Break the Cutie/Comic Books

In the Two Thousand AD black comedy story DR and Quinch Go Girl Crazy, Waldo "Diminished Responsibility" Dobbs has paired up with Chrysoprasia, a drama coach's daughter, and is putting on a respectable front to win her approval. His friend Ernie Quinch is worried that she is falling for his evil, delinquent friend and also breaking up the evil, delinquent partnership of D.R. and Quinch. So he kidnaps her and shows her their home movies, to prove to her that she doesn't want to know D.R. But instead, the horrific experience triggers a mental breakdown leading to a Face Heel Turn whereby she becomes more evil and delinquent than either of them and reinvents herself as "Crazy Chrissie".
Tim Drake, the third and current ~~Robin~~ Red Robin, started out quite differently from his predecessors. Unlike the first Robin, Dick Grayson, he had a family during his run and a large supporting cast at his school. Overall, he was portrayed more as a realistic teenager than a vigilante. That was until his girlfriend was brutally tortured to death by Black Mask. Later on, his father was killed by another villain, Captain Boomerang. You would think that would be enough, but DC editors would think otherwise. His two best friends, Conner Kent and Bart Allen, Superboy and Impulse/Kid Flash respectively, died saving the world making Tim the last surviving member of the original team they started, Young Justice. They later got better. He has since taken up more of Batman's mannerisms, now being able to put fear into the eyes of his enemies. When you take into consideration that many of these events happened in the time span of a year or so, expect him to be in need of some psychiatric help in the near future.
- Before all that, his parents were kidnapped and as they were being rescued. He saw his mother die and his father almost die because of a poison supplied by the kidnapper.
- Oddly enough, Cassandra Cain is a mirror image of Bruce. Despite the Training from Hell, she was a true innocent who thought the mastery of combat arts was as much a game as anything and even the painful parts (two for flinching, with light caliber handguns) were "normal" to her. Then she reduced a living, thinking, man to a large mass of inert meat with her own 8 year old hand... seeing the horror in his eyes as life faded from them... and it was suddenly not fun anymore.
- Jason Todd was broken by dying, even after he was Killed Off for Real, when he became Red Hood.
- And, of course, the goddamn Batman himself. Watching his parents get shot dead right in front of him... you didn't think a guy in an armored bat costume swinging from the rooftops on a nightly basis to beat up crooks was sane, did you?
Both played straight and for comedy with DCU's Miss Martian, M'gann M'orzz. After One Year Later, it's said she left the Teen Titans due to something Ravager did to her; while fans wonder as to the implications, it's later revealed that Ravager just yelled at her, making her cry, when M'gann threw a pie in her face. Eventually, she is nearly broken when her Future Evil Self's body is destroyed and their minds merge. M'gann eventually wins the mental war by using bunnies and cute images in her mindscape to keep her evil future self at bay.
Do NOT attend the Xavier Institute. Just don't. This goes double if you're on Earth 616. They will kill all your friends, run over your dog, and rip out your soul all in the space of a few hours if you go to the Xavier Institute.
- Illyana (Magik) started as Colossus' little sister; after being sucked into Limbo (Belasco's dimension) while at Xavier's, she returned with new magic powers and a severely damaged mental state (to be fair to the team, time differences were so great, she appeared to only be gone a few seconds). She is then returned to Belasco's, where she undergoes a weird process that causes her to split into multiple beings, rather confusing, one being a (literally) soulless girl stuck in Belasco's dimension.
  - Then you get to poor Megan Gwyne, aka Pixie, a girl who (before House of M) was voted most cheerful person at Xavier's. She along with her classmates are dragged into Belasco's dimension, where, in order to escape, team up with the soulless Illyana. In the process, Pixie loses a portion of HER SOUL. She returns with black streaks in her hair (presumably representing the darkness now in her soul) and a magical dagger that allows her to teleport. Then in another arc she returns to that dimension, this time with the main team. Here she attacks Illyana for stealing a portion of her soul and after losing, Illyana takes YET ANOTHER chunk of Pixie's soul and sends the X-Men back home. Later she gets badly beaten by some racists, kidnapped by demons and finds out her parents aren't her real parents and she is really a daughter of Mastermind and some witch. And then she gets to Limbo and has another part of her soul stolen AGAIN, though this time she regains all parts of her soul at the end. And then, along with everybody else, she gets brainwashed by a powerful reality warper into believing her entire life was one big hell on Earth, which turns her into murderous sex-obsessed psychopath with a demonic look, called Nightmare. And once she gets back to normal, Nightmare survives in her mind as Super-Powered Evil Side. Poor girl cannot catch a break.
  - Or Longshot - a peppy, happy-go-lucky charmer. WHO HAS HIS SOUL EATEN BY A DEMON in the Inferno storyline. Even when everything goes back to normal, he's left with some serious Angst.
