History Main / WifeBasherBasher

* The titular ''John Doe: Vigilante'' is this, as he frequently includes {{domestic abuse}}rs among his victims.

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}''. In Season 3, Laurel Lance tries to emulate her late sister's vigilante work by beating up the husband of a woman who revealed during her AA meeting that he was beating her up. [[RealityEnsues Instead he puts Laurel in the hospital]], so she realises [[TeachMeHowToFight she needs proper training]] if she's going to be the next ComicBook/BlackCanary.

* Really, this is [[RatedMForManly an expected attribute]] of the most loved Franchise/MarvelUniverse heroes such as ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, Franchise/{{Wolverine}}, and ComicBook/ThePunisher. What differs the last two from the first, is that they're also [[SerialKillerKiller killers]].

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[http://www.scpwiki.com/scp-3998 SCP-3998]] is the burnt remains of a corpse fashioned into a scarecrow. Every night, it bursts into flames at a certain time. If a person who has killed or abused a romantic partner is standing close to it at that time, they will also catch on fire and become impossible to extinguish until SCP-3998 itself stops burning, leaving them to slowly and agonizingly burn to death.

* Within the first few issues of the New 52 reboot of ''ComicBook/Aquaman'', ComicBook/{{Mera}} does this to a man who just murdered his wife by almost [[MakingASplash dehydrating him]] [[PayEvilUntoEvil to death]], only to be stopped by [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes the man's daughter]].

** Hoffman's StartOfDarkness coincides with the only good thing he does in the entire franchise of his own accord: track down the man who killed his sister while they were dating and got out of prison way too early for it, and put him in an inescapable trap in which his hands are mangled and he's [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe sliced in half with a giant swinging pendulum.]]

Gunpowder and lead\\

* Similarly, ''Music/MirandaLambert'''s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWQdEDtveB0&ab_channel=MirandaLambert-Topic]] is a song about a woman sitting at home with a shotgun, waiting for her abusive boyfriend to get out of jail.

* ''Manga/SlamDunk''

* Male example in ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11886910/1/Gankona-Unnachgiebig-Unità Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità]]''. Germany and Japan beat the ever-loving crap out of the homophobe after he had severely beaten Italy. They also would have done this to [[AbusiveParents Austria]] [[EasilyForgiven had not Italy begged them to ''not'' to]].

* [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels Mondo Oowada]] from ''VisualNovel/DanganRonpa'' was taught by his older brother to hold great respect for women and to use his strength to protect them. During the chapter one investigation, he tells Naegi that he'll beat the guy who killed Sayaka to death, but when Naegi asks what if the killer is a girl, he falls silent, and eventually says, "We'll cross that bridge when we reach it."

* In ''VideoGame/TheWolfAmongUs'', Bigby doesn't react very well when he walks into the Woodsman's apartment just in time to see him [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold Faith.]] You can even choose to go above and beyond normally just beating the hell out of him and decide give him an extra punch for calling her a bitch after Bigby makes it very clear that [[BerserkButton he does ''not'' like that word.]] It's made very clear in other scenes that he ''will not'' tolerate women being treated poorly, such as when you have the option to give Georgie a good, solid punch when he calls Snow a bitch.

** Wonder Woman also did this a few years earlier, albeit in a dream scenario where she and ComicBook/{{Batman}} became a couple, and in one situation [[AnArmAndALeg cuts the hand]] off of a {{Domestic Abuse}}r. Even Bruce is stunned. FemaleOfTheSpecies, indeed.

* In ''VideoGame/TheWolfAmongUs'', Bigby doesn't react very well when he walks into the Woodsman's apartment just in time to see him [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold Faith.]] You can even choose to go above and beyond normally just beating the hell out of him and decide give him an extra punch for calling her a bitch after Bigby makes it very clear that [[BeserkButton he does ''not'' like that word.]] It's made very clear in other scenes that he ''will not'' tolerate women being treated poorly, such as when you have the option to give Georgie a good, solid punch when he calls Snow a bitch.

