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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/diabolik_nero_nerissimo_100_anni_fumetto_italiano_n_3.jpg]]
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3''Diabolik'' is the eponymous character of a [[PrintLongRunners long-running]] series of Italian comics, created by sisters Angela and Luciana Giussani in 1962. His stories appear in monthly black and white digest-sized booklets. The character was inspired by several previous characters from French and Italian pulp fiction, primarily Literature/{{Fantomas}}.
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5Diabolik is a ruthless master thief, who was raised as an orphan on the secret island hideout of a criminal combine. There he learned many of his lethal skills, before killing the head of the organisation and escaping. His true name had never been revealed in the series, and he doesn't know it himself, having taken his alias from the name of a dangerous black panther that lived on his childhood island home.
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7In his early appearances, Diabolik was a straightforward villain who did not hesitate to murder ''anyone'' in order to accomplish his crimes, but was later shown robbing and killing ''mainly'' criminals and other "unsympathetic" types, in order to soften his violence and amorality. From the third issue of the series, Diabolik has been aided by his assistant Eva Kant, who has gained an increasing role as his partner and lover. Throughout his adventures, he is pursued by the relentless Inspector Ginko.
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9Diabolik seems to have a deep knowledge in many scientific fields, including chemistry, mechanics and computers. He creates all sorts of gadgets, especially disguised weapons and communication devices, has developed a range of truth-serums and mind-control drugs, and creates perfect life-like mask disguises.
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11The ''Diabolik'' comic was adapted as the camp classic film ''Film/DangerDiabolik'', and also an animated television series (produced by [[Creator/SIPAnimation Saban International Paris]] and Mediaset for the international Creator/FoxKids networks, with animation by Creator/AshiProductions and Creator/{{Saerom}}.
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13The franchise had to wait till 2021 to get another film adaptation. Appropriately enough, the 2021 movie seems to consider Diabolik's true OriginsEpisode issue #3 of the original comic, when Diabolik fully sheds his ''Walter Dorian'' alternate persona and gains Eva Kant as his ally and lover, considering the first issue nothing but EarlyInstallmentWeirdness (as most of the fanbase already does).
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15Diabolik served as a major inspiration of [[ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures Paperinik]], the Italy-created superhero alter-ego for WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck. Originally a slightly LighterAndSofter version of Diabolik that still didn't care about law and morals, due to (understandable) ExecutiveMeddling he became a real superhero and a Diabolik {{Expy}} InNameOnly.
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17Not to be confused with ''VisualNovel/DiabolikLovers''. Or with ''Film/{{Diabolique}}''.
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20!!''Diabolik'' contains examples of:
21* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Clerville has them, connected to an extensive net of underground tunnels that span under the whole city inhabited by hundreds of dispossessed and homeless people. Upon learning of the tunnels, Diabolik (who uses the sewers rather often) {{lampshaded}} this trope.
22* ActuallyPrettyFunny: A frequent reaction at Diabolik's more ridiculous stunts. Usually {{Averted}} with Ginko, who doesn't tolerate him and[=/=]or the police made fools of... But the time two ''criminals'' were led to think they had a bomb in their car when it was actually Eva's compact he was suspiciously smiling as he informed them that Diabolik knows how to bluff.
23* AdaptationalHeroism: The animated version of Diabolik. He never kills, and steals only from criminals.
24* AlternateContinuity: As of the end of April 2013, Diabolik has an official alternate continuity, currently including a single story, ''I Don't Know Who I Am'', whose alternate Diabolik is known as Dk to differentiate him from the original. Said continuity has been described by WordOfGod as what the series would be had the authors been influenced by American comic books instead of Fantomas.
25** Also, the movie ''Film/DangerDiabolik'' and the nineties animated series are obviously set in two different alternate continuities, the movie being one where Diabolik is more ruthless and [[DoesNotLikeGuns has no problems at using guns]] and the cartoon being set TwentyMinutesInTheFuture with different backstories for both Diabolik and Eva.
26* AnyoneCanDie: In full effect since 2012, when [[spoiler: Gustavo Garian]] killed himself.
27* AssholeVictim: Diabolik usually steals from other criminals, [[JustifiedTrope mostly because the majority of them are insanely rich, and tend to keep jewels, gold and money in their homes]].
28** The Grey Ravens deserve special mention. Diabolik hates them with a passion since one particular incident, in which they managed to capture him and decided to torture him (they believed he had stolen something they wanted), and will strike them whenever he has an excuse (in their three encounters with him, Diabolik has killed many of them, robbed them blind, and effectively cut the head off of their organization ''twice''). They are WesternTerrorists who have committed a large number of massacres; worse, they're constantly plotting to take over Benglait and install a fascist government, and are always trying to start a civil war to justify it.
29* BadassBystander: Once in a while Diabolik runs into random people who, knowing perfectly well [[TheDreaded who he is]], will try and arrest/kill him because he's a criminal:
30** "On the Morgue's Table" had an insomniac citizen who saw [[spoiler: imposters of]] Diabolik and Eva and first called the police and then, when he saw they would escape, ''grabbed his precision rifle and opened fire''. [[spoiler: He killed the imposters with a single well-placed shot each]].
31** At the start of "The King's Ballad" Diabolik was escaping on a stolen car, and the police signaled on which road he was using a borrowed radio (theirs had been destroyed by Diabolik) on an open frequency. Two truckers who were on the road took their vehicles, occupied the whole road and tried to run Diabolik over, forcing him to crash his car. Then, believing Diabolik was wounded or dead, they left their trucks with the intention of checking and, if necessary ''killing Diabolik with a wrench to the head''. Diabolik of course knocked them out, ran away... And when they recovered they called the police on him.
32* BankRobbery: Very rare: due to Diabolik's own presence, banks in Clerville have extremely tight security and layered alarms, checks (including the obligatory pinch on the face for LatexPerfection) and defenses that not even a borderline ImpossibleThief like Diabolik can defeat outside of special circumstances, so most of the time Diabolik will try and get the owner to take the jewels or money out of the bank before attempting the heist.
33* BastardUnderstudy:
34** Diabolik used to be one (and an extremely capable, if loyal, one).
35** There's also Mila, the woman who, grabbing a once-in-a-lifetime chance, ''forced'' Diabolik to take her as one, hoping to replace Eva Kant. Being a smart woman, when it was clear that Diabolik would never leave Eva (and the latter had found her and was ''royally'' pissed) Mila let him go and even covered their escape.
36* BatmanGambit: Both Diabolik and Ginko pull these, but only Diabolik's work.
37* BattleCouple: Diabolik and Eva.
38* BerserkButton: You don't touch Eva. If you put yourself against Diabolik, he may decide to kill you, but if you harm Eva you better hope he's in a hurry...
39** Police officers get a free pass in harming Eva during a chase or attempting an arrest. But if Diabolik believes they've killed Eva, he'll murder them, [[FateWorseThanDeath or worse]].
40** Eva's buttons are harming defenceless persons and ''senseless'' killing of animals (senseless only: she has no problem killing animals when there's nothing else to eat). Last time her button was hit, the hitter was left in a secret vault with no water and no food, only his dead bodyguards, and Eva personally sealed it.
41*** Also, don't harm or (apparently) kill Diabolik. Just don't.
42** You don't harm Altea, or Ginko will stop [[ByTheBookCop following the book]] and start killing off all the responsible people.
43** The story ''The Hideout of the Ogres'' reveals that raping and murdering children and making pornography out of it [[EveryoneHasStandards is a common Berserk Button]], to the point that [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Eva will swear to track down and murder the whole ring]], [[TranquilFury Diabolik will be too pissed off to even talk]], and [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Ginko will resort to]] [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique impersonating Diabolik and skinning you alive to find out the names of the ringleaders]].
44* BewareOfTheNiceOnes:
45** Beware of Altea. She never fears Diabolik, failed to take down a terrorist organization only because Diabolik beat her to it, and when a CorruptCorporateExecutive put a hit on Ginko, she tricked ''Diabolik'' into swearing he'd kill him (two nights later, the CorruptCorporateExecutive was found knifed to death and robbed blind, and his criminal activities exposed as a bonus).
46** Gustavo Garian. Under most circumstances, he's a very nice guy, but if Diabolik is involved and Ginko isn't looking he'll resort to ''anything'' to try and kill him, including setting a small army of criminals on him and [[spoiler: ''hiring the world's best assassins'']].
47* BoundAndGagged: Usually done to the people Diabolik and Eva impersonate. Happens in numerous episodes of the animated series as well.
48* BountyHunter: Once in a while, someone puts a bounty on Diabolik's head, and both professionals and amateurs try and capture/kill Diabolik (depending on whoever put the bounty being an honest corporation or a criminal). Given ''who'' has the bounty on his head, it ''always'' ends with Diabolik stealing the bounty and killing whoever put a price on his head, and will usually (but not always) involve the death of the bounty hunters as well.
49** Note that the police ''never'' attempt to claim any bounty on Diabolik's head for themselves, nor are they ever the ones who put a price on his head. [[JustifiedTrope This makes sense]], seeing as how they know the results of putting a bounty on a MasterOfDisguise with hideouts hidden all around the city: people getting ganged up on and beaten up [[SpotTheImposter just to verify if they're Diabolik in disguise]], houses broken into and devastated to see if Diabolik is hiding inside (or if the house serves as one of his hideouts), and a lot of violence and collateral damage that amounts to nothing.
50* BreakTheCutie:
51** Elisabeth Gay, Diabolik's lover in the first stories (before he met Eva Kant). A sweet girl who didn't know that her fiancee was Diabolik and accidentally exposed him as the King of Terror, getting him arrested and sentenced to death. After escaping the guillotine, Diabolik waited until she recovered from the near-madness the shock of his identity provoked and then drove her completely mad, even faking the murder of her doctor and new fiancee.
52** Eva Kant as a child: she was the sweet illegitimate daughter of a nobleman and his maid, but her uncle drove her mother to suicide and sent her to a reform school filled with sadistic teachers.
53* BreakTheHaughty: It was hinted for years that Eva did this to her uncle, and what exactly she did to him was shown in a special issue telling her origin story: she married him to get back her last name before telling him who she was, made his life a living hell, and gave him a heart attack. Then, as she was growing bored, he [[spoiler:tried to feed her to a panther]], but she turned the tables back on him, and the reader finally found out why Eva is so adamant in saying [[ExactWords her husband's being killed by a panther was an accident:]] [[spoiler: she was just trying to escape]].
54** Tried by Elisabeth Gay on Diabolik and Eva: years after he drove her mad, she, after recovering enough sanity to leave the hospital, captured Diabolik and tortured him, sending pictures to Eva just to punish Diabolik for picking Eva as his accomplice. Diabolik didn't even acknowledge the torture, Eva freed him, and Elizabeth ended up in an asylum again.
55* BrokenBird:
56** Eva Kant, of all people: her childhood was hellish. She recovered after getting back at the man responsible for her misfortune and meeting Diabolik.
