History Main / OutsideContextHero

** Goku is this even in the first story arc. He's a character MadeOfIron making him nearly impossible to harm. Yamcha and Pilaf only came close to killing him because they caught him while he's hungry, which left him extremely weak. There are also his transformations into a Giant Ape, something ''no one'' saw coming.

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Touma Kamijou started out as a complete unknown who had the unheard of ability of [[AntiMagic Imagine]] [[PowerNullifier Breaker]]. Several villains had never heard of him and were at a complete loss to deal with him and his abilities
* In ''Literature/{{Gate}}'', the Empire was completely unprepared for the weapons and technology of modern Japan when they tried to invade it.

* In ''1632'', a whole West Virginia town is transported to that year in Thuringia during the 30 Years War. The resources of a hardscrabble coal mining town make it an immediate badass player in the war filled countryside. Imagine buckets of napalm fired from a trebuchet to break a castle siege and you get the idea. Also almost everyone in town, man and woman alike, is a hunter and pretty gun savvy. Automatic weapons and long range rifles with telescopic sights vs. wheel lock pistols is not much of a contest.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManUnlimited'', Spidey becomes one after travelling to an alien world where [[BeastMan Beast Men]] rule over humans. Mainly because he's not quite a normal human or one of the aforementioned beast men. The villains are even unable to remove his new [[NanoMachine Nanomachine]] costume (which he "borrowed" before leaving Earth) after having StrappedToAnOperatingTable despite the {{Cyberpunk}} setting.
* Terry becomes this in ''BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker'' to defeat the Joker once and for all. Joker is so used to dealing with Bruce's Batman (who is a stoic, honor bound fighter with a strict no kill policy) that he [[VillainousBreakdown loses it]] when Terry mocks and gives him a vicious ReasonYouSuckSpeech that utterly {{Deconstruct}}s him. Terry also have no problem fighting dirty and revoking the JokerImmunity.

* In ''1632'', a whole West Virginia town is transported to that year in Thuringia during the 30 Years War. The resources of a hardscrabble coal mining town make it an immediate badass player in the war filled countryside. Imagine napalm fired from a trebuchet to break a castle siege and you get the idea. Also almost everyone in town, man and woman alike, is a hunter and pretty gun savvy. Automatic weapons and long range rifles with telescopic sights vs. wheel lock pistols is not much of a contest.

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Touma Kamijou started out as a complete unknown who had the unheard of ability of [[AntiMagic Imagine]] [[PowerNullifier Breaker]]. Several villains had never heard of him and were at a complete loss to deal with him and his abilities.

* ''Film/TheAvengers2012'': The Avengers to the Chitauri's invasion force. It is made very clear that the Chitauri were expecting to simply waltz in and easily conquer the human race. Instead, their invasion is repelled in less than an hour by a team comprised of two BadassNormal soldiers, an Asgardian warrior, a guy in powered armour, a super-soldier... and the Hulk. Best summed up in TheStinger;

* ''Film/IronMan1'': There was nothing like Tony's power armor before he burst out of his captives' hideout using an extremely flawed prototype. When he did perfect the Iron Man design, he easily beats up a gang of terrorists and out-flies the US Air Force. It took someone stealing his technology just to match him. In the [[Film/IronMan2 sequel]], Tony uses his outside context status to deter terrorists and other hostile forces.

* ''Manga/DeathNote'': Light is the definition of a VillainProtagonist and can easily be seen as an OutsideContextVillain. In either case, Light has a huge advantage over his enemies since he can kill them using a notebook if he has their real names and the world at large is ignorance or don't believe in the supernatural. The early part of the series is L just trying to figure out how Kira is killing people.

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* ''Film/IronMan'': There was nothing like Tony's power armor before he burst out of his captives' hideout using an extremely flawed prototype. When he did perfect the Iron Man design, he easily beats up a gang of terrorists and out-flies the US Air Force. It took someone stealing his technology just to match him. In the [[Film/IronMan2 sequel]], Tony uses his outside context status to deter terrorists and other hostile forces.

* ''Film/RoboCop'': After Murphy is rebuilt into a cyborg, he spends most of the film relentlessly haunting and taking down criminals in Old Detroit. Robo Cop is so beyond anything they have ever experienced that they're completely helpless before him and he takes down the drug lords who murdered him without taking any damage. A newscaster in the movie compared it to a comic book hero coming to life. It takes the criminals gaining access to military weapons and help from the big number two at OCP just to slow Robo Cop down.

