History SealedEvilInACan / Comicbooks

* A somewhat ambiguous example in ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'', where [[spoiler:Chrysalis and her Changelings are imprisoned in their own castle at the end of the first StoryArc with the animated Pinkie Pie suit to entertain them (well, entertain the soldiers, annoy Chrysalis). Twilight indicates it would take them "a while" to break out. However, recently, on page 11 of Friends Forever Issue #8, a sign under the Mount Monument observation deck reads "Sign the petition to add Queen Chrysalis to the monument" and bears Chrysalis' fresh signature, which in turn strongly suggests they have since recovered and are back to plotting and causing trouble for Equestria.]]

* Franchise/TheDCU:
** The PhantomZone is essentially an other-dimensional prison that holds numerous Kryptonian criminals. As such, there many stories where the prisoners escape and the heroes have to fight to throw them back into the Zone. In ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlSaga'', though, the Phantom Zone criminals of the Pocket Universe, when released, destroyed the projector that could send them back there, and so without it, the mainstream DC Universe Superman had to resort to using that world's Gold and Green Kryptonite (to which Superman was immune) to deal with them once and for all.
** The Source Wall is a huge cosmic barrier between the Source (the source of power behind existence itself) and the rest of creation. The Wall is decorated with the bodies and visages of all of the would be conquerors who have sought to claim the power of the Source for themselves, imprisoning them for all eternity. The Wall is one of the more effective Cans in fiction and only three people have ever escaped it. One of them, Yuga Khan (the father of {{ComicBook/Darkseid}}), managed to summon just enough power to free himself from the Wall... only to get himself imprisoned in it again in another bid to obtain the Source, this time for good. The second one was Darkseid himself, and he needed the help of the one who imprisoned him in the first place ({{Superman}}) to do it. The third was Superman, who was trapped by Darkseid and required the help of every variation of Supergirl from the last twenty years to break free.

* ''Comicbook/{{Fables}}''' second BigBad came out of his can due to the effects of the heroes saving the world.

* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern: Rebirth'' revealed that the long-established "[[KryptoniteFactor yellow impurity]]" in the Central Power Battery was actually ''Parallax'', the "yellow fear entity," an [[AnthropomorphicPersonification insectile manifestation]] of that emotion, released when Hal "Greatest GL of them all" Jordan entered the Central Battery years before. Before it was in a box that was stolen from Maltus by Larfleeze and his crew. Later it was imprisoned in a Sciencell, and finally got ripped apart and stashed in four separate batteries.

* Loki's first appearance shows him imprisoned inside a tree. He would become free only if his captivity causes someone to shed a tear. No one missed Loki strongly enough to want to cry, so he forces Heimdall to shed a tear by poking him in the eye with a leaf.
** Let's just say Comicbook/{{Loki}} was sealed and/or [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment punished]] in one way or another so many times in the years that some incarnations (like the ''Comicbook/LokiAgentOfAsgard'' one) outright claimed to be the [[EscapeArtist bona fide expert on escaping from them]]. ''Why'' people still try to imprison Loki is a great mystery.
** Another example of this in ''Comicbook/TheMightyThor'' franchise is Mangog, the sum total of the hatred of a race that was slain by Odin. It was imprisoned with a warning on the door until released by the [[AllTrollsAreDifferent Rock Troll]] Ulik who thought it would be an ally against Asgard.

* The Sohrem of ''{{Manga/Nightschool}}''.

* ''Comicbook/{{Superman}}''. Doomsday was living Sealed Evil, but ultimately broke out of his own can. He keeps getting re-sealed in stronger cans (we hope!).
** The quote on the main page has Luthor being a bit resentful that somebody sealed Doomsday and dumped the can on Earth, but Earth did pretty much the same thing. Doomsday can only be ''temporarily'' killed, and even if you can do that you don't want him around when he wakes up again, because he mutates in such a way as to be immune to whatever killed him last time. So somebody managed it, packaged him up, and launched him into space, which eventually resulted in him landing on Earth. What does Cyborg Superman do with Doomsday's body? Strap it to an asteroid and throw it into space. [[spoiler: It later turns out that Cyborg Superman is actually villain Hank Henshaw.]]

