History Main / ActuallyADoomBot

* Played with in the Marvel crossover ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion'', but instead of robots, it's with Skrulls, shape-shifting aliens. It begins with a character who is revealed to be a Skrull, who managed to stay undetected, and the whole story is about the paranoia of who ''else'' may be an undetectable Skrull. And then it got to the controversial ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'': the New Avengers were so damn sure that [[ComicBook/IronMan Stark]] only did the things he did because he was secretly a Skrull, and Stark suspected that [[Characters/MarvelComicsSteveRogers Captain America]]'s resistance to the Registration Act may had been because he was a Skrull... but no. ''Secret Invasion'' was not used as a ResetButton of anything, and did not organize or start any of the recent disasters. Stark and Rogers in ''Civil War'' were both themselves, Hulk in ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk'' was himself (and the creature that destroyed ''ComicBook/PlanetHulk'' to make him go in a rampage of revenge, too), [[Characters/MarvelComicsQuicksilver Quicksilver]] was himself when he stole the Terrigen crystals and started a war between ComicBook/TheInhumans and the human race, the Characters/ScarletWitch was herself in ''ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled'' (and Characters/TheWasp, who reminded her of her lost sons, too), and also in ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'' (and Quicksilver, who made her change reality, too), and so on. The Skrulls were simply in the background, trying to take advantage of the things happening, but not causing them.

* In ''VideoGame/ScottPilgrim'', The final fight with Gideon turns out to be an example. Overlaps with ClippedWingAngel in that after beating the robot, the real Gideon goes down in a single hit.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Contra}} Neo Contra]]'': Once [[BigBad Master Contra is defeated, he turns out to be a machine. The real Master Contra is actually the facility itself, Project C]].

* The return of Characters/{{Blade}}'s arch nemesis Deacon Frost was explained by him being able to create scientific doppelgangers of himself. He can create these (vampiric) copies from other characters as well, as seen in ''Comicbook/TheTombOfDracula'' where he made an evil version of Blade.

* Perhaps the most outrageous example is Marvel's "Earth A" reality, where heroes like to take vacations to the main Marvel Universe, where they tend to act in manners contradictory to their counterparts, leaving our normal heroes to clean up the mess. This includes things like ComicBook/SheHulk sleeping with the Juggernaut, or the ComicBook/YoungAvengers joining [[Comicbook/AvengersTheInitiative the Initiative]] during the Civil War. In other words, this provides a rather cheap way to retcon any previous character action that the writer disapproves of.

* Happens quite a bit with Comicbook/NickFury, who has had "Life Model Decoy" robots as a standard part of his stock-in-trade ever since he joined ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} Several 1960s stories had Nick Fury-shaped [=LMDs=] slaughtered by Characters/MarvelComicsHydra and other foes. They had little to no other function or characterization. A 1977 [[ComicBook/TheDefenders Defenders]] storyline was the first to introduce a Fury LMD with some individuality, and later that year the real Fury faced a LMD version of himself with independent thought and ambition. Since then several stories have featured [=LMDs=] with some degree of autonomy.
** In a small Marvel event ''Over the Edge'', Characters/{{The Punisher|FrankCastle}} killed Comicbook/NickFury. Later it was revealed that it had been an android.

** Even before that, ''Comicbook/SecretWarriors'' revealed that Nick's brother, Jake, was one of the first people to acquire an LMD, created by accident when he was retrieving the technology they were based on. It was that LMD that became the villainous Scorpio, while the real Jake was a deep-cover agent known only to his brother. This basically meant every post-WWII appearance by Jake prior to the reveal was actually the LMD.
* Played with in the Marvel crossover ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion'', but instead of robots, it's with Skrulls, shape-shifting aliens. It begins with a character who is revealed to be a Skrull, who managed to stay undetected, and the whole story is about the paranoia of who ''else'' may be an undetectable Skrull. And then it got to the controversial ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'': the New Avengers were so damn sure that [[Comicbook/IronMan Stark]] only did the things he did because he was secretly a Skrull, and Stark suspected that [[Characters/MarvelComicsSteveRogers Captain America]]'s resistance to the Registration Act may had been because he was a Skrull... but no. ''Secret Invasion'' was not used as a ResetButton of anything, and did not organize or start any of the recent disasters. Stark and Rogers in ''Civil War'' were both themselves, Hulk in ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk'' was himself (and the creature that destroyed ''ComicBook/PlanetHulk'' to make him go in a rampage of revenge, too), [[Characters/MarvelComicsQuicksilver Quicksilver]] was himself when he stole the Terrigen crystals and started a war between ComicBook/TheInhumans and the human race, the Characters/ScarletWitch was herself in ''ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled'' (and Characters/TheWasp, who reminded her of her lost sons, too), and also in ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'' (and Quicksilver, who made her change reality, too), and so on. The Skrulls were simply in the background, trying to take advantage of the things happening, but not causing them.

