History SadisticChoice / ComicBooks

** The 1952 story "Joker's Millions" has ComicBook/TheJoker inheriting King Barlowe's fortune, [[spoiler:only to find out that most of the UnexpectedInheritance was essentially CounterfeitCash and jewels in a final up-yours to the Clown Prince of Crime. Posthumously, [[XanatosGambit Barlowe knew]] the clown [[AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted would waste]] the real cash quickly and be left with basically nothing to pay the IRS. Joker is now torn between being mocked for admitting a dead man conned him (which he won't do), pretending he wasn't and getting jailed for tax evasion (which he can't do either), or returning to crime to save his hide]]. This was later [[TheFilmOfTheBook adapted]] as [[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE7JokersMillions an episode]] of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''.

* One ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' comic has Batman forced to make one of these by ''causality''. He ended up in an alternate universe where there were no heroes at all, not even Greek myths. In this world, Bruce Wayne's parents had yet to be killed, and he had to make a choice: save young Bruce's parents, or let them die and ensure this world had at least one hero in the form of its own Batman. [[spoiler:Batman chooses to save the alternate Bruce's parents... and then the trope is subverted: inspired by the memory of the vigilante who saved his family, the alternate Bruce Wayne studies, trains, and on reaching adulthood dons the cape and cowl himself.]]

* In Creator/GarthEnnis' run, Comicbook/ThePunisher puts Comicbook/{{Daredevil}} through the "choice between ideals" version. The Punisher is out to snipe a vicious mob figure; Daredevil attempts to stop him, insisting that the mob boss needs to be taken out legally, through the justice system. The Punisher manages to incapacitate Daredevil and bind him up with a gun with one bullet in his hands pointed at the Punisher's own head, such that the only way Daredevil could stop the Punisher's vigilante justice would be to violate his own ideals by fatally shooting Punisher himself. Daredevil [[spoiler:chooses to pull the trigger, at which point it is revealed that the setup was also a false dilemma: the gun had no firing pin]].

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':

* In ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan'', Alistair Smythe uses a classic sadistic choice to delay Spider-Man. Will he choose to rescue JJJ, or the prison warden, or a group of other civilians? He's very surprised when Spider-Ock announces that he's just going to go after Smythe, they all knew the risks and his spider-bots can take care of them if they don't do anything stupid.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* During the ''Resurrection of ComicBook/RasAlGhul'' arc Ra's tried to make [[ComicBook/{{Batman}} Bruce]] choose which new body Ra's would be slipping into out of Damain and [[ComicBook/RobinSeries Tim]], both of whom are Bruce's sons. Bruce understandably refuses and takes a third option instead.

* The thing possessing Dall Moss tries to force ComicBook/SimonDark to choose between joining him, saving the people of Gotham Village and dooming the rest of Gotham, or saving all of Gotham besides the Village. Simon is unimpressed and kills him, then chooses the option that saves the Village knowing he already has the key to preventing the rest of the city from being killed.

** In ''ComicBook/SupermansPalJimmy Olsen #16'', Superman gets stuck in a ''self-inflicted'' SadisticChoice when he tricks Lois into attributing a slip with his superpowers to some space berries, which she then eats. Thinking herself invulnerable, she goes news hunting. Superman uses his powers to keep an eye on her and the [[SuperpowersForADay currently invulnerable]] [[Characters/SupermanJimmyOlsen Jimmy Olsen]]. However, then he realizes to his horror that Jimmy's powers are on the verge of disappearing, leaving him with two daring people operating under the belief they can't get hurt. Rather than have to choose whether to save his [[LoveInterest best girl]] or his [[HeterosexualLifePartners best friend]] in case of a conflict, [[TakeAThirdOption Superman decides to tell Lois the truth about Clark's powers]]. However, circumstances intervene so he doesn't have to.

* In ''ComicBook/AstroCity'', while {{Superman}} expy Samaritan is out on a date with feminist hero Winged Victory (herself an {{expy}} of Wonder Woman,) he is trying to understand how her philosophy informs her superhero style. He asks her if, faced with a choice between a man and a woman who were in danger, she would always choose to save the woman. Her answer was "All other things being equal -- yes."

* During a flashback in ''ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}}'', [[GadgeteerGenius Qbit]] is shown asking The Plutonian, a Franchise/{{Superman}}-type superhero, what it's like to have so much power and responsibility. Plutonian doesn't answer, but he's visibly irritated by the question. Years later, after the Plutonian [[FaceHeelTurn becomes]] an AxCrazy OmnicidalManiac, he sets out to destroy the ''entire'' country of UsefulNotes/{{Singapore}}, and tells Qbit to [[SadisticChoice choose ten]] people to save out of four million.

** Pictured on the main page: In ''ComicBook/ActionComics #259'', Lex Luthor does this to Supes, forcing him to pick between current girlfriend Lois Lane and [[ChildhoodFriendRomance childhood crush]] Lana Lang. [[SarcasmMode Luckily]], our hero [[AllJustADream wakes up from the dream he's having]] and comments on how he's lucky that it was a dream and that he didn't have to actually make a decision.
** In ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #16'', Superman gets stuck in a ''self-inflicted'' SadisticChoice when he tricks Lois into attributing a slip with his superpowers to some space berries, which she then eats. Thinking herself invulnerable, she goes news hunting. Superman uses his powers to keep an eye on her and the [[SuperpowersForADay currently invulnerable]] [[Characters/SupermanJimmyOlsen Jimmy Olsen]]. However, then he realizes to his horror that Jimmy's powers are on the verge of disappearing, leaving him with two daring people operating under the belief they can't get hurt. Rather than have to choose whether to save his [[LoveInterest best girl]] or his [[HeterosexualLifePartners best friend]] in case of a conflict, [[TakeAThirdOption Superman decides to tell Lois the truth about Clark's powers]]. However, circumstances intervene so he doesn't have to.

