History WhatAnIdiot / Comicbooks

'''You'd expect:''' Him to bloody do so. It's obvious that Hulk is never going to stop, and Strange has every right to defend himself with lethal force. Strange has routinely taken out enemies that make Hulk look like a ten year old girl.\\

* ''Doctor Strange: The Oath''. Strange's manservant Wong is near death and Strange has retrieved an elixir which can cure any disease. That potion is currently in the hands of a CorruptCorporateExecutive who is WithholdingTheCure to protect his profits. He has just challenged Strange to a fistfight. Neither of them can use magic for the next three minutes, and Doc is suffering from a near-lethal gunshot wound inflicted earlier that night.\\

'''Instead:''' Strange allows the other man to pummel him for at least a minute before he fights back. Nevertheless, in the confusion and pouring rain the man misjudges the edge of the roof and plummets to his death. Strange is able to recover only a single drop of the elixir, forcing him to choose between saving Wong or reproducing it to save the world.

'''Instead:''' Strange allows the other man to pummel him for at least a minute before he has an IKnowKungFu moment. Nevertheless, in the confusion and pouring rain the man misjudges the edge of the roof and plummets to his death. Strange is able to recover only a single drop of the elixir, forcing him to choose between saving Wong or reproducing it to save the world.

'''Also:''' Instead of altering it in any way, even by just painting it a different color, he dressed up ''as'' the Green Goblin, and went around ''calling himself'' the Green Goblin. Now you might think that's a good way to get mistaken for a villain, making his work massively more difficult as superheroes attacked him and civilians fled him. And you'd be right.

'''Furthermore:''' As of the 90s, Spider-Man has teamed up frequently with a good bulk of the Marvel Universe through crossovers and issues of Marvel Team Up, as well as being deemed worthy of Avengers Membership. And when you consider that other heroes have been framed, well they shouldn't be so quick to join the "Spidey is guilty" manhunt.\\
'''Now''': Even if the other heroes gave him the benefit of the doubt, they wouldn't be able to tell if the guy in the Spider-Man suit is the genuine article or the copycat. But as Lorendiac from Comic Book Resources states, all it would take is to have someone like Captain America restrain him and ask a question like "When we were on the Battleworld during the Secret Wars, I suggested that Professor Xavier should lead us. Who did he recommend for leadership?"\\
'''Instead''': Civilian and heroes alike go straight to the accusation.\\

* ''Comicbook/{{X-Factor}}'': The problem is evident from the outset. Jean Grey comes back from the dead without her telepathy and finds that not only are her old teammates at loose ends and [[TheMentor Charles Xavier]] missing; but [[BigBad Magneto]] [[HeelFaceTurn was running the latter's school]], the Comicbook/{{X-Men}} were wanted outlaws, and Mutants [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer had a worse rep than ever]]. When she gets the old gang together they decide to gather young mutants themselves to train them in safety and away from dangerous influences, but they do not have a Cerebro unit or a telepath to use it.\\

* ''[[YTheLastMan Y: the Last Man]]'' is another tale that starts out with a screwup. Two months after [[{{Gendercide}} everything on the planet with a Y chromosome drops dead out of the blue]], the son of one of the surviving congress critters shows up at the White House.\\

'''Instead:''' The send the guy, escorted by '''''one''''' [[ActionGirl secret agent sort]], to a cloning expert that was last seen in Boston before everything went to heck. Supposedly they were convinced by his arguments concerning being to easy to locate if he were in one spot, even the mother who was probably aware he was pretty hung up on this Beth person.\\

* The much-maligned "OneMoreDay" arc of {{Spider-Man}} involved Aunt May in a coma, after being shot by a gunman following Peter Parker revealing himself to be Spider-Man. Spidey has asked practically every magical/technological superhero he can find to save his aunt's life, many claiming that they either can't or it would be wrong to do so. In a seance, Aunt May revealed that she accepts her death.\\

* One ''Superman/Batman'' team-up featured Doctor Light trying to take down Superman with a magic wand, explaining that apparently Zatanna's magic has... something to do with light, nobody's really sure what.\\
'''You'd expect:''' he'd place the wand in his hand, point it at Superman, and kill him with it, since Superman is weak against magic. Having done this, he'd nuke Batman, thereby removing two of the most dangerous Justice League members.\\

* Mongul has just defeated Arkillo in a fistfight and now has a good portion of the Sinestro Corps under his command.\\

'''Instead:''' He goes at Sinestro solo and tries to kill him. Sinestro states that he has always been prepared for potential coups and has devised failsafes, namely emergency ring control overrides, and takes control of Mongul's ring. After impaling him from virtually every angle, Sinestro imprisons him within the central power battery.

