The Pitt

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The Pitt is a 1988 one-shot comic published by Marvel Comics under the New Universe imprint. Published in March, 1988, though set in December, 1987. It describes the total destruction of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania due to the careless actions of the wielder of the Star Brand, and the immediate 12-hour aftermath. The story set about numerous changes and set off a chain of events that would last until the line's cancellation.

Tropes used in The Pitt include:

• Action Girl: Jenny Swenson, aka "Spitfire".
• All There in the Manual: The story begins in Star Brand #12. Ken Connel gets powers in the "white event", and fashions himself to be a super hero. Unfortunately a Big Bad begins to intervene, and he wants to quit. He tries to rid himself of the Star Brand more safely by going to the other side of the moon, but chickens out in fear that he may become stranded and die there. Instead he tries getting rid of it 10 miles above the Earth in a flash of bright light which ends that issue and is picked back up on page 4 of The Pitt.
• Alternate World Map: The final page of the comic has a map of Pittsburgh and the limits of the destruction.
• Artistic License Geography: The family can see downtown Pittsburgh from 26 miles away. Never mind the distance issue, Pittsburgh's hills ensure that isn't possible.
• Big Dumb Object: The titular Pitt
• Everything Sensor: Somehow a radar operator can instantly tell without independent verification when a city has turned into a crater.

Technician: If I'm readin' this right, Pittsburgh just turned into a crater -- fifty miles across! Officer: Great Godawmighty! He's right!! That's the only way to interpret that image!

• Captain Obvious: The Witness, who explains everything he sees.
• The Deadliest Mushroom: From a unique vantage point.

The Witness: ...could it have been nuclear? I didn't see a mushroom cloud-- --but then again what does a mushroom cloud look like from the inside?

• Forbidden Zone: The Pitt becomes this after the end of the comic.
• Humongous Mecha: Spitfire
• Idiot Ball: Killing the reporters trying to follow the story of what happened. How exactly were they planning covering up the disappearance of one of the largest, most storied cities in America, with a metropolitan population of 1.2 million?
  • It does come back to bite them, though - when the Russians reveal the destruction in an attempt to prove they didn't attack.
• Intrepid Reporters/Red Shirt Reporters: The crew of the news helicopter.
• I See Dead People: The Witness is a ghost and then sees ghosts. They are the first beings to notice him since the White Event - unfortunately, they aren't happy.
• Madness Mantra: The dead citizens of Pittsburgh. "YOU. GUILTY. FAULT."
• Person of Mass Destruction: The unnamed man in the comic (Ken Connell in Star Brand), who is responsible.
• Punny Name: Of all the towns to be reduced to a giant pit, of course it's Pittsburgh.
• Sphere of Destruction: all that was left of Pittsburgh.
• Toxic Phlebotinum: The water in The Pitt: "Pitt Juice".
  • It is probably the reason the family survived six hours underwater in the car, and why in later comics they merge together to form the "Famileech", which thirsts for flesh.