- If you're a young mutant, this is bound to happen no matter where you live. The only place more dangerous than the Xavier Institute (or whatever the current headquarters of the X-Men happens to be) for young mutants is the world outside of it.
- Rahne Sinclair has this in spades. Rescued from being burned at the stake by her abusive father, her life seemed to be getting better once she joined the New Mutants. Cue a long string of traumas—her first love dying to save her, being mind-raped by an evil psychic, her best friend being possessed by a demon, being kidnapped and mind-raped/genetically modified into a mindless slave, seeing another dear friend murdered, struggling to break free of brainwashing, losing her powers and adoptive mother in a single day, and being shown a Bad Future where she murders two dear friends. Then she got recruited onto a black ops X-team, where she would be brainwashed and given a heroin overdose by her father. This resulted in her nearly murdering her teammates, and eventually EATING HER FATHER, a trauma she's blocked out. While being deprogrammed, she was reunited with an old love and became pregnant, only for him to sell his soul to save her. The baby nearly killed her and turned out to be a supernatural beacon for bad things when close to being born. All of this over the course of maybe 7 – 8 years of time.
- I think we can agree that in order to become an X-Man/Woman, you need to have an X-Gene, and either a sad life, or a happy life which will then promptly be destroyed.
Adrianna Tomaz, aka Isis from 52. She starts as The Messiah, determined to see the good in the world despite all of the horrible things she had endured up to that point (being kidnapped to be used as a bargaining chip by Intergang for starters). As Isis, she brings light to Khandaq and even convinces her new husband Black Adam that he doesn't have to be a violent Anti-Villain anymore. Then it all goes to hell in One Bad Day. Her brother is eaten alive by their Team Pet Sobek who by the way was really a member of a group of Eldritch Abominations sent by Intergang to destroy the Marvels. Then she gets a mouthful of plague and dies a painful death in Black Adam's arms. Adrianna is so broken that she renounces her idealism, tells Black Adam that he had been right all along about the world, and with her last breath asks him to "avenge us". Believe it or not, It Got Worse. Being resurrected and brainwashed by a Complete Monster Evil Sorcerer who used her to free himself from a prison and subsequently being constantly raped by said sorcerer sent her soaring over the Despair Event Horizon. When Black Adam eventually frees her, Adrianna's first act is to castrate the sorcerer with her bare hands. Finally, she crosses the Moral Event Horizon into full-blown villainy when she declares the people of Khandaq, the people who worship her as a goddess, to be just another bunch of bastards, and starts turning them into dirt statues. Even Black Adam is horrified by this!
Stacy Palumbo of Grendel's corruption from a Cheerful Child into a Creepy Child/Broken Bird began from her discovery of her adoptive father Hunter Rose's identity as Villain Protagonist Grendel, the man who killed her uncle. After planning out Hunter's death (and murdering her governess along the way to keep her from interfering) by secretly assisting Argent taking down Grendel's criminal empire and ultimately leading both into their final showdown. After Rose's death she was institutionalized. Just when things are going to look better after a few years with her marrying her therapist, her husband goes ahead and rapes her on their wedding night before hanging himself. Since then she began to slowly waste away in body and mind until she finally dies.
Pick any characters who happens to be Brian Bendis' favorite. PICK ANY.
- Joe Quesada once said of Bendis: "He wants to kill everyone."
Poor Ironfist in Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers. Every issue seems devoted to piling more and more torments upon the poor weapons engineer. First, he gets mocked for his hero worship; then he finds out that This Is Reality and War Is Hell in heartbreaking fashion, complete with Heroic BSOD; then he reflects on his long, depressing life and volunteers to die; then a quick Mind Rape; and finally he casts the deciding vote to execute his former idol, Impactor. Poor guy really needs a hug. And then after Overlord's defeat, he dies on the way back from Garrus-9 from a mechanical aneurysm.
Surprisingly averted in Sin City. The Yellow Bastard was unable to make Nancy Callahan scream... twice. She remained safe and unbroken every time he kidnapped her.
Gwen Stacy: Originally an Alpha Bitch who took a level of Character Development until she became a mature and thoughtful Tsundere Girl Next Door type. Then, her dad died. When she finally managed to get over that, SHE dies.
Poor Klara Prast of the Runaways kept talking to plants. So her religious asshole parents convinced her she was the spawn of Satan and married her off (at frickin' 11) to a creep who raped her and forced her into dangerous jobs to earn money for him to buy booze. Luckily, the Runaways rescued her and brought her into the future... where New York happened to be under invasion by Skrulls. Then they took her to LA... where they got attacked by angry rainbow-colored people. And then, just when she was starting to get the hang of our modern world, someone fired a missle at the Runaways' home that came -this- close to killing her. And then, on top of all that, Marvel cancelled the series.