57** Also, Ginko: [[spoiler: [[ShedTheFamilyName he took his strange last name after the father he adored while growing up confessed being a corrupt judge]], and joined the police to prove he was better than him.]]
58* BullyingTheDragon: Sane and otherwise intelligent people have challenged Diabolik and/or Eva without having some sort of effective leverage first. Invariably their lives are destroyed, and they only survive when Diabolik and Eva decide that [[CruelMercy letting them live is a worse punishment than killing them outright]].
59* ButtMonkey: Poor old Ginko must get fed up with constantly being outwitted. He got it particularly bad in ''Crumbs for Persons Unknown'': not only did his attempt to arrest Diabolik by baiting him with a fake necklace fail miserably, but Diabolik stole the actual necklace from the bank vault it was kept in and the titular unknown persons (who originally aimed to steal the necklace and ''had'' fallen for Ginko's trap, resulting in the arrest of one of them) used Diabolik's hole in the vault to break in and steal "Diabolik's crumbs"--a crapload of money, jewels, and securities (and still ''less'' than the value of the necklace). Ginko never found out (Diabolik and Eva did by chance, and toasted at them ''in their own restaurant''), and they even shared the loot, with interest, with the arrested accomplice once he was released.
60* CardboardPrison: Diabolik has been arrested on more than one occasion. The first time (told in a WholeEpisodeFlashback) he escaped the day after being put in by ''walking out from the guards' gate'' (the cops didn't know his [[LatexPerfection masks]] existed yet and had arrested him while he wore one [[CrazyPrepared just in case]], so all he had to do was to kill a guard, steal his uniform, take off the mask and wait for the end of the shift). The second time Ginko had already discovered the masks and caught him completely by surprise, so he was kept in long enough to stand trial and get sentenced to death, but was broken out by Eva (at her debut) three hours before the execution. Since then, he always broke out (or was broken out by Eva) in a couple of days, before Ginko could finish the paperwork for the execution.
61** Also, it's pretty much impossible keeping Eva imprisoned. The first time they did a good enough job at surveilling her they managed to give her a trial and sentence her to thirty years of jail and Diabolik had to resort to ''causing a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid_fever typhoid fever]] outbreak'' to break her out, but by now she'll be out in a week at most.
62* TheChessmaster: Diabolik, definitely.
63* ClearMyName: Diabolik can't tolerate being accused of a crime he didn't commit, so when he's framed for some heist he'll track down the real culprit and give him to Ginko (dead or alive according to his mood). Then he'll steal what he had been accused of stealing in first place.
64** Ginko too has been framed quite a few times, the first (chronologically) actually being caused by Diabolik by ''accident'' (they didn't even knew of each other's existence, at the time, and Ginko only found out ''who'' had done the job when he discovered the loot of that heist in one of Diabolik's refuges)
65* ClingyJealousGirl: Eva Kant's obsessive jealousy of any other woman who appears to have caught Diabolik's eye is a frequent plot point.
66** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the fact that becoming Diabolik's lover is literally the one good thing that happened to her.
67* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: Sometimes Diabolik's revenges are rather unusual. For example, a convict who had caused the death of a friend of Diabolik by breaking out was drugged to walk back in the prison, where the sadistic warden was pissed at him because his break out had started an inquiry on his actions (the issue ends with a guard wondering if the convict will manage to survive the first week).
68* CoolCar: A black [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_E-Type Jaguar E-Type]]. In the first stories it was a common Jaguar, formerly owned by [[spoiler: Walter Dorian]], but with time he started augmenting the engine and adding escape-helping devices.
69** Also, Eva sometimes drives a Range Rover Evoque. And not any Evoque, but one of the first produced, before it was even available for purchase, that Diabolik stole as a present in a special issue.
70** Diabolik's AlternateContinuity counterparts drive equally cool cars, all from Jaguar: the one from ''Film/DangerDiabolik'' drives the E-Type like the original, the one from the animated series drives a futuristic car with lines based on the E-Type but colored blue, and Dk drives a black [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_F-Type Jaguar F-Type]].
71* CosmicPlaything: The Grey Ravens, [[CallItKarma who deserve it]]. So far they have lost many men to Diabolik (and, in one occasion, Ginko in a murderous mood), had Diabolik steal the Benglait's Crown Jewels they were trying to steal ''and'' sell them back to the Benglait government, been robbed blind (both of the Crown Jewels when they finally managed to steal and a treasure they had put together in years of thefts and donations), ''and'' had their organization beheaded ''twice''. [[LaserGuidedKarma All of this but the first theft of the Crown Jewels come from them torturing Diabolik when they believed he had stolen the Jewels]].
72* CrapsackWorld: Because this one is a world where the guy known as [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast King of Terror]] even before causing a ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid_fever typhoid fever outbreak]]'' to facilitate a break-out is ''not'' the most evil in the world, and never was even at his worst.
73* CrazyJealousGuy: Diabolik is obsessively jealous of any other man who appears to have caught Eva's eye, even if not at [[ClingyJealousGirl Eva]]'s own level (he stated that if Eva actually fell in love with another man he'd stand aside, after making sure she's not being coerced, drugged or anything). Still deadly, though.
74* CrazyPrepared: Diabolik has always a plan, a back-up plan, a bunch of [[CoolCar beefed up Jaguars with different gadgets]] and the roads around the city boobytrapped. He still got caught on a number of occasions, so that's not only [[JustifiedTrope justified]] but ''barely enough''.
75** Some of his victims are ''almost'' on his level. On one occasion he had to deal with a nearly-impenetrable vault that was usually filled with poisonous gas, and when the owners had to enter and remove the poisonous gas they engaged a series of lethal electric traps and a ''python'' (Diabolik still completed the heist, killing the snake in the process). Another, instead, had multiple barriers to any intruder and kept his jewels in a trunk put in a pool with a ''[[GiantSquid giant octopus]]'' (Diabolik disguised himself as Ginko and entered from the main gate, and when he learned he wouldn't have the time to get the poison to kill the octopus he dived in and knifed it to death), and another had a custom electronic safe with the controls kept away from it and at least ''thirteen remote-controlled guns firing at foot level'' as a precaution against anyone trying to force the owner to open the safe (this one Diabolik didn't open, as his plan to have Eva find out how it worked was derailed by a trio of criminals who got shot in the feet for it).
76* CrooksAreBetterArmed: [[{{Subverted}} Surprisingly, no]]: the two most featured police forces, those of Clerville and Benglait, routinely carry [[MoreDakka submachine guns]] in their patrol cars and are prone to call for reinforcements that may carry heavier weapons. [[JustifiedTrope They have a very good reason for this]]: even without Diabolik, Clerville's criminals are rather violent, prone to shootouts, and often able to procure submachine guns themselves; [[FromBadToWorse as if that weren't enough,]] Benglait's political instability has turned violent on multiple occasions, hence the heavier firepower on the part of the police.
77** That said, Benglait's cops played this straight on one occasion: at the start of the rather violent regime change from absolute monarchy to republic the revolutionaries had larger firepower than the police and the army (technically, a revolutionary was as well armed as a soldier, but there were far more revolutionaries than cops and soldiers ''combined''), a superiority large enough that the death toll was relatively low because [[KnowWhenToFoldEm the government soldiers would surrender to avoid being massacred for nothing]]. Incidentally, this directly led to Benglait's policemen being so well armed.
78* CruelMercy: Diabolik does it once in a while. Sometimes it's because the people he wants revenge against did him a favour and had a good reason, so he'll limit himself to give them a good scare with a temporary death threat (most of those who robbed his treasure were let go with Diabolik doing nothing more than making sure they were crapping themselves in fear of Diabolik's revenge), and sometimes it's because [[AFateWorseThanDeath death isn't enough]] (a guy who [[BerserkButton kidnapped and harmed Eva]] was robbed blind and left living in terror believing one day Diabolik would return to kill him. Diabolik never returned).
79* CutLexLuthorACheck: Diabolik appears to be a genius who could make a fortune in law-abiding pursuits.
80** Case in point: as part of a heist he designed, built and sold to his victim a ''Diabolik-proof safe''. Granted, the safe had an hidden gizmo that would reveal the combination to Diabolik, allowing him to open it and steal the jewels the victim had placed inside, but after that was removed the victim had a fully Diabolik-proof safe certified by Diabolik doing his damned best to make sure even ''he'' wouldn't be able to open it...
81** In an inversion, Ginko could be an excellent thief rivaling Diabolik, if he got tired of his job. The story ''Ginko: Prima di Diabolik'' (''Ginko: Before Diabolik''), where we discover his [[OriginsEpisode OriginStory]], actually shows Ginko learning how to steal as part of his training to become the capable cop we know, and in order to recover evidence against the VillainOfTheWeek (made of the plans for a sophisticated laser and a necklace with an incredibly pure ruby needed to actually build it) he later proceeds to pull a very complex theft, ultimately failing and getting caught only because ''Diabolik had stolen the plans and necklace a few minutes before'' and didn't bother reactivating the alarms, with Ginko reactivating them when he went to deactivate them.
82* DeadpanSnarker: Eva Kant. See InsistentTerminology for her most frequent snark.
83** Altea too, being almost as good as Eva.
84* DeathByOriginStory: plenty, and climbing: once a year we have a special issue with a flashback story, and somebody dies.
85** For Diabolik: his adopted father King, killed by Diabolik himself before he could kill him for the secret of his [[LatexPerfection masks]]; [[spoiler:'Ronin', the smuggler who taught Diabolik many of the trade secrets, and the fellow members of his organization massacred by mercenaries for looking in the wrong place; Natasha Morgan, Clerville's lady of crime who helped Diabolik settling in exchange of him cutting her a few loose ends before she retired, was kidnapped by King's surviving mooks so she'd lead them to Diabolik, but she crashed the plane and started Diabolik's legend as the King of Terror]].
86** For Eva Kant: [[spoiler: her mother was driven to suicide by her uncle (and died in Eva's arms); her father was killed by the same uncle;]] and the uncle was eaten by the panther [[spoiler: he had just set on Eva]].
87** For Ginko: [[spoiler: a friend of his father died saving him when he was a child; a friend in the police when he was a young recruit was killed by a corrupt cop]].
88** For Gustavo Garian (Ginko's best friend and assistant in the early stories): his whole family, as Diabolik killed all but one of them as part of the heist of the first story (Gustavo himself barely escaped with his life), and his mother, who Diabolik had driven to madness twice ([[KickTheDog she had recovered too soon the first time for Diabolik to complete his heist]]), had a heart attack when she mistook Gustavo for Diabolik. For obvious reasons, Gustavo wants Diabolik dead.
89** Subverted by [[spoiler:Altea, Ginko's fiancee: her husband, the Duke of Vallenberg and a fierce enemy of the terrorists the Grey Ravens, faked his death after learning they were about to target her to hurt him, and returned when she became a target anyway. Later she discovered he was the leader of the Grey Ravens and married her and faked his death to prevent being exposed, but before she could expose Diabolik arrived to settle an old score on him by putting a knife in his neck and exposing him personally.]]
