History Main / PopularityPower

* Sylar from ''Series/{{Heroes}}''. He's cheated death a half a dozen times and reached [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief belief-defying]] heights of JokerImmunity because the writers seem in love with him. Not only does he have a myriad of powers (which he can [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands increase as the plot demands]], though [[PowersAsPrograms not without some justification]]) he's survived two near fatal attacks (one of which he was originally planned to die from), escaped imprisonment three times, and Elle completely misses him twice with electric blasts when she nailed fast flyer West in one shot. In short, he's a VillainSue.

** Goku's father, Bardock, has this power. Which is why in the spinoff manga, ''[[Anime/DragonBallEpisodeOfBardock Episode of Bardock]]'', [[spoiler: he manages to transform into a Super Saiyan]]. Taken to new heights in ''VideoGame/DragonBallXenoverse2'', where stalling in a certain mission long enough leads to him [[spoiler: reaching Super Saiyan 3]].

*** The Wonder Woman scenario is even worse. Batman at first broke his knuckles punching her, which she did not even feel. Then he kicks her in the stomach, reasoning ""she has to breathe"", an attack which has much less chance of putting down a normal human, let alone a superhuman, but she is down and out. And then he is fighting the rest of her friends with few broken fingers. God...

** Or like a fan put it ""Cap is the sign of human arrogance. The humans wants to believe that this is their peak""
** Or like another fan put it, ""a sign of patriotic arrogance""

* Heroes aren't the only ones with Popularity Power. ComicBook/DoctorDoom has become a villainous equivalent of Batman who can defeat anyone (given enough "prep time" (admittedly a FAR more stable claim than Batman, but still quite ridiculous)). Despite being the villain of the story, the good doctor has gained [[DracoInLeatherPants an immense following of fans]] who believe he's capable of defeating anyone and anything, including the most powerful beings in the comic books multiverse. Given enough time to study opponents, it is said that Doom could defeat ComicBook/{{Thanos}}, ComicBook/{{Galactus}}, ComicBook/{{Magneto}}, [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk Hulk]], [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]], ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}, Franchise/{{Superman}}, Franchise/{{Batman}}, ComicBook/SilverSurfer, UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}, and even the almighty Rubik's Cube. It really is an almost endless list. Unlike many examples there is ''mildly'' more justification for this in the sense that Doom is , canonically, one the worlds best scientists ''and'' one of the worlds' best sorcerers, so using various unconventional combinations of magic and technology (as well as an entire ''nations'' worth of resources) makes the idea that Doom can properly prepare for most foes a bit more feasable than with,say, Batman. Even so, there exist really ridiculous examples of Doom being a {{God Mode Sue}}. During an arc where he teamed up with Dr. Voodoo and they battled their way across hordes of demons, Dr. Voodoo got taken down by ComicBook/GhostRider but before Ghost Rider could finish Voodoo, Doom came in and took Ghost Rider out with one punch. This is a highly dubious feat considering Ghost Rider has been shown to be able to fight toe to toe with Dr. Strange before, take some of his best attacks, and even defeat the Sorcerer Supreme after a brutal mystical fight. And of course, Doom's powers are only second best compared to Strange. Apparently, the message that the writers want to drive home is that one punch from Doom is greater than the sum of two Sorcerer Supremes put together.

---> "Yeah, that's right. Squirrel Girl totally pwns Doc Doom. Know why? '[[ArmedWithCanon Cause of somethin' that happened in a story by]] '''Steve-freakin'-Ditko'''! That's ''so'' in continuity. [[TakeThat So just deal with it, fanboy]]."

** Does the same in ''ComicBook/DeadpoolKillsTheMarvelUniverse''. He also gives an interesting speech to Wolverine about his healing factor. He states that it's incredibly fitting: the popular character has a power that makes him immune to death. Deadpool berates Wolverine because according to him, Logan doesn't live because of his skills, but because the fans love him. This may come off as hypocritical, because in that alternate universe, Deadpool managed to kill people that he should logically never be able to kill (like The Avengers, Spider-Man, Galactus, etc...). Why? Because he's just as popular as Wolverine.

** Also discussed and played with: [[spoiler: Future Gwenpool]] says that if Gwen becomes evil, she will have a long, successful comic series and could do whatever she wants. This is because the fans loved her as a villain, and her no matter how much she abuses the universe and its people, StatusQuoIsGod will be invoked and fix any damage. Our Gwen, however, rejects this future and refuses to turn evil, because she can't bare to harm all the characters she's grown to love and care about. But she's fully aware that taking away her rise to fame would prevent her from becoming a hit and keeping her book from being cancelled, likely dooming herself to one day.

** Taken to extremes in the pre-Empire novels, where he actually almost killed Mace Windu (aka [[Creator/SamuelLJackson Samuel-Motherfucking -Jackson]]) in revenge for his dad's death in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'', when he was no older than thirteen years old.

-->'''Starman''': Oh no, I've been blacklisted!

** Wonder Woman beat down Batman in [[Comicbook/TheHiketeia The Hiketeia]]. A criminal Batman was after sought sanctuary in Wonder Woman's headquarters, and Batman demanded she turn her over. Wondy said no. With her foot. In fact, Wonder Woman is a good case of SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome, as his track record against her has been slightly against him. She's a FlyingBrick with no obvious weaknesses who often sees through his ruses.

