History Main / WifeBasherBasher

-->'''Vida:''' So, I gather you like hitting ladies.\\

->''"Didn't you know that you don't hit a woman? You. Will. See."'' *THUD*
-->-- '''Takeshi Momoshiro''', ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis''

* Quoted above: Takeshi Momoshiro from ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis'' catches a JerkJock bullying Sakuno ''and'' [[KickTheDog pushing]] CoolBigSis An [[KickTheDog to the ground for defending her]], and before even introducing himself he's laying the smackdown on said jerk, physically and verbally.

* In ''Film/ToWongFooThanksForEverythingJulieNewmar'', when the drag queens hear Virgil beating Carol Anne, Vida Boheme (Patrick Swayze) thrashes him soundly, ending with the delivery of a bum's rush out the screen door. All without mussing her pink satin peignoir.
-->'''Vida:''' So, I gather you like hitting ladies.\\
'''Virgil:''' Some ladies need to get hit.\\
'''Vida:''' Then, conversely, some men need to be hit back.

* In ''Film/{{Brother}}'', the protagonist sleeps with a woman who is frequently abused by her husband. When the protagonist encounters him beating her, he bluntly shoots him in the leg and asks the wife to come with him. When she refuses, he leaves and gives her money to pay for the husband's treatment.

* ''Film/TheGirlInTheSpidersWeb'': In an EstablishingCharacterMoment, [[Literature/TheGirlWithTheDragonTattoo Lisbeth Salander]] breaks into the home of a CorruptCorporateExecutive who had just brutally beaten his wife, and earlier been acquitted after beating two prostitutes. Salandar easily traps him in a snare leaving him hanging upside down, grabs his dropped cellphone, accesses his bank accounts, and transfers 20% of his funds into accounts held by the two prostitutes, and the rest into his wife's account. The wife is about to call security until Salandar asks for her account number, [[KickTheSonOfABitch which she promptly provides]]. Salandar then tells her, "Take your child and leave. He won't hurt you again", blackmails the husband to never contact his wife again with a video of him having sex with his boss's wife, and [[GroinAttack tasers him in the groin for good measure]].

* ''Literature/TheRainmaker'''s protagonist spends much of the book pining for an abused wife. [[spoiler:The climax has a very cathartic scene where he beats the abuser to death with his own softball bat.]]
* In Creator/CharlesDickens' ''Literature/NicholasNickleby'': do ''not'' diss the title character's sister within his hearing. Just don't. (It's not a good idea to let him catch you mistreating kids, either.)
* ''[[Literature/{{Belgariad}} Polgara the Sorceress]]'': Daren deals with an abusive husband by asking the guy's father to choose whether his son will be flogged or have both his hands chopped off. (He suggests adding this to the Rivan law code, but we don't find out whether he did or not.) Later in the book, when Polgara is spending centuries as the Duchess of Erat, one change she makes in her villages is to have constables "encourage" wife-beaters to "find another hobby".
* ''Literature/SisterhoodSeries'' by Creator/FernMichaels: In a rare female example, the Vigilantes become this on Karl Woodley, a National Security Advisor who broke every bone in his wife, Paula Woodley's, body, in the book ''The Jury''. They get into his home and break every bone in ''his'' body! Despite having apparently reached her breaking point, Paula takes him back. Fortunately, he is permanently crippled, wheelchair-bound, and can't lay a hand on her. A later book reveals that she is taking great pleasure in tormenting him, implying that she only took him back so that she can make him suffer as much as she had!

* In Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'', the narrator proudly declares that on the Moon, attacking a woman is a literal death sentence, as any male in the area will gladly kill you in the most painful way he can think of. The Earther Stuart Renè [=LaJoie=] nearly gets killed because his Earth-style flirt was too aggressive for the Moon (he survives because the boys who caught him decided to give him a trial, and the protagonist, acting as a judge, realizes he was just ignorant. Stuart learned his lesson well), while the Moon revolution is triggered by Earth Peace Dragoons raping and killing a woman and their boss preventing the chief of the guards from having them hanged.