* The titular ''Franchise/Gundam'' are often this in their respective series, [[SuperPrototype proving that much more advanced then anything else]].

** Toph become this after she learns how to metal bend, something no thought was even possible.

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* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Because of the nature of the series, the protagonists are often out of context to the worlds and times they travel to. The Doctor is also a HumanAlien on top of being a [[TimeTravel time traveler]].

* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'': Despite his name being the in title, Captain Planet and to a lesser extent the Planeteers themselves are completely out of context. We have a group of five kids with magical rings that can control the elements and a person's heart who can summon a super hero who rivals SilverAge Superman, against regular humans. Even the villains who are mad scientists and mutants don't stick out as much as them and most villains have no clue how to handle the Planeteers, let alone Captain Planet. Gaia is even ''worse'' since she is the spirit of the freak Earth. Only other god-like beings can even considering challenging her.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': The titular Gargoyles are out of context because they are not only creatures who are stone by day and warriors by night, but they are also from medieval times. They were under a spell that made them sleep for a thousand years before waking up in mid-90s New York where they are the only supernatural creatures around (at least early on). Outside of Xanatos and Demona, most of their earlier enemies were at a lost dealing with them.

* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'': The heroes when they arrive in any time period that they're not native to, especially since they can do magic, something that has been lost for generations, and another member is a robot from the distance future. The main characters being completely out of context is what lead them to defeat the Reptiles in 60 million BC and Magus in 600 AD. Their one big defeat happens because they ''aren't'' out of context to the people of Zeal since they can do magic, have technology that rivals those in Robo's time, and Magus is there to warn them about the heroes before they even arrive in the time period.

* ''Film/RoboCop'': After Murphy is rebuilt into a cyborg, he spends most of the film relentlessly haunting and taking down criminals in Old Detroit. Robo Cop is so beyond anything they have ever experience that they're completely helpless before him and he takes down the drug lords who murdered him without taking any damage. A newscaster in the movie compared it to a comic book hero coming to life. It takes the criminals gaining access to military weapons and help from the big number two at OCP just to slow Robo Cop down.

* By the end of the ''Film/TheMatrix'', Neo evolves into a Matrix-warping super being like none have seen before. He can fight off and even ''kill'' an agent with ease, something that is thought to be impossible. Once he's finish with Agent Smith, the other two agents can only [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere run]]. In the sequels, the agents fair better, but they're still completely outmatched by Neo.

** Luffy does it again during his battle against Eneru. Before Eneru met Luffy, he was completely unbeatable and most of his fights ended in a curb stomp. That is because Eneru had the Rumble Rumble Fruit that made him into living lightning. The fruit is so powerful that it is ''classified'' as unbeatable. However, since Luffy is a rubber man, he is completely immune to lightning. Even better, rubber doesn't even exist on Skypiea, so Luffy is also an out of context material. Eneru had no clue that a foe like Luffy could exist. The face he makes when he realizes that Luffy isn't affected by his powers is priceless.

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'' Commander Shepherd is seen as this to the Leviathans and the Reapers. According the the Leviathans, in the billion-year history of the Reaper's cycles, neither they nor the Reapers have ever encountered an opponent like Shepherd. In that history, Shepherd is the only entity the Reapers have ever feared. It is not exactly clear how Shepherd is out of context to the Reapers, but that's primary because they are an EldritchAbomination and Shepherd is only one in any cycle to lead to the destruction of a Reaper and constantly screwing their plans.

** Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates tend to be an outside context-foe for the pirate-marine conflict as a whole. A key element of the setting is that the world had mostly settled into a political stalemate decades ago ([[TheDarkTimes if not centuries]]), to the point where nearly everyone follows certain rules without even considering other possibilities. So when the Straw Hats come along with no regard for anything but their personal goals, people tend to be taken by surprise. The marines aren't sure what to do about people who aren't afraid of [[GodzillaThreshold Buster Calls]] and the sheer force of the government, and pirates have no experience dealing with people who cannot be intimidated or bribed, or will take a personal stake in a conflict that predated them. Even the more chaotic or maverick pirate crews are consistently surprised about what expectations the Straw Hats will betray.

** When Luffy started his pirate career in East Blue, he was an out-context foe for both pirates and the marines. Devil Fruits in the Blues are so rare that they are often believed to be mere myth and those who do have powers are seen as demons and monsters. So when Luffy, a rubber man, came along able to deflect bullets and absorb blunt blows without taking any damage, most of his early enemies didn't know what to do except for Buggy and Arlong, both who sailed the Grand Line where Devil Fruit users are more common.