*** One reason this trick works so often is that Mysterio is a well-established [[EvilGenius technical genius.]] His robots are [[MasterOfIllusion incredibly]] [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots realistic]], so much so that in the ''ComicBook/GuardianDevil'' story arc by Creator/KevinSmith, he manages to convince ''Characters/{{Daredevil|MattMurdock}}'', the man who can [[SuperSenses hear heartbeats,]] into believing that Mysterio is dead.

* The Super-Adaptoid is an [[Characters/MarvelComicsAIM A.I.M.]]-created robot which has plagued Comicbook/TheAvengers since in 1966. Because of its PowerCopying abilities it is rather difficult to take down. A 1993 Spider-Man story had it serving as a LivingWeapon henchman and easily defeated by a BadassNormal opponent. Which interfered with developments in other titles where the Adaptoid was revealed as the DiabolicalMastermind behind the efforts of AIM to become a power player in the world stage. As an explanation the Super-Adaptoid of the Spider-Man story was retconned to an inferior copy of the original.

* {{Exploited|Trope}} and {{inverted|Trope}} by [[Characters/MarvelComicsUltron Ultron]] in his first appearance. A new villain called the Crimson Cowl is revealed to have a duplicate, and when both unmask, one is a robot, and the other is [[Comicbook/TheAvengers Avengers]] butler Edwin Jarvis. The twist is that the robot is the real one -- Ultron had hypnotized Jarvis into acting as his Doombot, and pretended he wasn't sentient to deceive both the Avengers and his own flunkies.
* [[Characters/MarvelComicsHydra Viper/Madame Hydra]] is a long-running Marvel villain who has appeared in many series. She had an out-of-character appearance in a storyline featured in ''Punisher War Journal'' #45-47 (August-October, 1992)., where she served as an ally to Characters/{{Daredevil|MattMurdock}}, Nomad, and Characters/{{The Punisher|FrankCastle}}. A year later, Gregory Wright wrote a story where it was revealed that Viper has been using look-alike "Pit-Vipers" to act in her name. The "Viper" appearing in the Punisher storyline was a rogue Pit-Viper with her own agenda.

* In one of the ''ComicBook/TheBatmanAdventures'' comics, it was revealed that the redesigned green-skinned, elfin Poison Ivy that appeared in the later episodes of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' was actually a PlantPerson created by the real Ivy to keep up appearances in Gotham while she went on the lam and shacked up with [[Comicbook/SwampThing Alec Holland]]. Disturbingly, the plant actually thought she was the real Ivy right up until the end when she fell victim to CloneDegeneration.

* The Super-Adaptoid is an [[Characters/MarvelComicsAIM A.I.M.]]-created robot which has plagued the Comicbook/TheAvengers since in 1966. Because of its PowerCopying abilities it is rather difficult to take down. A 1993 Spider-Man story had it serving as a LivingWeapon henchman and easily defeated by a BadassNormal opponent. Which interfered with developments in other titles where the Adaptoid was revealed as the DiabolicalMastermind behind the efforts of AIM to become a power player in the world stage. As an explanation the Super-Adaptoid of the Spider-Man story was retconned to an inferior copy of the original.

* In ''Manga/MegaManMegamix'', near the beginning of the ''The Greatest Enemy in History'' story arc, after Copy Mega Man foils Dr. Wily's plans, he ''shoots him in the forehead'', only for the head to start bouncing on a spring, revealing it be a robot fake. The real Wily observed the event from his Wily Capsule, shocked at how Mega Man would shoot a human.

** [[BigBad Aizen]] has lots of fun with this, using [[MasterOfIllusion Kyoka Suigetsu]] to, on two separate occasions, [[FakingTheDead fake his own death]] and [[KickTheDog trick Hitsugaya into stabbing Hinamori]].