* Granny Weatherwax is strongly implied to take this tack whenever she hears about domestic violence in ''Discworld/TheSeaAndLittleFishes'' although the recipients of her brand of justice are usually ''very'' reluctant to talk about precisely what she did.

* ''Literature/RepairmanJack'' was hired by a man whose sister was being abused to beat the living crap out of his brother-in-law. Jack gave the guy a pounding and left him helpless, with instructions for the sister to call the cops and blame it on a burglar. [[spoiler: His plan backfires when the sister, having her abuser at her mercy for the first time in years, tortures the man nearly to death ''before'' she calls the police.]]
* ''[[Literature/TheAscendantKingdomsSaga Ice Forged]]'': In Edgeland, Blaine stops a man from forcing a woman into marriage with death threats, pointing out that he was originally sent to the PenalColony for killing the man who dishonored Blaine's sister (leaving out that [[ParentalIncest it was their father]]).
* Exploited in the Literature/HerculePoirot story "The Big Four". Hastings gets himself hired as secretary to one of the Four, alongside a young woman with auburn hair. One day she mentions to Hastings that their employer was in an unbelievably foul mood and nearly struck her just because she'd opened a letter with the [[ArcNumber number 4]] on it. [[QuintessentialBritishGentleman Hastings, full of righteous indignation, is about to go punch the cad]] when he regains control of himself and sends the news to Poirot. Naturally, it was all a setup, the Four had gotten Hastings' chivalrous personality and even his favorite hair color to ensure they could get him to reveal himself.
* In the Literature/SherlockHolmes story "The Adventure of The Abbey Grange", Holmes deduces who killed Lord Brackenstall, and provides a general hint to the police (in the person of Inspector Hopkins) about the killer, but does no more, because the man who killed Brackenstall did so because Lord B. was physically and emotionally abusive to Mary, Lady Brackenstall, who the man was in love with. Holmes tells the man that he will not reveal the truth to the police unless they arrest someone else for the crime, and that he is free to go and that he can come back to Mary in a year if he still desires to do so.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_2M3LrfFAw This]] somewhat controversial anti-domestic violence ad aired in Australia in 2006. It features Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read, a notorious ex-criminal and minor celebrity, talking in an overtly threatening manner about [[EvenEvilHasStandards what he thinks of rapists and men who beat women]] and [[PrisonRape what they can look forward to when they end up behind bars.]]

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
** In the first issue back in the 1930s, 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''.

** The ''ComicBook/New52'' ''Action Comics #1'' mentions Superman having done this as well in his early years as a hero, though we don't see it on panel. [[spoiler:In this case, the abusive husband in question eventually becomes a Kryptonite-powered supervillain and comes back seeking revenge on Superman.]]
** Turns out it's 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 close enough for Lophi to let Connor name her daughter, which he named Martha, after Ma Kent.]]
* 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 [[EvenEvilCanBeLoved the man's daughter]].

