne hadn't met his father until recently. [[spoiler: Of course, that changed when Batman "died".[[hottip:*: He was displaced in time by Darkseid's Omega Beam to gather more Omega energy]]]] And since [[spoiler: he chose his father and Dick Grayson's ideals over his mother's]], Talia has abandoned him also.

** In most continuities Xavier himself is a less than stellar father. It's especially blatant in ''UltimateXMen''. He abandoned his family to work for mutant rights with Magneto, and barely gave his son a second thought. When Magneto (not a great father himself) called him out on this, Xavier justified it by claiming that he and his son had nothing in common so of course the boy wouldn't miss him. Xavier really believed that his son wouldn't suffer abandonment issues just because they didn't have common interests.

* DC's ''Comicbook/TeenTitans'' are prone to this as well -- at one point in the '80s, they had exactly one member with biological parents who weren't dead, evil, or on another planet/dimension (possibly in an effort to keep up, in the first couple years of [[{{Flash}} his own book]] his father [[TheMole turned out to be evil]] and then committed a HeroicSacrifice, although it was reversed a few years later.) Heck, Changeling went through four different parental figures (not counting the ones who were evil) and eventually wound up with a stepfather who spent a significant amount of time going missing and/or insane. And he was ''still'' one of the most attentive parents in the book.

* Though they're adults in the series, it's interesting to note that most of John Byrne's team ''AlphaFlight'' have parental abandonment issues. In particular, the twins Northstar and Aurora are orphans, and didn't even know each other until adulthood.

* Of course in order for {{Wild Child}}ren like Tarzan to be raised by animals (or gods or spirits or whatever), their parents ''have'' to be missing or deceased. This also happens to Nävis (in the French ComicBook ''{{Sillage}}'', a.k.a. ''Wake'') -- the only survivor of a spaceship crash, raised by a robot and a tiger; and also to the eponymous ''Pyrénée'' from another French comic, raised by a bear after her mother dies in an earthquake; and to numerous other characters. TheOtherWiki has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_children_in_mythology_and_fiction a list]], but it's probably far from comprehensive.

** His daughter was also raised without him, of course this is because her mother (Thundra) took his DNA to the future to impregnate herself with it. She wasn't around for a good bit of Lyra's adolescent years herself. Banner also has another potential daughter running around, but they haven't officially confirmed the relationship yet.

* Disney comics has this in tons. Every child of any importance seems to be living with their aunt or uncle. Huey, Dewey and Louie, in particular, whose parents have scarcely been mentioned since Donalds sister dropped them off at his house and drove off with only a note that their father was in the hospital, after the boys put a firecracker under his chair, and asking Donald to take care of them for a bit. That was in 1937. Daisy also has three nieces, Mickey Mouse has two nephews and Goofy has one. And DuckTales, of course, gives us Webby, who lives with her grandmother. In each case, their parents go practically unmentioned, despite Goofy otherwise having a large extended family.
* In ''Comicbook/{{WITCH}}'', Will Vandom started out this way. Her parents divorced when she was young due to the fact that her dad was a compulsive gambler. When he did come back, it was only to squeeze more money out of her mom. Years later, she did get a stepfather in the form of her teacher. As well, Irma Lair has a stepmother and stepbrother, but nothing is said about her mom or her stepbrother's dad.

** Applies to the adult members, too. Classic examples include: school founder Professor Xavier (father, mother, and stepfather all died before he was out of his teens), Cyclops (parents threw him and his little brother out of a burning plane [[HeroicSacrifice with the only parachute]] as young children), and Storm (grew up a StreetUrchin after a plane crashed atop her family home, killing her parents and [[AccidentalNightmareFuel burying her alive]]).

* ''LittleOrphanAnnie''. Of course, she soon had a very strong father figure in Daddy Warbucks, but the earliest stories had her literally on her own in the world, and she never really has a mother figure.
** Except in the stage musical adaptation and the film musical, where she has Warbucks' secretary Grace acting as a mother figure.

* In ''{{WITCH}}'', Will Vandom started out this way. Her parents divorced when she was young due to the fact that her dad was a compulsive gambler. When he did come back, it was only to squeeze more money out of her mom. Years later, she did get a stepfather in the form of her teacher. As well, Irma Lair has a stepmother and stepbrother, but nothing is said about her mom or her stepbrother's dad.

** The cartoon, though, alters this, making Will's father extremely less of a JerkAss and turning her mother and brother into paternal family.