Awesome / Calvin and Hobbes

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• Many for Hobbes. Basically any time he provides clever commentary or attacks Calvin returning from school.
• The Dad gets one after Calvin was being a complaining brat about how cold the house is and demands for the thermostat to be turned up. Dad offers him an alternative method of being warm by tricking him into going outside and locking him out in the snow, saying that after Calvin spends some time out in the cold, he can come back in where the house will feel nice and toasty in comparison.
• A strip published during the first Gulf War had Calvin asking his dad "How do guys killing each other solve the world's problems?" Calvin's father doesn't know how to answer that. Calvin walks off, deciding that "Sometimes, I think grownups only act like they know what they're doing."
• Calvin's babysitter Rosalyn got one in her final appearance. After previously having to resort to threats and brute force every time she babysat Calvin, she finally beat at him at his own game, literally. The moment she realized that the purpose of Calvinball is to make up new rules all the time, she immediately got into the game and eventually used it to make Calvin go to bed without any more fuss. More than that, Rosalyn figured out just how to deal with Calvin in general. By engaging with him on his own terms, she not only got Calvin to behave, she got him to voluntarily do his homework.
  Calvin: Man, she picked up the nuances of this game fast!
  Rosalyn: Ha! This is fun!
  • This is likely why this was her final appearance; she's no longer an enemy, she's now someone who knows how to deal with Calvin on his own level.
• Calvin and Hobbes' very last Sunday strip (and last overall). "Let's go exploring!" Not to mention that it's a Heartwarming Moment.
  • The real Moment of Awesome in "Let's go exploring!" is that it's probably the most remembered final line in any newspaper strip.
  • Let's be frank, not many comic strips get final lines. And on that note, for Watterson to gracefully bow out after ten years, keeping the comic from getting stale and opening a great big gaping hole to potentially be filled by new creators, is heartwarming in and of itself.
• Any of Calvin and Hobbes' arguments, especially the croquet match. While at first glance, it doesn't seem that there could be anything awesome about a little boy and his imaginary friend arguing, both manage to get in some quite impressive zingers considering Calvin's age.
• Susie inviting not Calvin, but Hobbes to her birthday party, writing on the back of the note that he "could bring that stupid kid you hang around with, if you must." Calvin is furious but Hobbes just feels flattered.
• Calvin of all people getting an "A+" on a paper. Considering his grades?
  • In certain subjects like creative writing, he was nothing less than a savant, which is showed here. It's a story he, or rather Hobbes, wrote about Calvin trying to get out of writing it. Miss Wormword wrote that it was "Very creative" with Hobbes' narration bring a "clever touch". She also praises Calvin for applying himself.
• Every time that Calvin got an insult in at Moe, usually paired with an Expospeak Gag.
  Calvin: Your simian countenance suggests a heritage unusually rich in species diversity.
  Moe: ...what?
  Calvin (handing over his lunch money): That was worth the 25 cents.
  • Calvin bringing Hobbes to school with the intention of scaring away Moe. While in-universe, Moe was scared off because he thought the teacher was watching, and he was being set up, from Calvins view it really did seem like Moe was pissing himself in fear of Hobbes.
  Hobbes: COME BACK AND CALL ME A BEAR AGAIN!! YEAH, YOU, BUB!!
• Every piece of snow art Calvin has ever made. Though a lot of them are gory, he exhibits a great deal of talent at sculpting and creativity, especially for someone his age.
  • SNOW. KRAKEN.
  • Doubly so for those readers who grew up in too warm a climate to experience snow in significant quantities.
• There is one strip where Calvin asks his mom if he can buy a Heavy Metal album that advocates suicide and Satan-worshipping. Calvin's mom does not react with shock and horror befitting a Moral Guardian, instead calmly convincing Calvin otherwise through simple logic.
  Mom: Calvin, the fact that these bands haven't killed themselves in ritual self-sacrifice shows that they're just in it for the money like everyone else. It's all for effect. If you want to shock and provoke, be sincere about it.
  Calvin: Mainstream commercial nihilism can't be trusted?!?
  Mom: 'Fraid not, kiddo.
• The Art Shift that accompanies any intro to 'Tracer Bullet'. Usually coupled with a hilarious, totally deadpan Film Noir self-introduction.
  The name's Tracer Bullet and I keep two magnums in my desk. One's a gun, and I keep it loaded. The other's a bottle, and it keeps me loaded. I'm a private eye.
• The "Little Raccoon" story, which is considered by many fans to be the best Calvin and Hobbes comic strip to be ever made, has many of these. As a whole, it is a Crowning Moment of Awesome on Calvin's part because he ditches his ignorant behavior and shows care for others; the very idea of his trying to save a raccoon is just purely awesome and heartwarming. He takes initiative in the situation, and he and his parents work together to try to save a badly injured raccoon. Even though the raccoon doesn't make it, he is still glad he found him even though he had to say goodbye forever.
  • Rather than be flippant about it, Dad tries to comfort Calvin all while announcing what had happened:
  Dad: Yes, Calvin. I'm afraid he died.
