Heroes Defeated!

 

Few moments in comics are more dramatic than your favorite comic book hero(es) meeting defeat at the hands of a villain. And while in some cases there are extenuating circumstances to the situation, you can always count on the story's cover to not mince words and make it seem as if there's no coming back for the beaten--a stain that cannot be purged.

(Though things can't be too bad for Dr. Strange if the same cover buffers the impact of the announcement with images of the Thing and the Human Torch in Beatles wigs.)

Here, then, is a sampling of covers which made the most of the stinging word:

(Even if the jury may have still been out on the matter.)

We can begin by first dealing with those covers where some are playing fast and loose with the word "defeat." For instance, it turns out that Dr. Strange, looking out for the Ancient One, did not fall in battle but was forced to retreat from the surprise attack of Baron Mordo, who had been empowered by the dread Dormammu but whom he still managed to elude.

Then there's this issue of Alpha Flight which oh-so-dramatically proclaims the end of the team at the hands of Omega Flight...

...but in reality, only a few of Alpha Flight's members have fallen, with the assistance of their own leader, Guardian (or so it initially seemed).

And applying the word "defeat" to the incredible Hulk was often proven to be premature every time he'd been captured in the field by the military and brought in to be confined or otherwise rendered helpless (as was the case here in regard to the Soviet installation named Bitterfrost), since the clock was ticking until he broke free.

As for Captain Marvel, he's attempting in this story to retrieve Drax the Destroyer from the control of a wily seductress from a sub-atomic realm.

But since Captain Marvel turns out to be on the offensive and anything but defeated in this story, what we're seeing on the cover is purely symbolic. (It's a Peter David production. 'Nuff said.)

Conan has much the same problem in his title, where our barbarian battles a conqueror named Wrarrl--technically defeated, yes, but subsequently ending up falling into the void from which Wrarrl has arrived. And while Conan's fate looks uncertain, things honestly look far worse for those he left behind.

Not all is as it appears to be for the Avengers, either, as the team falls not to the might of Power Man (though he clearly is an overwhelming foe) but to a plot of deception by the Enchantress that discredits them in the eyes of the authorities.

Two Spider-titles also give us pause in the seeing-is-believing department:

Against Electro, Spider-Man is pretty much responsible for his own defeat--while Spider-Girl, though not ending up at her foe's mercy, is indeed humiliated by the fact that she gave the best she had to offer in the fighting department but still fell short. (I wouldn't go so far as "disgraced.")

I'm not sure how worked up we can get about a wrestling competition between rival U.S. servicemen; at any rate, Fury's Howling Commandos go up against McGiveney's Maulers, who have recruited a professional wrestler on track for the world title. As we see, Man Mountain McCoy has seemingly defeated Dum Dum Dugan. (Yes, the mere thought sent shivers up my spine, as well--but fear not, that's not how things turned out.)

These X-Men covers are half-and-half as far as symbolism; suffice to say that the word "defeat" only applies to the situation in the X-Men: The Hidden Years book, whereas in the other title you can read too much into the image presented if you haven't read the story.

The same can be said for two other X-titles:

Dark Phoenix, of course, unquestionably defeated the X-Men in that encounter--whereas in X-Man, Xavier feigned defeat in order to bring X-Man's rampage to a finish for the time being.

One issue I felt for certain would--should--have rated a bold and shocking "Defeat!" caption was Thor's 1966 knock-down drag-out with Hercules, where the result of their battle was anything other than ambiguous--the only extenuating circumstances being Odin depriving his son of half his might in mid-battle, so that the final blow was not long in coming.

(What cattle. The crowd knows practically nothing of Hercules at this point aside from sightings in restaurants and an incident where he rounded up a few armed criminals--yet they see him clobber Thor, a proven hero in their eyes, and still their adoration switches to the newcomer.)

The Fantastic Four have had their share of defeats, though few more definitive than losses to the Frightful Four as well as Dr. Doom:

While Doom spared the lives of the FF in order for them to have to live with their defeat and subsequent helplessness as he proceeds with his plans, the Wizard and his crew were convinced that the mega-explosive device they'd rigged to detonate after escaping the FF would finish them. In their next encounter, it was obvious that the loss still hung in the air for them, particularly when the evil FF were poised to triumph yet again:

Plan "R" (such as it was) puts Reed and Sue on the path to turning the tables on their foes and capturing everyone but the fleeing Medusa. Sue isn't letting things go so easily, however--splitting hairs with a few choice words intended to wipe the books clean and gloss over the FF's earlier defeat.

So that initial defeat was more of a setback, eh, Sue? NO SALE.

By the way, those dregs of defeat racked up some additional mileage:

Speaking of the FF, you can't get much more dramatic use out of our word for the day than seeing the entire human race suffer defeat:

I probably would have altered the caption for this issue to read "The Conquest of the Human Race!" as more of an attention-grabber for prospective readers, since it implies more of a story than the foregone conclusion we're seeing on the cover. Yea? Nay?

In the realm of the sub-atomic, things look grim indeed for the Micronauts, who fall before the forces of Baron Karza and leave the world of Spartak defenseless.

Finally, while the defeat of the Lord of Asgard would have made for stunning copy on a cover, the fact that such a story was relegated to the "Tales Of Asgard" segment of Thor only allowed a splash page to convey the drama of such a portent.  Come to think of it, Odin being notified that he didn't rate front-page coverage probably amounts to news that an Asgardian courier would likely "misplace" on the way to the throne room.

HONORABLE MENTION:

Nothing softens the blow of defeat like phrasing that implies it was short-lived.