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Ruins tells the story of the Marvel Universe gone wrong. Here are the most disturbing parts!

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00:00 I think it goes without saying that the Marvel Universe is an incredible place, filled with
00:04 whimsy and wonder, but unfortunately that doesn't sell comics quite as well as dark
00:09 and depressing content does.
00:11 And you don't get more dark and depressing than the Marvel series known as 'Ruins',
00:15 which was a 1995 miniseries.
00:17 Because seriously, some of the stuff here is truly dark.
00:21 So let's take a look at them as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are the
00:24 10 Most Disturbing Scenes in Marvel Comics' Ruins.
00:27 10. Jean Grey is a Teenage Sex Worker
00:30 Ruins follows the story of former Daily Bugle reporter Phil Sheldon as he tries to piece
00:35 together what went wrong in the universe.
00:37 He has a deep belief that the world should not have turned out to be the awful disaster
00:41 it currently is, and decides to investigate the superhumans that may, or may not have,
00:45 ruined the entire world.
00:47 To the reader, it's obvious that these experiments/accidents are supposed to create heroes but have gone
00:52 terribly wrong.
00:53 For Phil Sheldon, though, he's trying to piece together why the world seems so deeply
00:57 flawed.
00:58 One stop on his journey is Washington DC.
01:00 Here Sheldon talks with Nick Fury about the state of the world, when a clearly deranged
01:04 teenage Jean Grey comes up to the pair, and propositions herself for $20.
01:09 It's an incredibly jarring moment that seems to come from nowhere, and really communicates
01:13 the dire status quo of this world.
01:15 Jean is supposed to be one of the most powerful mutants alive, yet here she is just trying
01:19 to survive, objectifying herself before she even has had a chance to grow up.
01:23 9. Galactus is a Floating Body in Space
01:26 Now, 'Ruins' is not simply Phil Sheldon's journey through the Marvel Universe gone wrong.
01:31 Intersped throughout the story are newspaper clippings that Sheldon has collected.
01:35 These clips show the extended parts of the universe that are twisted by the gritty reality
01:39 of life here.
01:40 One of the most haunting newspaper clippings has a picture of Galactus, the purple planet-eater
01:45 himself, floating lifelessly outside of Mars' orbit.
01:48 The accompanying headline reads 'God Found Dead in Space', which perfectly summarises
01:53 the utter hopelessness of this world.
01:56 While the picture itself isn't as gory or tragic as some of the other entries on this
02:00 list, it is quite intimidating.
02:01 You have to put yourself in the shoes of an everyday person seeing this image for the
02:05 first time.
02:06 You live your life, only to be made aware that an incomprehensibly big, god-like figure
02:10 just suddenly exists and could literally wipe out Earth in a second.
02:14 And the only question left on your mind would be, what could kill a seemingly all-powerful
02:18 creature like this?
02:19 In the vast emptiness of space, there is so much we don't know.
02:22 If the illusion of our own safety is shattered, all we can do is dread our own fragility.
02:27 8.
02:28 Nick Fury and Captain America are Cannibals
02:31 As mentioned before, Phil Sheldon makes his way to Washington DC for an interview, and
02:35 that interview is with super-spy Nick Fury, who tries to kill Sheldon, but ultimately
02:39 decides to give him the information that he's looking for.
02:41 Sheldon asks about people with special abilities, and whether Fury thinks that things should
02:45 have gone differently.
02:46 Eventually, the topic turns to Captain America, and in a bizarre twist, Fury reveals not only
02:51 did he personally eat human flesh, but Captain America was actually the one who introduced
02:55 him to it.
02:56 Like so much of this book, this detail is completely wild and utterly ridiculous, and
03:01 leaves the reader extremely disturbed.
03:03 To think that Captain America, a character who is painted as the moral core of the Avengers,
03:08 could have done something so heinous is painful to consider.
03:11 To end the scene, Fury kills himself in front of Sheldon by shooting himself in the head,
03:15 presumably because this world is just so bleak that Nick Fury couldn't find another reason
03:19 to keep on living.
03:20 Woof.
03:21 Number 7.
03:22 The Silver Surfer Tore Himself Apart
03:24 While Sheldon is interviewing the Kree prisoner Captain Mar-Vell, who you will definitely
03:28 hear more about later, he is told the story of the Silver Surfer.
03:32 Outside of Earth's orbit, the Kree found the eviscerated body of the Silver Surfer,
03:36 his innards just floating around his corpse.
03:38 You can really feel for the Surfer here, he's always been a character who struggles with
03:41 isolation.
03:42 He journeys the cosmos with only his surfboard and his thoughts, knowing that he is doing
03:46 all he can to protect a universe that doesn't have much left for him.
