Line #31 EyeBeams/ComicBooks


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5	[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/TheRiseOfUltraman https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rco038_1663916841_7.jpg]]]]
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7	!!Franchise/TheDCU
8	* ''ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'': Black Manta uses this quite a bit, making it one of his more unique powers to fight Aquaman.
9	* ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'': Apollo has these--makes sense as he's a Superman homage. In the story where he's introduced, writer Creator/WarrenEllis tries to HandWave this as saying he's got "weird eye structure" which can cause light to lase.
10	* ''ComicBook/MartianManhunter'': The Martian Manhunter has his Martian Vision. The effect of which [[DependingOnTheWriter depends on the writer]], ranging from heat, disintegration or concussive force. And once, memorably, for making ice cream. Rather [[FridgeLogic confusing]] since Manhuter has a psychosomatic fear of fire and yet he can cause flammable objects to catch fire ''with his eyes''. But it seems nearly all [[FlyingBrick Flying Bricks]] ''have'' to be able to use eyebeams to hang tough with Superman.
11	* ''ComicBook/NewGods'': The extreme end of the trope may be ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}, whose "Omega Effect" (sometimes referred to as "Omega Beam"), at full power, removes anything it hits from existence, and can travel any path he desires to hit something, including warping through space and time. Darkseid can however use the Omega Effect for a multitude of different purposes (including, frequently, [[ResetButton returning entities his beams had previously destroyed back to reality]]). [[spoiler: In ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'', he uses a variation of the "Omega Effect" called the "Omega Sanction", which he uses to condemn ComicBook/{{Batman}} to [[FateWorseThanDeath be trapped in a cycle of death and rebirth, with each life worse than the last. Worse, when he reaches the present again, he'll have built up enough negative energy through all those lives to result in an]] EarthShatteringKaboom.]] There's only one being Darkseid has ever encountered that's shown to be unharmed by the Omega Beam: [[spoiler: ComicBook/{{Galactus}}]].
12	** And when we say "travel any path" we mean ''[[{{Roboteching}} travel any path]]''. One of the most striking features of Darkseid's Omega Beam is that it rarely ever curves to change direction or moves straightforwardly at all, instead making sharp angles, even at degrees less than 90. [[DependingOnTheWriter Depending On The Artist]], if you look closely you might notice that a lot of these paths look like a capital omega, "Ω".
13	** When the Omega Effect was first introduced, in issue 6 of ''The Forever People'', it was a two-part process. The visible beams were called "Finder Beams" and were used to locate the target, after which the Effect proper was sent along the beams to do whatever it was sent to do -- in this story, to transport the Forever People elsewhere in time and space. The lag between locating a target and acting was close to nothing, but the Finder Beams did have to find the target(s) in the first place. There were a couple of panels showing the air around a target filled with Finder Beams seemingly doing a search pattern before locking on. They move fast, so it wouldn't be easy to dodge them, but the implication is there that, with Flash-level speed, it might be possible -- although they'll just come after you.
14	* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
15	** Superman's famous heat vision is very highly adjustable: its power can be [[PowerLimiter dialed back]] enough to be used as a [[LaserCutter cutting laser]] for things like cutting through doors, freeing someone from fallen debris, or [[SwissArmyWeapon other uses]]. If he ever actually uses it as a weapon, it's usually against a robotic or other nonliving enemy. Him using this power ''on a living thing'' is usually a sign that he is ''[[OOCIsSeriousBusiness well and truly]]'' [[BewareTheNiceOnes pissed off]]: at full power, his Heat Vision is a WaveMotionGun that can ''[[EarthShatteringKaboom easily destroy planets]]''.
16	** In a bit of MundaneUtility, he uses it, combined with a parabolic mirror, to shave.
17	** In ''ComicBook/ForTheManWhoHasEverything'' alien conqueror Mongul ''truly'' pisses him off, and Superman blasts him with his heat vision.
18	--->'''Superman''' (to Mongul): '''Burn'''.
19	** In ''ComicBook/KryptonNoMore'', Superman uses his heat vision in very varied ways such as warming himself up after a freezing attack or blasting Protector as he is changing his molecular structure.
20	** In MediaNotes/{{the Silver Age\|OfComicBooks}}, Superman had to wear glasses made from Kryptonian glass in order to use his heat vision while disguised as Clark Kent (otherwise the glasses would melt). [[PragmaticAdaptation Naturally, the TV versions]] tend to simply discreetly move his glasses out of the way.
