Morality Chains in Comic Books.
- 52: Isis serves this role for Black Adam. After she dies and comes back to life, he tries to dissuade her from indulging in her new omnicidal mania, meaning he's trying to be her morality chain.
- The comic also has Superman acting as this to Lex Luthor of all people. Granted, Lex is pretty damn evil when Superman is around, but when Superman drops off the face of the Earth and Lex doesn't have him to obsess over, he creates the Everyman Project, which can turn normal people into superheroes, in order to test the process out before he uses it on himself. However, when he discovers he's incompatible with the process, he angrily shuts off the superpowers of everybody in the project, standing on the top floor of LexCorp as he watches the dozens of Everymen that were flying at the time plummeting to their deaths.
- To further tighten their connection, the Injustice: Gods Among Us comics show that if Lex was a good guy, then Superman is a lot more likely to become evil. The reasoning behind this is that Lex is the one who psychologically attacks Superman, creates many of his rogues like Bizarro, and prevents other villains like the Joker, who had corrupted Superman in the story, from defeating Superman because he believes that he’s the only one who can beat him. With Lex having no malice towards Superman, he was unable to prevent the Joker from nuking Metropolis and most importantly, break Superman.
- Batman: Robin is usually considered to be the biggest factor keeping Batman from going over the edge and turning into an Anti-Hero. Like pretty much all things in the franchise, it varies depending on the story, era and continuity, though. When Robin's not around (either because he hasn't taken on a Kid Sidekick yet or because the current Robin is off doing his own thing) it falls to the rest of the Justice League, most prominently Superman, who's one of a small number of people who has earned Bruce's total trust and isn't intimidated if his temper gets the better of him. An honourable mention also goes to Alfred, although his role is generally less keeping Bruce from getting too ruthless and more letting some air out of his ego when he's in danger of buying into his own hype and getting careless.
- Black Orchid: Flora Black's Face–Heel Turn in the 1993 ongoing is marked by the death of her companion Sherilyn Somers.
- Deathstroke: Deathstroke's Battle Butler Wintergreen was this for the entire Wilson family. His Undying Loyalty made him complicit in Slade's shadier dealings, but he always tried to bring out the best in him and his children. Wintergeen's death at the hands of the Jericho-possessed Deathstroke destroyed any chance that Slade could ever go through a true Heel–Face Turn. Rose at least managed to eventually turn good.
- The Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael: Zoe was the only thing on Earth that kept Ichabod Azrael from being completely evil, so when he finds himself in the afterlife he decides to defy fate by going back to the land of the living. Which is later revealed to be a lie created by Charon, who wanted to give Ichabod a motive to break free from purgatory with Fake Memories of a woman who never existed. Though she is later given true form when Ichabod and Charon get thrown into different time periods, she is returned to nonexistence when Charon returns to his duties. This revelation angers Ichabod so much that he kills Charon, thus destroying all creation.
- Justice Society of America: After Damage dies, Judomaster goes after her father's killer because of the loss. Sand reveals to her that Damage, forewarned of his death, had left her a message; this is what persuades her not to kill him.
- Preacher: The Saint of Killers' family in, as it is after their death that he becomes so full of hate, which in turn leads to him freezing Hell after his own death and being transformed by the Angel of Death.
- Runaways: Chase reveals that he believes his girlfriend Gert is the only thing keeping him in line. He does go off the deep end for a while after Gert's murder, but he never really becomes evil.
- Spider-Man:
- In Amazing Spider-Man: Extra! #2, Eddie Brock, who had recently undergone a Heel–Face Turn and become the "superhero" Anti-Venom, uses his new Healing Hands to cure a teenaged drug addict named Jenna Cole of her addiction. Come New Ways To Live, Eddie's sanity takes a dive after he finds out his idol Martin Li is the supervillain Mr. Negative and he openly admits that Jenna is the only thing stopping him from reverting back to his "Lethal Protector" persona, becoming violently protective of her and beating up anyone who insinuates she's still on drugs. When a cartel abducts her and gets her "high out of her mind", Eddie is... not amused.
- It has been hinted that Norman Osborn's wife Emily was this; he recalls being more whole and balanced with her than at any other time, and her Death by Childbirthnote helped push him off the deep end, at the very least kick-starting his resentment of his son Harry.
Norman: Gaining an heir cost me the finest woman I had ever known. It wasn't a fair trade.- Harry himself was this to Norman in some of the early stories. One of Spidey's first major victories against the Green Goblin was almost entirely dependent on Norman losing composure after hearing Harry's name. In a later story Norman's belief that Peter, Gwen and MJ were fueling Harry's drug problem caused him an another episode which restored the memories he lost during the fight mentioned above. The idea of losing Harry was enough to cause Norman a nervous breakdown, a far cry from his modern portrayal.
- Starbrand & Nightmask: Starbrand and Nightmask are interesting examples in that the metaphysics of the setting explicitly requires the latter to be the former's Morality Pet. Part of the job of Nightmasks is to ensure that their Starbrands stay connected to the planet they're defending and don't go down the Beware the Superman route. When Earth's Nightmask (Adam) fears that his Starbrand (Kevin Connell) is becoming disconnected from normal people, he begins arranging training and activities to help reforge that connection. Deconstructed horrifically when the Kree Starbrand violently murders her own Nightmask, believing that having a conscience will impair her ability to protect the Kree Empire by making her unwilling to cross the Moral Event Horizon in the name of the greater good.
- X-Men: Sabretooth had Monet St. Croix as this in Uncanny X-Men (2016). He was inverted during the AXIS story-line. When he joined Magneto's X-Men, he developed an interesting relationship with Monet, whom he was very protective of. When she's cursed by Emplate and becomes a vampire, he allows her to feed on him & promises to keep her secret. It's possible the frequent feeding is what wears down his inversion, making him behave more like his old self. He thinks that he needs something to fight for in order to stay grounded. And that something was his desire to help Monet.
- Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan doesn't have a Morality Chain so much as a Humanity Chain, in the form of his girlfriend Laurie (also known as Silk Spectre). He states openly that the only reason he maintains any interest in the earth is because of his link to her, and when she leaves him he heads off to Mars within the day, completely indifferent to the fact that his leaving is likely to trigger nuclear holocaust.
- Notably, it's also their later conversation and partial reconciliation that convinces him to return.
- Young Avengers: Wiccan is this for Hulkling, as we saw how quickly Gentle Giant Hulkling lost his shit when his boyfriend (who is ironically the grandson of a supervillain) sort of disappeared from reality. He got better when said boyfriend was back.
