Source: comicvine.gamespot.com

7. Father’s Day

(Vigilante #17-18, DC Comics)

Vigilante is one of those mostly forgotten street-level DC heroes. Adrian Chase is a District Attorney who takes the law into his own hands on the occasions when people slipped the bounds of legal justice.

But Alan Moore’s two issue guest spot is heart-wrenching and painful. Chase is called by a former client, a woman whose husband was put in jail after molesting their daughter. The husband is now out early, and has come for revenge, so Chase…well, gives chase.

This is not a fun story. It’s dour and brutal and emotionally raw as hell. But it is one hundred percent worth reading. When I talked about Identity Crisis, I said that I usually found that sexual assault was handled poorly in comics, but this story is by far the exception that proves the rule. It really depicts the horrible emotional confusion that can be generated by events like those in a way that is just haunting.

“Father’s Day” is a story I really don’t want to read again anytime soon, but it’s one I think every single Alan Moore fan should read (BTW: This story, like all the other DC stories on this list, is part of the DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore collection, which is totally worth its price, if it’s still in print).