21	** Originally, the heat effect was just supposed to be his X-Ray vision turned up full blast, so during the 1950s and early 1960s, it was always described as using "the heat of my X-ray vision." Heat vision finally became a separate power in 1961's ''ComicBook/ActionComics'' #275 (possibly when someone realised Superman literally firing X-rays out of his eyes was a bad idea for multiple reasons), and has stayed such since. (Some [[MediaNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] and [[MediaNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]] reprints of stories using the earlier phrase would awkwardly reword it as "the rays of my heat vision" or similar.)
22	** The above is also why during the Silver Age, Superman's heat vision was canonically invisible to ordinary humans and only drawn in so that the readers could see that he was using the power. On at least one occasion, Superman identified a human-like non-human by her revealing that she could see the rays of Superman's heat vision and not just its effects.
23	** In Action Comics #272, just a couple issues before the official switch to "heat vision," Supergirl described it as "the heat of my infra-red vision." This may have been because, in the previous issue, Streaky the Supercat had accidentally used his X-ray vision to ''burn out portions of two people's brains,'' thus giving them amnesia about Supergirl and her secret identity. Which is terrifying.
24	** Post Crisis, Superman's use of heat vision changed markedly, as he was now a solar-powered superhero. Using heat vision came out of the same energy bank that all his other powers used, but at a very steep cost. Now heat vision was used sparingly or only once a battle. Really cutting loose with the beams now means that Supes is NOT in his happy place.
25	*** Early post-Crisis, when Creator/JohnByrne was very much trying to sell the idea that Superman's powers were subconscious telekinesis (hence Superboy's "tactile TK field"), sometimes questioned if heat vision was a beam at all. One UniverseCompendium entry pretty much says that Superman has thermokinesis that happens to also involve his eyes glowing red.
26	** In the cinematic trailer of ''VideoGame/DCUniverseOnline'', He MELTED Black Adam's face off with only a guttural yell. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=H7Nf-m6WGl4#t=236 Scene in question]]
27	** In ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' his Regime counterpart does it again to [[spoiler: ComicBook/{{Shazam}}]] in his definitive crossing of the MoralEventHorizon. He also destroys a bridge with it during an attack to cow people into obedience even more.
28	** In ''ComicBook/SupermanVsTheAmazingSpiderMan'', ComicBook/SpiderMan calls Superman's heat vision "your eyeball rays". Superman uses them to end his first battle against ComicBook/LexLuthor quickly: he melts a bulkhead wall of Lex's submarine. So Luthor has only two options left: stop fighting and allow Superman capture him, or drown. In this story, Lex Luthor's Superman decoy is equipped with eye beams that teleport their target.
29	** In ''ComicBook/WarWorld'', Superman uses his heat vision to defeat ComicBook/MartianManhunter, and Mongul blasts Superman with his own red optic beams. Later [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dccp_028_0017.jpg he and Supergirl use their eye beams]] to destroy Warworld's weapons from a safe distance.
30	** In ''ComicBook/KryptoniteNevermore'', Superman tries to stop a hijacked plane by fusing its electrical system with heat-vision... which chooses that precise moment to fail.
31	** Some examples from ''ComicBook/SupermanBrainiac'': Superman uses his heat vision when he runs into a ComicBook/{{Brainiac}}'s mechanical soldier. Kara's heat vision activates when she stares at a Brainiac’s probe and remembers Kandor's abduction, and her heat beams melt the android’s head. Brainiac's robots' eyes fire electrical, white-and-red beams. And Superman also uses his optic beams to cut off the wires connecting Metropolis and Kandor to Brainiac's ship.
32	** In ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton2004'', Superman unleashes his heat vision's full power against an army of defective Doomsday clones, incinerating them instantly.
33	** In the ''ComicBook/New52'', Superman can hurt ''himself'' with his beams. Seen when Lex Luthor needed Supes's blood and Clark [[https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_super/11127/111275532/5145891-machucasimesmo.jpg obliged]].
34	** Similarly, General Zod in ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad'' 18# removes the [[ExplosiveLeash bomb]] ComicBook/AmandaWaller put in his head by using Heat Vision (on a reflective surface) to ''cut into his own skull'' in a moment of {{Gorn}} NauseaFuel. Naturally he [[NighInvulnerability survives]] and is free go on a UnstoppableRage.
35	** ComicBook/{{Bizarro}}, depending on the version, either has heat vision like Superman, or ''freezing beams''. The latter versions can also [[BreathWeapon breathe fire]] as the opposite of Superman's freeze breath.
