History ConservationOfNinjutsu / ComicBooks

** In a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwcQY-d0I_g Flash vs. Quicksilver]] video, Flash and Quick seem to be running and fighting at the same speed. Finally, Flash gets pissed ''and circumnavigates the globe in a few seconds'' to lay the final blow.

* One ''Comicbook/TheFlash'' storyline had a Speed Force enhanced bunch of Ninja going up against various Flashes and other speedsters. They realized almost too late that the more ninja they took out of the action, the faster the others were getting...

* Played with in a recent ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' comic where Kingpin faces the heroes with an army of ninjas (more Ninjas then usual, according to one kid). During the fight, Molly (a superstrong girl who was very upset about punching Punisher, who had no powers to protect him, and had sworn off fighting anyone without powers) asks if ninjas had powers so she could fight them. She is given the answer, that, because they were ninjas, they counted as double, the implication being that heroes in the Marvel universe cut loose when fighting ninjas.

* ''GIJoe'' often uses this trope, especially when dealing with the feuds between various Ninja-clans associated with either the team or the Cobra. Good example from America's Elite #26, where Snake-Eyes and Scarlett battle several ''dozens of mook-ninja's'' with great success. When nasty bad guy Firefly tries to escape, Scarlett tells Snake-Eyes to "Go, I'll take care of these losers", even though there are still at least a dozen left. Of course, the battle between Snake-Eyes and Firefly is epic in every regard. During the original Marvel run, issue #91, when Larry Hama was still writing the script, there was a slightly more plausible version, where Snake-Eyes, Scarlett, Jinx and Timber face-off about twenty Red Ninja's. First sixteen go down easily, whereas the last four manage to cause grievous wounds to both Scarlett and Jinx and even cut up Snakes a bit, before going down.

* Some supervillains have discovered, to their misfortune, that this cuts both ways. Juggernaut vs an entire team of Comicbook/{{X-Men}}? A city-wrecking battle in which the individual X-Men are injured, trains are derailed and buildings fall down. Juggernaut '''and''' Black Tom vs Cyclops? Cyclops runs rings around them while his internal monologue digresses about military history. Total property damage: One exploding pickup truck.

* The [[BatFamilyCrossover X-books X-over]] "Second Coming" was made of this trope and BadassDecay. One Nimrod class sentinel nearly wipes out the combined X-men and Hellfire Club. [[spoiler: An army of them is nearly cannon fodder.]] Not to mention a combined force of [[spoiler: Bastion, Stephen Lang, Bolivar Trask, William Stryker, Graydon Creed and Cameron Hodge]] getting taken out.

* The Wrecking Crew embody this trope since their leader the Wrecker splits the power of his magical crowbar among the Crew. The Wrecker by himself is usually a serious threat. He has given a (weakened) Thor the fight of his life and later held his own against the New Avengers. The Wrecking Crew, DependingOnTheWriter, are either serious threats or joke villains. They can go anywhere from being able to beat down [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules Hercules]] to struggling with the [[ThePunisher Punisher]] to getting [[CurbStompBattle curb stomped]] by the ComicBook/{{Runaways}}. The Wrecker is [[GenreSavvy actually aware]] of this trope, but [[ContractualGenreBlindness willingly splits his power anyway]] since the Crew, [[TheStarscream occasional treachery]] from the team's EvilGenius aside, is like family to the Wrecker.

* [[InfiniteCrisis The O.M.A.C. Project]] does this with the ComicBook/{{OMAC}} units; a single O.M.A.C. is a formidable enemy for {{Superman}}, two O.M.A.C.s were formidable enemies against Franchise/{{Batman}} and [[BadassNormal Sasha]] [[ActionGirl Bordeaux]], three were completely obliterated by Rocket Red [[TakingYouWithMe detonating himself]], and nearly a million O.M.A.C.s were taken out by an ElectroMagneticPulse.

* Repeatedly invoked by multiple superheroes when they face a large gang of {{Mooks}}. {{Spider-Man}}, Franchise/{{Batman}}, CaptainAmerica and ThePunisher have all been surrounded by assorted groups of street thugs, ninjas, terrorists, convicts, etc., and almost always come out on top. Another variation on this trope was used in an early Spider-Man comic where three police officers burst in to help Spider-Man against a large gang of thugs. The cops are almost as effective against the overwhelming number of hoods as Spider-Man himself.