** 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.
** Marvel Knights' ''4'' did this, with Sue Storm threatening an abusive husband.
* ''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 consistently heroic portrayals 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/{{Diabolik}}'' has a strange case: the titular protagonist is disgusted by wife bashers but doesn't care enough to punish them, but Eva does, and he'll gladly help her robbing them blind and closing them in their own secret vault (just to quote the most recent case at the time of the writing).
* [[ComicBook/RedHood Jason Todd, the second Robin]], hated seeing women getting beaten by their abusive husbands and boyfriends; if he witnessed this, he would beat the abuser within an inch of his life. In one story, he may have actually killed the abuser, because he was furious that the man drove his girlfriend to suicide and he got away with it because he was the son of a diplomat; so one night, he confronted him, and by the time Batman arrived, the man had fallen to his death. Jason denied any wrongdoing.
* When the ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' were sent back in time to 1907, Karolina discovered that one of the kids whom the team had rescued from a factory fire was living with an abusive old alcoholic. She later discovered that the poor girl, who was 11 years old, was, in fact, ''married'' to the bastard, and that he had fully claimed his "[[MaritalRapeLicense marital rights]]". They ultimately managed to extract the girl and take her back to the present, and thus it was not necessary to beat the old man's ass, but she ''really'' wanted to, especially after Klara showed up to the Leapfrog covered in bruises.
-->'''Karolina''': I know who did this. ''[[TranquilFury And I know where he lives]].''
* ''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.
* ''ComicBook/BlackPanther'' (2016) features Aneka and Ayo, the Midnight Angels. Aneka killed a tribal chieftain who had been sexually abusing girls in his village. Later, Aneka and Ayo slaughter a group of militants who had been kidnapping women and girls for use as sex slaves.
* ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'': One issue sees Frank tailing a pair of cops, one of them crooked. The other one has a drinking problem (caused in part by his partner being crooked), but Frank doesn't really this as a problem... until the cop's wife comes in the room and he starts beating her. It takes considerable effort to get a PerpetualFrowner to look ''really'' angry, but the cop manages it. We next see him at the woman's shelter his wife ran off to, [[NeckLift being hoisted in the air by Frank.]]
* ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMax'' has an unintentional example: Frank starts the series by conducting a massacre of assembled Mafiosi. During the Widowmaker arc (where their widows unite to get revenge on him), a young woman who used to be married to one of them (a rapist, wifebeater, and murderer) thanks him for taking out her husband (the flashback panel shows Frank casually shotgunning the guy's head as he lies on the ground without even looking), and kills the rest of the widows for him (as they were responsible for setting up the wedding in the first place, then trying to kill her when she wanted out).

* It happens twice in ''Fanfic/SupermanOf2499TheGreatConfrontation''. During his first day as the newest Franchise/{{Superman}}, Alan Kent stops a wife-beater. Later, [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} Katherine]] saves a woman from her abusive husband, a fact which bolsters her resolution to become a hero.

* Cyrus "the Virus" Grissom, the BigBad of ''Film/ConAir'' and a mass murderer who claims to have killed more men than cancer, threatened to throw "Johnny 23," a convicted serial rapist, out of the title plane if he dared to try to rape the hijacked plane's only female officer. Cyrus says he normally despises rapists, but will make an exception in this case, then delivers his ultimatum. And TheHero Cameron Poe repeatedly rams Johnny's head into a bulkhead for trying to do just that later in the film. (To make things even more appropriate, Poe is a Wife Basher Basher [[SleevesAreForWimps in a "wife beater"]].)

* ''The Expendables''

* In ''Film/{{Goodfellas}},'' when Henry finds out his then-girlfriend-future-wife Karen was sexually assaulted by one of her neighbors, he promptly walks to his house and pistol-whips him in broad daylight, then threatens to murder him. This action likely had a hand in causing Karen to marry him, as she admits in her narration that it turned her on.
* In ''Film/{{Tank}}'', Command Sergeant Major Zach Carey was visiting the base hospital, where he discovers a child being treated for bruises which are clearly the result of his father beating him. Carey summons the father to his office and tries unsuccessfully to convince the man to seek counseling, even going so far as to offer going a few rounds in a boxing ring to work off the offender's excess anger. The corporal gets to his feet and snaps at Carey that it's nobody's business but ends up pinned to the wall with Carey's forearm across his throat, whereupon Carey issues the ultimatum that neither the stockade, loss of rank, or loss of retirement will stop him from destroying the man in place. The corporal is then much more receptive to Carey's offer of finding counseling.

* ''Film/TheGirlInTheSpidersWeb'': In an EstablishingCharacterMoment, [[Literature/TheGirlWithTheDragonTattoo Lisbeth Salander]] breaks into the home of a CorruptCorporateExecutive who had just brutally beaten his wife, and earlier been acquitted after beating two prostitutes. Salandar easily traps him in a snare leaving him hanging upside down, grabs his dropped cellphone, accesses his bank accounts, and transfers 20% of his funds into accounts held by the two prostitutes, and the rest into his wife's account. The wife is about to call security until Salandar asks for her account number, [[KickTheSonOfABitch which she promptly provides]]. Salandar then tells her, "Take your child and leave. He won't hurt you again," blackmails the husband to never contact his wife again with a video of him having sex with his boss's wife, and [[GroinAttack tasers him in the groin for good measure]].
-->'''CEO''': Who are you?\\
'''Salandar''': You should ask yourself that question.

