Exploring the concept of people being Easily Forgiven for their mistakes and crimes in Comic Books.
- Astro City:
- In "Dog Days", Andy Merton visits Stormhawk's wife to apologize for burglarizing their home four years ago. She immediately forgives him, being happy to see that he's been carrying on Stormhawk's heroic legacy as G-Dog.
- Done twice by Ellie Jennersen in "Friends and Relations":
- Ellie's quiet life was upended by her nephew Fred, who used the excuse of renovating her robot museum as a cover for renting out her robots to commit crimes. He ended up framing her for robbery, assault, and terrorism, and almost had her sent to prison. But after everything was straightened out, she simply wished him well in his new life and encouraged him to be an upstanding citizen.
- Ellie also forgave her former college roommate, the villainous Vivi Viktor, who Mind Raped Ellie, stole her designs, and left her with memory problems for decades. Yet in the end, Ellie forgives Vivi without so much as a sharp word, and is content to let the criminal justice system resolve the matter.
- Back to the Future: Professor Irving, after plotting to steal the Flux Capacitor, taking advantage of Marty's anxiety by sending multiple animatronic Marty doubles after him, convincing him that he may fade out of existence and that Doc doesn't care what happens to him, dropping Marty and Doc in the Pleistocene Era and leaving them to die, and finally attempting to kill them with robot clones of themselves. Ultimately Marty pities him because unlike them he's had to deal with the trauma of time travel alone, and by the end of the arc he's basically one of the gang, bonding with Doc over mutual scientific interest and failure to understand women. To be fair, it's a younger version of himself who has yet to make these bad decisions.
- During Civil War (2006), Maria Hill personally authorized the kidnapping and torture of Runaways Karolina Dean and Xavin and Young Avengers Teddy Altman and Billy Kaplan, and was complicit in the imprisonment and torture of Noh-Varr. To date, this has never had any effect on her continued career at S.H.I.E.L.D., even though she explicitly violated Dean and Altman's rights as US citizens.
- Post-Dawn of X, Professor X invites all mutants good and evil to join his new mutant homeland on Krakoa, with all past actions forgiven. As such, the ruling council includes people like Apocalypse, Sebastian Shaw, Mystique and Mr Sinister rubbing shoulders with perennial goodie two-shoes like Jean Grey, Storm and Nightcrawler. Meanwhile, the group responsible for security and defense lead by straight arrow boy scout Cyclops consists of morally dubious antiheroes Magik and Bishop and former supervillain Gorgon. Nobody seems to bear any ill will towards their former mortal enemies.
- Of course, that's as long as you follow the rules and work for the good of mutantkind. If you don't, just ask Sabretooth what happens. Except he can't answer you.
- Fables:
- A main source of tension is the Fabletown Charter's 'General Amnesty' to signatory Fables. Basically, it doesn't matter what horrible things a Fable did before signing, they are all forgiven as a means to allow Fables who have done wrong to live there without fear of reprisal. This is especially useful considering many Fables shared the same stories and did 'not nice' things to each other. This becomes interesting (and commented on several times) because characters like Bigby, Bluebeard, and Frau Totenkinder, who are essentially known mass murderers, are employed, accommodated, and at times respected because they work for the greater good of the small community of Fables. It helps they did give up their mass murdering ways when they came to the new world... mostly. Bluebeard didn't give up the mindset, which cost him his life after murdering an innocent, and Frau Totenkinder has some kind of appalling (by Fable standards) means to keep her magic strong.
- Geppeto is a known and active mass murder who's not okay because he was acting for the "greater good" of millions of inhabitants across many, many worlds. It's been shown that he actually did create a functional and not outrageously repressive dictatorship where people could live peacefully, albeit with high taxes, conscription, and immediate and gory death to all resistance and AWOL soldiers. Pinocchio still loves him dearly, despite putting a geas on him. He takes advantage of the amnesty mentioned in the prior point after losing a war to Fabletown. This was negotiated as part of Pinocchio's defection to the heroes, but the majority of characters would gladly stab him in his sleep.
