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Netflix’s Stranger Things series rushed past the aftermath of one hero’s death, but a new comic reveals what that fallen friend meant to one family.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Stranger Things: The Tomb of Ybwen #1, on sale now.
Bob Newby joined the world of Stranger Things during the show’s sophomore season and quickly won the hearts of many fans, as well as the characters on the show. However, being drawn into the mysterious and often dangerous events surrounding the town of Hawkins can be lethal. Bob was tragically struck down by the Demidogs while trying to escape a government facility. The characters were grief-stricken but did not get much time to process this due to the death happening late within the season. But in Season Three, the show largely skipped over the aftermath of losing Bob.
However, Stranger Things: The Tomb of Ybwen #1, by Greg Pak, Diego Galindo, Francesco Segala and Nate Piekos, gives readers an insight into the pain that Bob’s death brought to the Byers family not too long after his passing.
This story begins with Will recalling Bob’s advice to stand his ground and overcome his fears. At the time, Will believed the advice was ill-suited to his situation, but this was the first moment where Will began to warm up to Bob and form a genuine attachment to him. Unfortunately, that advice led to Will’s corruption at the hands of the Mind-Flayer. Still, Bob’s support of him won Will over in a way that he never really understood. And his death greatly affected Will in the following months.
Following everything he had been through and lost, he wasn’t sad about losing Bob; he was angry. Bob was quickly on his way to becoming a permanent part of the Byers family, a father figure that Will had been deprived of when his own father left their family. And when Will lost Bob, he was angry because Bob left all of them. As this issue reveals, this was eating him up more than even his closest friends realized.
But Will wasn’t the only one in mourning. His mother, Joyce, had been in a relationship with Bob when he died. In fact, she was there when it happened, seeing the Demidog kill Bob right in front of her. The moment was as traumatizing as it was tragic, since Bob meant a lot to Joyce. He wasn’t the person who anyone expected her to date, but Bob’s sweet and supportive demeanor was something Joyce had needed for a long time. He wasn’t just a rock to support her during her darker moments, but a genuine partner who shouldered the burden of her problems.
Bob supplied that and more, being there almost every step of the way when fighting the Mind Flayer. As it was with Will, his death was still looming over Joyce by the start of the new comic. Will found her crying by herself in the kitchen. She didn’t try to hide that she wasn’t entirely okay. Since she was hiding crying while alone at home, it seems like she didn’t want to worry her children with her grief, once again trying to shoulder everything in the absence of her partner so that she could be the support that Will needed.
Although grief is a terrible experience, some good can come from it. In the absence of a loved one, stronger connections can be built with those who remain. She and Will were both in the same amount of grief over Bob and they found comfort in each other, even if they weren’t quite out of the woods just yet.
Bob Newby was not a hero in the standard mold, but he became one for the entire Byers family. He helped Joyce through some of the most dangerous moments of her life, taught Will how to be stand up for himself, and proved he was a hero in the ways that mattered, sacrificing his own life so that his family could survive.
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