History Main / ExpendableClone

* ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlackTheSeries'' plays this [[PlayedForLaughs for comedy value]] with the Quick-Clones, which are explicitly expendable clones, meant for short-term uses, and even if they aren't killed, melt into goo after a few hours. [[IAmWhatIAm They don't seem to mind their short lifespan, though]]; in one episode, a group of them play basketball after their job was done, saying that their lifespan is too short to worry about much.

* ''ComicBook/TheAvengersKurtBusiek'': Vision becomes angry and resentful after Wonder Man's resurrection because Vision's mind is based on that of Simon. Jazz, literature, chess... everything he likes comes from him. He could dismiss it and be his own person while Simon was dead, but now that he's alive, he feels like he's expendable.
* In ''ComicBook/Flashpoint1999'', Vandal Savage creates clones of Wally West to figure out the key to Barry's speed, but later deems them expendable enough to destroy.
* Inverted in ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': The title character has several clones made of himself, on account of the venerable bloodline of Judge Fargo from whom they all originate. Hearing that there's a whole ''seven'' on the way - not nearly all of whom ever seen on-screen, at that - he concludes that he himself is expendable. He doesn't mind much: it just means that should something happen to him, the city remains in good hands.

* In Creator/AlejandroJodorowsky's ''ComicBook/{{Megalex}}'', The police clones are terminated after living for four hundred days, the limit enforced by explosive control tabs implanted at the base of their skulls. This is done to prevent them being infected by dissidents. The clones are filed into a large room like a group show, made to strip, disinfected to allow more efficient recycling, and then their control tabs are detonated. The allusions to concentration camps are obvious. One of the protagonists, Ram, is an escaped police clone.
* ComicBook/{{MODOK}} creates clones of himself in order to generate a steady supply of backup organs.
* Zigzagged with Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man. His mutant power is [[MesACrowd creating duplicates of himself]], which become more independent the longer they are separate. In one series of ''ComicBook/XFactor'', in which Madrox is the lead character, the duplicates embody aspects of Jamie's personality at random. Jamie usually regards the duplicates as extensions of himself, but occasionally as independent people depending on circumstances. The duplicates themselves, however, are all over the map on how they think of him, themselves and each other.

** Said super villain also has a team called the Marauders. Being an EvilutionaryBiologist in a comic book world, he naturally keeps their DNA ready to print out new ones in case one dies. Pretty much every member has had multiple deaths. An interesting case is Vertigo: she's originally a Savage Land Mutate, and the Mutates are {{Anti Villain}}s and even {{Anti Hero}}es these days. Meanwhile, the Marauders are AxCrazy mass killers. When Vertigo is found among the Savage Land Mutates, she's not so bad even if you can't be 100% sure you'll still be on the same side by the end. When Vertigo is found among the Marauders, ''run.'' It's not been stated outright, but apparently there are ''permanently'' two of her, each a mainstay of her team. Also, there's Prism. His power is to redirect energy, making a hero's energy blasts (or even ambient light) his weapon. But his body is made of glass, or something that looks like it and is just as fragile. He is ''shattered'' in every encounter. No one is sure if he is capable of PullingHimselfTogether or if Sinister is having to make a new Prism over and over and over and over and...

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[[quoteright:350:[[WebAnimation/{{Eddsworld}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/20240331_014101_collage_4.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[Main/PreferableImpersonator The last one was not a clone.]]]]

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': [[ProfessionalKiller the Foreigner]] did a variation of this (that combined the Trope with WeHaveReserves) before ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'' with his super-agents, and the project was picked up by Justin Hammer after he took over the Foreigner's organization. The villain would pay mercenaries to undergo enhancements that gave them super-powers, not mentioning that these treatments made them so utterly loyal that they'd activate a self-destruct mechanism in their armor if they were in danger of failure or capture by authorities. If that happened to one of them, his memories and personality would be downloaded into the next volunteer to receive the treatment, replacing previous ones. Thus, the next one would know any information learned by his predecessor, ''including'' every past failure and death. (The idea was to help them avoid whatever mistakes had led to them.)

** Calvin intentionally creates a duplicate to do tasks that he doesn't want to do, like clean his room. Predictably, the duplicate doesn't want to do them either, and runs off to misbehave, knowing the original will get all the blame. A few clones later, it turns out Calvin ''really'' doesn't get along with himself, and ends up turning them all into worms (but, as Calvin knows, this makes them happy, because now they're gross). Later, Calvin creates a ''good'' duplicate of himself that doesn't mind doing his chores, but ends up driving Calvin crazy anyway by trying to be nice to Suzie. Calvin and his good copy get so mad at each other that they get into a fight, since fighting is bad, the good duplicate self-destructs in a LogicBomb. Hobbes comments on the irony that even Calvin's ''good'' version is prone to doing bad.

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/38670549 Under Moonlight]]'' plays with this. After one of WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom's [[MesACrowd ghostly duplicates]] is captured by Walker, he considers cutting his losses, noting that ''he'' technically hasn't lost anything and is still free... while knowing his kidnapped self is terrified of him reaching that same conclusion. Rescuing and reconverging with his stolen side means being flooded with all the memories of his imprisonment. Then another duplicate disappears, and he can't figure out what happened to them... and when he learns the truth, [[spoiler:chooses not to rescue himself so he doesn't have to remember being tortured and dissected by his own parents]].

* Played with in the ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' episode [[Recap/FarscapeS03E06EatMe Eat Me]]. The characters who have themselves "twinned"[[note]]a process that literally turns one person into two people rather than having an original and a clone[[/note]] and then one copy is killed insist on this for their own sanity. They then try ''very'' hard not to think about it when both John Crichtons end up staying with the crew and both clearly have equal claim to be real (they end up acting more like brothers than anything). When one of the Crichtons does end up dying several episodes later they mourn him like any other crew member.

--->Sinker: "We're just clones, sir. We're meant to be expendable"
--->Plo Koon: "Not to Me"

The tendency of characters to treat clones and other {{Doppelganger}}s as [[WhatMeasureIsANonhuman expendable]], often to the point of [[ImmortalLifeIsCheap killing them casually]] because [[GoodThingYouCanHeal they can be replaced]] [[WeHaveReserves with reserves]], or, in cases where there is an original version of the entity, it's the only one that 'matters'.

Occasionally, both clone and original will have a deep-seated loathing akin to ThereCanBeOnlyOne. May be justified if the clones are [[CameBackWrong naturally]] {{Empty Shell}}s or [[TheSoulless soulless and psychotic]]. This is often a justification for using a CloneArmy.