History WhatMeasureIsAMook / WebComics

* In ''Webcomic/AntiheroForHire'', mooks are taken down with little to no guilt by [[AntiHero Dechs]]. [[KnightTemplar Crossroad]] has a bad habit of killing everyone, to an extreme even he doesn't agree with (for her part, she considers Dechs a "[[WideEyedIdealist rampant idealist]]").
** However, the reason Dech dislikes killing major villains isn't morality, it's pragmatism. He gets paid for thwarting villains. If he takes them in alive, they can potentially escape from the CardboardPrison, at which point he can get paid for thwarting them ''again''.
* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': Both on the official [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/info/cast/cast09.php cast page]] and on '''this very wiki''', Zola's Minions are called "A bunch of guys in funny hats who appear to be along to carry the equipment and get killed". Although in this case, the CannonFodder is fed to the sadistic and insane trap-filled [[GeniusLoci castle]], rather than the hero(in)es.
** Master Payne [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050803 points out]] that even when dealing with faceless mindlessly aggressive monsters there can be ugly problems.
* Subverted and inverted in ''{{Webcomic/Terinu}}'', as the main cast shoot down attacking Galapados warriors with no remorse, even blasting a breeding facility without a qualm to cover their escape. An act that is immediately inverted when the Galapados leader ''contradicts the Big Bad's orders'' to go after them, in order to save the dying Galapados clones.
* Lampshaded very effectively in [[http://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2009/02/28 this]] ''Tom the Dancing Bug''.
-->ARG! My hopes and dreams!
* Parodied in [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/10/19/ this]] ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' strip. A mook is not so happy with his boss' escapades and is thinking about switching sides and--oops.
* [[spoiler:Bowser]] sings about the tragic plight of the minion in ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'' [[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/comic/200-odetominions/ strip 200]].
--> These minions clock in from 9 to 5// to provide for their wives// not knowing' it'd be the last day// of their liiiives!
** An earlier strip [[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/2009/03/17/148-stomp1/ with multiple endings]] also featured this trope.
** This comic, "[[http://www.dorkly.com/comic/2727/the-price-of-koopa-heroism The Price Of Koopa Heroism]]" also addresses the same theme.
* In one of the ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' based ''Dark Legacy'' webcomics strip, a gnome is killing kobolds and gathering their ears for a quest. Upon killing a kobold, the gnome checks the kobold's wallet, and sees a picture of his wife and kid. The gnome seems heartwrenched to learn that he just killed a family man... but then he kills the wife and the kid for ''their'' ears.
* [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0784.html In this strip]] of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', Elan celebrates when the Allosaurus eats the {{Mooks}} instead of two JerkAss bounty hunters. "Hooray! The people whose names I know are saved!"
* ''Walkbot Comics'' [[http://www.walkbot.net/?webcomic_post=last-forever view]] on the issue:
-->'''Walkbot''': Hey, Dino, can robots last ''forever''?
-->'''Dino''': Maybe, but most of the time, [[JustAMachine a robot's sole purpose]] is to be ''killed'', just like ''[[ExpendableClone clones]]'' and ''[[ConservationOfNinjutsu ninjas]]''.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Sonichu}}'', especially during the final two issues, the characters are more than happy to mow down hundreds of Jerkops and Decepticlones. However, during the ninth issue, it's revealed that the Jerkops were actually ''brainwashed people''. But, for Chris, Sonichu and the like, that's okay, because they were in his way of Chris' great Love Quest.
* ''Webcomic/MushroomGo'' shows the measure of a mook in a flashback. [[spoiler:Too bad the mook in question is Captain Martello's father.]]
* Discussed (but not in the sense of DiscussedTrope) in ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', chapter "Aylee", when Torg and Aylee are hiding in an alternative dimension where Earth has been overrun by mysterious, fairly mindless-seeming "ghouls". They spend some time killing them practically for fun in creative ways, until Aylee starts feeling bad about it and mentions it to Torg, who says he just felt like taking a break from previous moral ambiguity by messing with straight-up bad guys, but they should probably stop. It all causes additional guilt later when it's finally revealed just what the ghouls are.
* Touched on in {{Webcomic/Guidestuck}} when Jaspers [[spoiler: prototypes Bec's pet dog, forcing the imps to take on the appearance of his dog Jade.]]
* Webcomic/AFairytaleForTheDemonLord: Plays with and Deconstructs it. The Knights are all nameless, sometimes unthinking, cannon fodder, and if they perform heroic deeds, [[NominalImportance they get an name and identity]]. The main character is a knight who rejected the mindset and a name after saving the princess. As time goes on, he shows no remorse killing knights who get in his way, or are even witnesses. In one of the backup stories, a random soldier is seen digging up the remains of dozens of nameless knights under his command to bury them properly, with blank tombstones reflecting their nature. [[spoiler: It's really [[NotQuiteDead Balder]] who seeks to go out and kill the protagonist, and give them names on their tombstones written in his blood to honor them.]]
* Lampshaded, in the context of ''VideoGame/Doom2016'', in [[http://nonadventures.com/2016/06/04/soldier-of-misfortune/ this]] ''Webcomic/TheNonAdventuresOfWonderella'' strip.

