So I was reading back over the comics, and I get to the Pass: Part 3, and it's that part. Now, what I wanna talk about, I'm putting under a cut, because this is some sick shit, so, if you're easily disturbed or squicked by blood, guts, torture, etc, this is not the post you want to read, especially given the comic panel I'm posting under here.
So, Cougs wanders down into the tunnel and finds this:
This is Max's former lieutenant. This man was so dedicated to Max's cause that it took Fahdil (Aisha's father) doing this to him before he talked.
This shows just what the Losers were dealing with. People so far gone in their ideals and beliefs and own methods that they're willing to torture someone to this point, to leave him a walking, talking skeleton. They've dealt with all forms of fucked up, but this is nightmare territory, and of all the people to find him, it's Cougar.
This is a man whose life is well and truly over. He knows it, and he begs Cougar to kill him. The first words he speaks are "Kill me".
He knows Max is going to wipe him off the face of the planet for talking, and he's welcoming a possible merciful end that he probably never thought would come, not with Fahdil's men keeping him alive and in captivity. It gave Fahdil an edge in dealing with Max.
That's why Fahdil had to die. He had leverage in this prisoner. This man had his flesh flayed, an eyeball dug out, his lips cut from his face, the cartilage of his nose removed and left, bare and open, mucous membranes left open and exposed to the air (and if you've ever held your eyes open until they start to burn, or had your nostrils burn from the air being far too dry, take that and multiply it to a constant feeling in your eye socket or open nostrils).
His gums are bleeding from where they've yanked teeth, and his eye socket's still weeping, as well. It even looks as though they may have done something with his tongue.
You're looking at the face of a man who, if he survives, will know nothing but pain and isolation. He can't go back to his family and friends, and with the extensive level of injuries and scar tissue, the likelihood of having anything that resembles a normal face that functions is damn near impossible.
There's no muscle on some areas, no skin to even graft to, extensive nerve  damage due to the jagged, ripped edges of flesh.
Basically, this is fucking heartwrenchingly flawless. Yes, it's fucked up, and yes, it's sick and vile but it's fucking realistic, and it hurts to even think about someone being in that situation, but that's how it's supposed to hit you. This man isn't presented as a monster so much as someone who's been so broken down that now death is the only way to end the torment.
So a big fuck you/thank you to Diggle and Jock for making a series that soundly rips your heart out in ways you didn't think possible. I've never loved or hated a single moment in comics as much as I did this one.