90* [[DecoyProtagonist Decoy Sidekick]]: In the first few stories, Diabolik (whose real face isn't yet known in-universe) has Elizabeth Gay as fiancee, lover and UnwittingPawn. Then, in the story ''L'Arresto di Diabolik'' (''The Arrest of Diabolik''), Diabolik meets Eva Kant and they fall in love, and Elizabeth accidentally get Diabolik arrested.
91* TheDeterminator: Ginko. He may have a HeroicBSOD from time to time, but he'll ''never'' stop chasing Diabolik.
92** Best shown in the story ''Earthquake''. After being trapped with Diabolik under the ruins of a home destroyed in the titular event, Ginko, in spite of being too wounded to free himself, managed to keep Diabolik in by ''moving a beam to cause some rubble to fall on a nearly freed Diabolik''.
93** Diabolik himself is no slouch. The above-mentioned story ''Earthquake'' gives a good example, as he quickly freed himself from the rubble of the home ''twice'': first after the home collapsed and then after Ginko caused the already mentioned collapse to keep him in.
94* DeusExMachina: Happens once in a while. For example, in one issue Ginko had trapped Diabolik and had enough cops to thwart Eva's attempts at freeing him when... Well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the story was titled]] ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Earthquake]]'' [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin for a reason]], and when that happened Diabolik managed to escape.
95* DidntSeeThatComing: Diabolik may be CrazyPrepared and ProperlyParanoid, but sometimes he gets in trouble for things he couldn't have expected, like a group of children realizing he had replaced an old man because he had been polite (Eva actually cried "It's impossible!" when that was shown in TV), or an amateur radio operator accidentally finding out the radio frequency he used to keep contact with Eva during his heist ''because his pet cat played with the radio''.
96** The story ''Il Ritorno di Gustavo Garian'' (''The Return of Gustavo Garian'') has an unidentified person hiring [[MurderInc three very capable killers]] and setting them on Diabolik. After surviving their first two attempts by sheer luck, Diabolik manages to kill them and discovers their employer: [[spoiler: the always honest Gustavo Garian, who, being terminally ill, decided to hire them to kill Diabolik first and then himself]]. Diabolik's FlatWhat when the culprit confessed expressed both his surprise and that of the reader.
97** In ''The Returned Enemy'' Diabolik couldn't have possibly known that Gustavo Garian ([[TheBusCameBack the namesake character of the story]]) was there and had seen through [[ItMakesSenseInContext the zombie scare accidentally caused by Diabolik]], with the end result being ''Gustavo setting the local mob on him with Ginko providing advice''.
98** "The Capture of Diabolik" has this as a ''RunningGag'', as it happens ''five times''. By the time Ginko is about to have Diabolik executed and has fortified the jail and put a jammer to keep Eva from breaking Diabolik out with a remote-controlled gadget the reader just expects Eva to find something Ginko hadn't planned for... And of course, she puts to sleep ''the entire jail'' after finding she indeed discovered the one thing Ginko hadn't planned for.
99** Once in a while it's someone else who doesn't see Diabolik coming. For example in "The Trade of White Women" the group of human traffickers was completely caught by surprise when Diabolik hit their boat with sleep gas, robbed them blind and sent them into Ginko's hands (the guys they were buying women from had accidentally kidnapped a disguised Eva Kant, hence Diabolik's vengeful visit).
100** Possibly the most absurd example: in "Deadly Scheme" the count Turner and Ginko set a trap for Diabolik in the count's castle and brought cops in using a secret passageway that nobody but the count and his nephew knew of... Except ''the castle's architect had built lord Anthony Kant's castle in South Africa using the same exact design'', meaning that Eva easily guessed the secret passageway's existance and location.
101** Competing with "Deadly Scheme", there's "Death Wins", where not even Diabolik and Ginko can figure out how Federico Linney constantly wins at the roulette without cheating or how anyone trying to spy on him is discovered on the spot (to the point that when Eva Kant entered his home disguised as his wife's nurse the wife ''immediately'' shouted she was an impostor, without giving her the chance to betray herself). Turns out, Linney's wife is an [=ESPer=] with limited precognition.
102* DidntThinkThisThrough: Periodically you'll have someone who think they can fool or blackmail Diabolik. Most of the times they'll die with embarrassing ease because they didn't think it through (the others still die because [[OvershadowedByAwesome they aren't good as Diabolik]], but at least he has to actually ''try'').
103** In one story a guy started hiring people to imitate Diabolik's heists in order to become the greatest thief of the city, and actually succeeded in trapping Diabolik when he tracked him and arrived to exact his revenge. Then Diabolik invoked the trope by pointing out he wasn't prepared for ''Eva''. Guess who, in that very panel, was standing behind the imitator aiming a poison needle-launcher at his neck?
104** In another story, the media discovered Diabolik and Eva's affection for a little girl called Bettina, and a gang decided to kidnap her in order to blackmail Diabolik. After [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge finding the corpses of the gang members who had not been blown up]], Ginko casually stated that next time people will think twice before trying anything with Bettina.
105*** He was right: the next time someone tried anything with Bettina it was a mob boss who wanted to take revenge on Diabolik by using the deaths of his friends to bait him, and his hitman was very good. It's just that [[OvershadowedByAwesome Diabolik was better]].
106** In ''No Mercy for Scum'', one-shot character Gianfranco Forles was arrested for killing his father with a paper knife. When Diabolik broke him out, as it had been Diabolik who [[spoiler: apparently]] killed his father and he had been in the wrong place at the wrong moment, what did Gianfranco do? Why, use the time Diabolik was busy distracting the police to bash Eva on the head, call the police, and then run with the jewels (both his father's and the loot of some of Diabolik's previous heists). And it's made even worse when the autopsy showed that Diabolik had ''not'' killed Gianfranco's father, but had been Gianfranco himself pushing the knife deeper in the wound (and being caught as he took it out claiming he was trying to save him). Ginko's face as he found out was an unspoken invocation of the trope, and, just as he anticipated, the issue ended with Diabolik killing him with a TitleDrop and then calling the police to confess so they'd find the body faster.
107* DisabilitySuperPower: {{Deconstructed}} with the people allergic to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_thiopental sodium pentothal]]: they'll die if they're injected with it, so they cannot be anesthesized or enjoy the various legal medical uses nor Diabolik can use it as truth serum on them... So he'll resort to the JackBauerInterrogationTechnique or ColdBloodedTorture.
108* DoesntLikeGuns: Villainous example: Diabolik finds them too noisy, and ''never'' uses them. Eva averts this: while she normally uses needle-throwers provided by Diabolik, she will use them if the badder guys drop them and she has nothing else.
109* TheDogBitesBack: Elizabeth Gay had been driven mad by Diabolik and Eva's KickTheDog moment. Years later a now ''apparently'' sane Elizabeth would capture Diabolik, torture him and send pictures to Eva in revenge before being stopped and sent back to the asylum... From which she managed to cause her husband to make a nearly successful attempt at Diabolik's life.
110** In ''Il Tesoro di Diabolik'' (''Diabolik's Treasure'') four of his victims (an art critic whose engagement was accidentally ruined by Diabolik as he stole her family's heirloom, a government-backed scientist whose assistant and fiancee Diabolik revealed as a foreign spy while stealing his research, a former cop that Diabolik drugged into committing a murder and stealing for him, and a billionaire that Diabolik had almost bankrupted) ally together to take their revenge on Diabolik: rob him of the titular treasure, composed of those loots that were of insanely huge value, he liked as a collector or for other reasons (like a golden Venus statue that looked like Eva) or were symbols of what he could pull (like an enormous platinum disk so huge that was supposed to be impossible to steal or the stuffed panther from which he took his name). Diabolik's face when he finds out that his treasure had been completely stolen save for the panther is priceless.
111** In ''The Return of Gustavo Garian'' we see what happens when [[spoiler: Gustavo]] decides to take revenge for Diabolik [[spoiler: killing his father, driving his mother mad and stealing his family fortune]]: he sets on him three of the best killers in the world. Diabolik not only barely survived, but [[DidntSeeThatComing completely failed to expect such an attack from him]].
112* TheDreaded: Diabolik is called the King of Terror because he's already terrifying when he's not actively trying to scare you, and makes good use of his fame. He has even driven at least two people to madness...
113* DressingAsTheEnemy: Diabolik has disguised himself as a policeman or Ginko himself on dozens of occasions, while Eva disguised herself as Altea or a cop a few times.
114* EasyAmnesia: happened to Diabolik and at least ''three times'' to Eva Kant. Played with in a story in which [[spoiler: an amnesiac Eva Kant was actually an actress: plastic surgery made her identical to Eva Kant and amnesia would conveniently explain why she was [[NotHimself not herself]].]]
115* EnemyMine: Diabolik and Ginko have occasionally forged uneasy alliances.
116* EngineeredPublicConfession: Diabolik has done it a few times. In a particularly epic case, the [[VillainOfTheWeek villain of the story]] was tricked into confessing that he was the former head of a disbanded terrorist group ''on live radio'', with one of the listeners being ''Ginko, who heard the broadcast confession while driving to work'' (implying that said former terrorist was arrested a few minutes later).
117* EvilGloating: Diabolik sometimes does it in Ginko's face, or to the opponent of the story. He'll either do it through a radio or a video message from far away or his interlocutor is his prisoner and has been searched for ''anything'' that could allow him to turn it back on him.
118** Ginko subverts it: he ''likes'' to gloat about his rare victories against Diabolik, but limits himself to talking about it to Altea or Gustavo Garian because he may need to recycle the trick one day.
119* EvilMentor: Diabolik grew up on an island inhabited by some of the best criminals of the world, and from them learned a good part of the trade, how to fight and how to drive. Before arriving in Clerville, he temporarily joined the organization of 'Ronin' (the greatest smuggler in the world), where he perfected his driving and fighting skills and learned the basics of his infamous tricks and how you ''really'' throw a knife (when they met, Diabolik could almost hit a bullseye from ten meters after taking a careful aim, Ronin could hit the bullseye ten times out of ten without aiming, and taught him how to do so), and once in Clerville he was mentored in how to be a MagnificentBastard by Natasha Morgan, then the absolute queen of organized crime of the city.
120** Diabolik himself was one, both for Eva (who learned a few of his skills) and Mila, a thief who, upon saving his life, ''tied him to a bed and forced him to teach her the trade''.
121%%* ExplosiveLeash
122* {{Expy}}: The initial main characters are inspired by Literature/{{Fantomas}} and contemporaries: Diabolik is based on Fantômas himself, Gustavo Garian's origin story sports many similarities with Jérôme Fandor's, Ginko has the same role as Juve, and Lady Eva Kant's debut includes her saving Diabolik from execution in the same way Lady Maud Beltham saved Fantômas in the first novel.
123* FakingTheDead: Diabolik and Eva have faked the death of one or both of them in multiple occasions.