* In ''VideoGame/TheWolfAmongUs'', Bigby doesn't react very well when he walks into the Woodsman's apartment just in time to see him hitting her. You can even choose to go above and beyond and give him an extra punch for calling her a bitch after Bigby makes it very clear that he does NOT like that word. It's also clear in other scenes that he ''will not'' tolerate women being treated poorly, such as when you have the option to give Georgie a good, solid punch when he calls Snow a bitch.

More often than not, these men are [[GentleGiant Gentle Giants]] and/or mild mannered [[NiceGuy Nice Guys]] who either are raised with traditional values of kindness and chivalry, or are scarred by childhoods of [[DomesticAbuse watching their mothers and/or sisters being beaten]] or worse.

This trope is often invoked by female villains as WoundedGazelleGambit if they are attacked by male heroes in public. They know there are usually a few chivalrous big men ready to dish out DisproportionateRetribution, even if she started it, because most people with this mindset are inclined to believe that [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale female on male abuse]] is not "real" abuse.

** Hanamichi Sakuragi doesn't get many chances to show this, but he thinks exactly the same. A {{filler}} mini arc in the anime has him thinking that his rival Oda has been abusing his girlfriend/Sakuragi's ex-crush Youko (and let's be fair to Hanamichi here, Oda ''did'' snap on her in TheMovie, and it took them a while to rekindle their relationship), so Sakuragi was determined to hit the guy and spectacularly call him out on it. [[spoiler:Then it's subverted as Oda was ''not'' deliberately abusing Youko, but was more worried about a sudden injury and was pulling a DontYouDarePityMe instead. He still apologizes to Youko later.]]

** Dio makes the same mistake at the start of Part 1 when he stole Erina's first kiss, as he finds out when a angry Jonathan storms into his room.

** In the first issue back in the 1930's, our titular hero deals with a violent husband by throwing him into a wall and mercilessly beating ''him'' (as delightfully pictured above) until he promises to never hit his wife again. This scenario is revisited in the Golden Age reality that Superman was subjected to in ''ComicBook/TheDominusEffect''.

** In the Rick Remender run, it was revealed that Steve's mother, Sarah Rogers, was beaten by her alcoholic husband who was suffering from PTSD. This seems to have played a part in his hatred for bullies, wife beaters in particular.
** [[ComicBook/TheUltimates Ultimate Captain America]] is particularly notable. After Ant-Man and the Wasp had a verbal fight that escalated and they attacked each other (he "won"), almost no one wanted to listen to his side of the story. However, he didn't simply beat her, [[UpToEleven he very nearly killed her by siccing an army of ants on her after she had shrunk down to wasp size]]. Cap, with his 50s values, tracks him down to a bar in Chicago and beats the crap out of him even when Hank Pym is ''50 feet tall''. Even more badass was that Cap actively goaded Pym into changing size so he'd actually have a challenge (as opposed to beating on a depressed and drunk scientist who has hit rock bottom). Presumably, since the Ultimates don't want the bad publicity, and it involved national security matters, Cap is never charged.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'''s occasional foe [[KnightTemplar Cardiac]] usually doesn't concern himself with this kind of criminal (as a vigilante, his goal is to punish people who hurt others and do horrendous things, but use legal loopholes and technicalities to escape justice). However, in one issue, while he is staking out a place, he sees a man assault his wife in a nearby apartment, and decides he can't "in clear conscience", let it happen. (Unfortunately, while he is teaching the wife-beater a lesson, it gave his true target more of a head start than he'd have liked.)
* It's been implied that [[UnstoppableRage the psychological origin]] of ''ComicBook/IncredibleHulk'' was young Bruce Banner witnessing his father [[HarmfulToMinors beating his mother]] and wanting to be one of these; rather notable, given that one of the more consistentally heroic portryals of the Hulk (namely, the dim-witted but extremely powerful Savage Hulk) is essentially a child in the same frame of mind as young Banner.

