History Main / HumansAreTheRealMonsters

* ''ComicBook/AvengersForever'' is a clear case in Marvel Comics; a whole story run on the premise of Time Lords trying to prevent the timelines with bad futures where humanity becomes an evil empire and conquers the universe. Then it's turned on its head at the climax, when the Avengers ask the Time Keepers how often this BadFuture comes about, and they admit it's less than 50% of the time.
* ''ComicBook/BatmanBlackAndWhite'': In "Monster Maker", Batman battles a gangster who recruits children, while reflecting that mad scientists creating scaly mutants are "kid's stuff" in comparison.
* In another Batman comic, ''ComicBook/BatmanLastKnightOnEarth'', an idealistic and somewhat amnesiac clone of Batman discovered that the general population of humanity jumped wholeheartedly into evil when given the chance. They first voted for the death of Superman in a deathtrap, then they massacre a good chunk of the Justice League and torture the original Batman into turning evil -- while they turn on the villains for some extra thrills (this was a catalyst for a number of villains like Poison Ivy and Lex Luthor to do a HeelFaceTurn) until their actions lead to a post-apocalyptic world.
* Zigzagged in ''ComicBook/{{Crossed}}'': All humans have the ''potential'' to be monsters, with the protagonist pointing out that however horrible the [[NotUsingTheZWord Infected]] are, they never do anything that ordinary humans cannot also do. Surprisingly thought-provoking for a series that's otherwise nothing but {{Gorn}}. The two sequel series confirm this; each has a non-infected human that gives the Crossed a run for their money in the sick bastard department but lacks the excuse of having caught a psycho-virus.
* In the comic book adaptation of the ''VideoGame/{{Dofus}}'' game, [[OurDemonsAreDifferent the race of Demons]] were a mostly {{Punch Clock|Villain}} Evil race, until a pair of human brothers (orphans whose parents were murdered, and spent years as victims of abuse by their peers and teachers afterward) made their way to their dimension, and introduced the Demons to such concepts of human evil as [[YouKilledMyFather murdering parents before their children]] and other such cruel torments. The Demon King was ashamed to see that humans could outdo his own kind in the ways of Evil, and ordered the brothers to train his people.
* Humans in ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' are, at first, simply The Enemy as far as the elven protagonists are concerned: cruel, [[HumansAreMorons idiotic]], ugly, superstitious and xenophobic, and they've been like this as long as any Wolfrider can readily remember. This is later qualified when greater exposure introduces them to the concept that some humans can be friendly (and the Gliders have basically a tribe of 'tame' humans living at the foot of their mountain), but by and large the elven policy remains to keep avoiding human attention where possible.
** Interestingly enough, the creators of ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' first got together when Richard Pini replied to a letter by Wendy Fletcher in ''ComicBook/SilverSurfer,'' in which she complained about that comic's supposed use of this trope. The two of them corresponded for a while before finally meeting and marrying, and the rest is history.

* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'' doesn't get treated nicely by your average citizen, and certainly not by the army. Granted, his destructive potential is immense and he has [[HairTriggerTemper a temper problem]], but the incarnation he's mostly known for is for the most part much like an animal. In fact, a lot of the destruction he causes is often because [[BullyingADragon he was provoked]]. In his Merged Hulk incarnation, he traveled to a dystopian future ruled by an evil, insane version of himself called the Maestro. There he explains his backstory and how his world came to be and how humans destroyed each other through a nuclear Armageddon. He remarks to his past self, "For as long as I remember, it was the humans that called ''us'' the monsters. In the end, they brought their own destruction. ''Me'', a monster? I wasn't even in their league".

* ''ComicBook/NemesisTheWarlock'' is all about an alien AntiHero defending his people and others against a fascistic AbsoluteXenophobe human empire.
* A ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' story featured in the 17th issue of ''ComicBook/CartoonNetworkActionPack'' had an AnimalWrongsGroup trick Jack into freeing a bunch of large and vicious animals in hopes that they would kill everyone in the city that were kept safe by caging the beasts. Jack ends up [[ShootTheDog slaughtering the creatures to prevent them from killing anyone]] and has the three insane animal rights activists locked up in the cage that once held the beasts. One of them laments the demise of the "poor beautiful monsters", causing Jack to tell the trio who remorselessly endangered an entire city that they are the ones who are monsters.
* In Creator/GrantMorrison's ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers'', it's revealed that [[TheFairFolk the cruel and vicious Sheeda]], who decimated the {{utopia}}n civilization of Camelot millions of years in the past and who are the BigBad of the series, [[spoiler:are evolved humans from the far, ''far'' future when the sun has turned into a red giant. To sustain their dying society, they plunder past civilizations.]]
* In one ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'' story, Captain Marvel travels to the very distant future of 81,953, where evolved rats rule the world and capture humans in man-traps. The humans are the remnants of those that remained when the rest of humanity left Earth for the stars, and they want to take back their world from the rats. But the rats are revealed to be a peaceful people who re-educate the humans they capture, teaching them to abhor violence and cruelty and giving them positions of trust among them when they are ready, and use the man-traps as a means of defense against the humans that are still trying to kill them. The humans of the future Earth turn out to be the real villains of this tale when they steal a nitrogen shell from the rats that would wipe out the entire Earth and try to set the weapon off just to get rid of the rats, which Captain Marvel has to stop before dealing with them.