* Black Adam from the ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'' franchise was basically this when he was banished to the farthest star by Shazam the wizard when the one-time hero became a corrupt villain, only to be brought back by Dr. Sivana through his science. In the ''ComicBook/ShazamTheNewBeginning'' series, Black Adam was sent back to his imprisonment when Billy Batson tricked him into activating the device that brought the villain back to Earth in the first place.
* IDW’s ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' comics put an interesting twist on this trope with Carcer, the Cybertronion colony designed to imprison [[spoiler:[[TheTrickster Liege Maximo]]]]; it’s eventually revealed that [[spoiler:the Sealed Can was ''intentionally rigged to fail''. Onyx Prime (actually Shockwave in disguise) insisted that Vigilem, a Titan loyal to Liege Maximo, be rechristened “Carcer” and used to contain Liege. The other Thirteen were under the impression that it was a way of punishing both Liege and Vigilem; in reality, Shockwave was arranging for his [[TheDragon Dragon]] to be put in a prison he could easily be rescued from when the time was right.]]

** Let's just say Loki was sealed and/or [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment punished]] in one way or another so many times in the years that some incarnations (like the ''Comicbook/LokiAgentOfAsgard'' one) outright claimed to be the [[EscapeArtist bona fide expert on escaping from them]]. ''Why'' people still try to imprison Loki is a great mystery.

* Black Adam from the ''[[ComicBook/CaptainMarvel Shazam]]'' franchise was basically this when he was banished to the farthest star by Shazam the wizard when the one-time hero became a corrupt villain, only to be brought back by Dr. Sivana through his science. In the ''ComicBook/ShazamTheNewBeginning'' series, Black Adam was sent back to his imprisonment when Billy Batson tricked him into activating the device that brought the villain back to Earth in the first place.

* ''GreenLantern: Rebirth'' revealed that the long-established "[[KryptoniteFactor yellow impurity]]" in the Central Power Battery was actually ''Parallax'', the "yellow fear entity," an [[AnthropomorphicPersonification insectile manifestation]] of that emotion, released when Hal "Greatest GL of them all" Jordan entered the Central Battery years before. Before it was in a box that was stolen from Maltus by Larfleeze and his crew. Later it was imprisoned in a Sciencell, and finally got ripped apart and stashed in four separate batteries.

* ''ComicBook/UltimateVision'': The Gah Lak Tus unit, a straw component of the swarm that attacked earth. AIM managed to capture one, and kept it turned off. Tarleton needed to activate it for his world dominance plan to work. He did, and the unit resumed the swarm's one and only goal: destroy the planet.

* In ''Comicbook/{{Lucifer}}'', the seraph Meleos long ago created the Basanos, a living, extremely powerful living tarot deck as both a complement to Destiny's book (which contains nearly everything that will ever happen) and a means of recording and preserving humanity's thoughts. The latter function, however, corrupted the Basanos and turned them into beings of pure evil, so Meleos has since locked them in a box. However, [[spoiler:when Lucifer demands the use of the Basanos for divination, Meleos resolves to destroy them and opens the box, whereupon the cards overpower him and escape.]]

** The Source Wall is a huge cosmic barrier between the Source (the source of power behind existence itself) and the rest of creation. The Wall is decorated with the bodies and visages of all of the would be conquerors who have sought to claim the power of the Source for themselves, imprisoning them for all eternity. The Wall is one of the more effective Cans in fiction and only three people have ever escaped it. One of them, Yuga Khan (the father of {{ComicBook/Darkseid}}), managed to summon just enough power to free himself from the Wall...only to get himself imprisoned in it again in another bid to obtain the Source, this time for good. The second one was Darkseid himself, and he needed the help of the one who imprisoned him in the first place ({{Superman}}) to do it. The third was Superman, who was trapped by Darkseid and required the help of every variation of Supergirl from the last twenty years to break free.
* In a [[WesternAnimation/TheDisneyAfternoon Disney Afternoon]] crossover event in ''Magazine/DisneyAdventures'', the [[ComicBook/TheLegendOfTheChaosGod Chaos God himself]], Solego, was trapped in two pieces: a crystal held his mind and a gold medallion held his powers. Uniting the pieces released him and ''that'' isn't a good thing.

* In Marvel comics, ComicBook/{{Galactus}} acts as a can on a greater, multiverse-destroying evil. Most of the energy he gets from his food goes to maintaining the seal, explaining his unusual diet.

* ''GreenLantern: Rebirth'' revealed that the long-established "[[KryptoniteFactor yellow impurity]]" in the Central Power Battery was actually ''Parallax'', the "yellow fear entity," an [[AnthropomorphicPersonification insectile manifestation]] of that emotion, released when Hal "Greatest GL of them All" Jordan entered the Central Battery years before. Before it was in a box that was stolen from Maltus by Larfleeze and his crew. Later it was imprisoned in a Sciencell, and finally got ripped apart and stashed in four separate batteries.