124** Averted in the nick of time by Ginko in ''L'Arresto di Diabolik'' (''The Arrest of Diabolik'') and its remake: Diabolik and Eva planned to have her StalkerWithACrush executed while wearing a Diabolik mask and then cremated to fake his death, but Ginko realized it was a fake just as the victim was beheaded, and both his continued survival and Eva's help were exposed.
125* AFateWorseThanDeath: Elizabeth Gay, who had caused Diabolik's true face to become known and nearly got him executed, was driven to madness by Diabolik, who knew she was terrified by madness.
126* FelonyMisdemeanor: Happens in the short stories, which offer us gems like Eva invoking the death sentence for the author of a piece of art of doubtful taste, or Ginko wondering who hated him so much when Diabolik mailed him that piece of art.
127** Ginko cannot tolerate Diabolik's considerable fandom.
128* FictionalCountry: The stories were originally set in and around Marseille, but the setting was quickly [[{{Retcon}} Retconned]] in the State of Clerville (that incidentally has a small town named Marseille) [[AuthorsSavingThrow to explain the early mentions of the French city]]), plus occasional transfers to the bordering nations of Benglait (originally a turbulent kingdom on the verge of civil war, now a stable republic whose issue with the terrorist organization The Grey Ravens was solved by their leader pissing off Diabolik and getting a knife in the neck for it) and Rennert (nothing known about it save that borders with Benglait and Clerville and that is apparently less corrupt than the latter) or other distant fictional countries (most notable being Deccan--not [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deccan_Plateau the plateau]] but a BananaRepublic inhabited by Chinese-looking people--a recurrent location of Diabolik's past). The only known ''real'' place mentioned and never retconned is Italy, as the minor recurring character Alberto Floriani is identified as Italian in his debut and a few short stories are set in Italian towns (these stories are created to celebrate expositions on Diabolik in the same town).
129* {{Frameup}}: At times, Diabolik, Eva, Ginko and Altea have been framed for a crime they didn't commit. Framing Diabolik invariably ends badly.
130* FramingTheGuiltyParty: once in a while, somebody tries to frame Diabolik for their own thefts. Ginko will usually find their corpse, evidence proving Diabolik didn't do it, and, sometimes, that Diabolik, after proving he didn't commit the thefts, still took the stolen goods (sometimes he was trying to steal it to begin with but the framer beat him to it).
131** In a story, three mooks at their first heist named Gastone, Elietta, and Filippo, tried to steal a golden necklace during a party, with Gastone wearing a Diabolik-like suit to frame Diabolik. They failed, as not only the necklace was a fake (the real one still being in a bank vault) but Gastone walked in a trap intended for the actual Diabolik (who was stealing the necklace from the safe after bombing the party's site with fireworks to distract the police). It's probably the only time attempting to frame Diabolik ended well: Gastone didn't rat out his accomplices, who, due to sheer luck, managed to follow Diabolik and steal money and jewels from the now-open vault (the story title was ''Crumbs for Unknown Persons'', with the stolen goods being called 'Diabolik's crumbs' in-story) and divided the loot (with interest) with Gastone once he served his sentence. The only ones who could prove their crime are Diabolik and Eva... who ended the story ''toasting'' at their success.
132** Even ''Ginko'', of all people, did it once. The bodies of an elderly and a child were found in the basement of one of Diabolik's refuges (one that Diabolik preferred not to use), and Ginko, while knowing that Diabolik couldn't be their murderer, publicly accused him of killing them to have Eva break with him and get Diabolik, desperate to prove to Eva he didn't do it, lead him to the real culprit, at which point he'd arrest Diabolik (and the culprit, assuming he survived) without Eva interfering until too late. It worked to near perfection: Eva left Diabolik and the King of Terror did lead him to the murderer (who didn't survive the encounter after confessing), but Eva realized the ruse and saved Diabolik at the last moment.
133** In the story ''The Sweet Death'', Diabolik framed two people for an attempted murder they committed and the murder he committed while masked as them. The kicker is, the murder victim ''asked him to do this'': when the two framed people, his wife and her lover, tried to kill him with an 'accident', they left him so crippled he was in perpetual pain and unable to do anything more than blink, so, when he accidentally encountered Diabolik, who was stealing some jewels from him, he ''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome blinked a request in Morse code to kill and avenge him]]'', and Diabolik decided to help by killing him and 'confessing' the attempted murder on camera while wearing the lover's mask and with Eva present masked as the wife. The story ends with Altea finding evidence they couldn't have committed the murder and destroying it, as [[IDidWhatIHadToDo she knew they had crippled the victim but couldn't prove it]].
134* GadgeteerGenius: Diabolik
135* GambitPileup: Once in a while, Eva and Diabolik have a fight that results in Diabolik trying a heist alone and Eva trying the same heist to one-up him. Then we're treated to such things as Eva and Diabolik deciding the person that the other was impersonating had to die, Ginko interfering in a heist against a mafia boss forcing Diabolik to frame someone else in order to not be discovered only to find out Eva framed ''him'' by pure chance, and all the rest.
136* GodzillaThreshold: Some of Diabolik's plans required for him or Eva to be ''arrested without a mask'' as the situation was just that bad. Especially notable the time Eva ''turned a comatose Diabolik in''... Because he had caught a deadly illness and she had no idea how to help him, but knew the police would hospitalize him and, as required by law, wouldn't execute him until he had recovered enough to walk to the guillotine.
137* HammerSpace: That's where Diabolik keeps his knives when wearing his skin-tight suit. Diabolik even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] it once.
138-->'''Young fan''': "I know everything of Diabolik!"
139-->'''Diabolik in disguise''': "I bet there's something you don't know."
140-->'''Young fan''': "Impossible!"
141-->'''Diabolik in disguise''': "Where does he keep his knives when he wears the suit?"
142-->''{{Beat}}''
143-->'''Young fan''': "''Tell me!''"
144-->'''Diabolik in disguise''': "Never."
145* HeadTurningBeauty: Diabolik was caught forcing himself to not drool at the first sight of three women: Elizabeth Gay, Eva Kant (who had to kill [[StalkerWithACrush Stalkers With A Crush]] on too many occasions to count, and is regarded in-universe as one of the most beautiful women of the world), and Natasha Morgan (who has actually weaponized her sex appeal, augmented by the [[KickingAssInAllHerFinery evening dress she always wears]], to perform her DyingMomentOfAwesome).
146* HypnoticEyes: A number of characters have shown them during the years. Diabolik himself has this ability, but, not being too able with it, needs enough time that the victim may realize what's happening and break eye contact (aside for that time he helped himself with a shining monocle).
147* HonorBeforeReason: Averted: Diabolik always keeps his promises and takes revenge on his enemies, but he does it in a way that will allow Eva and him to survive.
148** Some of Diabolik's enemies are this, and that makes Diabolik's victory easier. Then there's the mob boss Holtz, who defends a necklace targeted by Diabolik to save his face until Diabolik's attempt gets the necklace lost, and when he learns that he can still get back the necklace and possibly kill Diabolik he shoots the man who gave him the news: dealing with Diabolik was ruining his health, and as long as nobody else knew it he'd let him keep the accursed necklace.
149* IDidWhatIHadToDo: done twice by Altea. The first time, in ''The Sweet Death'', she [[FramingTheGuiltyParty destroyed the only evidence that two criminals were innocent of the crime they had been convicted for because there was no evidence for their actual crimes]]. The second time, in ''A Killer for Ginko'', she tried to put a hit on the CorruptCorporateExecutive Ruggero Backmann who was paying killers to kill Ginko, and when she realized Diabolik had replaced her hitman to steal from Backmann she got him to swear he'd do the job, well knowing that Diabolik always keeps his word and making sure he'd kill him (the day after Diabolik's heist, Backmann was found with a knife in the heart).
150* ImpossibleThief: A particularly funny example of Diabolik's impossible-to-achieve-thefts comes from ''Il Tesoro di Diabolik''; it opens with a guard stating that the platinum disk he was guarding was too big and heavy to be stolen and the following panel had Diabolik start stealing it.
151* ImprobableAimingSkills: Ginko. He's good enough to shoot the gun of a crook as he tries and pulls it on him, and his sessions at the shooting range have terrified more than anyone due the casual ease with which he hits a bullseye after bullseye and he considers it ''not bad''.
152* ImprobablyCoolCar: Ginko's [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citro%C3%ABn_DS Citroën DS]], that he owned since well before he had the money to pay for it. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] as it's a present from his mentor, who had enough money to pay for it.
153* IndyPloy: Diabolik ''hates'' improvising, but once in a while he's not CrazyPrepared enough, and he'll have to improvise a distraction for the police, or even ''[[ItMakesSenseInContext blow up a building with a gas leak, a log and Eva's shirt]]''.
154* InsistentTerminology: Whenever her husband's death at the jaws of a panther is recalled, Eva will ''always'' specify it was an accident. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] as [[spoiler: her husband was trying to get ''her'' eaten by the panther, but Eva, while defending herself, ended up accidentally setting the panther on him without even trying]].
155* InstantSedation: Drugged darts, gas-bombs, knock-out sprays etc. if Diabolik or Eva want someone alive. Poison equivalents otherwise.
156* KangarooCourt: Diabolik was sentenced to death by one. True, he was guilty of the charges and nobody ever tried to deny it, but, as pointed out by an anti-death penalty activist, at the time ''there was yet no evidence that he was Diabolik or even that Diabolik existed at all'', and he was sentenced to death only due to Ginko's guess, the testimony of a madwoman (the widow Garian, whom Diabolik had driven to madness) and a scorned lover of unstable mind (Elizabeth Gay, who was nearly driven mad by the shock even before Diabolik decided that it would be a fitting revenge). The one crime he did confess to, the murder of Walter Dorian--committed in order to impersonate him due to their incredible resemblance--had not only been committed in another country and thus couldn't be punished by Clerville's law, but it was later discovered that Dorian had survived. On top of all that, Diabolik's defense attorney, pressured by public opinion, did a very crappy job. As the activist pointed out, there had to be a retrial (she hoped Diabolik would get life imprisonment), for both the murders on which Diabolik had originally been sentenced and of which there was little evidence, and everything he did after Eva broke him out, for which there was enough evidence to sentence him to death or life imprisonment five or six times.
157* KarmicThief: Diabolik tends to steal more from criminals than from honest people. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] due honest people usually keeping their jewels and gems inside bank vaults that Diabolik can only rarely penetrate (said heists usually consist in Diabolik trying to convince his victim to take the target out of the vault and then jumping them) and criminals keeping their ill-gotten treasures in locations that are relatively vulnerable.
158* KickTheDog: The story ''Atroce Vendetta'' ('Atrocious Revenge') is a massive KickTheDog moment for Diabolik and Eva Kant: in the very previous story Elizabeth Gay, then the fiancee of Diabolik's secret identity, had accidentally found one of his hideouts and denounced it to the police, causing Diabolik's arrest and death sentence (he survived only because Eva Kant, that he had just met, swapped him for a JerkassVictim one hour before the execution), and as revenge they drove her mad with a series of nocturnal apparition of Diabolik (mistaken for allucinations because there was no way for Diabolik to reach her refuge. [[CrazyPrepared Apart the tunnel he built as she was moving there...]]) culminating in the fake execution of her new fiancee.