* [[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]].

* ''Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy'' is pretty much about this: ''The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'''s original title in Swedish translates to ''Men Who Hate Women''. Lisbet Salander in particular set her abusive father on fire as a child, [[spoiler:[[KarmicRape sodomizes her court-appointed guardian with a dildo]] and tattoos "I am a rapist" on his chest after he rapes her, and uses the video of the rape to blackmail him into emancipating her]], [[spoiler:and lets primary villain Martin Vanger, a SerialRapist and [[SerialKiller killer]] of women, burn to death in his crashed car after a chase while she stands by and watches]].

* In ''Series/BreakingBad'' Mike tells a story about the days when he was still a beat cop, and he would regularly receive domestic abuse calls from one couple, but the abused wife would never press charges. Eventually, Mike got fed up, took the guy out into the middle of nowhere, and threatened to kill him should he ever hurt his wife again. It turns out to be a deconstruction, as the man promises to never do it again but kills his wife only a few weeks later, and Mike is implied to have made good on his promise. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUuHdACg83E Here's the dialog of the scene set to a fan animation]].

** It's implied that Jesse was removed as a field agent because he couldn't resist this trope, even while undercover.

--->"Please, for someone smacking his wife and kid around, Michael will take on the Chinese Army."
** Darkly subverted in an episode where a woman came to Michael claiming that her abusive husband had kidnapped their son, and begging for help finding him. Michael and his friends immediately leap to her aid. It turns out that she was a contract killer and the man was her target. She'd made up the story specifically because she knew domestic abuse was Michael's BerserkButton.

** When Dan finds out Jackie's boyfriend is beating her up, he goes over and does the same to him. In a bit of a subversion, he explains he first tried to scare him off and it escalated into a fistfight, and he winds up spending the night in jail when charges get pressed. Also, when he gets home, the show does tackle the UnfortunateImplications of violence-vs-violence when he attempts to explain the situation to his son.
--->'''Dan:''' Look.... it's not okay to beat up anyone, it's ''never'' okay to beat up women, but sometimes it's less not okay to beat up somebody when they beat up somebody you love.\\

** Carol (formerly Ed's battered wife, but having [[TookALevelInBadass toughened up considerably]] after many seasons) also has a visceral negative reaction to Pete's abuse, for obvious reasons. After Pete's fight with Rick, she holds a knife to his throat and threatens to kill him if he ever even comes near his wife again.

-->Father's a name you haven't earned yet\\

Kickin' your ass would be a pleasure

-->Should I sit here on these hands of mine one more time?\\
Or should I use them on him the way he does on you?

--> It takes a tough man to slap her around.\\

That wanna kick your ass.

--> Well, it wasn't two weeks after she got married\\

That Earl had to die.

-->When she took your hand in marriage\\

When the hammer's cockin'.

-->I'm goin' home, gonna load my shotgun\\

Gunpowder and lead

-->"Back to reality and what you're about!\\

At the hands of [[{{Necromancer}} Milenko!]]"

-->I raise a fist for the nameless faces he disgraces\\

De dana dan (Bring the beatdown)

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* 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.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Adrian}}'' has the titular protagonist (an expy/avatar/self-insert of the author, the actor and singer Adriano Celentano) don the mask of "La Volpe" (''The Fox''), a Zorro/Batman expy stalking the streets of a corrupt Milano beating rapist and wifebeaters until they become crippled messes of scarred flesh, broken bones and open fractures. ItMakesSenseInContext: Adrian believes he's tasked to protect every kind of beauty from every kind of predatory exploitation, and that women are the ultimate avatar of the abstract concept of beauty. Defiling a woman to Adrian means defiling beauty itself, and he can't allow that.