This isn't the RagtagBunchOfMisfits beating an [[TheEmpire Evil Empire]], they don't have TheAce or MarySue leading them to a last second win by [[FlawExploitation exploiting]] a WeaksauceWeakness or using a DramaPreservingHandicap, they're normal and otherwise mundane, or even notably horrible. They are however far more popular and sell merchandise far better than your team. And somehow, much like ThePowerOfFriendship, their Popularity Power gives them that added boost to take on teams far, far, ''far'' above [[SuperWeight their league]] that should logically crush them like so many naive hopes and dreams under tax returns.

* A variation on this frequently crops up in licensed roleplaying games: characters from the original canon will be given game statistics built on the presumption that such characters are ''the'' absolute best specimens of their particular niche. What begins as a hope for insurance against potential MarySue PlayerCharacters running roughshod over the continuity can easily become ludicrous when compared to the game's own stated benchmarks for mundane characters, resulting in situations where such individuals couldn't actually be challenged/threatened by scenarios faithfully reproducing their own adventures. What makes it even worse are the GameBreaker powers and ridiculously inflated abilities designers will give canon characters that are often direct violations of the rules. Players who see these stats and abilities can rather reasonably demand why ''their'' characters can't attain the same levels of power, which can put a DM in an awkward position.
** Subverted often with those same characters. While they often have overinflated levels in the skills and abilities that they demonstrate on the show, they are usually so poorly built (as are most pregenerated "example" characters) that they cannot actually handle the canon adventures they are described as undertaking successfully, nor would they last very long at all in a real campaign. Nor would any PC with a mind to clear out the overabundance of Mary Sue characters have much trouble in doing so, even at a drastically lower level.

** In a Creator/GarthEnnis crossover with Franchise/{{Wolverine}}, Punisher treats Wolverine with disdain, blasting off his face with a shotgun, then shooting him [[GroinAttack in the balls]] with the shotgun for complaining about it, then running over him with a steamroller. In some fairness, Logan was drunk.

* For Franchise/{{Wolverine}}, take for example ''ComicBook/MarvelVersusDC'', which was literally one big popularity contest. One issue had a scene in which Wolverine is able to make short work of Lobo, an alien being that gave Superman a run for his money and destroyed an entire planet, in less than four panels, simply because polls showed that his stats were higher that week. Moreover, both of them have regenerative healing, but Lobo is able to regenerate his entire body FromASingleCell if his entire body is destroyed. The best part? The final blow of the fight [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome took place off-panel]], because, apparently, ''even the writers'' couldn't figure out how Wolverine could possibly win.

* Not only does Creator/SternPinball's ''[[Pinball/XMenStern X-Men]]'' prominently feature a large Franchise/{{Wolverine}} bust on the playfield, there is also a LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition "Wolverine Blue" table with extra features and custom artwork.

** Wonder Woman beat down Batman in [[Comicbook/TheHiketeia The Hiketeia]]. A criminal Batman was after sought sanctuary in Wonder Woman's headquarters, and Batman demanded she turn her over. Wondy said no. With her foot. In fact, Wonder Woman is a good case of RealityEnsues, as his track record against her has been slightly against him. She's a FlyingBrick with no obvious weaknesses who often sees through his ruses.

** Many times the show completely subverts the trope as Batman often needs the episode's guest hero to save him, and has a times been utterly destroyed when he hasn't had any help, aside from the above with Darksied, Lex Luthor also once broke into the Batcave while armed with a suit he built to take on Superman, [[RealityEnsues and proceeds to flatten Batman while]] [[NoSell NoSelling]] [[CurbStompBattle every weapon thrown at him]].

** Wonder Woman beat down Batman in one of her issues. A criminal Batman was after sought sanctuary in Wonder Woman's headquarters, and Batman demanded she turn her over. Wondy said no. With her foot. In fact, Wonder Woman is a good case of RealityEnsues, as his track record against her has been slightly against him. She's a FlyingBrick with no obvious weaknesses who often sees through his ruses.

** The ''Franchise/StarTrek'' RPG from FASA clearly assumed that not only was the Enterprise the most successful ship of its class in service, but that every position on the ship was filled by the single most competent individual in that field to be found in Starfleet. One must feel sorry for the security chief of any other vessel by comparison...[[note]]there's a real-world parallel when a special operations unit would be formed and supposed to be staffed by the best of the best... which would necessarily at the expense of those troops' parent units who would lose them! For example, it's one of the reasons that the US Marine Corps went fifteen years without joining/contributing directly to US Special Operations Command -- they didn't want to give up Force Reconnaissance.[[/note]]
** White Wolf's ''Street Fighter'' RPG. Theoretically based on [[Franchise/StreetFighter the arcade game franchise]], a by-the-book starting campaign is more about the role roughly "real world compliant" martial artists would have in a world with StreetFighter characters in it (i.e. window dressing.)