* In a later appearance by Superboy-Prime, he's fighting the Legion of Super Heroes in the distant future, only to find that the Legion's greatest enemy, Time Trapper, is himself, aged centuries and now sporting a cool beard. Upon meeting, the Time Trapper insists that they need to team up to win the fight against the heroes.\\

* In the "Absolute Power" arc of Superman/Batman, time-travelling villains manage to replace the origins of Batman and Superman with new ones that turn them into tyrants. Eventually their memories are restored and they set out to correct the timeline. However, this involves traveling to the point where Batman's parents were murdered, and letting it happen.\\

'''Instead:''' He goes with Batman, and fully expects him to just stand there and watch as the worst trauma of his life replays in front of him. Naturally, Batman snaps, kills Joe Chill and saves his parents. This erases Batman from existence entirely and screws up the timeline even worse. [[SarcasmMode Good judgment call there, Clark.]]

'''Instead:''' SHIELD has been disbanded, and the staff for its replacement, HAMMER, have been chosen by Norman Osborn, [[AxeCrazy the Green Fucking Goblin]]. Who ''bombed his own arraignment hearing on live TV'', for Thor's sake. It's not even as if they don't know he's a psychopath!

'''You'd Think:''' They would send Storm, who can fly, control the weather, and is a superb thief, on ahead to negotiate for or steal transportation for them.\\

'''Instead:''' He makes a series of increasingly bad decisions that result in him getting his hands crushed and ultimately defeated by Hulk.
* '''However:''' Strange and Hulk aren't complete strangers. Strange considers Hulk to be a good friend, and Banner to be like a son to him. Under these circumstances he would do anything under his power to try and talk his friend down so he can help rather than simply obliterating him. Strange didn't have a way of knowing that Bruce was not only as angry as the Hulk was, but was indeed working ''with'' the Hulk(something that hadn't happened before, at least not like this), and didn't count on the alliance between them. It's also notable that out of all the members of the Illuminati, Strange felt the most guilt for sending the Hulk into space and felt that on some level, he was responsible and deserved what was coming to him.
* In ''NewAvengers'' #2, a breakout at the supervillain prison known as The Raft has occurred. ''{{Spider-Man}}'' and ''CaptainAmerica'' arrive on the scene. The Captain notes that a large platoon of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents is on their way.\\

'''Instead:''' Spidey takes this as his cue and rushes into The Raft alone, spouting some half-assed justification that [[HonorBeforeReason he'd feel guilty about]] [[ComesGreatResponsibility putting other people in harm's way]] by allowing them to do their jobs. What happens next can be described as Christmas come early for Spidey's rogues gallery as Count Nefaria knocks him for a loop and dumps him into a riled-up mob full of his worst enemies who proceed to unmask him, snap his arm like a twig and take turns pounding on him until his face is a bloody half-purple mess.\\

* Ultimate X-Men. In the first arc the US governement finds the Savage Land (Magneto's mutant hideout) and decided to destroy it.\\
'''You'd expect:''' NukeEm. Fast, simple, eficient method to kill everyone before they could react.\\
'''Instead:''' They sent Sentinels, HumongousMechas, MADE OF METAL!!! To combat the freakin' Magneto. This leads to a battle that nearly destroys D.C. If not for the X-Men and Quicksilver's betrayal they would have been toast.

* ''WorldWarHulk'': Dr Strange brags at length about how easily he could beat Hulk.\\

'''However:''' While they're spending all their time breaking Spidey's arm and beating him into a pulp, they are not spending that time mutilating guards, officials, and guests. So, Peter would probably count the use of his arm for a few weeks and his face as an acceptable loss.\\

* Ultimate X-Men. In the first arc the US governement finds the Savage Land (Magneto's mutant hideout) and decided to destroy it.
'''You'd expect:''' NukeEm. Fast, simple, eficient method to kill everyone before they could react.
'''Instead:''' They sent Sentinels, HumongousMechas, MADE OF METAL!!! To combat the freakin' Magneto. This leads to a battle that nearly destroys D.C. If not for the X-Men and Quicksilver's betrayal they would have been toast.

'''Instead:''' Spidey accepts.

