15 Emotional Comic Book Moments That Made Us Shed A Tear
7. Death Of Agent 355
The dystopian Vertigo series Y: The Last Man, by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra, tells the tale of the only man, Yorick, to survive a plague that has wiped out every male mammal on the planet. A secret agent, dubbed Agent 355, has been assigned to protect Yorick as he tries to make his way to Boston to meet with a geneticist that hopes to clone him and save mankind. Eventually, Yoric'ks existence is betrayed to an Israeli commando Alter, who plans to use the man as leverage in her counrty's geopolitical conflict with pretty much every other nation in the world.
Initially, the Agent 355/Yorick dynamic is strictly a business relationship, as the man is determined to find his fiancé Beth as part of their journey. But the two characters slowly start to fall in love with each other over the course of the series, and Yorick eventually comes to the conclusion that he doesn't want to marry Beth and instead wants to spend the rest of his life with 355.
In one of the most shockingly sad scenes in the history of comics, in the third-to-the-last issue in the series, 355 admits to Yorick that their feelings are mutual and even whispers (the reader never sees it) her real name to him. In that instant, Alter shoots 355 in the head with a sniper rifle, killing her. Never has the lost of a comic book character felt so unquestionably unfair.