* Handled... interestingly in ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics''. The Mobius equivalent of humans, Overlanders, were portrayed as violent thugs, [[GreenAesop more interested in conquering and destroying nature than living with it like the Mobians]]. They also waged a global war against the Mobians... which they lost. [[spoiler:Inverted in that it was a ''Mobian'' conspiracy that started the Great War. Most of the race was destroyed right after Robotnik ([[EvenEvilHasStandards who even the Overlanders viewed as a monster]]) took over.]] Later, we learn that Mobius was created [[spoiler:when humans captured, killed and dissected alien emissaries. The aliens reacted poorly to this and proceeded to use a weapon to wipe out/mutate all life on Earth]].

* In ''ComicBook/SubMarinerTheDepths'', Namor is savage and kills without remorse, but is ultimately just an inhuman entity trying to defend his home. Stein, by contrast, commits the exact same kind of acts for the infinitely more pathetic and petty reason of simply not wanting to face the fact that he was wrong.
* ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton2004'': Batman forces Darkseid to return Supergirl to the heroes by threatening to destroy his planet. Darkseid commends him on such a ruthless maneuver, stating that it was believable coming from him (and would've failed were it done by a certain Kryptonian and Amazon) because humans are renowned for killing their own kind in order to win.
* In an early issue of Creator/AlanMoore's run on ''ComicBook/SwampThing'', Jason Woodrue gains Swamp Thing's power over the Green and decides to take its revenge on animals and humans, who have been abusing plants for far too long. [[spoiler: Then Swamp Thing himself shows up and points out that, although humans do abuse nature, if humans and animals were gone, there wouldn't be anybody to convert the gases that the plants themselves needed to survive.]]
* Played with in the ''ComicBook/SwampThing'' story ''Pog'', where a group of diminutive aliens, thinly disguised versions of the characters from the classic newspaper comic ''ComicStrip/{{Pogo}}'', come to Earth looking for a new home, after their own Eden-like world was overtaken by a cruel and greedy race of ape-like creatures called "The Loneliest Animal of All", [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything who forced the other sapient animals of their world to suffer through horrible scientific testing, and murdered them for their meat among other atrocities.]] Pog is understandably devastated when Swamp Thing shows him that the Loneliest Animal already rules the new world they had found, and treats it just the same.
-->'''Pog:''' No! Not here too! ''They can't own this Lady too!!''

* Played straight and then subverted in Dreamwave's ''[[ComicBook/TransformersGenerationOne Transformers]]'' miniseries. Megatron attempts to convince Optimus Prime that as bad as the Decepticons are, humanity is even worse, as a bunch of greedy war profiteers had in fact been using some deactivated Transformer bodies as weapons for their own gain. And as if to not hammer it in enough, during the fight with the Autobots and Decepticons we can see a montage of humanity screwing each other to save their own skins while leaving everyone else to die. The following issue then has Optimus throw this in Megatron's face, as he's always known that humanity is not perfect, but there is just as much good as bad in them (cue montage of people trying to selflessly help each other during the crisis) and the former outweighs the latter.
* The main villain Lord Hikiji in the comic ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'' is the ''only'' human in a world of anthropomorphic animals. He's the reason [[spoiler:Usagi has that scar above his eye, and has no master, no father, and ninja problems]]. WordOfGod states that the author regrets showing Hikiji.
* ComicBook/{{Vampirella}} comments in a story about vampires and vampire-like creatures, and herself in particular, as mythological creatures, that while she only kills humans for food and only as much as she needs to survive, humans kill each other for innumerable petty reasons.
* ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'' has shown that while the apocalypse might have been caused by the zombies, the living people are the ones you really need to fear in the new world. While the dead are predictable and dumb, the living can be even more dangerous because you never know for sure who is good and who is bad or what they will do next. Even the main characters have done morally questionable acts and have at times crossed a line that they thought they would never go over for the sake of their survival.