- Green Lantern:
- Subverted. While the Earth heroes more or less forgave Hal Jordan (even Batman) after he came back from the dead in Green Lantern: Rebirth, the Green Lantern Corps which Hal decimated were far less forgiving, especially when a sizable group of them were left for dead in space by Hal and were captured by Manhunters for years. Even though he was possessed by a cosmic being that they all know is completely real.
- After Brightest Day brought back Hawk, nobody at all seems inclined to mention the deaths he caused as Monarch and Extant — not even Atom Smasher, who arranged his death in retaliation for Extant killing his godfather. Nor does anyone mention how Hank apparently raped Dawn Granger when she was comatose, not even Dawn.
- A common problem in Jack Chick tracts, especially when applied to abusive parents or spouses.
- This is especially bad in "Lisa" when it's implied that the daughter forgives her father for sexually abusing her and allowing his friend to do the same, which causes her to get herpes. Her mother likewise forgives the man, and is herself forgiven for allowing it and also smacking the kid around. And of course, that damn doctor who thought converting the dad was better than calling the fucking police.
- In "Happy Hour", after pushing his wife down and indirectly causing her death of a heart attack, and later spending the grocery money on liquor, Jerry, after briefly flying into a rage, tries to apologize to his children, but they will have none of it until she goes to church and learns the value of forgiveness, forgiving him two panels after declaring that she hates him.
- In "Greed," Kelli essentially tricks an old man into making her his heiress by preventing him from hearing from his relatives, then not giving him medication until he dies. After she converts and dies of cancer, some of the relatives are set on not forgiving her (although one changes her mind after hearing she will get her share of the estate after all), and this is played as a bad thing, with it suggested that they will not be forgiven for their sins.
- In "Baby Talk" Eric dumps his girlfriend when he learns that she is pregnant, but then accepts Christianity and, after preventing her from being forcibly taken to get an abortion, promises to help her raise the baby and gets back together with her. At no point is she shown to be angry with him.
- Another one involves a death row inmate who got into heaven simply because the inmate converted at the last second, while a virtuous person was sent to hell for simply not accepting Jesus as their savior.
- Jupiter's Circle:
- Zigzagged. The Flare abandons his family to be with a woman half his age and flaunts his new relationship to the press. His wife knew she would begrudgingly forgive him and seemingly does only to later cheat on him with a waiter. The Flare's son swore to kill him, only to immediately forgive him when they were reunited.
- Skyfox's short turn to villainy, where he kidnaps the Vice-President, is briefly forgiven after he saves the team from Hobbs's gang and Utopian is even willing to augment the team's mission to better suit George's anti-establishment agenda. Walter makes sure to sabotage everything in short order.
- Played with regarding Loki and the Asgardians' forgiveness. A lot of the time they don't actually trust him, he's just a Manipulative Bastard who really is that good at what he does. Thanks to causing the destruction of Asgard (not what he was going for, either: he wanted them to win but underestimated The Void), only Thor forgives Loki and most find his Heroic Sacrifice in trying to save Asgard to be worthless.
- Defied in Legion of Super-Heroes storyline The Great Darkness Saga. When the story opens up, most of Legionnaires are still holding a grudge against Chameleon Boy because he dragged them off in a suicide mission which nearly brought about another Khundia-Earth War. And no, they don't think "Nobody got killed" is good enough of a reason to forget and forgive.
- Marvel Comics has had several villains over the years reform or claim to reform with their crime conveniently forgotten. Magneto was once a mutant terrorist and the Juggernaut had caused massive destruction and threw around buses full of children in his fights. Yet both were accepted on to the X-Men when they claimed to reform and did some good. Ares, the God of War has tried to start WWIII, destroy civilization, and murders mortals on a whim. The moment he has a son and wants to raise him on Earth Iron Man forgets all of his past crimes and wants to make him an Avenger. Virtually no other character expresses a problem with Iron Man letting on the team a 5,000-year-old warlord who has more blood on his hands than every Avenger villain combined... for laughs.