* ''ComicBook/{{X 23}}'' pulls a variation of this with prostitutes. Sometime before joining the X-Men, Laura spent time on the streets of New York as a child prostitute under a sadistic and violently abusive pimp named Zebra Daddy. As a result of her experiences, on several occasions afterwards she's been shown reacting ''very'' violently to seeing other girls in the same situations: During her one-shot she stumbled across a pimp abusing one of his girls, and unceremoniously [[OffWithHisHead beheaded him]] with her claws, while the "Songs of the Orphan Child" arc of her ongoing began when Laura went after a man who murdered a teen prostitute she met at a diner. Most notably, when a girl's night out with Jubilee near the end of the series revealed that members of Zebra Daddy's gang had taken over his business, the evening turned into a bloody rampage to liberate the girls they were trafficking. ComicBook/BlackWidow herself, who arrived to clean things up afterward and help see the rescued girls were taken care of, noted that [[NotSoStoic Laura was acting entirely out of rage and not thinking clearly]] during the fight.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' fics of Creator/AAPessimal, the fact that women are now training and graduating as Assassins is changing the Guild. The first four official female graduates - and one in particular - have a compact to pursue something called Ethical Assassination. They will still respect the Guild credo of not especially caring about the reason for inhuming a client so long as the money's right. But if their own informal investigations reveal that the client is culpable of wife-beating, rape, child molestation or violence against women. Well, this may not be the ''official'' reason for the contract. It simply adds a degree of job satisfaction and a sensation of the world suddenly being a slightly cleaner place. As two Lady Assassins called "The Marriage Guidance Counsellors" [[note]]they provide terminal third-party guidance for troubled marriages[[/note]]might quietly tell you. And those four Lady Assassins, along with other later-arriving mature entrants, are now teachers at the School providing pastoral care to girl students.

** In ''Film/TheExpendables'', Lee Christmas came home to find his girlfriend with another guy. Returning later on (presumably to pick up some things), he found her having been beaten up by the guy, and proceeded to beat the absolute tar out of him and his basketball buddies in broad daylight. He openly admitted he would have killed the guy if it wasn't illegal, and then chastised his ex for leaving him in the first place because for all his faults he was still worth waiting for. While not shown, it's implied he doesn't take her back.

* A variant in ''Film/SawIV''. One of Jigsaw's deathtraps involved both an abusive husband ''and'' his wife. Jigsaw believes that she hasn't taken her young daughter and left because she doesn't have the will, so he devised a trap in which they were skewered together, back to back, by a set of spikes, the removal of which would hurt her, but kill him. She has to make the choice between staying pinned to him and bleeding to death, or saving her own life at the cost of his. She chooses to pull the spikes out.

** Honor herself is one, in a manner. In the second book, upon finding out [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil what Masadans do to female prisoners]], she [[TranquilFury approaches]] the captured Masadan base commander, [[DramaticGunCock draws and unsafeties her sidearm]], and has to be physically restrained to keep her from putting a pulse dart in the man's head, and even that was because there was enough evidence to convict the guy in court. And even then the 2 meters tall power armored badass Marine Major, his petite ActionGirl similarly powered armored second in command, and every other officer present, except one, were frozen in fear by [[DeathGlare the look in Honor's eyes]] and didn't move a finger initially to stop her. It was the snot-nosed lieutenant with the standard issue plasma cannon and hero-worship that intervened and restrained his captain.
* [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden]] will do horrible things to you if you hurt a woman/child, and he admits his Captain America levels of chivalry are a bit of a problem, with everyone {{lampshad|eHanging}}ing this. Later he gets more savvy, but holds back until he is certain they are a) evil and b) capable of fighting. When he finds a ghoul that killed, (probably) raped, and partially ate twin Warden trainees, [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge he blasts its lower body off]] [[UnstoppableRage (ghouls are really tough), sets fire to its body fat, then kicks it down a very deep chasm.]] He only did that to one of them; for the other one, [[ColdBloodedTorture he threw it into a pit with slick glass sides, then poured orange juice on him and left him to the mercy of the local fire ants]].
* Niklas from ''Aldrig Fucka Up'', the second part of Jens Lapidus' "Stockholm Noir" trilogy. He witnessed his mother's boyfriend beating her as a kid, and after returning from a tour of duty as a PMC in Iraq, decides to take revenge on every bad husband and boyfriend, starting with his neighbour Jamilia's one. Towards the end, he turns into a rare, male StrawFeminist, and has a bodycount of three.