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.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E7TheIdiotsLantern "The Idiot's Lantern"]], the Doctor gives {{Jerkass}} abuser Eddie Connolly a truly withering verbal beatdown and kickstarts a HumiliationConga that culminates in his soon-to-be-ex-wife kicking him out.

* In ''VideoGame/TheWolfAmongUs'', Bigby doesn't react very well when he walks into the Woodsman's apartment just in time to see him hitting [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold Faith.]] You can even choose to go above and beyond normally just beating the hell out of him and decide to give him an extra punch for calling her a bitch after Bigby makes it very clear that [[BerserkButton he does ''not'' like that word.]] He also stresses 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.

[[caption-width-right:201: [[HumanAliens Or a human, for that matter]].]]

** In "The Brush Man", [[spoiler:The Victim, a door-to-door brush salesman named Roy Dunn, is revealed to have gone to prison after killing a wife beater in a bar fight. Before his death, he had been keeping a close eye on a family of three, which included giving free brushes to the wife of the family, Diane, and playing baseball with the son of the family, Kevin. This arouses the suspicion of the father of the family, Glenn, who Roy distrusts. Glenn makes Roy take back the brushes he gave Diane and tries to keep his son away from him. Roy later finds Diane crying and comforts her; Diane is upset because her husband mistreats and lies to her, saying he is at work when he is not. Kevin sees Roy and his mother and runs off; Roy goes after him to make sure he did not get the wrong impression. Kevin tells Roy that he had caught his father cottaging in the park and that he had had his wrist broken as 'punishment.' This angers the wife-basher basher Roy, who finds Glenn in his work-shop at night. Roy adopts a threatening tone and tells Glenn to leave his family and let them live their life. Glenn insists that Roy has no right to intrude on his 'family life' and that he will never leave. Roy then tells Glenn that he knows about his homosexuality and Glenn becomes more hesitant, but still reiterates that he will not leave. Roy then throws a punch at Glenn that sends him flying backwards; as Glenn scrambles to regain his footing, he grabs a pair of scissors and plants them into Roy's neck, killing him.]] [[spoiler: Roy tells Glenn that he has an eye for people like him and that he can't ignore it like other people on the street or like they "taught him to in jail". It is suggested that Roy had experienced domestic abuse as a child in one scene in which he tells Kevin "My House was not a place you'd like to be"]].

'''DJ:''' ... [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale What if a woman beats up somebody you love?]]

** And of course, in Season 5's "Try" [[spoiler: Rick does the same thing to Pete, drawing some disturbing parallels with his former rival and best friend]].

* LovableSexManiac to the extreme, Issei Hyoudou of ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'' never makes his obsession for boobs a secret, but thankfully he's also a NiceGuy and treats girls properly when he needs to. That said, it's always a bad idea to upset or abuse women in his presence. [[spoiler:Raiser, Diodora, and Shalba all find out the hard way.]]

[[quoteright:201:[[Franchise/{{Superman}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/superman_001___11_9.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:201: [[HumanAliens Or a human, for that matter.]]]]

* ''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 Monsieur 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.

* 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]].

* In ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'', the ''nicer'' techniques of Hokuto Shinken literally makes your head explode from the inside out: If you dare strike or abuse women, on the other hand, Kenshiro will literally make you strangle yourself to death. His older brother Raoh prefers the more direct method of [[OffWithHisHead LITERALLY slapping your head off]]. Rei, successor of Nanto-Seiken and Kenshiro's dearest friend is equally ruthless when it comes to those who hurt or terrorize women.

* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'', while Asuna is usually capable of taking care of herself, Kirito still does not take kindly to those who hurts her. During the infamous scene from the "Fairy Dance" arc where Oberon/Sugou is molesting her, Kirito gets the chance to turn things around when he is granted ''full'' Game-Master powers by the ghost of his WorthyOpponent professor Kayaba & he grabs it with both hands. He turns the pain-inhibitor protocols of Sugou's in-game avatar to ''zero'', and ''butchers'' the Oberon avatar ''so'' brutally that Sugou ''himself'' suffers lasting damage in the real world.
** Note that after this, Kirito is ''exceptionally'' cruel towards those who victimize girls. In the Underworld when confronted with Raios and Humbert, two silver-spoon-in-mouth brutes who were outhright attempting to ''rape'' Royne and Tiese, girl-pages serving hunder him and Eugeo, he cleaves ''both'' of Raios' arms off for his troubles, bleeding the rapist to death like a pig.