36	** ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'s own heat vision is her best and most used weapon.
37	** In the ''ComicBook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'' arc Kara blew spaceships up, boiled a tsunami off and burned [[spoiler:Worldkiller-1]]'s host body out with it.
38	** In ''ComicBook/SupergirlRebirth'' #1, Supergirl fights a Kryptonian werewolf who can fire eyebeams.
39	** In ''ComicBook/ElseworldsFinestSupergirlAndBatgirl'', Kara uses her optic beams to light [[spoiler:an incense burner that she set on top of Kal-El’s grave.]]
40	** In ''[[ComicBook/Supergirl1982 Supergirl Volume 2]]'' #21, Kara's eye beams melt several mooks’ guns. Later she and her cousin fight Kryptonite-Man, who has green radioactive eye beams.
41	** ''ComicBook/SupergirlCosmicAdventuresInThe8thGrade'': Supergirl uses her heat vision to warm up her cold food.
42	** In ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton1959'', Kara's heat vision accidentally melts a traffic light and a car's frontside.
43	** In ''ComicBook/GothamCityGarage'', Kara finds out about her heat vision by accident while on a mission.
44	** In ''ComicBook/SupergirlRebirth'' story arc "The Girl of No Tomorrow", Supergirl and the [[ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes Emerald Eye of Ekron]] engage in a eye-beam duel. Kara wins.
45	** ''ComicBook/{{Bizarrogirl}}'''s eyes can fire freezing beams. She also has stone vision to contrast Supergirl's X-Ray vision, something that no other Bizarro has.
46	** In ''ComicBook/TheImmortalSuperman'', the Nauron aliens have a power called proto-vision: they can shoot optical beams whose energy is not only incredibly destructive but also highly radioactive.
47	** ''ComicBook/PowerGirl'' isn't ''quite'' as restrained in her use of heat vision as Big Blue or the Girl of Steel. When Satanna (mad scientist / surgeon) kidnaps her best friend to experiment on her, PG ''blasts her arm off''. She then tells the horrified Satanna that she can pick it up and reattach it ''after'' telling her where to find ComicBook/{{Terra}}. Although she's also seen using the MundaneUtility version like using it to shave her legs, and using an extremely powered-down version as a laser pointer to play with her cat.
48	** Emerald Empress, an enemy of both the Super-Family and the ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'', wields the Emerald Eye Of Ekron, a giant floating eyeball-like artifact which shoots verdant energy blasts.
49	** ''ComicBook/TheUntoldStoryOfArgoCity'': Zygors are a species of spacefaring aliens whose eyes can shoot blasts of intense heat.
50	* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: "ComicBook/JudgmentInInfinity": If the rays of multicolored light the Adjudicator can emit from its eyes hit a person they go through a quick transformation of turned solid and then disintegrated.
51	* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 Vol 2]]: Trinity is the woman with three faces, Time, War, and Chaos. Each face has its own power: War can fire powerful and deadly bolts of energy.
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53	!!Franchise/MarvelUniverse
54	* ''ComicBook/{{Captain Marvel\|MarvelComics}}'': [[Characters/MarvelComicsCarolDanvers Carol Danvers]] once pulled this off when her hands were bound from aiming a HandBlast. The process is described as painful, and she also can't see to aim, making it only practical for that specific circumstance of point blank fire.
55	%%* ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'': Masked Marauder.
56	%%* ''ComicBook/TheEternals'': This is a standard power.
57	* ''ComicBook/MarvelBoy'': Employees of [[HiveMind Hexus the Living Corporation]] would sacrifice their own body heat to fire lasers from their eyes--becoming desiccated corpses in the process.
58	* ''ComicBook/{{Sleepwalker}}'': Sleepwalker's eye beams, known as his "[[RealityWarper warp beams]]", can be used to alter the physical shape, and to a lesser extent the physical characteristics, of anything he hits with them. Ironically, living entities are the only things Sleepwalker tries not to use his warp vision on, because of the [[BodyHorror horrible effects]] his beams can have on them.
59	* ''ComicBook/SquadronSupreme'': Hyperion, being a Superman {{Expy}}, naturally has the ability shoot energy beams from his eyes. Since he's often an AntiHero or outright villain, he's a lot more prone to using them on living targets.
60	* ''ComicBook/StrikeforceMorituri'': This was the ability that Woodrow Green of the first group of Morituri subjects received.