'''However:''' While they're spending all their time breaking Spidey's arm and beating him into a pulp, they are not spending that time mutilating guards, officials, and guests. So, Peter would probably count the use of his arm for a few weeks and his face as an acceptable loss.\\

'''Instead:''' Spidey takes this as his cue and rushes into The Raft alone, spouting some half-assed justification that [[HonorBeforeReason he'd feel guilty about]] [[ComesGreatResponsibility putting other people in harm's way]] by allowing them to do their jobs. What happens next can be described as Christmas come early for Spidey's rogues gallery as Count Nefaria knocks him for a loop and dumps him into a riled-up mob full of his worst enemies who proceed to unmask him, snap his arm like a twig and take turns pounding on him until his face is a bloody half-purple mess.
'''However:''' While they're spending all their time breaking Spidey's arm and beating him into a pulp, they are not spending that time mutilating guards, officials, and guests. So, Peter would probably count the use of his arm for a few weeks and his face as an acceptable loss.

'''Instead:''' Spidey takes this as his cue and rushes into The Raft alone, spouting some half-assed justification that [[HonorBeforeReason he'd feel guilty about]] [[ComesGreatResponsibility putting other people in harm's way]] by allowing them to do their jobs. What happens next can be described as Christmas come early for Spidey's rogues gallery as Count Nefaria knocks him for a loop and dumps him into a riled-up mob full of his worst enemies who proceed to unmask him, snap his arm like a twig and take turns pounding on him until his face is a bloody half-purple mess.

'''However:''' Strange and Hulk aren't complete strangers. Strange considers Hulk to be a good friend, and Banner to be like a son to him. Under these circumstances he would do anything under his power to try and talk his friend down so he can help rather than simply obliterating him. Strange didn't have a way of knowing that Bruce was not only as angry as the Hulk was, but was indeed working ''with'' the Hulk(something that hadn't happened before, at least not like this), and didn't count on the alliance between them. It's also notable that out of all the members of the Illuminati, Strange felt the most guilt for sending the Hulk into space and felt that on some level, he was responsible and deserved what was coming to him.

Comic book storylines can get outlandish at times, but there's usually a sensible explanation for characters' behavior. [[WhatAnIdiot Not so with these entries, though.]]

'''You'd expect''': Beast and Angel (who, incidentally, have been outed for ''years'' in '''comic book time''') would use the former's [[Comicbook/TheAvengers Avengers]] contacts and the latter's massive fortune to start up a massive public relations blitz of [=PSAs=] along the lines of "Are you Different? Are your children? Call us, we can help." while opening up a nice day-camp/compound well away from [[CityOfAdventure New York]] if security is an issue.\\
'''Instead''': They go undercover as a commercial mutant hunting crew that could be summoned to capture and 'cure' dangerous mutants with menacing powers, complete with an HQ in the BigApplesauce. Sure you might beat the real lynch mobs to them, but how many will go underground rather than come to you? Please note that Worthington was backing this with his own money, and the world knows he is a [[FantasticRacism Mutie]], so this is a P.R. disaster waiting to happen considering how many will be digging from every angle.

'''You'd expect''': Nihil to do literally anything except what he actually does. ''Literally'' anything else.\\
'''Instead''': He tries to pull the gun out...[[TooDumbToLive by the trigger]]. It's...[[YourHeadASplode not pretty]].

'''You'd expect''': Gizmoduck to get out of there without being noticed and go alert Darkwing to tell him he was right.\\
'''Instead''': Gizmoduck rushes into the room, preparing to pulverize Mr. Wonderful, who responds to his threat by calling the other members of the Union to come take care of Gizmoduck.\\
'''However''': Gizmoduck manages to escape before they show up and go warn Darkwing anyway.
* ''[[YTheLastMan Y: the Last Man]]'' is another tale that starts out with a screwup. Two months after [[{{Gendercide}} everything on the planet with a Y chromosome drops dead out of the blue]], the son of one of the surviving congresscritters shows up at the White House.\\
'''You'd expect''': The U.S. government would promptly haul Mr. Brown to the most secure place they can reach and gather whatever security/military/police people to track down the following in this order of priority: A) a competent and functioning shrink; B) whatever salvageable sperm-bank equipment that can be found, along with a reliable power source; C) any medical/biotech experts that are remotely qualified to figure out why this boy is still alive and how to duplicate it/him; and D) the guy's girlfriend, last seen in the Australian Outback.\\
'''Instead''': The send the guy, escorted by '''''one''''' [[ActionGirl secret agent sort]], to a cloning expert that was last seen in Boston before everything went to heck. Supposedly they were convinced by his arguments concerning being to easy to locate if he were in one spot, even the mother who was probably aware he was pretty hung up on this Beth person.\\
'''However''': The decision-makers were not at 100% at that point. The widows of several legislators just tried to shoot their way into congress, the [[strike:Secretary of Agriculture]] President was shaken out of her HeroicBSOD the morning before Yorick showed up and made it to the White House just after he did, they are short-staffed as all get out, and the whole country is on the verge of collapse. [[spoiler: Not to mention President Valentine getting advice from someone working on some sort of BatmanGambit to get Yorick's pet monkey to her daughter the cloning expert.]]

