Best plot twists in comics

What would you say are the best plot twists, revelations, or last-page surprises in all of comicdom?

The first Thunderbolts issue's twist where the team is really the Masters of Evil is still highly-regarded today.

Alan Moore revealing the Swamp Thing wasn't Alec Holland.

the first Standoff issue is a very recent example, but it's goddamn impressive. I really believed the brainwashed guys were Bucky and Stark, but no, they turn out to be Zemo and Fixer.

Best twists: "I did it 35 minutes ago," Terra being evil, the three jokers

Worst: The Hydra cap twist, Hawk is Monarch, Carol Danvers was raped and gave birth to her rapist.

So how does the Three Jokers thing actually work?

Oh, and the best plot twist is that Trifecta was a crossover.

edited 30th Jun '17 4:17:00 AM by VampireBuddha

"Try the red one."

I only had a page and a Tumblr summary to go on for this one (haven't really read any Daredevil outside Miller's run), and it still gave me chills.

The Hawk as Monarch thing wasn't so much a twist as a last-minute replacement. Monarch was supposed to be Captain Atom, but they changed it at the last minute. Making Hawk Monarch felt arbitrary because it was arbitrary.

edited 1st Jul '17 3:36:02 PM by Robbery

I think Monarch Atom would have been a god twist but dc' last minute change ruined it.

Oh another crappy plot twist: Thomas Elliot is Hush (I actually like batman hush but I will concede that the that the twist was incredibly obvious).

edited 1st Jul '17 3:38:31 PM by Thelastwarrior

Best Twist: I dunno. The problem with Superhero comics is that there has been twist upon twist since the genre began, but most of them just feel arbitrary and pointless when you really think about it. "Hey, turns out that Captain America was never really dead, he just got stuck in a time portal thingy! Somehow.' Or better yet, 'Hey, turns out that Captain America was a Nazi his entire fucking life! Somehow.' I'm sure there are actual honest to God good twists in comics, but there's just so many bad or banal ones that they've kind of scrubbed the good ones out of my noggin.

edited 4th Jul '17 10:29:25 AM by kkhohoho

Notable plot twists that come to mind for me right now are:

• Clark Kent being Mr. Mxypltk.
• Ultra Magnus turning out to have been a legacy character and the current one isn't a white version of Optimus Prime.

x2 Your Captain America being a Nazi plot twist example actually made me think of one.

Do you remember that whole traitor subplot in Archie Sonic the Hedgehog where Silver went back in time to find out which of the Freedom Fighters is a traitor? Well it turns out to be Geoffrey St. John. Not only that, but he was actually a mole this entire time as he is the apprentice of the wizard Ixis Naugus. Such a revelation would of given some interesting compeling stories involving the now villainous Geoffrey who he himself is a wizard but alas the Genesis Wave happens and the whole universe is rebooted. Not to mention Archie slowly retiring the Sonic comics. Thanks Panders.

Technically that was also Archie's fault for losing the contracts in the first place, and Scott Fulop exacerbated things with his own lawsuit, hence no more reprints.

As for best plot twists I'd have to go with the last page of the first issue of Thunderbolts, or the last page of X-Men #62, where readers learned the mystery man was actually Magneto. Here's cool stuff about the latter!

edited 4th Jul '17 9:13:49 PM by lalalei2001

Yeah I know. But I consider Ken Penders filing the lawsuit in the first place as catalyst to Archie not doing Sonic comics as often in the past.

Another good plot twist, especially for those who read the original Harbinger comics, is Flamingo getting killed off. In the final volume of Harbinger (2012), the comics leading up to that moment hint that Torque is going to die; especially seeing how in that character died in the original comic. Instead, Flamingo is the one who pulled off a heroic sacrifice against one of Harada's psiots. I did not see that Quicksilver Bait and Switch coming as I was sure Torque was the one to die given the way the writer set him up in that moment.

Oh, another plot twist from the Valiant Universe; Obadiah Archer is a psiot. Throughout Archer and Armstrong, Archer has been portrayed as being a normal human who is able to process and emulate to perfection many different skills and fighting style. Until one volume reveal that he is actually an escaped psiot from Project Rising Spirits who has the powers to copy any ability before being adopted by the Archers. This ability extends to even copying other psiots powers. I did not expected this turn of events seeing how the world of Archer & Armstrong can be considered seperate from the world of Harbingers, yet its fitting considering it's themes on conspiracy theories and urban legends.

edited 4th Jul '17 9:48:48 PM by BigK1337

That creeped me out so hard when I first read it years ago.

x4 Okay, this is really late, but the continuity nut in me just had to point this out. Yes, there was a 'traitor' in the Freedom Fighters, but it wasn't Geoffrey, even though he was a traitor. Turns out it was Sally, but the twist is that it was her as Mecha-Sally, robotized at the end of the Genesis arc. I can't remember exactly what it was, but she was supposed to have done something that led to Silver's bad future. And come to think of it, that was a genuinely great twist. (Though yours was too.)

edited 7th Aug '17 12:27:17 PM by kkhohoho

Perhaps the best plot twist in comics, especially when you consider the historical context, is in EC's "Judgement Day."

As you can see, the twist ending makes the story.

How about Mxy being the Big Bad in What Ever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?

edited 19th Aug '17 5:31:44 PM by AnotherGuy

The ending to "That Yellow Bastard'' was pretty shocking.

The 80s Spider-Man story "The Death of Jean De Wolfe" has a great one. Go read it if you haven't.

x5 Also late but yeah you got me there. Mecha Sally was actually the better twist. Instead of being somebody in control of their own action betraying the team as the usual plot goes, its instead somebody forced to betray the team via mind control or rather Roboticization as it subverts the traitor plot.

Anyway I didn't want to talk about this plot twist as what follows leads to the decline in quality in story, but I really like the twist at the end of James Robinson's run on Earth 2. Basically the Earth's defense and the new Wonders take the fight to Steppahnwolf and his forces from Apokalips. And instead of winning in one huge scale battle, they get their collective ass kicked. Stepphanwolf then makes a speech about how he took over Earth in the name of Darkseid only to be unceremoniously killed by his Brute, Brutaal. Brutaal than take up the role as Big Bad of the rest of the arc and is then revealed to be Superman who is brainwashed to serving Darkseid.

This twist works in two ways:

1. It trick us into thinking that Steppanwolf is going to be a Big Bad for the rest of the series, even though he basically won in the end and only killed by Superman simply because he is too egotistical to serve Darkseid as a loyal servant.

2. The fact that Superman is alive and serving Darkseid. It raises so many questions as how he manage to survive since he was supposedly killed off in the first issue and what did they do to him to make him evil. Not to mentioned that its a major Oh Crap as Superman is serving Darkseid in a similar fashion as the series finale of Superman TAS.

So I really like that twist and was genuinely surprised by it when I first read the book.

'I CAN SEE YOU!'