** In ''Comicbook/WarWorld'', Mongul forces Superman to choose between giving him a device that controls a super-weapon and seeing his friends dying.

** ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton'': Darkseid's soldier Gillotina threatens with slicing Big Barda's throat unless Wonder Woman surrenders (in which case she'd be delivered to Darkseid). Wonder Woman takes a third option.

* ComicBook/UltimateMarvel
** [[ComicBook/TheUltimates Ultimate]] Red Skull was once hired to kill a guy, but instead of just shooting him, he got the guy's wife and infant son, held a gun to the infant's head, and gave the wife a choice -- either he kills the baby or she stabs her husband to death with an old pair of scissors. Then after she killed her husband, Red Skull threw the baby out the window anyway, his goons then raping her until well into the next day. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Then taking the bread and milk out of the fridge when and his goons eventually left.]]

** In ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #16'', Superman gets stuck in a ''self-inflicted'' SadisticChoice when he tricks Lois into attributing a slip with his superpowers to some space berries, which she then eats. Thinking herself invulnerable, she goes news hunting. Superman uses his powers to keep an eye on her and the [[SuperpowersForADay currently invulnerable]] ComicBook/JimmyOlsen. However, then he realizes to his horror that Jimmy's powers are on the verge of disappearing, leaving him with two daring people operating under the belief they can't get hurt. Rather than have to choose whether to save his [[LoveInterest best girl]] or his [[HeterosexualLifePartners best friend]] in case of a conflict, [[TakeAThirdOption Superman decides to tell Lois the truth about Clark's powers]]. However, circumstances intervene so he doesn't have to.

** In a story following ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfClarkKent'', Conduit's tape informs Superman that he set off the timer on a bomb ticking in Smallville. He can either fly away and save Smallville or stay and try to figure a way to defeat the seemingly insurmountable DeathTrap in which Conduit put ComicBook/JimmyOlsen. Superman flies away at superspeed, then returns. It still took several excruciating minutes before Jimmy had a EurekaMoment which let Superman save him.

* One of the rare examples of the hero making the choice and taking the consequences happened in ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' where Franchise/WonderWoman was faced with either murdering Maxwell Lord in cold blood or allowing a brainwashed Superman to remain under his control. She kills Lord and later hands herself in to the authorities (and is eventually found not guilty as she was acting in self-defense).
** She had wrapped her magic lasso around Lord, forcing him to tell the truth and she asked how she could break his mental hold on Superman and he said, under the influence of the lasso, the only way to make him stop was to kill him and CRACK! she snapped his neck without hesitation because she knew it was the only way.
** Another ''Wonder Woman'' example: on the cover of issue 118 of the original series, Wonder Woman is faced with the decision of whether to save ComicBook/SteveTrevor or a merman from falling from a precipice which they are clinging to for dear life.

* One Franchise/SpiderMan annual features the Scorpion doing this to J. Jonah Jameson. Holding Jameson's son John and his wife Marla hostage, the Scorpion demands that Jameson decide which one he kills, saying he'll let the other one live. A broken Jameson subverts this trope when he pleads with the Scorpion to kill ''him'' instead, saying that he was the one who turned the Scorpion into a monster. The Scorpion likes the idea, but the trope is DoubleSubverted when he decides to just kill the entire Jameson family. Fortunately, that's the exact moment when Spider-Man pulls a BigDamnHeroes rescue and interrupts the Scorpion so the Jamesons have time to escape.
* Done to Spider-Man by Harry Osborn, although with a twist. Harry had kidnapped Aunt May, Flash Thompson, and Mary Jane, and told Spider-Man that one of them was rigged to a bomb, and the other two were completely safe, urging Peter to save the one most dear to him. [[spoiler:That was intended as a clue, as Peter would use the word "dear" to describe Aunt May, but never Flash.]]
* Done in ''Spider-Man: India'' as a nod to the movie. The Goblin drops Aunt Maya and Meera Jain off opposite sides of a refinery tower. Spider-Man grabs Maya but doesn't have time to reach MJ...but luckily, [[HeelFaceTurn Doctor Octopus]] saves her.

* Franchise/{{Superman}}:
** Pictured on the main page: In ''ComicBook/ActionComics #259'', ComicBook/LexLuthor does this to Supes, forcing him to pick between current girlfriend ComicBook/LoisLane and [[ChildhoodFriendRomance childhood crush]] ComicBook/LanaLang. [[SarcasmMode Luckily]], our hero [[AllJustADream wakes up from the dream he's having]] and comments on how he's lucky that it was a dream and that he didn't have to actually make a decision.

* ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'':
** In ''Comicbook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'' arc, Supergirl must choose between letting an innocent person die and letting an alien abomination steal her body.
** In ''Comicbook/SupergirlRebirth'', Supergirl's father Zor-El had to choose between banishing an innocent to the PhantomZone and let someone potentially extremely dangerous run free (since that person was a werewolf and he couldn't control himself).
** In ''Comicbook/ManyHappyReturns'', Linda has to choose between sending Kara back to her timeline where she will eventually get killed in action… and letting TheMultiverse die.
** ''Comicbook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton'': Darkseid's soldier Gillotina threatens with slicing Big Barda's throat unless Wonder Woman surrenders (in which case she'd be delivered to Darkseid). Wonder Woman takes a third option.
* In ''Comicbook/SuperiorSpiderMan'', Alistair Smythe uses a classic sadistic choice to delay Spider-Man. Will he choose to rescue JJJ, or the prison warden, or a group of other civilians? He's very surprised when Spider-Ock announces that he's just going to go after Smythe, they all knew the risks and his spider-bots can take care of them if they don't do anything stupid.