* Heroes aren't the only ones with Popularity Power. ComicBook/DoctorDoom has become a villainous equivalent of Batman who can defeat anyone (given enough "prep time" (admittedly a FAR more stable claim than Batman, but still quite ridiculous)). Despite being the villain of the story, the good doctor has gained [[DracoInLeatherPants an immense following of fans]] who believe he's capable of defeating anyone and anything, including the most powerful beings in the comic books multiverse. Given enough time to study opponents, it is said that Doom could defeat ComicBook/{{Thanos}}, ComicBook/{{Galactus}}, ComicBook/{{Magneto}}, [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk Hulk]], [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]], ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}, Franchise/{{Superman}}, Franchise/{{Batman}}, ComicBook/SilverSurfer, UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}, and even the almighty Rubik's Cube. It really is an almost endless list.\\\
A really ridiculous example of Doom oozing {{God Mode Sue}}dom was during an arc where he teamed up with Dr. Voodoo and battled their way across hordes of demons. Dr. Voodoo got taken down by ComicBook/GhostRider but before Ghost Rider could finish Voodoo, Doom came in and took Ghost Rider out with one punch. This is a highly dubious feat considering Ghost Rider has been shown to be able to fight toe to toe with Dr. Strange before, take some of his best attacks, and even defeat the Sorcerer Supreme after a brutal mystical fight. And of course, Doom's powers are only second best compared to Strange. Apparently, the message that the writers want to drive home is that one punch from Doom is greater than the sum of two Sorcerer Supremes put together.

** Starting in Generation VI, several Pokémon have [[SuperMode Mega Evolutions]] that make them bigger, more menacing, and more powerful. The creators have stated that the Pokémon chosen to receive Mega Evolutions are based mostly on popularity, with two of the most popular, Mewtwo and Charizard, receiving two Mega Evolution forms each.

** This carried over from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', where Spike became immensely popular and went from a recurring villain to one of the main characters and a HeelFaceTurn.

* InUniverse. In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', the resident FakeUltimateHero Mr. Satan actually helped in saving the world, and possibly the entire universe. How? [[spoiler:He actually requested the residents of Earth to share their energy with him (actually Goku), and they readily agree, as Mr Satan is famed for saving the world from Cell (again, actually Gohan) and hence they share their energy with 'him', allowing Goku to FINALLY defeat Kid Buu. The most egregious part is that when Goku himself requested the denizens of Earth to share energy, they didn't cooperate, [[KillEmAll as they all have been revived recently, having been killed by Fat Buu and later Super Buu]], and hence skeptical.]] Good thing Goku brought Mr. Satan along.

* Discussed in ''ComicBook/TheUnbelievableGwenpool''. Being an avid comic book reader that somehow found her way into the mainstream Marvel universe, Gwen is perfectly aware that she is in a book and that she has nothing to fear but cancellation. When going up against ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}, she is sure she will win because he's just a guest star in her book. Deadpool points out that he has an enormous fanbase and there is no way a D-lister like her could kill him which he demonstrates by easily overpowering her and her team. The only way she survives is by pointing out that the low-tier villain that trapped them and forced them to fight is the actual antagonist of the crossover which makes Deadpool realize they should team up to go after him instead.

** Sister site Gamespot is doing [[http://uk.gamespot.com/greatest-video-game-hero/standings/index.html the same]]. Though it has become a subversion of itself with heavy interference, first from 4chan who managed to have the ''VideoGame/BubbleBobble'' beat [[Franchise/{{Halo}} Master Chief]] and VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog before bowing down to Samus, and later from '''Valve themselves''', who pushed a massive rally call for [[VideoGame/HalfLife Gordon Freeman]], which went to... well, it allowed Valve to proclaim [[http://store.steamgames.com/news/2959/ this]]: "[[Music/KanyeWest There are other great game heroes, and we're gonna let you play with them, but Gordon Freeman is THE BEST GAME HERO OF ALL TIME"]]

** The webcomic also manages to [[InvertedTrope invert]] this trope: [[spoiler:if a Toone is hated by humans, they might transform into horrible monsters]].

* ''ComicBook/XMen'': ComicBook/{{Storm}} and ComicBook/{{Magneto}} were originally classified as Alpha-Level mutants within the X-Men's RandomPowerRanking system, putting them both on par with ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} and ComicBook/ProfessorX but below the Omega-Level mutants like ComicBook/JeanGrey and ComicBook/HopeSummers. Come ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen, however, those two very popular characters were very pointedly included on the list of surviving Omega Level mutants, apparently {{Retcon}}ning their previous classification.

* In ''Series/{{Angel}}'', "Destiny" had Angel and Spike in a titanic, epic brawl in an episode sometimes labeled a 'fan dream.' Spike often leads fan polls in popularity with Angel right behind him. Remember, BadassDecay only happened because he was a fan favorite. [[spoiler:Originally the episode was to have Angel win, because it is his show, but the writers realised that they were missing a golden opportunity to drive home Angel's loss of motivation. Once Angel got back his groove in later episodes he would soundly beat Spike in a normal fight, even once as a puppet. It's also worth noting that Spike actually beat Buffy in a fight once, which Angel never did.]]