* ''Manga/TimeStopBrave'': Bahamut blows up the King of Darkness with a fireball. Just as the heroes start celebrating, his voice echoes and reveals they only destroyed an avatar and he was in another country the whole time.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' the [=SeeD=] and their clients the Timber Resistance get the opportunity to kidnap the President of Galbadia (who at this point is thought to be the BigBad) and do so. However, this "president" is not just a decoy, but an undead construct created by [[ManBehindTheMan the Sorceress Edea]] to trick the Timber Resistance.

*** One reason this trick works so often is that Mysterio is a well-established [[EvilGenius technical genius.]] His robots are [[MasterOfIllusion incredibly]] [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots realistic]], so much so that in the ''Guardian Devil'' story arc by Creator/KevinSmith, he manages to convince ''Characters/{{Daredevil|MattMurdock}}'', the man who can [[SuperSenses hear heartbeats,]] into believing that Mysterio is dead.

** In the storyline ''ComicBook/{{Hunted}}'', it is suggested that all appearances of Kraven the Hunter since the end of ''Grim Hunt'' was actually one of his 87 clones. This seemingly includes an appearance in ''ComicBook/ScarletSpider'' where he tried to force Kaine to kill him and his appearances in ''Unbeatable Squirrel Girl'' where she tried to help him along with a HeelFaceTurn.

* In ''VideoGame/UnleashTheLight'', [[spoiler:the Squaridot who's threatening to take back George turns out to be a Squari''bot'' that the AI of Hessonite's Warship programmed while holding the real Squaridot captive. After defeating it, [[TrickBoss the AI takes over as the real boss of the Peridot DLC.]]]]

* The Super-Adaptoid is an AIM-created robot which has plagued the Comicbook/TheAvengers since in 1966. Because of its PowerCopying abilities it is rather difficult to take down. A 1993 Spider-Man story had it serving as a LivingWeapon henchman and easily defeated by a BadassNormal opponent. Which interfered with developments in other titles where the Adaptoid was revealed as the DiabolicalMastermind behind the efforts of AIM to become a power player in the world stage. As an explanation the Super-Adaptoid of the Spider-Man story was retconned to an inferior copy of the original.

* Viper/Madame Hydra is a long-running Marvel villain who has appeared in many series. She had an out-of-character appearance in a storyline featured in ''Punisher War Journal'' #45-47 (August-October, 1992)., where she served as an ally to Characters/{{Daredevil|MattMurdock}}, Nomad, and Characters/{{The Punisher|FrankCastle}}. A year later, Gregory Wright wrote a story where it was revealed that Viper has been using look-alike "Pit-Vipers" to act in her name. The "Viper" appearing in the Punisher storyline was a rogue Pit-Viper with her own agenda.
* Jamie Madrox from ComicBook/XFactor is a mutant whose power lets him [[MesACrowd make duplicates of himself]]; he was believed to be a casualty of the Legacy Virus plague, but it was discovered later that the victim was one of his duplicates. (Still later, he claims he keeps a few of them active at all times for just such an emergency.)

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/FantasticFour https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/doombot.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350: Around Doombot #758, they begin\\
[[AesopAmnesia to sense a pattern...]]]]

** The above speech references a rather bizarre invocation of this trope in the early eighties. During a meeting between Arcade and Doom in Uncanny X-Men #146, the former lights a match by striking it against the latter's armor. This upset John Byrne, the Fantastic Four writer at the time, who felt that Doom would've never let anyone get away with such a disrespectful action towards his person. Thus in Fantastic Four #258, he revealed that the Doom at the meeting was a Doombot and then had the real Doom destroy it for failing to punish Arcade.

* Happens quite a bit with Comicbook/NickFury, who has had "Life Model Decoy" robots as a standard part of his stock-in-trade ever since he joined ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} Several 1960s stories had Nick Fury-shaped [=LMDs=] slaughtered by ComicBook/{{HYDRA}} and other foes. They had little to no other function or characterization. A 1977 [[ComicBook/TheDefenders Defenders]] storyline was the first to introduce a Fury LMD with some individuality, and later that year the real Fury faced a LMD version of himself with independent thought and ambition. Since then several stories have featured [=LMDs=] with some degree of autonomy.