* [[spoiler: Bowser]] sings about the tragic plight of the minion in ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'' [[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/comic/200-odetominions/ strip 200]].

* [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0784.html In this strip]] of ''Webcomic/OrderOfTheStick'', Elan celebrates when the Allosaurus eats the {{Mooks}} instead of two JerkAss bounty hunters. "Hooray! The people whose names I know are saved!"

* Invoked in ''Webcomic/{{Concerned}}'', detailing the [[http://screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2006-05-17 life]] [[http://screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2006-05-18 and]] [[http://screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2006-05-20 death]] of a random Overwatch Soldier. [[spoiler:Only to be subverted one issue [[http://screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2006-05-22 later.]]]]

* Parson from ''{{Webcomic/Erfworld}}'' has little HeroicBSOD when he realises that he killed around a small nation worth of soldiers. While others think "they were just units" Parson considers them real people.
* Subverted in ''Webcomic/TheLastDaysOfFoxhound'', where The Sorrow chews out Liquid over his past mook killing. Liquid's excuse of [[http://www.doctorshrugs.com/foxhound/comic.php?id=222 "they're just mooks"]] doesn't fly with him.

* ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'' is actually an attempt to explore the other side of this trope... by starting off in a goblin battle camp, with a handful of goblins, guarding a chest, and what happens when an adventuring party stumbles upon them. The surviving goblins become adventurers, and attempt to change their lives... making the 'adventuring parties' and the nearby towns into mooks.
** Well, not quite. The heroes still try to avoid killing anyone other than the (justifiably) AlwaysChaoticEvil Elite Guards.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'':
** Deconstructed. It was the [[KnightTemplar Sapphire Guard's]] disregard for goblins that led to [[DragonWithAnAgenda Redcloak's]] [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans mission]]; he later suffers a VillainousBSOD of his own when he realizes he's treated [[FantasticRacism his own hobgoblin mooks]] [[NotSoDifferent the exact same way]].
** It doesn't help that in this universe, goblins and other monster races were created by the gods explicitly to serve as XP fodder for their clerics (as laid out in the prequel book). Redcloak's RageAgainstTheHeavens seems more justified in the light of this revelation.
** [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0472.html Discussed, Deconstructed, Exploited, Invoked, and Defied here.]] [[PlayingWithATrope Dang.]] Two heroic mooks make a {{Heroic Sacrifice}} to let the GenreSavvy Elan escape in {{You Shall Not Pass}} style. Elan stops before leaving to explain the trope to them in some detail. One of the mooks is fatally injured in the ensuing battle, and tells the other his given name - at which point he is suddenly healthy and no longer in danger of death. Both proceed to flee, vowing to save revealing their family name "for an emergency".
** [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0784.html In this strip,]] Elan celebrates when the Allosaurus eats the {{Mooks}} instead of two JerkAss bounty hunters. "Hooray! The people whose names I know are saved!"
** Averted in this [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0618.html strip]] when a character rejects her fate as a mook.
* [[http://xkcd.com/873/ Parodied]] in ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}''.

* Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja: Plays with it, and plays it for laughs. The Doc has no trouble killing guards and mooks. In one comic, there's a guard happily strolling around thinking of his family, when he gets his neck snapped, and the Doctor misunderstands what he was talking about it.
** When the Doc kills a bunch of Ninja mooks, the mother of one of them calls [[WhatTheHellHero him out on it]]... at the funeral for The Doc's mentor who the ninja mooks had ruthlessly gunned down. Despite this he still has nightmares about killing all those people.

* [[spoiler: Bowser]] sings about the tragic plight of the minion in ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'' [[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/2009/11/20/200-ode-to-minions/ strip 200]].

* In ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'': [[http://www.elfquest.com/gallery/OnlineComics/SAS/DisplaySAS.html The Searcher and the Sword]], Shuna (who's been living with the elves for about two years) goes and gets married to a human man, who starts off with just bad vibes but quickly [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope jumps off the slippery slope]] and becomes a full-fledged wife-beater. After he beats her the first (and only) time, she fights off typical "maybe my love could change him" reasoning, beans him one last time, and flees. Her erstwhile husband and three or four human fighters pursue her. For the showdown? One of the Mooks makes ready to shoot the elves point-blank while they're in a hole; Strongbow [[http://www.elfquest.com/gallery/OnlineComics/SAS/DisplaySAS.html?page=87 responds in kind]]. That's one down, deader than dead. The elves quickly subdue the rest, Shuna duels her hubby, and then they tell them to leave and never come back.

* Subverted and inverted in ''{{Terinu}}'', as the main cast shoot down attacking Galapados warriors with no remorse, even blasting a breeding facility without a qualm to cover their escape. An act that is immediately inverted when the Galapados leader ''contradicts the Big Bad's orders'' to go after them, in order to save the dying Galapados clones.

* Parodied in [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/10/19/ this]] ''PennyArcade'' strip. A mook is not so happy with his boss' escapades and is thinking about switching sides and--oops.

* MushroomGo shows the measure of a mook in a flashback. [[spoiler:Too bad the mook in question is Captain Martello's father.]]

* Lampshaded, in the context of VideoGames, in [[http://nonadventures.com/2016/06/04/soldier-of-misfortune/ this]] ''Webcomic/TheNonAdventuresOfWonderella'' strip.

* [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick.'' It was the [[KnightTemplar Sapphire Guard's]] disregard for goblins that led to [[DragonWithAnAgenda Redcloak's]] [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans mission]]; he later suffers a VillainousBSOD of his own when he realizes he's treated [[FantasticRacism his own hobgoblin mooks]] [[NotSoDifferent the exact same way]]. This is continually played with. It doesn't help that in this universe, goblins and other monster races were created by the gods explicitly to serve as XP fodder for their clerics. Redcloak's RageAgainstTheHeavens seems more justified in the light of this revelation.

* Invoked in ''Webcomic/{{Concerned}}'' Detailing the [[http://screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2006-05-17 life]] [[http://screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2006-05-18 and]] [[http://screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2006-05-20 death]] of a random Overwatch Soldier. [[spoiler:Only to be subverted one issue [[http://screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2006-05-22 later.]]]]

* Subverted in ''TheLastDaysOfFoxhound'', where The Sorrow chews out Liquid over his past mook killing. Liquid's excuse of [[http://www.doctorshrugs.com/foxhound/comic.php?id=222 "they're just mooks"]] doesn't fly with him.

** [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0472.html Discussed, Deconstructed, Exploited, Invoked, and Defied here.]] [[PlayingWithATrope Dang.]] Two heroic mooks make a {{Heroic Sacrifice}} to let the {{Dangerously Genre Savvy}} Elan escape in {{You Shall Not Pass}} style. Elan stops before leaving to explain the trope to them in some detail. One of the mooks is fatally injured in the ensuing battle, and tells the other his given name - at which point he is suddenly healthy and no longer in danger of death. Both proceed to flee, vowing to save revealing their family name "for an emergency".

* In ''AntiheroForHire'', mooks are taken down with little to no guilt by [[AntiHero Dechs]]. [[KnightTemplar Crossroad]] has a bad habit of killing everyone, to an extreme even he doesn't agree with (for her part, she considers Dechs a "[[WideEyedIdealist rampant idealist]]").