'''You'd expect''' Peter to realize that ''maybe the entire elite cadre of the Marvel universe (Including, by the way, a character who was quite obviously intended to be a representation of the Judeo-Christian God) is right'', and let his elderly aunt pass on, surrounded by friends and loved ones. Peter would be hurt, but he has faced personal tragedy in the past and survived.\\
'''Instead''' He keeps grasping at straws in attempts to save his aunt's life. Eventually, the demonic villain Mephisto shows up and offer's Pete a deal; he'll save Aunt May's life, if Peter and MJ agree to let reality be warped so that they would never be married.\\
'''You'd expect''' that after being told by a guy who's pretty much a Comics Code-friendly stand-in for Satan that ''destroying Peter and MJ's marriage would make him very, very happy'', Peter would realize the danger of making a deal with the devil, and refuse.\\
'''Instead''' Spidey accepts.
* One ''Superman / Batman'' team-up featured Doctor Light trying to take down Superman with a magic wand, explaining that apparently Zatanna's magic has... something to do with light, nobody's really sure what.\\
'''You'd expect''' he'd place the wand in his hand, point it at Superman, and kill him with it, since Superman is weak against magic. Having done this, he'd nuke Batman, thereby removing two of the most dangerous Justice League members.\\
'''Instead''' he somehow gives Superman a secondary personality who believes that Superman is trying to kill him. This second personality duly hires a group of backstreet assassins to take out Superman with the Satanstaff, which [[PlotHole has somehow found itself at the North Pole]]. When it looks like it's going to work, Light comments that he used this kind of tactic because he personally is incredibly inept and if he tried the "sensible" way of doing it, he'd lose. For additional idiocy, he expected the crooks Split-Personality hired to hand over the Satanstaff to him, despite having used it to take down both Superman and Batman.\\
'''However''' years later, during ''IdentityCrisis'', it was revealed that Dr. Light himself was the victim of one of Zatanna's spells that went a bit too far and, basically, turned him into a moron. Thus justifying this and many, many other acts of stupidity, if severely after the fact.

'''You'd expect''' that he would take those members under his control, plus the Manhunters present, and stage a coup via numbers.\\
'''Instead''' he goes at Sinestro solo and tries to kill him. Sinestro states that he has always been prepared for potential coups and has devised failsafes, namely emergency ring control overrides, and takes control of Mongul's ring. After impaling him from virtually every angle, Sinestro imprisons him within the central power battery.
* During the ''InfiniteCrisis'' a superhero named Risk was one of the many fighting Superboy Prime. In the process he got his right arm torn off.\\
'''You'd expect''' him to stay far, far away from the guy.\\
'''Instead''' The next time Prime is on Earth he jumps out at him again with the apparent intent of punching. He promptly has his ''other'' arm torn off.

'''You'd Expect'''... well, ''anything'' except what happens.\\
'''Which is''': Scrooge's father instructing his uncle to take "the women" -- including Hortense! -- home while he and Scrooge handle things. The Whiskervilles even make sure upon their return (when they nearly kill Scrooge) that the coast is clear because she's gone! [[StayInTheKitchen Stupid stupid chivalry]]!
* In a later appearance by Superboy-Prime, he's fighting the Legion of Superheroes in the distant future, only to find that the Legion's greatest enemy, Time Trapper, is himself, aged centuries and now sporting a cool beard. Upon meeting, the Time Trapper insists that they need to team up to win the fight against the heroes.\\
'''You'd Expect''' Superboy-Prime to listen and obey, knowing that he had to work alongside his future self and he'd be a good source of advice and knowledge with his enhanced powers and time-altering abilities.\\
'''Instead''' Superboy-Prime angrily insists that Time Trapper isn't him and that he "looks stupid." Filled with rage, Prime [[NeverTheSelvesShallMeet punches his future self which tears a hole in time-space and sends him flying back to Earth-Prime, powerless and trapped.]] Brainiac 5 even [[LampshadeHanging quips "What an idiot" after seeing it happen.]]\\
'''Also''': Superboy-Prime's older self should probably have remembered that his younger self was unstable, easily antagonized, and prone to destructive rages. So barging in there and barking orders makes the older Prime just as much of an idiot.\\
'''At Least''' he's consistent.
* In the "Absolute Power" arc of Superman/Batman, time-travelling villains manage to replace the origins of Batman and Superman with new ones that turn them into tyrants. Eventually their memories are restored and they set out to correct the timeline. However, this involves travelling to the point where Batman's parents were murdered, and letting it happen.\\
'''You'd expect''' Superman to do this in secret, as quick as possible without Batman's knowledge.\\
'''Instead''' he goes with Batman, and fully expects him to just stand there and watch as the worst trauma of his life replays in front of him. Naturally, Batman snaps, kills Joe Chill and saves his parents. This erases Batman from existence entirely and screws up the timeline even worse. [[SarcasmMode Good judgment call there, Clark.]]