** A particularily JustForFun/{{egregious}} example would be R. Talsorian's ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'' RPG. The Knight Sabers were built to ludicrous levels; Priss was superhumanly strong and could survive a hit from a 120mm cannon ''without her [[PoweredArmor Hard Suit]] or any other protection.''

* The previous entry on IWGP fan votes doesn't mention who the number one contender to Okada's belt was for a reason. No Limit were once among New Japan's most popular {{tag team}}s, which basically won them a paid trip to North America, [[DemotedToExtra where they would be buried in TNA]]. Then they would rebuild in CMLL, a sign of things to come. TNA sent its World Heavyweight Champion Wrestling/JeffHardy to New Japan, NJPW attempted to use Hardy to jump start Wrestling/TetsuyaNaito's singles career and to say it [[GoneHorriblyWrong didn't work]] would be an understatement. Fans didn't care about the match, when Naito's partner Yujiro Takahashi turned on him because of the match or when Naito overcame the odds to ascend into IWGP title contention. When he was booed it was considered an improvement because fans often forgot about him entirely. So after "Okada" was voted out of the main event Naito went to Mexico again, hooked up with Rush and Log Ingobernables, saw how they turned [[XPacHeat absolute hatred from the crowd]] into [[HateSink something they could work with]] and took the idea back to NJPW to see if he could do the same with apathy. He fought his way into the G1 Climax and no one cared until they saw him basically [[TheSlacker slack]] his way to victory over an utterly perplexed [[TheAce Tanahashi]]. Fans suddenly loved Naito, who for the most part acted as if he ignored them, which made them love him more. Suddenly he was IWGP Intercontinental champion and fans were given the chance to vote for him to main event [=WrestleKingdom=] over Okada, though Naito of course [[DefiedTrope turned it down, saying NJPW should let the heavyweight title match go last like always]]. If he shows cares he might lose support after all.

** Sister site Gamespot is doing [[http://uk.gamespot.com/greatest-video-game-hero/standings/index.html the same]]. Though it has become a subversion of itself with heavy interference, first from 4chan who managed to have the ''VideoGame/BubbleBobble'' beat [[Franchise/{{Halo}} Master Chief]] and Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog before bowing down to Samus, and later from '''Valve themselves''', who pushed a massive rally call for [[VideoGame/HalfLife Gordon Freeman]], which went to... well, it allowed Valve to proclaim [[http://store.steamgames.com/news/2959/ this]]: "[[Music/KanyeWest There are other great game heroes, and we're gonna let you play with them, but Gordon Freeman is THE BEST GAME HERO OF ALL TIME"]]

* The Marvel comic series ''X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl'' outright has Doctor Strange stating that if people are missed enough, if they are popular enough, the laws of physics break and they can come back. Of course...Doctor Strange is suffering from a mental illness in this story so take this revelation with a grain of salt.
* The ComicBook/IncredibleHulk has been accused of this for years, but it became most apparent in ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk'' where he easily defeats people he has no business defeating, like Comicbook/DoctorStrange. Though whether is it due strictly to popularity and PlotInducedStupidity or the Hulk actually should be able to defeat such characters is often debated.
* Franchise/{{Batman}} has become a walking DeusExMachina in comic books and "versus debates" thanks to the words [[CrazyPrepared "with prep time"]]. Given enough prep time, [[MemeticBadass he is speculated to be able to defeat]]: {{Superman}}, ComicBook/{{Galactus}}, {{ComicBook/Darkseid}}, [[ComicBook/TheSandman Death]], Taxes, Tofu, and Jelly Beans. The sheer amount of times he's faced Superman and lived would qualify him here even if nothing else would.

** More concretely, he made contingency plans in one arc to take each member of the ComicBook/JusticeLeague down should they go crazy. Of course, they [[GoneHorriblyWrong fall into the wrong hands]], and work remarkably well on all the heroes.

** In several stories, it's later expanded to note that every single one of the Justice League members have at least some vague plan to take out their team-members in case any one of them goes rogue. They vary in effectiveness, though. [[Comicbook/GreenLantern Hal Jordan's]] contingency plan shows one of his own moments of Popularity Power - his plan to defeat Batman was to create a jetpack, strap it to him, and shoot him as far away as possible to be sure. Despite certain obvious flaws, his plan ''worked'' (even if it was entirely unnecessary for a guy that can casually exceed the speed of light and destroy planets without trying).

** Fortunately Creator/AlanMoore seems to be immune to Popularity Power. During Moore's run on ''Comicbook/SwampThing'' Batman takes on the much more powerful title character with plenty of prep time after making careful preparations, including putting wood cutting buzz-saws on the Batmobile and bringing a herbicide thrower. Comicbook/SwampThing wipes the floor with him.