** In quarte, Keladry of Mindelan always steps in to try to stop the strong abusing the weak, and on some occasions that's meant this. As a page, she had a maid who was sometimes the object of unwelcome attention, and, well, unwelcome attention often involves injury. Seeing this was one of the few things that could break her [[TheStoic stoicism]].

** This also seems to be one duty of the Goddess' temples in [[Literature/TortallUniverse Tortall]]. Women who see victims of DomesticAbuse tell the victim that she can seek sanctuary there, and mention is made of a new, "aggressive" commander of their ChurchMilitant. This leads to a scene where Keladry goes to a bathhouse to relax after a rough day of page training and a group of women run up to her and tell her that whoever did that to her will pay, even if he's a noble, and Kel realizes that [[AbuseMistake her day to day training injuries look rather alarming out of context]].

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'', a FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire who's usually fighting supernatural villains, does take take time out to [[TheTeaser Cold Open]] one episode by rescuing a girl who's about to be attacked by her abusive boyfriend. He jumps in right as the boyfriend's giving her a preemptive WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou...

* A variation in the fifth season of ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': The Child Basher Basher. When Dexter discovers that a friend of his stepdaughter is being abused by her mother's boyfriend, he immediately takes action. He finds the guy and gives him an in-depth lesson on what hitting different parts of the body does to the victim, while hitting him in those locations. He then tells him to get out, STAT, and never come back. Appropriately, of course, Dexter is a SerialKillerKiller. He also came up with a ploy to get rid of Rita's abusive ex-husband Paul without killing him. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, Dexter ended up indirectly responsible for his death anyway.]]

* In ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'', Joe Friday was like this. There was one Dragnet ep in the late '60s version where he got in the face of a police woman trainee's boyfriend because he was getting huffy and threatening (though he never actually hit her).

** Season 4 reveals [[EvilGenius Johnny Crowder]] to be one, even though he's [[EvilCripple not up to delivering the bashing himself]]. When he believes that one of his hookers, Terri, is being abused by a regular customer named Max, Johnny shows up at Max's house with [[TheDragon Colt]] in tow, and has Colt deliver a brutal beating that nearly kills the man. When he finds out that it was actually Colt who hit Terri, Johnny blackmails him for thousands of dollars while plotting to get rid of him.

* ''Series/TheMusketeers'': An assassin posing as the King's cousin witnesses Constance Bonacieux being slapped by her husband during an argument. "Princess Louise" confides in her fellow assassin that he detests men who beat their wives and if they weren't busy with their assignment she'd "do Constance a favour". When Monsiuer Bonacieux accidentally walks in on "Louise" setting up to kill her target the assassin is only too happy to shoot him and leave him for dead.
* On episode four of the Japanese drama ''Series/NobutaWoProduce'', while planning a surprise for [[SchoolIdol Shuji's]] birthday, [[CloudCuckoolander Akira]] and [[ShrinkingViolet Nobuta]] [[spoiler:overhear [[TheBully Bando]] getting beaten by her boyfriend and Akira hilariously steps in, beating up her boyfriend with [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass his expert karate skills]] while lecturing him on how he shouldn't be hitting the one person he should be taking the most care of in the world and how a girl's heart is made of glass so you should never hit her. The boyfriend seems more confused than beaten up, though, and we have no idea if it worked, because he's never seen again -- probably because his character was introduced as a reason why Bando bullies and beats up people, ESPECIALLY Nobuta: her boyfriend abuses her and she takes it out on Nobuta. It all works out though, in the end]].