* Played straight during ''InfiniteCrisis'' with Superboy-Prime: he tears through the gathered teams of Doom Patrol, the Teen Titans and the Justice Society with ease, but is easily spirited away by the Flashes save for the Golden Age one. Later on, he battles an army of Green Lanterns, killing nearly 50 of them, only to be stopped and put down by the Golden Age and Modern Age Supermen. Conner Kent, who is nowhere near as strong as Superman can fight him a lot longer mano e mano than anyone can during a dogpile.

* SpiderMan also has this habit to a lesser extent. He has fought the ComicBook/FantasticFour and ComicBook/{{X-Men}} more than once and holds his own rather well despite the fact that individual members can and have done well against the wall-crawler in one-on-one fights.

* The Wrecking Crew embody this trope since their leader the Wrecker splits the power of his magical crowbar among the Crew. The Wrecker by himself is usually a serious threat. He has given a (weakened) Thor the fight of his life and later held his own against the New Avengers. The Wrecking Crew, DependingOnTheWriter, are either serious threats or joke villains. They can go anywhere from being able to beat down [[IncredibleHercules Hercules]] to struggling with the [[ThePunisher Punisher]] to getting [[CurbStompBattle curb stomped]] by the ComicBook/{{Runaways}}. The Wrecker is [[GenreSavvy actually aware]] of this trope, but [[ContractualGenreBlindness willingly splits his power anyway]] since the Crew, [[TheStarscream occasional treachery]] from the team's EvilGenius aside, is like family to the Wrecker.

* TheHulk personifies this trope; he can spend an entire comic battling one superhero or villain, but when faced with the entire army of them then he takes them out like flies.
** This has consistency, because the Hulk's powers increase proportionately according to his anger, which will match the numbers against him.
*** Not to mention the fact when The Hulk fights one-on-one he is usaully fighting someone with similiar powers as him such as Juggernaut or The Abomination. When fighting mass groups they are usually just cannonfoddlers.
*** Conversely if Hulk is on a team, he never seems to pull out quite the same levels of power/rage.
** SpiderMan also has this habit to a lesser extent. He has fought the ComicBook/FantasticFour and ComicBook/{{X-Men}} more than once and holds his own rather well despite the fact that individual members can and have done well against the wall-crawler in one-on-one fights.
*** This has been averted in SpiderMan's battle with the Sinister Six. He tends to defeat them only if he manages to get them into one-on-one battles, he pits them against one another, he has outside help from one or more allies, or a combination thereof.
**** It's also been stated that SpiderMan tends to make a point of holding back whenever possible, starting with gentle taps and then delivering increasingly powerful strikes until the enemy finally gives up (so that he doesn't accidentally commit manslaughter by misjudging how durable a target is). When facing groups such as the Sinister Six he generally stops holding back; the villains then drop quickly because Doctor Octopus can't take a punch the way Sandman can.

** The trope was later somewhat {{Justified|Trope}} in a ''Wolverine'' comic "...[the {{mooks}}] have to be careful they don't chop one of their own by mistake. While I can hit anyone I please."

* Guile in a BarBrawl with all the rowdy drunks inside in the [[ComicBook/MalibuComicsStreetFighter Malibu Street Fighter comic]].

* It was completely averted in ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'': Paperinik is skilled enough to defeat a dozens or so Evronians, but when there are too many of them he'll have to flee or need to be rescued. Xadhoom [[DefiedTrope defies]] this, since [[PhysicalGod it doesn't really matter if you attack her with one soldier or with three entire battlefleets]].
* Averted during ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'' as the Scarlet Spider is nearly overran by dozens upon dozens of Spider-Clones and the only reason they're defeated is because the suffer CloneDegeneration.