- Played for Laughs in Runaways, where Jubilee totally forgives Sanna for everything she did as one of the Institute's enforcers after the latter suddenly becomes her girlfriend. Her other teammates all call Jubilee out for being shallow.
- Spider-Man: A weird example - where an unrepentant villain forgives one of the good guys - was how the villain Tombstone's feud with Daily Bugle editor Joe Robinson ended. After a storyline that spanned years, where it had been revealed the two had been Vitriolic Best Buds (in the loosest sense of the word) even though Tombstone had bullied Joe as a child, followed by Joe turning him in for murder in the present, followed by many attempts on Joe's life by the villain, Joe finally confronted him at Norman Osborn's chemical plant during one such attempt, shot and wounded the assassin, causing him to fall into a room full of strange, chemical gas, which resulted in Tombstone turning from a Badass Normal to an Empowered Badass Normal. The next time they met, Joe expected his old "friend" to kill him; instead, Tombstone told him that he was actually glad that Joe had shot him, because now he was a new man, and that now, "all debts were paid". (And he clearly meant it, because while Tombstone has appeared several times since, he has not tried to strike at Robinson again.)
- Another odd example with bad guys is the Night Shift, a gang of criminals led by the Shroud (a hero who pretends to be a villain) in Los Angeles, most of them former enemies of Spider-Woman. There are no less than two reasons for several of them to hate each other: Dansen Macabre once tried to murder the Shroud, while Tik-Tok worked for the vigilante Locksmith, who had once held Macabre and Gypsy Moth prisoner. Oddly enough all this never comes up in stories featuring the Night Shift, and Macabre is even Shroud's Number One.
- Sub-Mariner: Namor has attacked the surface world and Earth's heroes countless times, yet the Avengers and X-Men still continue to welcome him with open arms.
- Superman:
- In Action Comics #317, Linda Danvers -alias Supergirl- believes her friend Lena is dating a spy and makes them break up, thinking she is protecting Lena. Shortly after she finds out that Lena's boyfriend isn't a spy and Lena wants to leave the country because she feels betrayed by her only friend. Supergirl explains her actions to both and apologizes. Lena's reaction is: "Well, it was an honest mistake".
- Superman has gotten shafted plenty of times by his tendency to extend this too freely. In fact, in an alternate universe story (The Death of Superman (1961)), Luthor dupes him into becoming his best friend after publicly renouncing evil, then promptly slaughters him with Kryptonite while laughing derisively at Superman's dying expressions of heartbreak and betrayal.
- In Krypton No More, Superman is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and the people of Kandor think that the best way to help him is convince him that he is human (long story); so they persuade Supergirl to trick him into believing Krypton never was real. At the beginning she succeeds, but Superman eventually discovers the truth and he is furious. However, when his cousin apologizes and asks whether he'll ever forgive her, he says he'll get over it in a few days.
- Way of the World: Although Aftermath lured Supergirl into a trap and put her under his mind-control, intending to force her to commit crimes to ruin the Earth's heroes' reputation, Kara does not want to hold a grudge against an obviously damaged individual. When Empress asks how Kara can forgive him so easily, Kara simply replies she also forgave Empress for baiting her into Aftermath's trap.
- Day of the Dollmaker: Supergirl appears to forgive Catherine Grant for her one-year-long, xenophobic, slut-shaming, defamatory anti-Supergirl campaign after Cat writes a public non-apology which can be summed up as "I don't take anything back, but maybe I might give Supergirl another chance in consideration of her youth and inexperience".
- Absolutely defied in Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent. Jon ends up in the universe of Injustice just before the events of the game and meets their Harley Quinn, who tries to apologize for her role in “his” death. Jon refuses it and tells her that her helping the Insurgency is probably the best way to atone.
- Teen Titans:
- Bombshell is allowed membership on the team, even after she betrayed them prior, had tried to kill them, and tried to frame two other (innocent) members of the group as the real traitor. Sure, Ravager was also allowed on the team, but she was Brainwashed and Crazy when she was their enemy... Bombshell has no such excuse.