* Happens quite a bit with Comicbook/NickFury, who has had "Life Model Decoy" robots as a standard part of his stock-in-trade ever since he joined ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}. Several 1960s stories had Nick Fury-shaped [=LMDs=] slaughtered by ComicBook/{{HYDRA}} and other foes. They had little to no other function or characterization. A 1977 [[ComicBook/TheDefenders Defenders]] storyline was the first to introduce a Fury LMD with some individuality, and later that year the real Fury faced a LMD version of himself with independent thought and ambition. Since then several stories have featured [=LMDs=] with some degree of autonomy.
** In a small Marvel event ''Over the Edge'', ComicBook/ThePunisher killed Comicbook/NickFury. Later it was revealed that it had been an android.

* Viper/Madame Hydra is a long-running Marvel villain who has appeared in many series. She had an out-of-character appearance in a storyline featured in ''Punisher War Journal'' #45-47 (August-October, 1992)., where she served as an ally to Characters/{{Daredevil|MattMurdock}}, Nomad, and ComicBook/ThePunisher. A year later, Gregory Wright wrote a story where it was revealed that Viper has been using look-alike "Pit-Vipers" to act in her name. The "Viper" appearing in the Punisher storyline was a rogue Pit-Viper with her own agenda.

* [[Characters/SupermanBrainiacCharacter Brainiac]] usually has an excuse in being a vastly advanced A.I. that has plenty of bodies to spare. However, ''ComicBook/TheNew52FuturesEnd'' goes one step further and reveals that he is actually an EldritchAbomination whose all manifestations in canon so far have been probes sent to collect knowledge.

* And then there's Prometheus, a DC villain who was created to be a sort of anti-Batman who was so intelligent and well-trained he could almost take out the entire Justice League on his own. Except that he had long since fallen prey to VillainDecay and had been reduced to just another generic baddie who gets his butt kicked by whatever hero happens to be around. The [[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League]] miniseries ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueCryForJustice'' attempted to fix this by revealing that the real Prometheus had been in hiding since he almost killed the JLA, and the loser who kept getting kicked around all these years was an impostor, who Prometheus had killed. But now the real deal was back, ready and able to... get killed off in short order by ComicBook/GreenArrow. It was quite a waste, but not nearly the worst thing about that series.

--->'''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}:''' And how do we know you're even the real Winslow Schott? I've seen one of your robots before -- no, two of them. One here in Gotham, the other on New Krypton. And that one had a part in my world's destruction. A small part, sure, but an important one. Your work is very well made. Impossible to tell apart from real, live human beings, even with my X-Ray vision. So please. Answer Ms. Grant's questions, or else another outburst like that will lead me to believe you're one of Schott's automatons... and I'll start probing to make sure you're real.

* In the first episode of the 4th season of ''Series/TheFlash'', Clifford De Voe/The Thinker uses an android warrior, Samuroid, to lure Team Flash into pulling Barry out of the Speed Force. The robot also provides a neat way to cover the tracks. De Voe utilizes the Samuroid a few more times in the season, mainly as a means of distraction.

** ''Series/HimitsuSentaiGorenger'': The Gorangers attempt to attack or take hostage the Black Cross Fuhrer in a few episodes only for it to be revealed to be a disguised {{Mook}} or an illusion when the cloak is removed. One time they actually did attack the real Fuhrer only for him to blind them with a flash of light and escape when the cloak was ripped off. Although the final episode reveals that it wouldn't have mattered if they had successfully attacked the real Fuhrer because he is insanely strong and nearly immortal to everything except his one WeaksauceWeakness.

** In ''[[Videogame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem New Mystery]]'', the [[MeaningfulName Legion]] fought as the boss of Chapter 6x turns out to be just a clone. Marth and Co. won't fight the ''real'' Legion until 12x... where he's accompanied by an entire army of Legions. There are three 'boss' Roros with slightly higher stats, and a whole bunch of {{Mook|s}} Legions. The {{Mooks}} spawn constantly until the real one does, which could be any of the three 'boss' versions. (like Gharnef, it's random) This trope is also discussed in-story, it's implied Legion has taken this to such extremes even ''he'' doesn't know which of his clones is the real one anymore.

* ''WesternAnimation/GeorgeOfTheJungle'': One episode started with VillainOfTheWeek Dr. Gizmo being taken to prison but it turns out it was a machine. In the end, he tried the trick again but the Super Chicken distracted capturing him was another one. The real Dr. Gizmo was captured by the real Super Chicken.