* [[InfiniteCrisis The O.M.A.C. Project]] does this with the {{OMAC}} units; a single OMAC is a formidable enemy for {{Superman}}, two OMACS were formidable enemies against Franchise/{{Batman}} and [[BadassNormal Sasha]] [[ActionGirl Bordeaux]], three were completely obliterated by Rocket Red [[TakingYouWithMe detonating himself]], and nearly a million OMACS were taken out by an ElectroMagneticPulse.

* It was completely averted in PaperinikNewAdventures: Paperinik is skilled enough to defeat a dozens or so Evronians,but when there are too many of them he'll have to flee or need to be rescued.Xadhoom [[DefiedTrope defies]] this, since [[PhysicalGod it doesn't really matter if you attack her with one soldier or with three entire battlefleets]].

* Averted during ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'' as the Scarlet Spider is nearly overran by dozens upon dozens of Spider-Clones and the only reason they're defeated is because the suffer CloneDegeneration

* On the subject of Doomsday, this trope tends to work in his favor as well, especially with those who uses him right - he's trashed two iterations of the JusticeLeague, an iteration of the SuicideSquad and, in his early days, mowed through an army of Green Lanterns. He's practically ground to a halt when Superman steps in.

* It was completely averted in PaperinikNewAdventures: Paperinik is skilled enough to defeat a dozens or so Evronians,but when there are too many of them he'll have to flee or need to be rescued.Xadhoom [[DefiedTrope defies]] this,since it really doesn't matters if you attack her [[PhysicalGod with one soldier or with one entire army.]]

** Which creates quite a bit of FridgeLogic - why bother to clone Doomsday in the first place if the clones are weak enough to be taken out by a non-powered human with an axe? Ordinary Parademons - of which Darkseid seems to have a limitless supply - would have done a better job.
*** Cause they're stronger and have claws? As long as they're attacking they'd have an advantage

* {{Justified|Trope}} by the ''Wolverine'' comic "...[the {{mooks}}] have to be careful they don't chop one of their own by mistake. While I can hit anyone I please."

* Played straight during ''InfiniteCrisis'' with Superboy-Prime: he tears through the gathered teams of Doom Patrol, the Teen Titans and the Justice Society with ease, but is easily spirited away by the Flashes save for the Golden Age one. Later on, he battles an army of Green Lanterns, killing nearly 50 of them, only to be stopped and put down by the Golden Age and Modern Age Supermen.

* The Hand, a group of elite ninja in MarvelComics, is almost nothing but cannon fodder. The willingness to die seems to be more important in membership consideration than skill, considering how many hundreds (perhaps thousands) of these guys characters like {{Wolverine}} and ComicBook/{{Elektra}} have waded through. These were, at least in part, the inspiration for the Foot Clan, below.
* {{Justified|Trope}} by the {{Wolverine}} comic "...[the {{mooks}}] have to be careful they don't chop one of their own by mistake. While I can hit anyone I please."
* One ''{{Flash}}'' storyline had a Speed Force enhanced bunch of Ninja going up against various Flashes and other speedsters. They realized almost too late that the more ninja they took out of the action, the faster the others were getting...

* {{Daredevil}}:

* {{Justified|Trope}} when {{Superman}}, Franchise/{{Batman}}, and [[WonderWoman The Amazons]] faced an army of Doomsday clones. Doomsday's clones don't inherit his invulnerability, nor his regeneration, reducing them to [[OneHitPointWonder one hit point wonders]]. The army is taken out with heat vision and exploding batarangs.

* Played straight during ''InfiniteCrisis'' with Superboy-Prime: he tears through the gathered teams of Doom Patrol, the Teen Titans and the Justice Society with ease, but is easily spirited away by the Flashes save for the Golden Age one. Later on, he battles an army of Green Lanterns, killing nearly 50 of them, only to be stopped and put down by the Golden Age and Modern Age Superman.

*** Not to mention SpiderMan's battle with the Sinister Six. One of those villians tend to give SpiderMan a hard time yet he has hold his own against a group of them.

* The Hand, a group of elite ninja in MarvelComics, is almost nothing but cannon fodder. The willingness to die seems to be more important in membership consideration than skill, considering how many hundreds (perhaps thousands) of these guys characters like {{Wolverine}} and {{Elektra}} have waded through. These were, at least in part, the inspiration for the Foot Clan, below.