* In an alternate future of ''ComicBook/WarlordOfMars'', humans have invaded Mars, driven entire species to extinction and enslaved its population. [[spoiler:When Dejah travels into their time period, they quickly find the time portal and declare its intent to reshape the timeline to their will, without considering the consequences.]]

* ''Franchise/Ben10'': Most of Ben's RoguesGallery is made up of your usual evil aliens and supernatural beings, but one of his most ruthless and darkest enemies that unnerves him the most winds up being Captain Nemesis, a totally mundane human who has no real powers, but is a cold-blooded and vindictive murderer who has no compunctions about leaving a trail of corpses in his wake in his [[AttentionWhore desperate desire for fame]]. Notably, he ends up being one of the few villains to explicitly kill another human onscreen, via murdering one of his own henchmen with a meat hook after the man outlives his usefulness.

* A ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' story featured in the 17th issue of ''Cartoon Network Action Pack'' had an AnimalWrongsGroup trick Jack into freeing a bunch of large and vicious animals in hopes that they would kill everyone in the city that were kept safe by caging the beasts. Jack ends up [[ShootTheDog slaughtering the creatures to prevent them from killing anyone]] and has the three insane animal rights activists locked up in the cage that once held the beasts. One of them laments the demise of the "poor beautiful monsters", causing Jack to tell the trio who remorselessly endangered an entire city that they are the ones who are monsters.

* In general ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' Fanfic that involves humans features this trope in one way or another. Even if the humans aren't actively malevolent, they'll still be brooding over how embarrassed they are of humanity's evil compared to that of the ponies (who are sometimes painted up by the authors as completely saintly, even though the canon itself shows that's not the case at all), or become an unwitting gateway through which evil and corruption enters the pony universe.

* Christianity states this is the whole reason for the Incarnation and Sacrifice of UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}. Paul even yells at other Christians for [[{{squick}} having sex with their stepmothers]] (1 Corinthians 5)

* [[NewAge New agers]] often believe that there are many alien races out there watching over humanity, but are withholding assistance because we're too violent and nasty to each other and aren't PerfectPacifistPeople like they are.

This is a SuperTrope to BewareTheLiving, which is this trope in the context of a ZombieApocalypse.

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14305553/16/Mr-Fixit Mr Fixit]]'': Greg Veder aka the Unknown Parahuman views the Slaughterhouse Nine as far worse than the Endbringers, despite a much lower kill count. His power lets him know that the Endbringers are either programmed or forced to attack cities (he's not sure which) and there's no emotional investment in it; they're basically just doing their jobs. But the Slaughterhouse Nine choose to commit their atrocities and openly enjoy them, including leaving behind traps for anyone trying to help in the aftermath. To a lesser extent, he feels similarly about heroes and villains in general, stating that most of them are just making the world worse, even if they don't intend to. He only does Search and Rescue work specifically because he wants help as many people as possible.

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony,'' [[spoiler:which is an actual reality show [[MetaSequel based off the now in-universe]] ''[[MetaSequel Danganronpa]]'' [[MetaSequel franchise]], and currently in its ''53rd season'' (or 50th, since it had to have started with ''Danganronpa 4'' at the earliest). The entire audience cares nothing about how everyone in the killing game felt, as they take pleasure in their misery]].
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlackTheSeries'': In a show where MIB faces hundreds of extraterrestrial threats, their biggest one is a human. More specifically, one of their former agents Alpha. His start of darkness began when he found a device that can meld beings together. After betraying K, he spends the next twenty years travelling the galaxy, removing body parts from aliens to graft them to his body. The biggest threat comes from the fact that he was one of the founders of MIB, so he has the biggest insight on how they operate. Alpha’s corruption essentially justifies why MIB should just keep TheMasquerade as well as [[TheWorldIsNotReady labelling some technology forbidden]], as humans can quickly exploit aliens and their technology.

* The secret history of ''TabletopGame/KULT'' has it so that, before being enslaved by the Demiurge, humans were once immortal, transcendent, genderless starchildren who played with reality like clay and danced about to their passionate whims. They were also ''absolute tyrants'' who created and tossed aside lesser beings after subjecting them to an endless array of delights and horrors, to the point that most other "horrors" in the night view the idea of humans breaking the Illusion and reclaiming their mantle with utter dread.