** Later [[spoiler:the season 4 finale reveals that Rick ''did'' end up cloning Beth resulting in two versions of her, one that stayed behind to raise her family and one that went off to have adventures. However, both Beths believe they're the original and both of them have bombs implanted in their necks, which Rick claims would transmit the memories of the Clone Beth into the original before vaporizing the clone. The end of the episode reveals not even Rick knows which one's the original. The decision Beth made in "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS3E9TheABCsOfBeth The ABC's of Beth]]" was her forcing Rick to choose whether he wanted her to go or stay and be a part of his life. Rick intentionally removed the labels from the clone and the original then randomized them, leaving it up to chance so he wouldn't have to make the decision. Then he deleted the memory of him doing it. It's now impossible to know which is the clone and which is the original, and everyone in the family left before Rick replayed the memory because none of them care which is which.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderman'', whenever Quentin Beck/Mysterio is captured or defeated, it always turns out to be an illusion or a robotic double.

** His huge assault on the Krusty Krab at the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongebobMovieSpongeOutOfWater'' ends with him giving Mr. Krabs his last penny and sulking near the Krusty Krab sign for 20 minutes. Mr. Krabs then finds that the Plankton outside was a robot and the real Plankton was inside the penny, which Mr. Krabs put in the wall safe with the formula. Upon Krabs realizing he's been had, the robot does a victory dance.

* Frank Dux, [[BasedOnAGreatBigLie inspiration]] for the film ''Film/{{Bloodsport}}'', has claimed that the reason his stories sometimes contradict each other or cannot be verified is that he often uses doubles for public appearances, and sometimes they don't get the story straight.

* ''Webcomic/LeastICouldDo'' mocked the ''hell'' out of this trope during their CrisisCrossover parody arc: Rayne gets killed off more than once, and every time, "It's cool. Was a clone."; after a while, his roommate decides to give it a try by snapping Rayne's neck; turns out he was the ''real'' Rayne, who gets quickly replaced by a clone who spent a year [[ComicBook/FinalCrisis in a prehistoric cave with Batman]]. [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs No, really.]]

* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion1'': The "Bowser" towards the end of the game is clearly a mechanical decoy (though fairly accurate/lifelike) used by King Boo with his magitek on it. Therefore, King Boo is a ''boss'' in disguise here. This idea may very well be based on the fake Bowsers from the mainline ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' platformers.

* In the ''Spider-Man'' arcade game, all battles with Dr. Doom turn out to be against Doom's robot duplicates.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}''. In the final battle against Tighten, Megamind rescues Roxanne but is killed -- only to be revealed as Minion wearing a holographic disguise.

** There were hints that Prometheus would actually return in some form, as both his helmet (which contained most of his knowledge) and the [[{{Lobotomy}} lobotomized]] [[EmptyShell body]] of his sidekick, I.Q., were later shown to be missing. It seems like there was a plan that was regulated to an AbortedArc thanks to the ''ComicBook/New52''.

** ''Series/HimitsuSentaiGorenger'': The Gorangers come close to attacking the Black Cross Fuhrer in a few episodes only for it to be revealed to be a disguised {{Mook}} or an illusion when the cloak is removed. One time they actually did attack the real Fuhrer only for him to blind them with a flash of light and escape when the cloak was ripped off. Although the final episode reveals that it wouldn't have mattered if they had successfully attacked the real Fuhrer because his humanoid form wasn't his real body either.

** Later [[spoiler:the season 4 finale reveals that Rick ''did'' end up cloning Beth resulting in two versions of her, one that stayed behind to raise her family and one that went off to have adventures. However, both Beths believe they're the original and both of them have bombs implanted in their necks, which Rick claims would transmit the memories of the Clone Beth into the original before vaporizing the clone. The end of the episode reveals not even Rick knows which one's the original. The decision Beth made in "The [=ABC's=] of Beth" was her forcing Rick to choose whether he wanted her to go or stay and be a part of his life. Rick intentionally removed the labels from the clone and the original then randomized them, leaving it up to chance so he wouldn't have to make the decision. Then he deleted the memory of him doing it. It's now impossible to know which is the clone and which is the original, and everyone in the family left before Rick replayed the memory because none of them care which is which.]]

** Carantula is killed in episode 36 of ''Series/MashinSentaiKiramager'', only to turn up alive in the next episode where it is revealed that Yodonna had earlier used her power to split people into 5 parts on him so only one aspect of Carantula actually died while the rest merged back together. This ends up having consequences later in the series as it made him less cruel and he found it more difficult to design new monster, which leads to him betraying Yodon later.