159** In a literal example of this trope, Ginko's dog was killed to intimidate his father, a former judge convicted for corruption who had witnessed a murder in prison. [[TheDogBitesBack Too bad that Ginko, who was just ten at the time, caused the death of the dog killer while trying to get him arrested]], allowing his father to testify without fear for the family.
160* KilledOffForReal: Most characters killed actually died, but the most shocking is [[spoiler: Gustavo Garian, a recurring character and the very first named character to appear in the series, even before Diabolik himself]].
161* KillerRabbit: At first glance Eva is nothing more than a tall and beautiful woman. She has dropped men four times her size ''bare handed''. She also goes around equipped with cyanide needle launchers, and is a crack shot.
162* LateArrivalSpoiler: Back when it was revealed, Eva [[{{Squick}} being a blood relative of her late husband]] and [[{{Squick}} having married him to get back her family name]] was a great surprise, even to those who had read her debut episode. Nowadays everyone knows it.
163* LatexPerfection: Lots and lots of it. So much that in Italy people automatically associates this trope with Diabolik, and Ginko is completely baffled those rare times Diabolik opts for [[WigDressAccent shaving or dying his hair, sunglasses, wigs and theatrical make-up]].
164** Only Diabolik knows how to create the plastic to make them, and once in a while someone tries to steal either the masks or the formula.
165** In this series the existence of Diabolik's masks has caused the appearance of the logical counter of pinching people's face to check for them (Diabolik's attempts at fooling these checks and Ginko convincing arrogant idiots targeted by Diabolik to allow him the checks are regular plot points), with one story having the appeareance of a machine capable of detecting them (the scientist and the machine didn't survive the story).
166* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Apparently Diabolik has a in-universe franchise with relative fandom and exhibitions that mirror the real-life ones. Ginko ''loathes'' them, as he can't understand Diabolik's popularity, but Diabolik himself loves them, as he can go around without a mask and use them as covers for his own heists ([[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments and even steal a Jaguar for his own use, if the exhibition has one]]).
167* LeaveBehindAPistol: [[spoiler: Gustavo Garian]] had a disguised Diabolik lend him a pistol for this purpose.
168* LighterAndSofter: The animated series is more kid-friendly with a younger and more heroic Diabolik.
169* MasterOfDisguise: Both Diabolik himself and Eva Kant. They normally use LatexPerfection, but they can do almost as well with more traditional methods (almost as well meaning they can fool anyone but Ginko).
170* MasterPoisoner: Diabolik is one, and his lover Eva learned from him.
171** [[PosthumousCharacter The late Cen Fu taught Diabolik]], and was much better. How much? Well, Diabolik has to use needles, sprays, or get to your food, but when you enter Cen Fu's house ''he has already poisoned you'', and only he has the antidote.
172* McNinja: Diabolik typically wears a skin-tight black hooded suit that leaves only his eyes exposed.
173** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in a recent story, as a way to honor one of his late mentors: in his martial arts school, [[spoiler: part of Ronin's criminal organization]], pupils had to wear a more traditional ninja uniform and never expose their faces. After accidentally getting his face exposed during a lesson, Diabolik decided the best way to prevent it from happening again was to put together his trademark suit as an alternative uniform; when he returned to class with the new suit, his instructor decided to teach him a lesson, but Diabolik managed to defeat him and gained his approval for the first time.
174* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: ''Il Re del Terrore-Il Remake'' (a remake of the very first story) starts the 'flashback'-part of the story (where an older Gustavo Garian remembers the events of the original adventure) with a party at the 'Castle of Mart', and you can see an unmasked Diabolik among the waiters in many panels, even serving a drink to Gustavo himself. As Ginko later realizes, that's the moment when Diabolik drugs Gustavo as part of his plan to steal a collection of knives from him.
175* MeaningfulName: Diabolik derives from 'diabolico', meaning 'devilish'. In a complicated example, it's revealed that Diabolik originally was the name of an extremely ferocious panther that King, Diabolik's father figure, had killed and kept as a trophy, and when a then nameless Diabolik killed him in self-defense his last words were an open comparison with the panther, prompting him to take the name.
176** Eva Kant has two. Her first name is Italian for Eve, and Eva is Diabolik's only woman. Her last name Kant is an allusion to both her German-ish looks (in a time where a gorgeous woman in Italian comic books would have been of clear mediterranean origins) and a ShoutOut to the philosopher Immanuel Kant.
177** Unintentional example: Altea means 'healer', and she's the only one who can (temporarily) heal Ginko from his obsession over Diabolik.
178** Subverted by Ginko: his name is made up even in-universe. Nobody who knows his real name is still alive, and he won't tell.
179* MeetCute: Eva and Diabolik first encounter occurred when she returned to her hotel room and caught him stealing the Pink Diamond from the room's safe, with Diabolik immediately threatening her with a knife. They fell in love in less than four pages of dialogue.
180* MindControl: Diabolik and Eva use hypnotic drugs to induce cooperation from their victims.
181* MsFanservice: Eva tends to appear in bikini and skimpy night gowns quite often...
182* MuggedForDisguise: Frequently used by Diabolik and Eva.
183* MuggingTheMonster: Happens depressingly often, as people don't always know ''who'' they're attacking:
184** The typical example is someone messing with Diabolik, either when he's alone or with Eva, thus being on the receiving end of a sleeping needle or getting a quick beatdown-if they're ''lucky''.
185*** The most glorious example comes from "To Save a Hideout": the mob wants to kill a judge that is going to pass through a certain mountain road, so two gangsters break into a house that's in a perfect position to snipe the judge's car from...without knowing it's ''one of Diabolik's hideouts''. While Eva's inside it and Diabolik's going to come there in a matter of minutes. [[HumiliationConga One of the gangsters gets beaten up by the disguised Eva before the other pulls a gun on her, to force her to surrender; when their sniper shows up, both gangsters die before finding out it's actually Diabolik, who had heard them talking through Eva's radio-watch (revealing, among other things, that they had no clue what he looked like), and when the real sniper finally arrives he's captured and drugged with]] TruthSerum. Before the story ends, [[BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork Diabolik's now looking to kill the other snipers so the police's investigation on the judge's murder won't ruin the heist he's planning in the area]].
186** Once in a while, someone kills someone else for some random reason. The killer then learns that his victim was a friend of Diabolik (or had saved him and/or Eva at some point), and [[OhCrap realizes the King of Terror is now out for his blood]].
187*** One particularly glorious example of this is the story ''In the Serpent's Coils''. In retaliation for the arrest of his son, an important drug dealer killed the wife of the CorruptCop who was supposed to warn about operations against him, and kidnapped Ginko to be exchanged for his son. What ''nobody'' knew was that the wife of the cop had saved Eva Kant's life (she'd been in a car accident), and thus had no idea why Diabolik went through all the trouble to break his son out and exchange him for Ginko until he got killed by the killing/tracking device Diabolik had placed on his son. Diabolik then completed his revenge by showing up, killing anyone stupid enough to try and stop him and stealing priceless gems.
188*** Another instance is the story ''Poisons' Island''. A young journalist was murdered by a multinational company to prevent her from exposing their release of toxic wastes in the environment. As it happened, the journalist had saved Diabolik's life a few years earlier, and he went all the trouble to investigate her death, discover the crime, expose it and kill everyone involved in her murder, finishing the job by planting a bomb on the escape plane of the company head, steal his chute and then warn him of what was about to happen when he tried to escape from Diabolik.
189** In some occasions, someone tries and messes with Eva without knowing. Depending on the era, that either meant getting killed by Diabolik or being at the receiving end of a beatdown:
190*** In "The Arrest of Diabolik-The Remake" (set before Eva became a wanted criminal) a random guy tries and steals Eva's purse and gets immediately dropped on his ass. He then qualifies for [[StupidCrooks Stupid Crook]] when he ''tries again'' and gets slapped down again ''twice'', the third for good. Eva just wanted to keep her favourite purse, but the guy insisted in trying to steal it and she ''had'' to slap him down and give him to Ginko (he got lucky that Ginko actually was a disguised Diabolik, or he would have even got arrested).
191** Sometimes, the monster isn't an important character but a random guy that was assaulted by someone weaker.
192*** "Ginko Held Hostage" opens with a man holding at gunpoint a man who was ending a date with his girlfriend... And the 'victim' punching out the robber. Informed of the event, the police quickly concludes the robber was a newbie, as the 'victim' was ''a cop from Ginko's squad'', and an experienced criminal would have recognized him and robbed someone else.
193* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Happens to Ginko in one story, when Eva starts kidnapping people with the same blood type as Diabolik. Deducing that Diabolik was injured in a way that needed a lot of blood to heal but that Eva could treat on her own, he bugs the targeted blood donor in the attempt to find Diabolik. Eva finds it out and stops the kidnappings, so Ginko consoles himself that at least he stopped the kidnappings at five people... Then he finds out Diabolik's injury: radiation poisoning, that could be treated only with a ''complete'' blood transfusion, for which Eva needed a lot of blood. Blood that she could have taken in standard blood donors' doses from twenty or thirty people, as Eva originally planned, or by draining all the blood from five or six people, as Ginko forced her to do.
194* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Diabolik comes from 'diabolico', the Italian word for 'devilish'. He's also known as 'The King of Terror', for good reasons.
195** In-universe, Diabolik is a double case: not only the name Diabolik keeps his origins, but it was the name of a panther so ferocious that had actually chased away a party of a dozen hunters before being lured in an ambush and killed by King (Diabolik's adopted father). King accidentally baptized the protagonist with his last words: "You attacked me! Like the panther! Like ''Diabolik''".
196** Clotilde '''Luger''', the headmistress of a [[OrphanageOfFear boarding school theoretically for poor and orphans]] but in fact used by rich and important people to get rid of illegitimate children and other annoying minor relatives. Eva, having been sent there (and being one of the few to successfully escape), can testify the physical and psychological abuse the students were subjected to (including little food on normal meals, beatings for the minor infractions and being imprisoned in a dark room with one meal every two days for even two weeks at a time for more serious offenses), but she only discovered the worst many years after escaping.
197* {{Nepotism}}: A number of people got in important positions only due being related to someone important. Not even Ginko's job to chase Diabolik is immune to this, as whenever his post is temporarily replaced his successors were invariably people with important connections that [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope were either working with Ginko or people the Minister of Justice wanted an excuse to get rid of]]]].
198* NeverRecycleYourSchemes: Done by Diabolik and {{Justified}}, as the next time Ginko ''will'' be ready and defeat them. Best shown by Diabolik's own masks, one of the few gadgets he actually recycles: as soon as Ginko found out about them, pinching someone's face to check for a mask became standard procedure for anything in which Diabolik may be involved.
