10 Comic Books Where Evil Won

Batman: A Death in the Family is one of the most iconic comics in the Caped Crusader's history, but not because it was good.

The tale is weirdly plotted and features a frankly embarrassing plot as the Joker becomes an ambassador for Iran at the United Nations (and you thought Riggs and Murtaugh had it bad in Lethal Weapon 2), and derives significance mostly because it marks the sole occasion where readers voted to kill off a comic book character.

Death in the Family is steeped in controversy both on and off the page, but it also cannot be denied that it marks an occasion where evil came out on top. Readers voted by a narrow margin to kill Jason Todd, the second Robin (although allegations of vote tampering abound), and it represents to this day Batman's greatest failure.

Sure Jason himself may have returned, but there's no getting away from the fact that the Clown Prince brutally beat and then exploded a child to death in a comic, and that it was what the readers wanted. That's just straight up cold no matter how you cut it.