** 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 close enough for Lophi to let Connor name her daughter, which he named Martha, after Ma Kent.]]

* ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMax'' has an unintentional example: Frank starts the series by conducting a massacre of assembled Mafiosi. During the Widowmaker arc (where their widows unite to get revenge on him), a young woman who used to be married to one of them (a rapist, wifebeater and murderer) thanks him for taking out her husband (the flashback panel shows Frank casually shotgunning the guy's head as he lies on the ground without even looking), and kills the rest of the widows for him (as they were responsible for setting up the wedding in the first place, then trying to kill her when she wanted out).
* In ''ComicBook/WonderWoman2006'' Diana does not take it easy on the retired supervillain who had just decided to upgrade his usual mistreatment of his wife into beating her to near death for calling the cops. He turns his battered self in when the cops arrive, even though Wondy had long since left to get his wife aid.

* In ''Film/{{Brother}}'', the protagonists sleeps with a woman who is frequently abused by her husband. When the protagonist encounters him beating her, he bluntly shoots him in the leg and asks the wife to come with him. When she refuses, he leaves and gives her money to pay for the husband's treatment.

* ''Film/TheGirlInTheSpidersWeb'': In an EstablishingCharacterMoment, [[Literature/TheGirlWithTheDragonTattoo Lisbeth Salander]] breaks into the home of a CorruptCorporateExecutive who had just brutally beaten his wife, and and earlier been acquitted after beating two prostitutes. Salandar easily traps him in a snare leaving him hanging upside down, grabs his dropped cellphone, accesses his bank accounts and transfers 20% of his funds into accounts held by the two prostitutes, and the rest into his wife's account. The wife is about to call security until Salandar asks for her account number, [[KickTheSonOfABitch which she promptly provides]]. Salandar then tells her, "Take your child and leave. He won't hurt you again," blackmails the husband to never contact his wife again with a video of him having sex with his boss's wife, and [[GroinAttack tasers him in the groin for good measure]].

* ''Literature/{{Meg}}'': In ''The Loch'', Angus Wallace (who freely admits to being a cruel, emotionally abusive ass on his best day and a bitter old drunk on his worst), who's been arrested for the murder of his business partner Johnny Cialino, turns out to be one. Cialino, it turned out, had started getting violent with his wife, and she called Angus for help; in the resulting meeting near Loch Ness, the two men argued until Angus punched Cialino hard enough that he stumbled backward, tripped over a tree root and fell backward into the water. And then the Loch Ness Monster rose up to attack and fatally injure Cialino.

** In "The Brush Man", [[spoiler:The Victim, a door to door brush salesman named Roy Dunn, is revealed to have gone to prison after killing a wife beater in a bar fight. Before his death, he had been keeping a close eye on a family of three, which included giving free brushes to the wife of the family, Diane, and playing baseball with the son of the family, Kevin. This arouses the suspicion of the father of the family, Glenn, who Roy distrusts. Glenn makes Roy take back the brushes he gave Diane and tries to keep his son away from him. Roy later finds Diane crying and comforts her; Diane is upset because her husband mistreats and lies to her, saying he is at work when he is not. Kevin sees Roy and his mother and runs off; Roy goes after him to make sure he did not get the wrong impression. Kevin tells Roy that he had caught his father cottaging in the park and that he had had his wrist broken as 'punishment.' This angers the wife-basher basher Roy, who finds Glenn in his work-shop at night. Roy adopts a threatening tone and tells Glenn to leave his family and let them live their life. Glenn insists that Roy has no right to intrude on his 'family life' and that he will never leave. Roy than tells Glenn that he knows about his homosexuality and Glenn becomes more hesitant, but still reiterates that he will not leave. Roy than throws a punch at Glenn that sends him flying backwards; as Glenn scrambles to regain his footing, he grabs a pair of scissors and plants them into Roy's neck, killing him.]] [[spoiler: Roy tells Glenn that he has an eye for people like him and that he can't ignore it like other people on the street or like they "taught him to in jail". It is suggested that Roy had experienced domestic abuse as a child in one scene in which he tells Kevin "My House was not a place you'd like to be"]].