'''You'd expect''' both the Freedom Fighters and the Iron Dominion to keep this delusion going; it would do neither of them any good to snap him out of it (as it means having to fight him again, and the Iron Dominion having to give up their claim to his empire), and the Freedom Fighters could use this mental regression to "re-educate" him into a possible good guy and ally.\\
'''Instead''' they continue to refer to him by his current persona and even mock him with the events that drove him to madness, in the first place, which invariably breaks him out of his insanity and returns him to his old self.

'''You'd expect''' for the Freedom Fighters to realize a pattern to this, and equip not just their cybernetic allies but NICOLE as well with Power Rings, as a safety precaution against the Iron Queen's powers.\\
'''Instead''' they do nothing, assuming everything will be fine with NICOLE. Predictably, she gets Magiteked, and the only solution they can think of to avoid the same thing happen to the people they've already encountered this with is to evacuate them at the last moment. Even more idiotic, when you consider that NICOLE's been hinted in-comic to be able to ''control the rate at which Power Rings emerge'', leaving no excuse for them ''not'' to have any Rings available for such a contingency.\\
'''Also,''' the Iron Queen should've clearly been able to tell she could manipulate NICOLE and the nanites in New Mobotropolis during her first successful breach into the city, as her Magitek was clearly shown affecting both in an adverse way -- even if she was too busy to ''see'' the effect her powers had, she surely should've ''sensed'' it through those same powers.\\
'''Instead,''' she completely ignored this and acted blithely ignorant about the mere prospect, requiring Snivley to come up and tell her that.

'''You'd Think''' that when it comes to the head of an organisation like SHIELD, you'd ''not'' appoint someone who is openly psychotic even when ''on'' his medication, and that if for any reason this became necessary, you would at least ensure that there were reliable, sane people under him to keep things under control.\\
'''Instead''' SHIELD has been disbanded, and the staff for its replacement, HAMMER, have been chosen by Norman Osborn, [[AxeCrazy the Green Fucking Goblin]]. Who ''bombed his own arraignment hearing on live TV'', for Thor's sake. It's not even as if they don't know he's a psychopath!

'''You'd Think''' that on finding a bunch of superweapons belonging to a dead insane criminal he would have left it alone, handed it in to the appropriate body, or sold it.\\
'''Instead''' he decided to become a superhero, despite having zero experience.\\
'''Also''' instead of altering it in any way, even by just painting it a different color, he dressed up ''as'' the Green Goblin, and went around ''calling himself'' the Green Goblin. Now you might think that's a good way to get mistaken for a villain, making his work massively more difficult as superheroes attacked him and civilians fled him. And you'd be right.
* In the early days of the Claremony/Byrne run on X-Men, our heroes find themselves stranded in Antarctica. They decide to cross the Drake Passage to South America and work their way home.\\
'''You'd Think''' they would send Storm, who can fly, control the weather, and is a superb thief, on ahead to negotiate for or steal transportation for them.\\
'''Instead''' They try to cross the Drake Passage... ON A RAFT.\\
'''Also''' They end up in Japan. Yeah.
* WorldWarHulk: Dr Strange brags at length about how easily he could beat Hulk.\\
'''You'd expect''' Him to bloody do so. It's obvious that Hulk is never going to stop, and Strange has every right to defend himself with lethal force. Strange has routinely taken out enemies that make Hulk look like a ten year old girl.\\
'''Instead''' He makes a series of increasingly bad decisions that result in him getting his hands crushed and ultimately defeated by Hulk.