03:50 He puts himself up against enemies that dwarf his power set and routinely overcomes all
03:54 of the odds, just in the name of justice.
03:57 But in this universe, it got to be too much for him.
03:59 He was so desperate to feel anything that he tore himself open, killing himself in the
04:03 process.
04:04 Now it is important to say that this in no way should be something that is glorified.
04:07 The Silver Surfer's death here is horrific and terribly sad, and the fact that he did
04:11 this to himself makes it all the more disturbing.
04:13 Number 6.
04:15 Emma Frost Starts a Cult
04:17 In Sheldon's notes, there is a picture of the Church of the Next Generation, who is
04:21 led by Emma Frost.
04:22 Frost stands smiling menacingly behind five children, with visibly stitched scars on their
04:27 bold heads.
04:28 A handwritten note explains that instead of teaching young mutants, this universe's
04:31 version of Emma runs a church that performs brain surgery on children to unlock their
04:35 latent psychic potential.
04:37 The church recruits parents and asks them to legally give up their children for adoption
04:41 so that Emma can own them.
04:43 They then have their parents give a dowry to pay for these surgeries in the hopes that
04:46 their children gain superpowers.
04:48 Most of the examples described in this list are accidents gone wrong or tragic outcomes
04:52 to terrible events.
04:53 But this is disturbing because there is just pure evil in this image.
04:56 The faces of these children in clear misery hurts the very soul.
05:00 And worse, this isn't an evil limited to just comics.
05:03 Something like this could happen in our world as well, and that is supremely scary.
05:07 Number 5.
05:08 Mutants Massacred in Holding Cells
05:10 In the Ruins universe, the United States is ruled by a leader named President X.
05:15 This version of Charles Xavier apparently uses his telepathy to pacify dissidents against
05:19 his rule and as such takes a totalitarian approach to governance.
05:23 President X has also apparently created a prison for mutants, the conditions of which
05:26 are obviously horrible.
05:28 Phil Sheldon is allowed to see this prison under a guided tour by the warden, Wilson
05:32 Fisk.
05:33 Fisk treats his prisoners as subhuman, and several of Marvel's mutants are shown in
05:37 heartbreaking circumstances.
05:39 Nightcrawler has been reduced to a feral version of himself, Kitty Pryde has become permanently
05:43 ghost-like, and Cyclops' eyes have been gouged out to prevent his optic blasts.
05:48 In Marvel's main continuity, this mistreatment of mutants is exactly what the X-Men fight
05:52 against, but here there are no heroes to fight for basic rights, and so it hurts to see them
05:56 subjected to this.
05:57 But the most disturbing of all is Quicksilver, who has had his arms and legs severed from
06:01 his body.
06:02 It is gruesome for gruesome's sake, and shows these prisons are more about torture
06:06 than anything else.
06:07 Number 4.
06:08 The Kree Being Put on a Cancer-Filled Reservation
06:11 The Kree are an alien empire that have been in and out of conflict with Earth for years.
06:15 The Ruins universe is similar in that the Kree are also coming to invade, but during
06:19 their attempt, they ran into an issue.
06:21 They found the Silver Surfer's body in the planet's orbit, which was giving off powerful
06:25 cosmic energy that evidently interfered with the Kree warship's ability to sense a wave
06:29 of nuclear defence missiles that were sent out by Earth.
06:32 90% of the ships were destroyed, and the survivors were taken prisoner.
06:35 Today, the remaining Kree have been placed in an internment camp next to a nuclear testing
06:39 facility.
06:40 Because their species has been so ravaged by nuclear exposure, just one in eight of
06:44 their children is born alive.
06:46 The decay around them has cursed the Kree to a slow and incredibly painful death sentence.
06:50 When Phil Sheldon interviews Captain Mar-Vell in this camp, the Captain says that he has
06:54 been broken.
06:55 He once stood against the Kree's will to invade, but now, seeing what Earth has done
06:59 to his people, he regrets everything.
07:01 Number 3.
07:02 Bruce Banner Becomes a Tumour-Filled Monster
07:05 Phil Sheldon continues his journey to Chicago, where he finds Rick Jones, a morphine addict
07:09 living in squalor.
07:10 Jones tells Sheldon the story of when he was in the American South and found himself on
07:14 the base of a nuclear test site.
07:16 He remembers a scientist rushing towards him, yelling.
07:18 At first, he assumed that it was just some angry guy warning him to not fall into a nearby
07:22 trench.
07:23 This was until a gamma bomb went off, and the scientist saved his life by pushing him
07:26 to safety.