** And sometimes, even [[CrazyPrepared "with prep time"]] is unnecessary. Like putting down Cheetah, who is a recurrent Wonder Woman villain, at times able to take a punch from Superman (who, for the uninitiated, has SuperStrength and SuperSpeed, which Batman lacks), with a single punch, running with three adults on his back, and sucking enough bullets to sink a frigate. And apparently, [[TripleShifter doesn't need to sleep]].
** One issue of Batman Confidential had him fighting several members of the proto-Justice League. He took down ComicBook/WonderWoman, ComicBook/TheFlash, Comicbook/GreenLantern, and Comicbook/{{Aquaman}}. This was their first meeting, and he didn't know what any of their abilities were when the fight started. It helped that neither did the writer. Let's see... throwing a smoke bomb in front of The Flash is yet another example of writers forgetting that 1. He has SuperReflexes and even so wouldn't immediately crash into a wall if blinded 2. If you're in a small room with The Flash, there is no time to throw something before he reaches you. There's not time for a human to do ''anything'' before he reaches you. Wonder Woman cannot be taken out by kicking her in the stomach with human strength. At a best case scenario it's ineffective. Worse case, you break your foot. The same goes for ComicBook/MartianManhunter. Batman's ability to manhandle Aquaman or utterly incapacitate Comicbook/GreenLantern with a batrope is also just slightly dubious (Aquaman has Wonder Woman levels of SuperStrength and Green Lantern can make literally anything he can think of with his ring).

** Creator/FrankMiller's Batman/Spawn crossover actually has their fight be even, ''to a degree.'' Batman beats down Spawn, but when Spawn turns the tables the rest of the fight is conveniently '''off panel.'''
** Wonder Woman beat down Batman in one of her issues. A criminal Batman was after sought sanctuary in Wonder Woman's headquarters, and Batman demanded she turn her over. Wondy said no. With her foot. In fact, WonderWoman is a good case of RealityEnsues, as his track record against her has been slightly against him. She's a FlyingBrick with no obvious weaknesses who often sees through his ruses.

* Despite allegedly being barely superhuman,[[note]]He's supposedly at the absolute peak of what normal humans can be capable of, i.e. as if he trained to that level like an Olympic athlete[[/note]] some of ComicBook/CaptainAmerica's feats have gone seemingly far beyond what he "should" be able to do. Any average human superhero or villain who goes up against him is sure to lose. Even superpowered denizens like Franchise/SpiderMan and Wolverine fold before the Cap. And if that weren't enough, Captain America has actually gone rounds against [[ComicBook/SubMariner Namor]], Hulk, and the other super heavyweights of the MarvelUniverse and STILL come out on top (or at the very least, fought these beings to a draw). Why? Because he's popular. Because he wears the red, white, and blue. And to top it all off, Marvel loves him so much that they'll almost never have the guy lose, just like DC is almost never going to have Batman lose. [[spoiler: 2017's "Secret Empire" saga may actually change that, when it comes to Hydra Cap.]]

*** In a ComicBook/FantasticFour story, Cap's shield takes Gladiator ({{Superman}}'s CaptainErsatz) at bay for minutes. Heat vision ("The heart of a star") and lighting-fast, moon-blasting punches don't even ''ruin the painting'' of the shield. Maybe it's not even ComicBook/CaptainAmerica Popularity Power in action - the Star and Strips logo must be a reality breaker.

** Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 parodies it best:
-->"I wear the flag. That means I don't lose."

** ComicBook/CivilWar at least is fair about about it. ComicBook/IronMan always wipes the floor with Cap in their various duels, causing him to need rescue by more powerful allies, unless Cap cheats by shorting out his armor in which case ComicBook/IronMan is basically helpless to do anything but lie there and eat shield, not really making Cap look all that powerful.

*** Actually Spider-Man was not beaten, but even then, Cap was dominating, and hurting Spider-Man with his punches, and to make it worse, Spider-Man was doubly enhanced from his normal stats, ans wearing an armor which made him bulletproof and allowed him to take hits from Titanium Man, the Iron Man foe. And despite being so enhanced Spidey still failed to defeat Cap despite landing a few hits, not even knocking him back.

A really ridiculous example of Doom oozing [[GodModeSue God Mode Suedom]] was during an arc where he teamed up with Dr. Voodoo and battled their way across hordes of demons. Dr. Voodoo got taken down by Ghost Rider but before Ghost Rider could finish Voodoo, Doom came in and took Ghost Rider out with one punch. This is a highly dubious feat considering Ghost Rider has been shown to be able to fight toe to toe with Dr. Strange before, take some of his best attacks, and even defeat the Sorcerer Supreme after a brutal mystical fight. And of course, Doom's powers are only second best compared to Strange. Apparently, the message that the writers want to drive home is that one punch from Doom is greater than the sum of two Sorcerer Supremes put together.

** In the ''Suicide Kings'' ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} storyline, Comicbook/ThePunisher beats Deadpool up to the point where he needs rescuing by Outlaw and [[spoiler: Daredevil]]. ''With a sword''. This is despite the Punisher being an ordinary human and Deadpool being a guy in peak physical fitness who heals all injuries, never gets tired and is almost definitely the best swordfighter in the Marvel Universe - plus, it's ''his book!'' In fact, any fight between someone with a HealingFactor and someone without is only going to end one way -- that would be why they apparently put DP's factor on a major go-slow for this series.