* ''Superior Court'': An episode of this late-1980s courtroom drama centers on the murder trial of a police officer accused of – while responding to a domestic disturbance – shooting to death a man who was savagely beating up his wife. Grilled intensely during cross examination, the officer finally admits that he shot the man, revealing a DarkSecret in the past: He himself grew up in an abusive household, where he and his mother and siblings were regularly beaten by their drunken father. One night the mother had enough and locked him out of the house ... during a severe blizzard; the father kept banging on the door and screaming threats until he eventually passed out from his drunkeness and exhaustion. The next morning, the future police officer found his father, who had by now frozen to death. The officer then says that from that time on, he vowed to become a police officer and swore to never allow domestic abusers to get away with their crimes. The jury is somewhat sympathetic but still finds him guilty of manslaughter.

She put on dark glasses and long sleeved blouses\\

** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' has optional side missions where you can defend women's honor by beating the snot out of their philandering husbands (the whole chain starts off when Ezio [[BigBrotherInstinct tracks down his sister's boyfriend]], Duccio, [[DisproportionateRetribution for breaking her heart and spreading rumors about her]]). You run into the guy again in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood'', and he's still talking garbage about Claudia all these years later, having learned that she runs the Rosa in Fiore brothel (albeit for Brotherhood-related reasons.) This time, Ezio defeats him along with several goons he brings along, and knocks him unconscious when he refuses to keep his mouth shut. Needless to say, by the time ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations'' rolls around, Duccio has learned his lesson, and he runs away in terror, referring to Ezio as the Devil himself, though you can still [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential find him wandering the city and beat him up just because]].

* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'': Despite the fact that he's a [[HandsomeLech totally perverted skirt-chasing jerk]], if you hurt a woman in Kagura Mutsuki's presence, then the last few moments of your life will [[CurbStompBattle probably seriously]] [[ThisIsGonnaSuck suck]]. Just ask [[spoiler:Arakune, Ragna and Azrael]].

* The Flash game ''VideoGame/AnakshaFemaleAssassin'' has this as the title character's original motivation for picking up her rifle. Although in this case it's less Wife Basher Basher and more [[BoomHeadshot Wife Basher Head Shooter]].

* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', Trevor tears off Mexican drug lord Martin Madrazo's ear for the abuse he dishes out towards his wife, Patricia. When he eventually returns her home after kidnapping her for awhile, Trevor threatens to come back for the other one if he finds out he's mistreating her again.

* A brief long-delayed female example in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' is present [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0603.html when Haley justifies her willingness]] to slay one particular rogue out of many she knew on the basis of him being a wife-beater just before unleashing a arrow filled full attack on him.

* Will, from ''Literature/SuperPowereds'', is this to his sisters abusive boyfriend, in a legitimately creepy manner. He uses his genius to take over the guys car, controlling it from afar. He also reroutes all calls and messages from the guy to his sister, so that she is never the wiser about what happened.

* Glenn Quagmire becomes this in the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode [[Recap/FamilyGuyS10E3ScreamsOfSilenceTheStoryOfBrendaQ "Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q".]] in regards to him willing to murder his sister's abusive boyfriend. Joe (a police officer) allows him to do it after seeing the abuse for himself.

** Turns out its InTheBlood as the [[ComicBook/YoungJustice2019 2019 Young Justice series]] shows Connor Kent [[spoiler: saving a pregnant peasant woman named Lophi in Gemworld from being harassed by guards when it looks like they were going to manhandle her. When one tries to antagonize him, he just catches his arm and ''crushes'' his fist without batting an eye. Lophi takes him in while he waits for his friend and Connor poses as her husband (her old one died in a war) until Young Justice arrives. The two have grown clsoe enough for Lophi to let Connor name her daugher, which he named Martha, after Ma Kent.]]

* WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic is known to do this with his gun, even trying to shoot Lady Tremaine for abusing Disney/{{Cinderella}} so much.