These Are The Comic Book Characters’ Who Have The Most Tragic Backstories

This article was originally published on worldtravelling.com and has been republished here with permission.

You might find it hard to believe, but not all comic book characters have the happiest beginnings. Most characters’ origin stories tend to be pretty tragic. Although the character in question often finds themselves gifted with impenetrable strengths and power, these unique features typically come at an uncontrollable cost.

From Green Arrow to Sandman, here are the comic book characters’ most sad backstories.

Spawn

No other character origin is as dark or emotionally disturbing as Frank Simmons, a highly skilled CIA agent, and a former military contract killer. He becomes the bearer of one of the saddest superhero origin stories.

Simmons’ best friend betrays and double-crosses him when they are working on a deal. He had been increasingly doubting his superiors’ morals in the brief period before this fatal setback. Yet, upon dying, his soul was still consigned to hell. Frank is granted permission to return to earth due to a deal with a demon. Still, he has been transformed into Spawn, a pretty solid but deformed demonic creature. Even worse, he has been absent for five years; his wife remarried to none other than the man who murdered him, and they had a child.

Rocket Raccoon

Rocket Raccoon, also known as “Rocket,” is one of the coolest and furriest characters. Since the release of the first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies, which have risen in popularity with audiences, fans, and even critics, Rocket has gained recognition. However, his birth as a brazen space merc with remarkable powers isn’t as joyful as the movies have us believe.

Rocket was the subject that broke a hundred separate laws against the treatment of animals and the testing of living beings. Whoever abducted him from his home world is still unknown. Still, after implanting him with improved cybernetics and mental consciousness, he developed into a self-aware, ruthless space pirate known only as 89P1. It might not sound like one of the worst character origin stories. To call it inhumane is an understatement.

Rorschach

The question of which Watchmen had the saddest superhero origin story is more difficult to answer than which Watchmen was the worst. The only one with one of the most tragic superhero origin tales is Rorschach. For a man who bears (and wears) a psychiatric experiment as his calling card, you’d think everything would be all fine in the head.

Walter Kovacs was raised in a chaotic environment and was never permitted to perceive the world as anything but evil. Although Walter was a reasonably intelligent boy with high aspirations for religious instruction, his mother was a prostitute, and his father was a drinker who frequently battered Walter into giving up on his schooling. Unfortunately, Walter turned into Rorschach due to his brutal childhood.

Doctor Manhattan

Jon was going to follow in his father’s watchmaking footsteps. When the United States detonates the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Jon’s father declares his father’s line of work obsolete and forces him to pursue a career in nuclear physics. The occurrence foreshadows Doctor Manhattan’s “external” perspective of time as predetermined and all things within it as thus determined, including Manhattan’s reactions and feelings. It marks the turning point in Jon’s probable future from a watchmaker to a nuclear physicist.

Being vaporized in a lab accident and scientific experiment might seem like the worst catastrophe imaginable, but what Jonathan Osterman ultimately lost wasn’t his body; it was more his humanity and hope for a typical life with the woman he loved. He was condemned to an eternity of loneliness since, despite his best efforts, he could not forget the memories of his loss or, regrettably, focus on and care for the world again.