** In a Creator/GarthEnnis crossover with ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, Punisher treats Wolverine with disdain, blasting off his face with a shotgun, then shooting him [[GroinAttack in the balls]] with the shotgun for complaining about it, then running over him with a steamroller. In some fairness, Logan was drunk.
** When Punisher tried to assassinate Norman Osborn, then leader of the ComicBook/DarkAvengers, he found his PopularityPower turned off, as ComicBook/{{Daken}} showed what a confrontation between Punisher and a Wolverine out for blood would ''really'' look like: Daken shrugs off everything Punisher has, toying with him, and then chops him up like a meat processor before dumping his chunks down the sewers.

-->"Did I mention I beat up Firelord once? No, seriously. Firelord."
** ComicBook/SecretWars also, infamously, had Spidey mop the floor with the ComicBook/XMen, including Wolverine, all on his own. (Though in this case it should be noted that Spider-Man didn't actually "defeat" people like Colossus and Rogue, just tangled them up in webbing long enough for him to escape.)

* For {{Wolverine}}, take for example ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_vs_DC Marvel vs. DC/DC vs. Marvel]]'' comics, which was literally one big popularity contest. One issue had a scene in which Wolverine is able to make short work of Lobo, an alien being that gave Superman a run for his money and destroyed an entire planet, in less than four panels, simply because polls showed that his stats were higher that week. Moreover, both of them have regenerative healing, but Lobo is able to regenerate his entire body FromASingleCell if his entire body is destroyed. The best part? The final blow of the fight [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome took place off-panel]], because, apparently, ''even the writers'' couldn't figure out how Wolverine could possibly win.

** The same series also had Wolverine's X-Men teammate ComicBook/{{Storm}} hand a smack-down to WonderWoman, which seemed more than a little unlikely to many objective observers; however, ''X-Men'' titles were selling better than Wonder Woman at the time.

*** On the subject of Wonder Woman, in the 90's there was a series of DC Versus Marvel trading cards. When it came time for the long-awaited Comicbook/JusticeLeague vs. [[Comicbook/TheAvengers Avengers]] set, the artist had Wonder Woman, arguably the most powerful heroine in the Franchise/DCUniverse, face off against ...Comicbook/BlackWidow. While Black Widow is extremely popular and very kickass in her own right, she's still a BadassNormal with no superpowers, and as such shouldn't be much of a threat to Wonder Woman.

*** A "[[{{Elseworld}} What If...?]]" of this storyline saw Wolverine practically ''wipe out the entire MarvelUniverse''. This was especially headachey because it had ComicBook/{{Magneto}}, who canonically pulled the metal from Wolvy's bones and left him for dead in the original, shanked. It did, however, have Kitty prove why phasing is awesome.
* Parodied by the Marvel character of ComicBook/SquirrelGirl, who manages to hand some of the most powerful, godlike villains in the MarvelUniverse a humiliating defeat despite having not particularly impressive superpowers.
** It's reached the point where other people are starting to recognize her tendency to beat nearly godlike beings, with ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} gaining extra recognition for being powerful enough to be defeated by Squirrel Girl.
*** Twice.

--> "Yeah, that's right. Squirrel Girl totally pwns Doc Doom. Know why? '[[ArmedWithCanon Cause of somethin' that happened in a story by]] '''Steve-freakin'-Ditko'''! That's ''so'' in continuity. [[TakeThat So just deal with it, fanboy]]."
* A notable aversion came in one of the DC/Marvel crossovers, when the JLA went up against the X-Men. Batman, the most popularity-powered character of them all, sprang a surprise attack on Comicbook/{{Cyclops}} who, while he has plenty of fans, also attracts more hate than probably any other X-Man (with the possible exception of Comicbook/{{Gambit}}). Guess which one got taken down.
* In ''Comicbook/{{Fables}}'' this is one speculated source of the eponymous Fables' powers. The more popular the story about a Fable is, the more powerful they are. For example, Snow White recovered from a sniper's bullet to the skull--her sister Rose Red might not have survived since most people have forgotten her part of the fairytale-- Frau Totenkinder is one of the most powerful Fables in existence because she is every anonymous witch in folklore, and Goldilocks raises this to a level bordering on BlessedWithSuck when she discovers she can't heal any faster than the fish are eating her.

** Does the same in ''ComicBook/DeadpoolKillsTheMarvelUniverse''. He also gives an interesting speech to Wolverine about his healing factor. He states that it's incredibly fitting: the popular character has a power that makes him immune to death. Deadpool berates Wolverine because according to him, Logan doesn't live because of his skills, but because the fans love him. This may come off as hypocritical, because in that alternate universe, Deadpool managed to kill people that he should logically never be able to kill (like The Avengers, Spider-Man, Galactus, ect...). Why? Because he's just as popular as Wolverine.
-->'''Deadpool:''' Your tendency to come back from the brink of death has nothing to do with your healing factor. Your mutant power isn't regeneration. It's ''popularity''.