  Calvin: I know, I'm crying because out there he's gone, but he's not gone inside me.
  • There are many quotes that stand out.
    Calvin: Why did that little raccoon have to die? He didn't do anything wrong.
  • This concluding exchange helps too.
    Calvin: (to Hobbes) But don't YOU go anywhere.
    Hobbes: Don't worry.
  • Even more impressively? This story was told over nine single strips, published over a week-and-a-half. Most strips would probably take way more time to tell a story like this, but probably wouldn't resonate as strongly.
• A recurring joke is Hobbes pouncing on Calvin whenever he comes home from school, and Calvin's attempts to subvert this. The times he succeeds are awesome, but the crowner would be the strip where Calvin walks up to the door and shouts: "I'M HOME!" the door shakes, and Calvin opens it to tell the concussed Hobbes: "You'll notice I didn't say I was inside."
• Anytime Calvin as Spaceman Spiff manages to actually "save the day," such as when he solves a math problem in one strip.
• One Sunday strip involves Calvin imagining himself as a commercial airline pilot. When he's given clearance to land, a rival plane makes for the same runway to land early, resulting in, as Calvin puts it, "a 600-mph game of Chicken!"
  • Another strip depicting Calvin as an airline pilot has him flying a plane directly through the Grand Canyon. On top of Calvin narrating the experience for the passengers and the people watching the plane, there's also Watterson's impressive detail of the Grand Canyon itself.
• Any of the few times Calvin manages to outsmart his parents and seemingly get away with it. Such as the time he pulled a Look Behind You at the dinner table and dumped all his food on his mom's plate while their backs were turned.
  Dad: What did he see?
  Mom: An opportunity.
• The strip where Calvin's Dad (rather cruelly) messes with him by telling they're not going to get a Christmas tree or any presents this year. As strained as their relationship is, Calvin's Mom makes it clear to him she won't tolerate anybody being mean to her son like that. "I know somebody who's going to get a lot of coal in his stocking, buster."
• During the infamous break-in arc, Dad is awake at night, and thinks about how his own father always seemed to know what to do, and as a child, Dad had always assumed that grown-ups just knew what to do in a crisis, and now that his family is threatened, he doesn't automatically have the answer. But in the end, the answer really is obvious—they may have lost a few material possessions, but as long as they have each other, they can get past it.
• Calvin, a 6 year-old, escapes his bedroom before dawn by tying his sheets into a rope to go out the window, climbing down and finding a payphone, all to call his dad for a prank.
• Anytime Calvin and Hobbes get the upper-hand on the monsters under Calvin's bed, either by outsmarting them (such as Calvin bluffing he has a flamethrower) or by, in one case, turning on the lights to make them shrivel up and die.
• Calvin's father gets one serious Badass Boast in one "monsters" Sunday strip that makes Calvin (grudgingly, but seemingly instantly) go back to bed.
  Monsters? You're trashing your room at 1 in the morning looking for monsters?! If you don't get in bed this instant, you'll have a lot more to worry about than stupid monsters!
• Calvin’s father gets an even better one during the “Snow Goons” storyline; instead of yelling at the top of his lungs, he instead speaks with a Tranquil Fury that leaves Calvin too terrified to sleep.
  Dad: Calvin, it is after midnight. Believe me, we will discuss this very thoroughly tomorrow. You get into bed this instant.
• Calvin's mother gets a similar Tranquil Fury moment upon discovering that Calvin locked Rosalyn out of the house. She drags Calvin by the hand to apologize to Rosalyn. Before he does so, she calmly, yet firmly, warns him of the potential hazards of being alone in the house with no figure to look after him.
  Mom: Calvin, listen closely. Locking Rosalyn out of the house wasn't just mean, it was dangerous. If you'd hurt yourself or if there was a fire, she wouldn't have been able to help you. You go apologize to Rosalyn right now.
  Calvin: I-I'm sorry, Rosalyn.
• Calvin gets two in the second ever Sunday strip. When a bath monster threatens to drown him, Calvin defeats him by pulling the tub's plug and sending him down the drain. His mom then comments to herself "Don't tell me he's letting the water out already!" to which Calvin shoots back with "Believe it, lady."
• Calvin attempts to give his father news from one of his many polls, but...
  Dad: Well, Calvin. That's certainly food for thought. Now here's something you can think about. The average cost of raising a kid to age 18 is $100,000. That's a lot of money. So the question you should be asking yourself is "Is that hundred grand a gift... or a loan?"
  Calvin: Gotcha, dad. I was just on my way to bed.
• Miss Wormwood's rebuttal when Calvin declares that he's at school against his will.
  Miss Wormwood: Calvin, if you put half the energy of your protests into your schoolwork...
• Calvin and Hobbes read a newspaper article about world hunger. Calvin is put off by this, saying how unbelievable it is that people don't have enough to eat. Hobbes says, "Boy, I know what that's like!" to which Calvin shoots back with a scowl and a "No, you don't."

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