199** In one story, this serves to Ginko to realize that there's a Diabolik copycat around: the heists are in Diabolik's style, but the schemes are recycled. He was preparing to shut him down precisely by applying knowledge of the old schemes and gadgets when the actual Diabolik found him.
200** Occasionally Ginko ''does'' recycle a defensive scheme, but that's only as long as nobody finds out what he actually did, because otherwise Diabolik would find a way to bypass it... As shown for the mask checks, occasionally bypassed with wigs and theatrical make-up.
201* NobleDemon: Diabolik and Eva always keep their word and pay their debts, and don't deal with drugs nor kill as long as they have another option. Also, Diabolik doesn't hurt children if he can help it, and is disgusted by wife-beaters.
202** Eva will ''never'' hurt children or animals, and keeps Diabolik from doing so every time she can. Also, she's a merciless and sadistic WifeBasherBasher (and Diabolik will help).
203** Diabolik and Eva are apparently well known for not tolerating prostitution rings and slave trade, as the one time a group of slave traders realized Diabolik had stumbled on them they expected to be murdered in their sleep as soon as he had stolen what he was there for. They were only partly right: Diabolik did take them down, but until they pissed him off even more he just intended to tie them up and call the police.
204** EveryoneHasStandards: Upon finding out they had unwittingly assisted in the escape of a ''pedophiliac rapist and ringleader of a child pornography group'', [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Eva starts screaming and swearing she'll track down the ringleader and his clients and kill them all]], and Diabolik [[TranquilFury is too furious to even talk]]. The only member of the child pornography ring who isn't killed by them was the one ''Ginko'' killed in self-defense before they could reach him.
205* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Altea's looks are based on the French actress [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capucine Capucine.]]
206* NoNameGiven: Diabolik and Ginko. Diabolik's birth name is unknown even to him, as his parents died before he learned it, and the inhabitants of King's Island called him 'The Boy' until a dying King called him with the name of the ferocious panther Diabolik. For Ginko it's a little more complicated: nobody ever says his first name because [[spoiler:he ditched it, alongside his family's name (replaced by the one he's known as), to denounce his father, a corrupt judge.]]
207* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] with the gadgets of the week not made by Diabolik: the plans do exist, but every time they're destroyed or otherwise made useless.
208** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with the mask-revealing machine: Diabolik killed the inventor, destroyed the machine and stole the plans, but a later issue reveals he missed a copy of the plans. [[spoiler:Then DoubleSubverted when they're revealed as a fake, made and planted by Diabolik to convince Ginko to not use the mask checks.]]
209* NoSocialSkills: Played with. Ginko has social skills, but tends [[BrutalHonesty to be too honest for his own good]]. He hates parties due the crap that happens to him every time he's at one--Diabolik and more violent thieves showing up are some of the lesser things he's had to deal at such social events; even the one time Eva bombed the location to create a distraction is small potatoes when compared to some things that have happened to him at parties. Incidentally, being both [[OJou Altea]]'s fiancee and the one guy who can give Diabolik a desperate run for his money on a regular basis, he's invited to half of the parties in Clerville and is sent to the other half to protect the resident valuables from Diabolik.
210* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Once in a while a minor character is mistaken for too stupid to be of any danger, only to reveal he's smarter than he seems and a threat to Diabolik. The best example is Milo Arkin, who fooled Diabolik twice ''and got away with it'' (it helped that he was smart enough to make sure Diabolik wasn't endangered in the process, and he paid back the economic damage he caused).
211** In the original version of ''The Arrest of Diabolik''. Eva seemed to be just a wealthy good-for-nothing, albeit one smart and brave enough to face Diabolik without any fear. Then she broke Diabolik out of prison and had her StalkerWithACrush executed in his place.
212** Altea seems pretty harmless, as once remarked by the boss of the Grey Ravens terrorists, [[spoiler:her husband]]. Cue Altea holding him at gunpoint and revealing she had seen through his charade.
213* OffWithHisHead: In Clerville, death sentences are executed via guillotine (TheArtifact from the early issues, when the story was supposed to be set in France). Every time Diabolik is arrested, the police needs only to file the paperwork to try and behead him, as when he was arrested the second time he was held long enough to be tried and sentenced to death, and not even an abolitionist lawyer appealing on his behalf could change it. Actually beheading him, on the other hand, is quite complicated...
214* {{Ojou}}: Altea of Vallenberg, Inspector Ginko's girlfriend/fiancée, and victim of frequent impersonations by Eva Kant.
215* OnceMoreWithClarity: Sometimes happens, but [[RuleOfThree three occasions]] were on massive scale:
216** The story ''Il Re del Terrore: Il Remake'' was [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a remake of the first story]], that filled a few plot holes and made clear exactly ''what'' Diabolik stole from Gustavo Garian.
217** In ''Il Re del Terrore: Il Remake'', we are treated to a rumor of Diabolik having blown up an airplane to kill a single passenger, correlated by a picture of an airliner exploding, and the story ''Io Sono Diabolik'' shows what, exactly, happened: [[spoiler:the last of Diabolik's mentors, Natasha Morgan, had been kidnapped by a group of King's followers and was on board to help them track Diabolik, but she managed to crash the plane (not an airliner) after forcing the pilot to make a distress call mentioning Diabolik to make him the King of Terror, thus gaining a powerful psychological advantage]].
218** Finally, the story ''L'Arresto di Diabolik: il Remake'' is a remake, with filled plot holes, of the stories ''L'Arresto di Diabolik'' and ''Atroce Vendetta''.
219* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When Eva stops [[DeadpanSnarker snarking]] and starts screaming for blood, or Ginko is willing to resort to the JackBauerInterrogationTechnique, you know there's something terribly wrong. A situation that caused ''both'' reactions was the discovery of a ''child pornography ring'', with Eva and Diabolik unwittingly aiding the escape of the ringleader (who personally kidnapped and raped children to produce the pornography [[WouldHurtAChild before murdering them]]).
220* OutGambitted: Happens fairly often. Usually Diabolik does it to Ginko or the newest victim, sometimes Ginko outgambits Diabolik, and in one memorable occasion a one-time character managed to outgambit her family, Diabolik, Ginko (who was the only one who realized it but had no evidence) and even ''herself'' (her plan called for her to denounce the dishonest owner of a casino and then warn him anonymously of the denounce. He reacted placing an hit on her and her family, as they were the only ones with the reasons to denounce him).
221* PaintedOnPants: In his trademark suit, Diabolik has been described as looking like a naked man painted black.
222* PoliceAreUseless: Ginko and his colleagues are outwitted by Diabolik again and again. Super-cop Ginko ''has'' managed to defeat Diabolik on several occasions, and even arrested him a few times, but the authorities are never able to hold him long enough to execute him (he's had a death sentence since his third story, when he stood trial, which was the longest they've ever held him in custody for), often owing to widespread corruption among other police officers, prison guards etc. who succumb to bribery on a routine basis.
223* PragmaticVillainy: Diabolik may be the King of Terror, but as long as you aren't in his way, he'll leave you alone (or at most will just steal from you). He was once willing to destroy a biological weapon instead of reselling it, simply because Eva asked him to due to the inherent dangers of such a weapon (not just in handling it); the only reason he didn't destroy it is because the weapon's creator destroyed it himself before [[DrivenToSuicide committing suicide]].
224** Diabolik expressed regret on driving Elizabeth Gay to madness. Did he realize the cruelty of his actions against her? No, Elizabeth [[TheDogBitesBack recovered enough to leave the asylum, captured him with embarrassing ease and proceeded to try and torture him to death]]. Diabolik survived only because Elizabeth wanted to make him suffer...
225** A few bosses of [[TheMafia the local organized crime syndicates]] refrain from mass murders and selling drugs to kids because it enrages the public opinion, and calls for more attention from the police. In one occasion, an old retired boss went so far as to help Ginko take down two other bosses who were engaged in a mafia war.
226* PrimAndProperBun: Eva's hairdo of choice. She used to wear her hair as ponytail in her youth, but wore them in a bun to increase her resemblance with her mother when she confronted her murderer (who also happened to be [[spoiler:Eva's uncle, [[{{Squick}} whom she had married to get her last name back]]]]). She caused him a heart attack, and wore her hair that way since.
227* ProperlyParanoid: occasionally a criminal realizes he provoked Diabolik into wanting him dead and adopts more precautions than Batman would consider sufficient. They weren't paranoid enough, as none of them survived.
228** A particularly egregious example comes from the story ''A Bloody Red Treasure'', in which a corrupt cop captures Eva to blackmail Diabolik into working for him before being arrested and jailed. Every time he sees a man, he stays away, fearing he's Diabolik, getting mocked by the guards... Only for a ''remote controlled mechanical bird'' to poison him! For bonus points, the guards had just told him that [[ForeShadowing only birds could reach him]]...
229** Another example: a CorruptCorporateExecutive has just learned that he had a friend of Diabolik killed, and the titular criminal is out for him. He jumps on a plane, piloted by himself to escape for destinations unknown... And as soon as he's in flight, Diabolik tells him via the radio that he's about to blow up the plane, ''and'' that he'd already stolen the parachute. Yes, Diabolik had ''boobytrapped the escape vehicle before his victim learned he was out for him''.
230** The very first, that set the tone for the whole series, comes from the first issue. After a chase Ginko finds Diabolik's car abandoned near a crop field and deduces that Diabolik had escaped in the minute he took to check the car. Then he sees a group of scarecrows, and shoots them just to make sure the King of Terror wasn't hidden in one of them, and, after seeing no man falling down wounded or dead, leaves. Diabolik ''was'' hidden in one of the scarecrows, and Ginko actually shot him in the arm!
231** GiantSquid: A guy who didn't expect Diabolik to be able to infiltrate his manor decided to put his diamond collection in a chest placed in a pool with a giant octopus inside, just in case. Upon infiltrating the manor and finding out he couldn't afford to wait for Eva to come with a liter of cyanide, Diabolik killed the octopus with a knife.
232** After the Grey Ravens tried to steal the Crown Jewels, the king of Benglait had them moved to the Benglait embassy in Clerville, in case the next theft would realize what the final defence was. It was just in time to foil Diabolik's first attempt at stealing them.
233** Criminal mastermind Oscar Loben was probably the most paranoid of all, after Diabolik and Ginko: knowing how hated he was by the gangs he controlled, he lived in a manor surrounded by a tall and thick wall with an alarm, the property had detectors for anything coming from the air and remote control signals, he only ate food produced inside the property (which Diabolik found out when he asked what precautions Loben had against poisoning), every time he left the property he did it with a non-magnetic car (foiling at least one attempt at killing him with a magnetic bomb) and had his men check the road for mines. Oh, and if anyone killed one of his guards, their life-signs detectors would activate the alarm (just in case Diabolik decided to replace one of them for whatever reason, which he found out when he tried just that). [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking He also used a new deck every time he played cards to prevent his men from cheating]], [[HoistByHisOwnPetard allowing Diabolik to kill him by switching his newest batch of decks with bombs]].