* The Marvel villain Arcade has to date, been 100% unsuccessful at killing any superheroes or villains that feature in his appearances. It's assumed that all of his success with Murderworld assassinations occur offscreen. Killing overweight and out of shape buisnessmen is one thing. But he is clearly out of his league with superpowered characters. But his offbeat characterization (not too unlike ComicBook/TheJoker) is probably why he gets to stay around for the occasional guest appearance, and trying to TakeALevelInBadass in the pages of the cheap ''Film/BattleRoyale''/''Literature/HungerGames'' ripoff known as ''Comicbook/AvengersArena.''
* ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}} is an incredibly popular villain. So of course, writers have to amp up his badassery from reasonable to absurd. The man has enhanced reflexes, speed, strength and intelligence, but only several times above peak human as opposed to, oh, Kryptonian level. In Identity Crisis #3, ''he single-handedly took out an entire Justice League roster''. He stops Black Canary from using her Canary Cry via a bag over her head. (That scream of hers can rip through steel). He beats the Atom senseless with the light from an ordinary laser pointer because 'the Atom has no mass when he shrinks'. (This directly contradicted how the Atom's power has worked since his very first appearance in comics.) Green Lantern Kyle Rayner can't use his ring because Deathstroke grabs his hand, and uses his own willpower to overpower Kyle's. (Not only do GL rings ''not work that way'', at that time Kyle's ring had a failsafe put in to refuse commands from anyone not having Kyle's brainwave pattern... and that's before you factor in the pure unleaded stupidity of Kyle actually being caught within arms' reach of Deathstroke at all, seeing as how '''he can fly and Deathstroke can't'''.) Oh, but at least in those cases, he put a ''minimal'' degree of effort in. Against the Flash, Wally West just ran right onto the tip of Deathstroke's sword to dodge his bombs. (Wally West can move at the speed of light -- on a ''slow'' day. To be able to move too fast for Wally to be able to react in time, Deathstroke's sword would have needed a built-in hyperdrive.) He was eventually defeated by Green Arrow poking his bad eye with an arrow in frustration.

* Agent Coulson of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse was a fairly minor character in ''[[Film/IronMan1 Iron Man]]'' before he became a recurring character throughout the series. At the peak of his popularity, and once [[TheComicallySerious his characterization]] [[TheKnightsWhoSaySquee had developed]], he was suddenly killed in ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}''. Upon hearing of this, Website/{{Twitter}} and Website/{{Tumblr}} ''exploded'' with support for him to come back, campaigning the slogan [=#CoulsonLives=]. Their attempts were so successful that not only did Marvel bring Coulson BackFromTheDead ''and'' make him the star of ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', [[AscendedMeme they even made tweeting #CoulsonLives unlock a trailer]] for the TV show.

* Jerry Springer didn't win ''Series/DancingWithTheStars'', but he got a lot farther than his dancing talent alone would have carried him. It got to the point that he actually asked his fans to stop voting for him, as he only appeared on the show to learn to dance and was tired of coming back.

* Not only does Creator/SternPinball's ''[[Pinball/XMenStern X-Men]]'' prominently feature a large ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} bust on the playfield, there is also a LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition "Wolverine Blue" table with extra features and custom artwork.

** Another storyline involved a [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]] {{Jobber}} losing a few matches to better-known wrestlers under names like "The Cannonball Kid", "The Good Luck Kid", "The Kamikaze Kid", etc. until finally, now simply known as "The Kid", he scored an upset victory over [[Wrestling/ScottHall Razor Ramon]]. This earned him the name "The 1-2-3 Kid", as his entire gimmick was that he started getting upset victories, winning 2 more times against Razor Ramon, then beating other top heels as they came out of the woodwork to put the kid "in his place". Razor actually made a HeelFaceTurn simply by taking his losses in good humor and taking the kid under his wing. Eventually. As a side note, said kid was Wrestling/SeanWaltman, the wrestler later known as Syxx (in the [[Wrestling/NewWorldOrder nWo]]) and [[XPacHeat X-Pac]] (in Wrestling/DGenerationX).
*** Subverted once he became the {{Trope Namer|s}} for XPacHeat.

* In a Meta Example during the 1990s, Wrestling/TheUndertaker had his [[AmplifierArtifact urn]] stolen and melted down by [[Wrestling/TedDiBiase Ted [=DiBiase=]]]'s henchman, Kama Mustafa. Taker turned to [[FanCommunityNicknames his Creatures Of The Night]] to [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve give him the strength]] to beat Kama in a casket match. Being one of the most popular wrestlers in the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]], he had no trouble getting enough.

** See, WWE's plan was to push Wrestling/{{Jacqueline}} but untrained Sable got really popular and got pushed instead. Then Wrestling/TrishStratus, who had spent her first year as a valet, defeated Wrestling/{{Ivory}} in a match so fans began to take her seriously as a wrestler instead of another model. Since then it hasn't worked. When Kelly Kelly became Divas Champion and went over on Beth Phoenix twice, fans Wrestling/{{c|rowdchant}}hanted "BULL-SHIT!!" at her.

** The fact that going against Wrestling/DanielBryan is enough to turn the massively popular Wrestling/RandyOrton and Wrestling/ShawnMichaels heel showcases ''his'' popularity power. Bryan had so much PopularityPower that it eventually forced them to change plans for [[Wrestling/WrestleMania the biggest show of the year]] just so that year's main event wouldn't implode in on itself.