07:27 Of course, we know that that scientist was Bruce Banner, and that this is the story of
07:31 the Hulk gone sour.
07:32 The gamma blast bombards Banner with radiation, and instead of becoming the Jade Giant, he
07:36 gets the realistic effect of radiation, and that is extreme cancer.
07:40 The Hulk is shown standing above Rick Jones, pulsating with tumours and eventually bursting.
07:45 Even more disturbing, Rick suggests that the scientist was still alive when he was taken,
07:48 and is under observation in a government facility to this day.
07:52 And not even Jones seems to have gotten out of this sacrifice safe, as it's implied
07:56 that he now has debilitating cancer that has forced him into his morphine addiction.
08:00 Number 2.
08:01 Ghost Rider Lighting His Head on Fire
08:03 Sheldon travels to Nevada to visit a carnival that has reports of superhuman activity.
08:08 Here he finds Johnny Blaze, known as St. Johnny around these parts.
08:11 St. Johnny has a very special trick, the nature of which Sheldon does not exactly know.
08:15 In mainstream Marvel continuity, Johnny Blaze is the alter ego of Ghost Rider, but in this
08:19 reality, he's just a stuntman who becomes a more horrific version of the character.
08:24 It slowly dawns on Sheldon what Johnny is about to do when he rides out on his motorcycle,
08:28 and the reporter can see the deep scars on his face.
08:30 Blaze dowses his head in gasoline, sets it alight, and rides his motorcycle out to the
08:34 stunt course.
08:35 This particular time, though, St. Johnny never returns, as his motorcycle rides on with him
08:40 dead at the handlebars.
08:41 The art really sells the horror of what is happening, and you can't help but cringe
08:44 in pain at what you see.
08:46 Despite the fact that he never speaks, you can feel the desperation of St. Johnny, believing
08:49 he has to be this version of himself.
08:51 It's all very unsettling.
08:53 And Number 1.
08:54 Spider-Man Starts the Spider Plague
08:56 Peter Parker is supposed to be Spider-Man.
08:58 He's supposed to be the definitive hero of the Marvel Universe, but in the Ruins universe,
09:03 he is decidedly not that.
09:05 His story starts off similarly, though.
09:07 Peter Parker is a science student working at the Daily Bugle to pay for his college
09:10 tuition, when he makes a terrible mistake and is accidentally bitten by an irradiated
09:15 spider.
09:16 Instead of gaining superhuman abilities, though, he becomes patient zero of a newly created
09:19 spider plague.
09:20 The art here is truly gruesome.
09:22 Scars line Peter's body, horribly disfiguring them.
09:25 And there is one panel in particular that has Peter terrified, cowering on the streets,
09:29 suffering towards his inevitable demise.
09:31 The Spider-Man we know and love has fought his whole career to fight against the spider
09:35 menace, label that J. Jonah Jameson has given him.
09:38 But in this reality, he truly is the menace that he's made out to be.
09:41 And it's with this ending that we finally see why Phil Sheldon has been so painstakingly
09:45 researching this book.
09:46 He was Peter's co-worker at the Bugle, and caught the virus before Peter knew it was
09:50 contagious.
09:51 Sheldon's contempt for Peter's foolishness is clear, and in the final page of Ruins,
09:55 Sheldon uses his final thoughts to condemn the would-be hero.
09:59 And there we go, my friends.
10:00 Those were the most disturbing scenes in Marvel Comics' Ruins.
10:02 It'd be wrong for me to say, "I hope you enjoyed that," but I hope that you got
10:06 something from this.
10:07 But if you want to chat to me further, you can do so over on Twitter @RetroJWithA0, or
10:11 you can swing by Liv and Let's Dice, where I do all of my streaming outside of work,
10:15 and it'd be great to see you over there.
10:17 But before I go, I just want to say one thing.
10:18 We dealt with a lot of dark and depressing content in today's list, but I want to end
10:22 things on a note of positivity, and I hope that you're treating yourself well with
10:25 love and respect, my friend, because you deserve all of the best things in life, alright?
10:29 And do not let anything or anyone else tell you otherwise.
10:32 Sometimes it can be very hard to see the goodness in humanity, especially with all of the events
10:35 going on right now.
10:37 But if you start with a bit of self-care and self-love, then it is so much easier to go
10:40 out there with love in your heart instead of hate, and build bridges instead of burning
10:45 them.
10:46 Because at the end of the day, that is the only way we're going to move forward as
10:47 a society, and that is together.
10:50 So love yourself and your neighbor.
10:51 As always, I've been Jules, you have been awesome.
10:54 Never forget that.
10:55 I'll speak to you soon.