234** The police in general is extremely paranoid due Diabolik's presence. To the point that in "Ginko Attacks!" the police was sure Diabolik was going to walk into a trap set with the help of an apparently traitorous Eva Kant rather than attack the unmarked minivan carrying some of the loot they had recovered... And not only they had prepared a ''massive'' escort to reach the minivan as soon as it was away from the hideout it was coming out from, an old friend of the cop driving the minivan had hidden on it because she was scared Diabolik would attack it. They weren't paranoid ''enough'', as Diabolik had killed and replaced the cop and then volunteered to drive it... But neither was he, as he didn't expect the police woman to come out of the minivan and shoot him while he was kissing Eva.
235* PutOnABus: Gustavo Garian, the oldest recurring character (appearing even before Diabolik himself, and introducing him to the reader) and Ginko's original confidant and sidekick, wasn't very liked by the Giussani sisters, so he was slowly replaced as confidant by Altea and then quietly dropped. After [[TheBusCameBack returning with a marginal role]] he was dropped again, not reappearing for twenty years (real time), showing up in two stories published in 2001 and 2002 (the latter giving him back an important role) and then disappearing until the 2012 story [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin ''The Return of Gustavo Garian'']].
236** BusCrash: Gustavo kills himself at the end of ''The Return of Gustavo Garian''.
237* RapeAsDrama: Happened a number of times, by force and by drugs. Even Eva [[AttemptedRape risked it]] (and only escaped because, under the influence of the drug, she took off the mask and [[OhCrap the rapist realized on whose "thank Ginko he's here otherwise I'd take my time killing you" list his name was)]], while Altea wasn't so lucky (she still managed to reveal the true identity of the rapist and get him arrested).
238* RedShirt: Diabolik has killed a lot of nameless policemen and other mooks over the years.
239* RefugeInAudacity: Happens once in a while, with the crowners being Ginko preventing Diabolik from stealing some statues by ''stealing them first and hiding them in the museum they were supposed to go once the security was upgraded'' (this story was titled ''Mocking Diabolik''), Diabolik spying on Ginko by ''bugging the bullets of his gun'', and a corrupt prison guard kidnapping Eva for ransom and ''hiding her in jail'' (this one was even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by the guard, who openly asked Eva who would ever search for her in a jail).
240* RippedFromTheHeadlines: A funny example happened in 2002, as Clerville's currency always had the same value of the Italian Lira and Italy was replacing it with the Euro. Cue a story where Clerville replaced its own currency with the Euro and Diabolik having to find a way to legally change his soon to be worthless money to the new currency (with Eva stealing an Euroconverter to help him adapt to the new money).
241* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: cross Diabolik, and he WILL find and kill you, even after years (as the leader of the Grey Ravens would testify if it wasn't for that knife in the neck). Hurt Eva or one of his few friends, and you better pray he's in a hurry or he'll do worse than kill you, before telling the media what happens when you do so much to look his friends the wrong way.
242** Diabolik found himself at the receiving end of two of those: in ''Il Tesoro di Diabolik (Diabolik's Treasure)'' a group of past victims of his banded together to make him suffer by stealing his favourite loots, while in ''L'Ombra del Giustiziere (The Shadow of the Avenger)'', the wife of a prison guard whose life had been ruined by Eva to save Diabolik's life back in one of the first stories reasoned that the authorities and Ginko were actually accomplices of the King of Terror and started bombing the city to force them to arrest and execute him.
243* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: By marriage, Altea is a member of Beglait's deposed royal family. Her first appearance featured her teaming up with Ginko and nearly get Diabolik arrested. Also, before the revolution she was [[OnlySaneMan the one member who had useful suggestions to end the economic crisis and get back popular support]], trying to put the revolutionaries into the government of the constitutionally monarchic Benglait (which earned her the adoration of the people), and at the height of the Grey Ravens terrorist attacks, she was a nurse helping the victims of their bombings.
244** Also, her late husband Federico, the Duke of Vallenberg: cousin of the king, he too had useful suggestions to stop the economic crisis, and before being eaten by a shark was on the frontline in the fight against the Grey Ravens. [[spoiler:Except that he was the Grey Ravens ''leader'', trying to provoke a civil war that would have put him on the throne; he faked his death when he realized he was about to be found out.]]
245* SadisticChoice: Rare, but happens. For example, in one occasion a group of temporary allies of Diabolik found a traitor among them and told him to choose between facing Diabolik or running to his freedom by passing trough a gallery that hosted a colony of rats. He choose the gallery, that offered a slim chance of survival, but got a FamilyUnfriendlyDeath.
246* SecretIdentity: Before his face was known Diabolik used the identity of Walter Dorian, who had a company specialized in the import-export of art pieces (also a cover for smuggling since before Diabolik stole the identity). After, Diabolik tends to create fake identities as [[IdleRich the typical rich layabout type]] for Eva and himself, at least to get to some of their hideouts, or to go on a well-deserved vacation.
247* SeenItAll: Ginko evolved into this due his many encounters with Diabolik. A thief uses sleep gas? Already seen. Drugs to brainwash someone? Diabolik once gassed the whole police corps so that they'll give him a treasure. By now, ''nothing'' surprises him anymore...
248* SeriousBusiness: Tend to appear in the short stories, where it's usually played for laughs.
249** When the main Italian radio announced a series of shows on ''Diabolik'', there was a short story where Eva and Altea infiltrated the studios (separately) and checked the tapes to make sure everyone was in-character. It's implied they were ready to destroy them if there was OOC-ness...
250** The story ''Uno Stradivari per Eva Kant (A Stradivarius for Eva Kant)'' had Diabolik temporarily move in the Italian city of Cremona to steal a Stradivarius with three diamonds in it. When he succeeded, the mayor was pissed because ''Diabolik had stolen the violin'', and when Diabolik gave it back he didn't care in the slightest that the King of Terror had kept the diamonds (that's TruthInTelevision, by the way: the people of Cremona ''love'' their violins, especially the ones made by the great local violin makers of the past).
251* ShadowArchetype: Diabolik and Ginko are this for each other: both go by an assumed name (Diabolik doesn't know his true name, Ginko changed it to distance from his [[spoiler:corrupt judge]] father), both are highly unconventional but very effective in their respective careers (Ginko sometimes goes so far as making use of Diabolik's masks and tools confiscated after one of his heists or in a raid on one of his hideouts), both are just as good at their rival's profession as they are in their own (Diabolik proved a few times that he'd be a ''magnificent'' detective if he so chose, and Ginko made use of his cat-burglar skills to acquire evidence against a criminal), both are very loyal to their beloved and could very well be married to them if they only wanted (Diabolik and Eva could slip to a country where they didn't have a price on their heads and marry there, while Ginko and Altea don't even need that. Both couples just don't feel the need to marry), and God help you if you earn their revenge (Ginko will find you and shoot to cripple or kill, or maybe just scare you into submission, while Diabolik ''will'' find and kill you [[AFateWorseThanDeath if you're lucky]]). Ginko even looks like a more generic Diabolik...
252** Likewise their lovers, Eva and Altea: both are far stronger-willed than you'd expect from a first glance, both are noblewomen who go by their late husbands' last names (the difference being in that Eva's last name should have been Kant anyway, but she was illegitimate and had to marry her father's cousin to get it), both are the indirect cause of their respective husbands' deaths in which Diabolik is somehow involved (Altea accidentally [[spoiler:led Diabolik to her husband, who had been on his shit list for years]], while Eva accidentally [[spoiler:set on her husband the panther that he tried to set on her (Diabolik took his name from a panther, and sometimes he uses the panther as a symbol)]], both are very loyal to their lovers and would do ''anything'' to protect or avenge them (Altea, an otherwise honest woman, even set a hitman on a mob boss who was trying to get Ginko killed, and upon noticing that Diabolik had killed and replaced the hitman she managed to ''set Diabolik on the mob boss''), and both are among the very few people who have managed to identify Diabolik under the masks.
253** Eva Kant has another one in the form of post-asylum Elizabeth Gay: after the asylum she became a much darker version of Eva in her ClingyJealousGirl moments, both in character and skills (she even managed to recognize Diabolik under his mask--not by some hint that he wasn't the person he had replaced, but by ''his eyes''), and is still very much in love with Diabolik (before slipping definitely into madness, she admits to her husband that her revenge on Diabolik wasn't for causing her first bout of insanity, but for ''taking Eva as accomplice and lover''). Fittingly, it's Eva who defeats her and frees Diabolik.
254* ShroudedInMyth: In the first story a group of rich people at a party talks of Diabolik as a murderous thief capable of stealing ''everything'' and change his looks in an instant, and reports of him having broken out of [[TheAlcatraz a theoretically escape-proof prison]] and blown up a plane to kill an enemy, and they weren't even sure he actually existed (Diabolik's existance was confirmed only by the one time Ginko arrested him and had managed to keep him in custody long enough for the trial). Bonus points for not only Diabolik having done ''all'' of this in his career (he hadn't done the plane one ''yet'', but he would do it later) with embarrassing ease (his evasion consisting of him killing a guard, stealing his uniform, [[LatexPerfection taking off the mask that was hiding his true face]] and ''walking out through the main gate''), but also ''Diabolik being there preparing the heist of his first story''. Diabolik continuing to pull larger than life stunts contributed to him remaining this even after his first arrest and an imitator successfully copying a few of them, to the point that in one occasion a victim wasn't surprised in the least of Diabolik opening his supposedly Diabolik-proof safe, he just wanted to know how it was even possible.
255* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: ''Way'' over on the cynical side.
256* SpannerInTheWorks: Happens all the time.
257* SpotTheImposter: Happens fairly often due Diabolik's [[LatexPerfection perfect masks]]. While it's usually easy if you're expecting it, as you only need to pinch the face to check for the masks, there have been incidents in which Diabolik used a one-time trick to fool the check, like one time in particular when he impersonated a glasses-wearing cop with a similar face and only needed to mask the higher part of his own face (the cops didn't think to have him remove the glasses and check there, so the pinch got his actual skin), or when he ''bleached his hair and used theater make-up to make himself look different''.
258** In one particularly strange occasion, Ginko had to deal with Alberto Floriani, who, after his crazed wife Elizabeth Gay fell for Ginko, had his face altered to look like the inspector to keep her love. When dealing with one of Floriani thugs he was immediately spotted... As Floriani had just left the room by another door. He and Floriani are then caught by Elizabeth, and both tell her the other is Diabolik... Until Ginko proved he wasn't wearing a mask. Elizabeth immediately shot her husband.
259** In a WholeEpisodeFlashback, Diabolik had just arrived in Clerville using the identity of his lookalike Walter Dorian. He was immediately captured by the mob, as Dorian had to leave the country after the boss Natasha Morgan caught him trying to swindle her. While Diabolik's face fooled the mob, Natasha realized he wasn't Dorian with just a close-up look: Diabolik was giving her a DeathGlare mixed with a KubrickStare, something Dorian would have ''never'' dared when tied up and held at gunpoint.