** Let's just say Loki was sealed and/or [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment punished]] in one way or another so many times in the years that some incarnations (like the Comicbook/LokiAgentOfAsgard one) outright claimed to be the [[EscapeArtist bona fide expert on escaping from them]]. ''Why'' people still try to imprison Loki is a great mystery.
** Another example of this in Comicbook/TheMightyThor franchise is Mangog, the sum total of the hatred of a race that was slain by Odin. It was imprisoned with a warning on the door until released by the [[AllTrollsAreDifferent Rock Troll]] Ulik who thought it would be an ally against Asgard.
** Then there were older foes of Asgard imprisoned by Odin. Ymir the Frost Giant, Surter the Fire Demon, and Skagg the Storm Giant, the last two were released by Loki to attack Odin.

** The PhantomZone is essentially an other-dimensional prison that holds numerous Kryptonian criminals. As such, there many stories where the prisoners escape and the heroes have to fight to throw them back into the Zone.

* Shiklah of ''{{Comicbook/Deadpool}}''. An ancient demon Succubus. Dracula contracts Deadpool with the task of retrieving her coffin and bringing her to him so they can wed. Shiklah was sealed away centuries ago by her father so he could protect her. While travelling with the coffin, a creature tells Deadpool that he senses evil in the coffin, and fights Deadpool to destroy it. Once she awakens, she introduces herself to Deadpool, then attempts to drain his life-force with a kiss, smiling after believing him to be dead. Thanks to his HealingFactor, he survived. Later, Blade, the vampire hunter appears and attempts to kill Shiklah to stop her from marrying Dracula, but Deadpool and Shiklah fight him off. He and Shiklah eventually fall in love, and get married to thwart Dracula's plans. When their marriage starts to suffer due to Wade's absence, Shiklah begins cheating on him with numerous monsters from her kingdom, then eventually declares war on the surface world in attempts to take over and liberate her monsters. The war ends with Shiklah marrying Dracula like originally intended, and leaving Deadpool a note to get on with his life. But the future in 2099 shows he and Shiklah do get back together, but had more wars with one another, leading to Deadpool having to seal her away again in a coffin that he had shrunken, and keeps on his heart.
** WordOfGod says he got many complaints about how mean Shiklah could be to Deadpool, and the ruining of their relationship. He says he has to remind people that Shiklah is a demon, after all, and reminding people that she did try to kill Deadpool shortly after meeting him.
** Editor Jordan White received a question asking how Shiklah feels about Ellie, her husband's daughter. He states that Shiklah doesn't care for Ellie at all, and that the feelings is probably mutual since most girls don't like their WickedStepMother

** WordOfGod says he got many complaints about how mean Shiklah could be to Deadpool, and the ruining of their relationship. He says he has to remind people that Shiklah is a demon, after all.
* Editor Jordan White received a question asking how Shiklah feels about Ellie, her husband's daughter. He states that Shiklah doesn't care for Ellie at all, and that the feelings is probably mutual since most girls don't like their WickedStepMother

* Shiklah of ''Comicbook/Deadpool''. And ancient demon succubus. Dracula contracts Deadpool with the task of retrieving her coffin and bringing her to him so they can wed. Shiklah was sealed away centuries ago by her father so he could protect her. While travelling with the coffin, a creature tells Deadpool that he senses evil in the coffin he's carrying, and fights Deadpool to destroy it. Once she awakens, she introduces herself to Deadpool, then attempts to drain his life-force with a kiss, smiling after believing him to be dead. Thanks to his healing factor, he survived. Later, Blade, the vampire hunter appears and attempts to kill Shiklah to stop her from marrying Dracula, but Deadpool and Shiklah fight him off. He and Shiklah eventually fall in love, and get married to thwart Dracula's plans. When their marriage starts to suffer due to Wade's absence, Shiklah begins cheating on him with numerous monsters from her kingdom, then eventually declares war on the surface world in attempts to take over. The war ends with Shiklah marrying Dracula like originally intended, and leaving Deadpool a note to get on with his life. But the future in 2099 shows he and Shiklah do get back together, but had more wars with one another, leading to Deadpool having to seal her away again in a coffin that he had shrunken, and keeps on his heart.

** Then came ''WorldWarHulk'', when a [[GodzillaThreshold desperate Strange]] let Zom back ''out'' of the bottle -- and quickly discovered that EvilIsNotAToy.