** When Dan finds out Jackie's boyfriend is beating her up, he goes over and does the same to him. In a bit of a subversion, he explains he first tried to scare him off and it escalated into a fist-fight, and he winds up spending the night in jail when charges get pressed. Also, when he gets home, the show does tackle the UnfortunateImplications of violence-vs-violence when he attempts to explain the situation to his son.

* In ''VideoGame/TheWolfAmongUs'', Bigby doesn't react very well when he walks into the Woodsman's apartment just in time to see him hitting [[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.]] He also stresses 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.

* ''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. [[spoiler:SCP-3998 itself is the corpse of a 17th century man who was abusive to his wife, and she turned into a witch by making a DealWithTheDevil. He found out and gathered a mob to burn her to death. The devil revived her and gave her the power to get revenge on him, which she did by ripping off his legs and burning him alive.]]

* In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', at the start of the story the PlayerCharacter ends up on probation after getting arrested on assault charges for picking a fight with the BigBad while he was [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil drunkenly trying to force himself on a woman]]. Subverted in that he barely even touched him; he fell over and hit his head when he pulled them apart, [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney and used his influence to silence the witness and have Joker prosecuted as harshly as possible]] [[KidHero for a minor]].

* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'', while Asuna is usually capable of taking care of herself, Kirito still does not take kindly to those who fuck with her. During ''that'' scene from the Fairy Dance arc where Oberon/Sugou is molesting her, the very moment Kirito gets the chance to turn things around, he grabs it with both hands and kills Sugou's in-game avatar so brutally that Sugou himself suffers lasting damage in the real world.

* In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', at the start of the story, the protagonist ends up on probation after getting arrested for picking a fight with a man harassing a woman.

that Wanda started gettin' abused\\

And make-up to cover her bruise\\

She let the law take it from there\\

Right away Mary Anne flew in from Atlanta on a red-eye midnight flight\\

And it didn't take them long to decide that Earl had to die

* The first victim of Music/InsaneClownPosse's [[Music/TheGreatMilenko "Halls of Illusions"]] is a wife-beater.
-->"Back to reality and what you're about\\
Your wife can't smile 'cause you knocked her teeth out\\
And she can't fucking see straight from getting hit\\
'Cause you're a fat fucking drunk piece of shit\\
But it's all cool, here come have a beer\\
I'll break the cap off and stick it in your ear\\
And your death comes wicked painful and slow\\
At the hands of [[{{Necromancer}} Milenko]]"

* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'' if you rape/molest Kirito's sweetheart, you will quickly come to [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown regret it]].

* In ''Literature/TheNeanderthalParallax'', when Ponter discovers that [[spoiler:Cornelius Ruskin raped Mary and Qaiser]], he goes over to his house and [[spoiler:[[GroinAttack brutally castrates him]] so he cannot pass on his genes or repeat this act with another woman again.]] Note this isn't an act of hot-blooded outrage: Neanderthals [[WellIntentionedExtremist strongly believe that]] [[VillainousLegacy violent urges are genetic]]; in fact they also sterilize the offender's children and close relatives as well, to prevent the genes from passing on. However [[AssholeVictim you can be sure that a lot of human readers would not have judged Ponter for his actions either]].

* The titular ''Film/JohnDoeVigilante'' is this, as he frequently includes {{domestic abuse}}rs among his victims.

* ''Film/JohnDoeVigilante'': Men who inflict DomesticAbuse on their partners and children are a favoured target of John Doe. The beatings he inflicts are inevitably fatal.