The Big Reveals

For some reason tonight I started thinking about some of the biggest reveals in comics over the years. (And reveal here just means shocking revelation, as opposed to a woman revealing her breasts or any other subtle meanings I might inadvertantly be bringing to mind with my use of the term.)

I can think of a few good ones off the top of my head, so here are some, in no particular order:

1) Finding out what Mary Jane Watson actually looked like (and that she was hot), with the famous, "Face it, Tiger.. You just hit the jackpot!" moment as Peter opens the door to finally see her.

2) Learning the identity of the Green Goblin, years after he was first introduced.

3) Getting to the conclusion of Identity Crisis and discovering that Jean Loring was behind the murders, and that it was all a terrible mistake.

4) The huge reveal in Watchmen, which wasn't actually finding out who's behind the conspiracy but rather hearing him describe his insane plan of destruction and that he "did it 35 minutes ago." That moment was probably the final proof, if anyone needed it, that Alan Moore was playing at a different level than everyone who came before him (and maybe since).

But for me, the ultimate reveal happened in V For Vendetta, another Alan Moore masterpiece. The surprise fans expected, but never actually got, was the identity of V. There was all kinds of speculation around who V would turn out to be: Evey's father, someone from the government, maybe a famous celebrity from the real world. But in the end he's just a man, and by not revealing his face author Moore leaves him in the everyman role, since he'd no doubt like to believe overthrowing tyranny is within each of us. But the shocker in that story, the one that put the whole tale in a different perspective for me, happened when Evey was released from her prison and wandered upstairs to find that her captor and tormenter had been V all along. The gravitas this turn of events lent to the larger canvas of VFV was incredible, for me at least. We knew full well how much V cared for Evey, so seeing the lengths he'd go to in order to, in his words, remove her blinders, was shocking and revelatory. I can still remember the sensation of reading those pages for the first time, realizing what had happened, and having tears run down my cheeks as it sunk in and everything changed. Definitely one of the most powerful scenes in comics history that I can think of.

And I'm sure I forgot some classic reveals, but that's what comes with age, loyal readers!