- Raven destroyed Starfire's entire home planet. Starfire's forgiveness of her for this came jarringly quickly. When Robin, Superboy, Wonder Girl and Impulse all join the group, they actually lampshade this, pointing out how bizarre it is that the older Titans members continuously accept Raven back even though she seems to turn evil and betray them with frightening regularity.
- During the ThunderCats comic's 'Dogs Of War' arc, Jackalman and Ma-Mutt betray Third Earth to the invading War Dogs (Jackalman cites the Alpha as saying he and Ma-Mutt were obviously kin to the Dogs, with Jackalman himself possibly being a royal). This results in Ma-Mutt incapacitating Mumm-Ra by biting off his master's arm while in mummy mode. When arc comes to a close, and the traitors now find themselves in their respective party's custody, Slithe is only convinced to spare Jackalman because treachery is a Mutant virtue and the lizard would have done the same. He does, however, promise to use the canid as the crew's punching bag for the entire trip back to Plun-Darr. Mumm-Ra has a slightly different idea when Ma-Mutt jumps into his arms.Mumm-Ra" (cooing as he scratches his doggy's ear) Who can stay mad at that precious face?
- Transformers:
- Played with in regards to Sunstreaker in the Transformers Ongoing, while he is allowed back into the Autobots after his betrayal (which nearly led to the end of both the Autobots and humanity) and nonlethal Heroic Sacrifice, most of the characters either shun him or are quick to remind him of his crimes.
- The Transformers: Robots in Disguise plays with this. There are numerous Decepticons who've caused all sorts of trouble during the war, and the Autobots hesitate to try them for fear of looking too oppressive to the neutral majority, something which Metalhawk uses to his advantage. In addition, military trials would also worm the monsters out of their own ranks and expose their crimes to the war so it all has to have a lid kept on it. Though post The Transformers: Dark Cybertron, Megatron goes on trial for his war crimes and Sandstorm becomes a serial killer bent on killing all the Autobots and Decepticons who committed war crimes, as he refuses to let them go on living during the peace.
- Subverted with Megatron in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, after a few false starts. Most of the inner circle do seem to be willing to be civil with him, especially since he's a more responsible co-captain than Rodimus is, but he isn't really willing to forgive himself, and Getaway's mutiny succeeds because virtually every minor and unnamed character on the ship is furious about him being in a position of authority rather than a cell or a grave.
- In The Transformers: Windblade, the team forgives Chromia, even though she was the one behind the bombs and the blackouts.
- The Ultimates: Subverted. After causing a 9/11-like disaster in the city, leaving hundreds of deaths and injured people and loads of property damage, Banner insisted on his nonsense about giving the team a foe to fight so that they are not disbanded. At first, Cap seems to be about to forgive him, because he's part of the team and all that... and then he gave him a well-deserved kick in the face.
- A Walk Through Hell: Deconstruction. McGregor has a past story told to Shaw of him confronting a fellow classmate who had raped him and faked his suicide attempt to make sure no one believed him. McGregor says to the former classmate that he's gotten past this and forgives him. The classmate, however, is completely unrepentant and shoves it in McGregor's face, telling him that he has a cushy job that pays him really well and he actively partakes in constant sex and drug parties where he likely still keeps on raping. Even if you can get past something horrible that was done to you, you still need to stop the one who actually did the horrible act to prevent others from suffering the same.
- Wonder Woman Vol 1: Paula von Gunther murdered many, tortured many and gave allied secrets to the Nazis. While her motivation for doing so, to save her daughter's life, is sympathetic it does not make the lives of those she killed, injured and compromised worth any less. Once she's told her tale everyone forgives her and she doesn't even need to go back to prison, which she escaped from, to finish out her time for the crimes she'd already been convicted of. This was partially due to the medium, as her Heel–Face Turn needed to be told in a single issue as stories needed to make sense without having to purchase an older issue.
- X-Men:
- A lot of the X-Men who fought the team during Avengers vs. X-Men were forgiven, even Namor, who flooded Black Panther's home country during the crisis. While the continued animosity between the two was a major subplot in volume 3 of New Avengers, Panther was really the only one who took any issue with what Namor did.