* Invoked in ''{{Concerned}}'' Detailing the [[http://screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2006-05-17 life]] [[http://screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2006-05-18 and]] [[http://screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2006-05-20 death]] of a random Overwatch Soldier. [[spoiler:Only to be subverted one issue [[http://screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2006-05-22 later.]]]]

* In ''{{Sonichu}}'', especially during the final two issues, the characters are more than happy to mow down hundreds of Jerkops and Decepticlones. However, during the ninth issue, it's revealed that the Jerkops were actually ''brainwashed people''. But, for Chris, Sonichu and the like, that's okay, because they were in his way of Chris' great Love Quest.

* In ''ElfQuest'': [[http://www.elfquest.com/gallery/OnlineComics/SAS/DisplaySAS.html The Searcher and the Sword]], Shuna (who's been living with the elves for about two years) goes and gets married to a human man, who starts off with just bad vibes but quickly [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope jumps off the slippery slope]] and becomes a full-fledged wife-beater. After he beats her the first (and only) time, she fights off typical "maybe my love could change him" reasoning, beans him one last time, and flees. Her erstwhile husband and three or four human fighters pursue her. For the showdown? One of the Mooks makes ready to shoot the elves point-blank while they're in a hole; Strongbow [[http://www.elfquest.com/gallery/OnlineComics/SAS/DisplaySAS.html?page=87 responds in kind]]. That's one down, deader than dead. The elves quickly subdue the rest, Shuna duels her hubby, and then they tell them to leave and never come back.

* Lampshaded very effectively in [[http://www.salon.com/comics/boll/2009/02/26/boll/index.html this]] ''Tom the Dancing Bug''.

* In one of the ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' based ''Dark Legacy'' webcomics strip, a gnome is killing kobolds and gatheirng their ears for a quest. Upon killing a kobold, the gnome check the kobold's wallet, and see a picture of his wife and kid. The gnome seems heartwernched to learn that he just killed a family man... but then he kills the wife and the kid for their ears.

* Invoked in ''{{Concerned}}'' Detailing the [[http://screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2006-05-17 life]] [[http://screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2006-05-18 and]] [[http://screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2006-05-20 death]] of a random Overwatch Soldier. [[spoiler:Only to be subverted one issue [[http://hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2006-05-22 later.]]]]

* ''{{Goblins}}'' is actually an attempt to explore the other side of this trope... by starting off in a goblin battle camp, with a handful of goblins, guarding a chest, and what happens when an adventuring party stumbles upon them. The surviving goblins become adventurers, and attempt to change their lives... making the 'adventuring parties' and the nearby towns into mooks.

* Parson from ''{{Erfworld}}'' has little HeroicBSOD when he realises that he killed around a small nation worth of soldiers. While others think "they were just units" Parson considers them real people.

* Invoked in ''{{Concerned}}'' Detailing the [[http://hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2006-05-17 life]] [[http://hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2006-05-18 and]] [[http://hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2006-05-20 death]] of a random Overwatch Soldier. [[spoiler:Only to be subverted one issue [[http://hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2006-05-22 later.]]]]

* Subverted in ''TheLastDaysOfFoxhound'', where The Sorrow chews out Liquid over his past mook killing. Liquid's excuse of "they're just mooks" doesn't fly with him.

* [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick.'' It was the [[KnightTemplar Sapphire Guard's]] disregard for goblins that led to [[DragonWithAnAgenda Redcloak's]] [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans mission]]; he later suffers a VillainousBSOD of his own when he realizes he's treated [[FantasticRacism his own hobgoblin mooks]] [[NotSoDifferent the exact same way]]. This is continually played with.

* Discussed (but not in the sense of DiscussedTrope) in ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', chapter "Aylee", when Torg and Aylee are hiding in an alternative dimension where Earth has been overrun by mysterious "ghouls". They spend some time killing them practically for fun in creative ways, until Aylee starts feeling bad about it and mentions it to Torg, who says he just felt like taking a break from previous moral ambiguity by messing with straight-up bad guys, but they should probably stop. It all causes additional guilt later when it's finally revealed just what the ghouls are.