260*** This one was particularly notable because Diabolik had gone to great pains to make himself look like Dorian (even replacing Dorian's archived fingerprints with his own in the records of a bank so he'd have access to the deposit boxes), and the mob had kidnapped him only ''after'' checking if he was the actual Dorian or an impostor (namely, they waited for him to access Dorian's deposit box in bank, as the director was one of their informants). And Natasha ''still'' spotted him with nothing more than a good, up-close and personal look.
261* StalkerWithACrush: Eva has collected a fair share of them, all of whom ended up dead. The most notable of them was George Caron, secretary of the Minister for Justice, who in ''L'Arresto di Diabolik (The Arrest of Diabolik)'' attempted to blackmail an unwilling Eva into marrying him. Eva swapped him with Diabolik one hour before his execution and he died on the guillotine.
262** Almost as notable as George Caron is Lord Anthony Kant, both for being the cousin of Eva's father and for Eva [[{{Squick}} having married him]] to get back her family name (Anthony had a heart attack when Eva told him, and the marriage was never consummated).
263* StraightGay: Recurring character Saverio Hardy, a friend of Diabolik and Eva, is gay, yet nobody had any idea until he came out on live television.
264* {{Superdickery}}: Once in a while, Ginko or another cop established as incorruptible commits a crime. It's later revealed to be [[LatexPerfection Diabolik in disguise]] or, on one occasion, because the cop had been drugged and hypnotized by Diabolik into committing the crime.
265** An example that caught by surprise even the most jaded readers comes from the special issue ''Matrimonio in Nero (Wedding in Black)''. Altea is wounded when the titular wedding is bombed, so, believing she's dying, she convinces Ginko to marry her and they celebrate in place just before she slips into a coma. Almost immediately, Ginko goes to a home where he meets a woman and kisses her, apparently cheating on a comatose Altea. The following page reveals that they're actually Diabolik and Eva, and that Diabolik had replaced Ginko the previous night.
266** Note that, differently from most examples, the readers do tend to take them seriously, as once in a while [[WhamEpisode they actually do it]], as with ''The Arrest of Diabolik'' (where Diabolik's 'secret identity' is exposed and the woman that was apparently being set up as his companion getting him arrested) and ''The Return of Gustavo Garian'' (in which they killed off ''Gustavo Garian himself'', the first named character to be introduced and the one to actually introduce Diabolik to the readers). That's why they fall for Diabolik kidnapping a gorgeous woman and declaring he'd make her his new lover to replace the recently arrested Eva (issue #8, ''The Train of Death''. It was part of the diversion, to break Eva out of prison) or Eva drugging Diabolik and implying she's about to get him arrested after they had a fight (issue #110, "Diabolik Versus Eva". Eva ''did'' go to the police... to rob their safe and prove to Diabolik she could. That was why they had the fight in the first place), [[TheTysonZone with all the things they've pulled]]...
267* SympatheticInspectorAntagonist: Inspector Ginko, played absolutely straight, and he isn't an InspectorJavert because Diabolik really ''is'' a bad-guy. Ginko is very competent and utterly incorruptible, unlike many of his colleagues who frequently succumb to bribery. Ordinary criminals fear his investigations, because he ''will'' find enough evidence to get them arrested and convicted (assuming they don't piss off Diabolik somehow and get murdered first).
268* TemptingFate: The story ''L'Arresto di Diabolik-Il Remake'' (a story that shows a remake of the original ''L'Arresto di Diabolik'' as part of a long flashback) starts with the director of the Hotel Excelsior explaining to the personnel how Diabolik and Eva Kant's first encounter in that hotel many years earlier had caused the hotel's closing, and that now that it had reopened they would have to do everything to erase that black spot on the hotel's reputation. Not only [[FailedASpotCheck was Eva among the hotel's personnel]] in preparation for a heist, but Diabolik had rented ''the very same room'' where they first met to help with the job. In the end the only reason the heist wasn't completed was that Diabolik and Eva changed their minds and opted for some lovemaking in the place where they first met...
269* ThemeNaming: The letter K is present in all the names of our three protagonists, and also into Diabolik's adopted father's name (King).
270* ThisIsUnforgivable: Usually played for laughs when Diabolik and Eva see something particularly horrible. In one occasion Diabolik mailed the horrible thing to Ginko (who had the same reaction).
271* TitleDrop: A strange case in ''L'Arresto di Diabolik-Il Remake'', in which the stories ''L'Arresto di Diabolik'' (The Arrest of Diabolik) and ''Atroce Vendetta'' (Atrocious Revenge) are shown as part of two flashbacks: right before the start of the second flashback, Diabolik calls his revenge on Elizabeth Gay (subject of ''Atroce Vendetta'' and the second flashback) an atroucious revenge, put in bold for emphasis.
272* TomboyishPonytail: How Eva wore her hair in her youth and before marrying. In a mild aversion, adult Eva oozed femininity and sex appeal whenever she dressed elegantly instead of practically.
273* TheTrickster: Diabolik has shades of this, having done things like drugging the whole police corps with an obedience gas just to have Ginko give him the loot or mailing Ginko an horrible ''thing'' just for the hell of it.
274** When a disguised Diabolik met a young fan who declared to know everything about him, he promptly asked [[HammerSpace where he kept the knives when wearing his suit]], and refused to tell how.
275* TruthSerum: Frequently used to extract safe combinations etc. especially later in the series. In earlier comics, Diabolik favoured ColdBloodedTorture instead. The effects of truth serums are represented realistically: not only does Diabolik use a real life drug (pentothal) for the job, but the various possible side effects are shown (and Diabolik takes care to check if his subjects are allergic or too sick for the serum whenever possible), and you can actually resist it if the recipient is under some kind of eccitant agent or has been treated in such a way that they'll simply fall half asleep (Diabolik is one of such persons, and Eva, after a few accidents where she was drugged with it, became another. Another one was an undercover cop who managed to feed Diabolik a bunch of lies).
276* TheTysonZone: Meta example: most fan will fall for all the {{Superdickery}} the writers will pull because-well, the third issue [[WhamEpisode "The Arrest of Diabolik"]] completely turned the series on its head, so they could do it again. Some younger fan don't fall for it... So, once in a while, the writers publish another WhamEpisode that will leave readers ''and'' characters in StunnedSilence.
277* UnholyMatrimony: Eva and Diabolik would fit the bill, if they could care enough of formalities to actually get married. They ''had'' planned to play it straight when they first met in [[WhamEpisode The Arrest of Diabolik]], but the first attempt to get together legally was foiled by [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Diabolik getting arrested and his true face exposed]], and the second (where Diabolik would have impersonated Eva's StalkerWithACrush) was foiled by Ginko realizing the 'Diabolik' they had just executed actually was Eva's stalker with a mask.
278* UnwittingPawn: Diabolik tends to get some, including a few people who are doing a legitimate job, whenever he needs them for one of his aliases; said pawns have no idea who their boss actually is.
279* VillainsActHeroesReact: {{Defied}} by Ginko: Diabolik usually has the initiative, but, starting with the appropriately named story "Ginko Attacks!", more than once Ginko set up plans to lure Diabolik into an ambush, track down his lairs, and otherwise foil him and other criminals.
280* VoiceChangeling: Diabolik can imitate any male voice, and Eva learned from him how to imitate any voice regardless from gender.
281* WesternTerrorists: Two examples so far:
282** The Grey Ravens, terrorizing the Republic of Benglait since before the revolution, are a recurring threat... Who were stupid enough to capture and torture Diabolik. So far Diabolik has murdered over fifty of their members and beheaded the organization twice (it's unknown if they will recover from the latest encounter). They appear to have some kind of fascist ideology, aiming to terrify Benglait to the point the people will demand to be ruled by a strong man... That, of course, they will provide.
283** "Inside Clerville's Underground", set in Diabolik's early days in Clerville, has Fire of Ice, bombing Clerville for no apparent reason until the investigations of judge Benson and them accidentally ending on Diabolik's shit list got the leader to disband the organization for fear of being captured. Their lack of ideology is [[JustifiedTrope justified]]: they were [[UnwittingPawn unwitting pawns]] of their leader, who planned to capitalize on the fear to get elected. [[spoiler:Their leader tried again years later, running for Clerville's mayor on a platform to clean the roads from beggars, dispossessed and other so-called parasites... Forgetting that the so-called parasites that live in Clerville's undergound are friends with Diabolik, resulting in [[EngineeredPublicConfession getting tricked into exposing his true motives and past as a terrorist on the radio]].]]
284* WhamEpisode: The series relies heavily on {{Superdickery}} and staying inside TheTysonZone, so once in a while they publish something that will leave the readers in StunnedSilence. Some examples:
285** The first two stories had Diabolik living with a SecretIdentity and Elisabeth Gay, his fiancee and UnwittingPawn who one day may or may not become his full accomplice. Then came the story ''The Arrest of Diabolik'', where Elisabeth accidentally got Diabolik arrested, the police made his true face known to everyone, and Eva Kant entered the cast as Diabolik's lover and accomplice
286** In ''The Return of Gustavo Garian'', the man who sicked the assassins on Diabolik was revealed to be Gustavo Garian himself. ''This'' left the disguised Diabolik in StunnedSilence, but they weren't finished, as the story ended with Gustavo killing himself. He was the oldest recurring character of the series and the first named character to appear, and the one who introduced Diabolik to the readers.
287* WifeBasherBasher: Eva ''does not'' tolerate wife bashers (and Diabolik will help her: he doesn't care about wife bashers, but he ''does'' care about what Eva hates): the last one who had the bad luck to get discovered by her was locked in his own secret vault with no food or water on his late wife's behalf (she had just asked Diabolik and Eva to rob him blind before killing herself, but Eva went the extra mile).
288* WigDressAccent: Once in a while, Diabolik and Eva have to enter places where their targets are savvy enough to check faces for [[LatexPerfection mask-centric disguises]], so they regularly resort to wigs, coloured contact lenses and ordinary make up to bypass security.
289* WillfullyWeak:
290** Ginko is just as intelligent and cunning as Diabolik, if not more, but limits himself to ''lawful'' means. This ability and him holding back was often believed to be just WordOfGod until the story ''Mocking Diabolik'', where Ginko, using a particular situation where the limits of what he could lawfully do were stretched thin, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin completely and utterly humiliated and mocked the King of Terror]], who couldn't even start to ''guess'' what had happened without spying on Ginko.
291** Also, Diabolik and Eva have a glaring weakness in that they don't use accomplices, unless in particular and extreme circumstances, and they have to work around Ginko's perennial numerical advantage.
292* WomanScorned: Happens once in a while, including a gender-inverted example where a ''man'' scorned decided to cash Diabolik's life debt to him in order to ''murder'' the woman who betrayed him.
293* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: Eva is considered this in-universe. True to the trope, she has more [[StalkerWithACrush hopelessly-smitten stalkers]] than she cares for, including her uncle.

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