'''You'd expect''' Spidey to wait for the backup to arrive. They're S.H.I.E.L.D. agents trained and equipped to take down superhuman criminals and it's just he and Steve on the scene at the moment.\\
'''Instead''' Spidey takes this as his cue and rushes into The Raft alone, spouting some half-assed justification that [[HonorBeforeReason he'd feel guilty about]] [[ComesGreatResponsibility putting other people in harm's way]] by allowing them to do their jobs. What happens next can be described as Christmas come early for Spidey's rogue's gallery as Count Nefaria knocks him for a loop and dumps him into a riled-up mob full of his worst enemies who proceed to unmask him, snap his arm like a twig and take turns pounding on him until his face is a bloody half-purple mess.

'''Instead''' He makes a series of increasingly bad decisions that result in him getting his hands crushed and ultimately defeated by Hulk.\\

<<|WhatAnIdiot|>>

'''Also''' They end up in Japan. Yeah.\\

'''You'd Think''' they would send Storm, who can fly, control the weather, and is a superb thief, on ahead to negotiate for or steal transporation for them.\\

'''Instead''' Spidey accepts, and perhaps the biggest WallBanger in comic history occurs.

'''Instead''' he somehow gives Superman a secondary personality who believes that Superman is trying to kill him. This second personality duly hires a group of backstreet assassins to take out Superman with the Satanstaff, which [[PlotHole has somehow found itself at the North Pole]]. When it looks like it's going to work, Light comments that he used this kind of tactic because he personally is incredibly inept and if he tried the "sensible" way of doing it, he'd lose. For additional idiocy, he expected the crooks Split-Personality hired to hand over the Satanstaff to him, despite having used it to take down both Superman and Batman.

'''Instead''' he somehow gives Superman a secondary personality who believes that Superman is trying to kill him. This second personality duly hires a group of backstreet assassins to take out Superman with the Satanstaff, which [[PlotHole has somehow found itself at the North Pole]]. When it looks like it's going to work, Light comments that he used this kind of tactic because he personally is incredibly inept and if he tried the "sensible" way of doing it, he'd lose. For additional idiocy, he expected the crooks Split-Personality hired to hand over the Satanstaff to him, despite having used it to take down both Superman and Batman. '''However''' years later, during ''IdentityCrisis'', it was revealed that Dr. Light himself was the victim of one of Zatanna's spells that went a bit too far and, basically, turned him into a moron. Thus justifying this and many, many other acts of stupidity, if severely after the fact.

'''Instead''' he somehow gives Superman a secondary personality who believes that Superman is trying to kill him. This second personality duly hires a group of backstreet assassins to take out Superman with the Satanstaff, which [[PlotHole has somehow found itself at the North Pole]]. When it looks like it's going to work, Light comments that he used this kind of tactic because he personally is incredibly inept and if he tried the "sensible" way of doing it, he'd lose. For additional idiocy, he expected the crooks Split-Personality hired to hand over the Satanstaff to him, despite having used it to take down both Superman and Batman.
'''However''' years later, during ''IdentityCrisis'', it was revealed that Dr. Light himself was the victim of one of Zatanna's spells that went a bit too far and, basically, turned him into a moron. Thus justifying this and many, many other acts of stupidity, if severely after the fact.

* ''[[YTheLastMan Y: the Last Man]]'' is another tale that starts out with a screwup. Two months after [[{{Gendercide}} everything on the planet with a Y chromosone drops dead out of the blue]], the son of one of the surviving congresscritters shows up at the White House.\\
'''You'd expect''': The U.S. government would promptly haul Mr. Brown to the most secure place they can reach and gather whatever security/military/police people to track down the following in this order of priority: A) a competent and functioning shrink; B) whatever salvigable sperm-bank equipment that can be found, along with a reliable power source; C) any medical/biotech experts that are remotely qualified to figure out why this boy is still alive and how to duplicate it/him; and D) the guy's girlfriend, last seen in the Australian Outback.\\

'''However''': The decision-makers were not at 100% at that point. The widows of several legislators just tried to shoot thier way into congress, the [[strike:Secretary of Agriculture]] President was shaken out of her HeroicBSOD the morning before Yorick showed up and made it to the White House just after he did, they are short-staffed as all get out, and the whole country is on the verge of collapse. [[spoiler: Not to mention President Valentine getting advice from someone working on some sort of BatmanGambit to get Yorick's pet monkey to her daughter the cloning expert.]]