* After their perennial rivals reDRagon had petitioned Wrestling/RingOfHonor's match maker Wrestling/NigelMcGuinness for a shot at Matt Taven and Mike Bennett of The Kingdom in {{revenge|byproxy}} for Wrestling/AdamCole's continual harassment of Kyle O'Reilly, Wrestling/TheYoungBucks {{Invoked|Trope}} this by petitioning ''the fans'' to get a shot at The Kingdom instead. [=McGuinness=] had already said yes to reDRagon and refused to go back on his word but did have The Bucks added to the match to appease the fans, making it a [[MeleeATrois three way]].

** White Wolf's ''Street Fighter'' RPG. Theoretically based on [[StreetFighter the arcade game franchise]], a by-the-book starting campaign is more about the role roughly "real world compliant" martial artists would have in a world with StreetFighter characters in it (i.e. window dressing.)

** In previous generations, popularity was a factor when deciding which Pokemon should get an regular evolution or a [[SpinOffBabies baby form]].

** Sister site Gamespot is doing [[http://uk.gamespot.com/greatest-video-game-hero/standings/index.html the same]]. Though it has become a subversion of itself with heavy interference, first from 4chan who managed to have the ''VideoGame/BubbleBobble'' beat [[Franchise/{{Halo}} Master Chief]] and VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog before bowing down to Samus, and later from '''Valve themselves''', who pushed a massive rally call for [[VideoGame/HalfLife Gordon Freeman]], which went to... well, it allowed Valve to proclaim [[http://store.steamgames.com/news/2959/ this]]: "[[Music/KanyeWest There are other great game heroes, and we're gonna let you play with them, but Gordon Freeman is THE BEST GAME HERO OF ALL TIME"]]

* Absolutely {{Defied|Trope}} in ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle''. The makers have made it explicit that they '''do not''' allow a character to win by Popularity Power, unless their research shows the character in question would win. [[spoiler:Even if it's a character that's popular with themselves, as "Haggar vs. Zangief" shows.]] This is easily shown in highly divisive battles "[[Manga/DragonBall Son Goku]] vs. Franchise/{{Superman}}" and "[[WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} Yang Xiao Long]] vs. [[Franchise/FinalFantasyVII Tifa Lockhart]]" [[spoiler: as Superman and Yang both won their matches, infuriating ''Dragon Ball'' fans because they feel Goku is ''much'' stronger than Superman despite two matches proving otherwise and infuriating ''Final Fantasy'' fans because they felt that Screw Attack was trying to suck up to Creator/RoosterTeeth for ''RWBY'''s third season and that Tifa should have won.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'', this is one of Danny's enemies' powers. Ember Mclain is a ghost whose power grows exponentially the more people cheer her name. The only way Danny can initially defeat her is by having Tucker sing on international TV... [[HollywoodToneDeaf an act so horrifying]] it de-hypnotizes the populace of the world almost instantly.
* In the DCAU, {{ComicBook/Darkseid}} fired his [[AlwaysAccurateAttack Omega Beam]] at Franchise/{{Batman}}...''and missed.''
** Well, more of a "forced Batman to run all over the place before finally positioning a Mook into it and let it die instead." Still counts, though. On the other hand, Batman's actual ''attacks'' were at best distractions for Superman to capitalize on and at worst mere annoyances.

** Sister site Gamespot is doing [[http://uk.gamespot.com/greatest-video-game-hero/standings/index.html the same]]. Though it has become a subversion of itself with heavy interference, first from 4chan who managed to have the ''VideoGame/BubbleBobble'' beat [[Franchise/{{Halo}} Master Chief]] and SonicTheHedgehog before bowing down to Samus, and later from '''Valve themselves''', who pushed a massive rally call for [[VideoGame/HalfLife Gordon Freeman]], which went to... well, it allowed Valve to proclaim [[http://store.steamgames.com/news/2959/ this]]: "[[Music/KanyeWest There are other great game heroes, and we're gonna let you play with them, but Gordon Freeman is THE BEST GAME HERO OF ALL TIME"]]

-->'''''{{Website/Wrestlecrap}}''''': ''There were 18 WCW Title victories in the year 2000; at 12 days [[StuntCasting David Arquette]] had a longer reign than Wresling/ChrisBenoit (who admittedly quit the day after winning), [[Wrestling/SidEudy Sid Vicious]], Wrestling/JeffJarrett three times, [[Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage DDP]], Wrestling/RicFlair twice, Wrestling/KevinNash, Wrestling/BookerT and Wrestling/VinceRusso.''

* The only reason why most people remembered ''VideoGame/MortalKombnatSpecialForces'' was for the boss Tremor, an EnsembleDarkhorse since his debut and was a character most players requested to be added to a full game. ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' included the earth elemental as an exclusive UsefulNotes/PlaystationVita battle as an non-playable UnexpectedCharacter, before being added to ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' as DownloadableContent with his own unique moveset and ending.

** In a Creator/GarthEnnis crossover with ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, Punisher treats Wolverine with disdain, blasting off his face with a shotgun for no reason, then shooting him [[GroinAttack in the balls]] with the shotgun for complaining about it, then running over him with a steamroller. Despite vowing a blood vendetta against him, Wolverine never lifts a blade-sprouting hand to Punisher in return. Which, as anyone who knows anything about Wolverine's powers or temperament would tell you is absolute nonsense.