61	* ''ComicBook/{{Thanos}}'': Thanos of Titan has eye beams that seem to be similar to but more powerful than the energy blasts he shoots from his fists.
62	%%(ZCE)* ''ComicBook/TheVision'': The Vision does this.
63	* ''ComicBook/XMen'': [[Characters/MarvelComicsCyclops Cyclops/Scott Summers']] optic blasts have a [[BlessedWithSuck drawback]] in the fact that he [[PowerIncontinence can't turn them off]] (thanks to a head injury he got as a kid) requiring him to constantly wear a protective visor, or ruby sunglasses for more casual occasions. Unlike most such characters, his EyeBeams are of concussive (pushing) force instead of heat (though some writers seem unaware of this), affectionately referred to as [[MemeticMutation PUNCHES FROM THE PUNCH DIMENSION]] by fans. As a result he is one of the few eye-beam heroes who can choose to merely knock you out by looking at you, as well as having the option to put holes in you. He's also a relatively rare character who has this power and is explicitly noted to be [[RequiredSecondaryPowers immune to the effects]], so even if a DeadlyDodging enemy tricks him into shooting himself, it has no effect beyond possibly knocking him off his feet (and being really embarrassing). And ever since then, there's been plenty of ShoutOut whenever an actual Cyclops shoots EyeBeams of one type or another.
64	** Interestingly when ComicBook/{{Rogue}} [[PowerParasite takes]] Cyclops's power, she can [[DependingOnTheWriter usually]] effectively [[https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcQkaNGCjABewoWSjbkJj_qEr0xkaZ6sDbPSZQ&usqp=CAU turn the beams]] [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EWUvi73XYAA0TUf.jpg off and on with ease]], something Scott is unable to do. Probably because the can't turn them off part is not inherent in his powers, but the result of childhood brain damage. If he hadn't been injured, likely Scott would have been able to control them as well.
65	** In the ''ComicBook/AstonishingXMen'' run, Scott decided to let loose on a [[KillerRobot Sentinel]] that was wrecking everyone. Instead of retreating to safety Cyclops stated "''I want this thing off my lawn''", and what came next was [[http://i.imgur.com/BGMUhTG.jpg entire panel of just red]] until Scott puts his visor back on. Even Wolverine, who normally disrespects Cyclops, was humbled.
66	---> '''Logan''': Every now and then Summers... I remember why you're still [[TheLeader in charge]].
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68	!!Other
69	* ''ComicBook/{{Archaic}}'': ''Painfully'' {{deconstructed}}, [[spoiler:as it kills the character's enemies but also destroys his eyes.]]
70	* ''ComicBook/BlackMoonChronicles'': Wismerhill gain the ability to shoot red beams out of his eyes [[spoiler:because he's a half-demon]].
71	* ''ComicBook/TheBoys'': The Homelander, the CaptainPatriotic Expy of Superman, has them, which he uses to discipline fellow superheroes and take down airliners. Billy's wife died when a superfetus used its EyeBeams to get out of her womb, killing her (and making the Homelander the most likely candidate for Billy's wife's rapist).
72	** [[spoiler:Black Noir]] has these as well [[spoiler:since he's an even stronger clone of the Homelander. He's also the one who really raped Becky.]]
73	* ''ComicBook/TheF1rstHero'': At the start of Issue #2, we're introduced to Scott, a young black boy who manifests the ability to shoot green beams from his eyes as his extrahuman power. However, he has great difficulty in control them, and ends up blowing a hole through a building as a result.
74	* ''ComicBook/GoldDigger'': Slightly deconstructed with D'ebra. As a Platinum Dragon, she ''can'' fire eyebeams, but trying to do so in her human form hurts her eyes because, surprisingly, Human eyes are not made to channel concentrated Ether. If she has to do eyeblasts in human form, she usually uses a spell to cover her eyes with magic lenses that can focus the energy better.
75	* ''ComicBook/NoHero'': Redglare can use heat vision to burn.
76	* ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'': Vermin the Cybernik has them, and even ''calls'' them EyeBeams, Super Sonic also has eye beams and Robotnik when he has the power of Chaos Emeralds has EyeBeams as one of his powers.
77	* ''ComicBook/{{Uber}}'': The titular superhumans can generate powerful "disruption halos" from their eyes. For standard Ubers, these halos manifest as webs of crackling energy, and are extremely powerful but short-ranged. The most powerful Ubers, however, can fire continuous beams of destruction to wipe out whole armies at kilometer ranges.

Context EyeBeams / ComicBooks